As the What’s In Store for Retail Media Networks event in London progressed, session six delivered a much-anticipated shift in perspective — moving from retailers and media owners to the voices of global consumer brands. With leaders from Unilever, Heineken and Danone on stage, the discussion focused on the growing role of retail media networks (RMNs) and how fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands are navigating this rapidly evolving space.

Panelists Katie Moreton (Unilever), Craig Woolley (Heineken UK), and Russell Lincoln (Danone) offered candid insights on the challenges, successes and ambitions shaping how brands connect with shoppers at the point of decision.

Connecting with Shoppers: Evolving Channels, Constant Goals

At the heart of the discussion was a shared belief: while the fundamentals of brand storytelling haven’t changed, the methods — and the media — have.

Danone’s Russell Lincoln pointed out that brands are still focused on delivering compelling stories to the right people, but RMNs now offer greater proximity to the moment of purchase. Katie Moreton added that shopper marketing has become significantly more personalized, enabled by both the data RMNs provide and the creative freedom they now allow in-store and online.

For Heineken’s Craig Woolley, the shift goes beyond the store aisle. With media opportunities now emerging in stadiums, bars and music venues, brand engagement must