RetailMediaX

Eve Kolesova, Marketing and Category Managing Director at Henkel, joins Paul Skeldon to discuss the "Triple Win" framework in FMCG marketing. From the unique case of unlocking the DIY giant Screwfix to breaking down the critical difference between consumer observation and true behavioral insight, Yves shares how top brands are pivoting toward experiences, "treatonomics," and targeted shopper solutions in a shifting economic landscape.

Discussion points:

• The Triple Win Framework: How alignment happens when a brand simultaneously delivers an intuitive solution for the shopper, a category growth engine for the retailer, and sustainable sales for the brand itself.
• The Screwfix Breakthrough: The inside story of how Henkel spent two years unlocking a major DIY marketplace by co-developing a radically sustainable packaging innovation to fit the retailer's strict environmental mandates.
• Insight vs. Observation: Why what consumers say or do on the surface often contradicts their actual underlying behavior, and how to spot the difference to avoid internal strategic missteps.
• The Rise of "Treatonomics": Exploring the apparent contradiction of soaring premium coffee and luxury product sales during times of high inflation and low consumer confidence.
• The Death of the £50m TV Budget: Why massive blanket ad spend is losing its punch against ad-blocking, savvy consumers, and why the future belongs to subtle, targeted, and experience-led brand interactions.

Gadiza Saaidi, Retail Media Lead for Unilever Benelux joins Paul Skeldon to share her extensive 15-year perspective on building and scaling retail media. Drawing from her experience establishing the Albert Heijn Retail Media Network in the Netherlands, Gadiza breaks down the internal and external realities of launching a network, the necessity of full-funnel channel alignment, and why the industry must shift from a "plug-and-play" mindset to long-term capability building.

Discussion points:

• The "Startup" Struggle: Why building a retail media network requires acting like a media startup inside a traditional grocery business, and how to create a shared internal language across disjointed departments.
• The Omnichannel Reality: Moving away from treating on-site, off-site, and in-store as separate siloed channels, and starting every campaign with a single, unified "screen-to-shelf" briefing.
• The Four Pillars of Retail Media: A breakdown of Haditsi’s strategic model—Data, Context, Scale, and Measurement—designed to connect brand, media, and trade budgets into a singular growth conversation.
• Common Brand Misconceptions: Debunking the idea that retail media is an automatic "budget in, ROAS out" performance tool, and tackling the complexities of cross-channel first-party data measurement.
• Simplifying Through Experience: How immersive "Retail Media Tours" in the Netherlands help advertisers demystify the customer journey, and what it means to act as an integrated gatekeeper for giant FMCG portfolios like Unilever

Dean Harris, Head of Co-op Media Network, talks to Paul Skeldon about the rapid evolution of retail media and why the industry has firmly entered its "performance era." He shares insights into the unique role of convenience-led retail media networks, navigating industry fragmentation, and the monumental operational challenges FMCG brands face in an environment of constant consumer adaptation.

Discussion points:

• The Performance Era: Why the "test and learn" era of retail media is over, replaced by a demand for predictable, profitable outcomes and hard proof.
• The Fragmentation Dilemma: How brands are evaluating if "the juice is worth the squeeze" across an increasingly crowded landscape of retail media networks.
• The Convenience Difference: How Co-op leverages shopper missions—like "top-up," "meal for tonight," and "food to go"—to intentionally differentiate itself from traditional supermarket networks.
• Constant Adaptation: The massive operational strains FMCG brands face as they shift from methodical, long-term planning to near-constant, rapid transformation.
• The 8-Year Reset: Why the upcoming Summer World Cup represents a vital, high-stakes moment for entertainment-led brands to win market share in a tough economic climate.

In this episode, Ollie Shayer, fresh to his role as SMG’s senior director of global strategy and innovation talks to Colin Lewis from Internet Retailing about the tension between agility and scale in retail media – and the opportunities it can present. 

Many larger, omnichannel retailers enjoy massive shopper reach but can face legacy and structural barriers to innovation. Smaller, more agile pureplays can be more flexible, but lack the scale. Ollie unpacks what these contrasting models mean for media innovation, customer experience and brand partnerships, as well as the white spaces to explore and what brands should expect from an agile versus scaled RMN. 

Colin Lewis from Internet Retailing is joined by Marie-Clare Puffett, Industry Development & Insights Director, IAB Europe and Bianca Hall, senior insight director at SMG to explore why ROAS alone isn’t enough to capture the full impact of retail media. 

Delving into the importance of measuring incremental sales and long-term brand-building efforts, our podcasters explore what other KPIs need to be measured, how customer lifetime value (CLV) should be considered in the broader strategy for growing brand loyalty and consumer retention – and how the time is now for retail media to be considered part of the wider media mix for marketers.

Retail media is rewriting the rules of brand engagement -– and agencies that fail to evolve risk irrelevance. In this episode, Colin Lewis from Internet Retailing is joined by Prateek Gupta, MD ecommerce and retail media at Omnicom Media Group and Uche Ofili, director of agency relationships at SMG who issue a clear call to action: agencies must move beyond traditional media buying and embed themselves in the commerce-driven future. 

Together they explore why many agencies are lagging behind, the consequences of staying passive and how those who invest in retail media capabilities – from measurement to creative to tech and omnichannel implementation are gaining a strategic edge. This is a frank look at the fork in the road: lead the retail media.

In this episode, Jack Johnson, head of retail media and data at Ocado and Katie Streeter Hurle, SMG’s chief strategy officer, join Colin Lewis from Internet Retailing to uncover how AI and automation continue to transform the retail media ecosystem – from campaign delivery to personalisation at scale and beyond. 

With Ocado leading as a digital-first retailer and SMG powering data-driven media strategies across the UK’s leading grocery environments, the pair share insights on the evolution of tech-led advertising and its implications for brands, retailers and media planners alike. They discuss real-world applications of automation, the growing demand for operational efficiency and how smarter technology is enabling media to be not only faster, but more effective.

In this episode, Colin Lewis is joined by Michele Dainty, shopper marketing director UK&I, Pladis Global and Helen Johnson, managing director of Capture, to look at how retail media presents a powerful, compliant opportunity for high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) brands to remain visible, relevant and strategically positioned in the shopper journey ahead of HFSS ad rule changes on 1 October 2025. 

The discussion covers how to drive brand impact without traditional channels, how retailers are adapting their ecosystems and why smarter audience targeting and owned media partnerships may be the key to success in the HFSS era.

In this episode, COOP’s Dean Harris and SMG’s Sam Knights unpack the evolving role of instore media within the broader Retail Media Network (RMN) ecosystem with Colin Lewis from Internet Retailing. 

Drawing on findings from COOP’s Lumen attention study, they explore how in-store environments offer unmatched contextual relevance and shopper engagement. Together they debate whether success lies in doubling down on contextual targeting – particularly in high-intent, real-world settings like convenience – and how this can unlock both brand impact and incremental growth, as well as addressing what retailers are getting right and what they are getting wrong with instore in 2025.

Jon Beill, Chief Growth Officer at LS Eleven, Asda’s loyalty and retail media business, and Sam Knights, CEO at SMG discuss how Asda is bringing its loyalty and media operations together to create a power retail media network, outlining how its offering to brands differs from its competitors, the digitisation of Asda stores and how SMG’s team works with the company to make it all happen

Discussion points:

• Why now is the right time for Asda to create a retail media business

• What LS Eleven offers brands

• How the Asda x SMG partnership works in practice

• What Asda’s first party data tells us about shopper habits

• How those shopper habits are shaping the next steps in retail media

Behind the mic:

• Jon Beill, Chief Growth Officer at LS Eleven

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gettoknow-jonbeill/

• Sam Knights, CEO, SMG

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-knights-a093222/

• Paul Skeldon, editor InternetRetailing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulskeldon/

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0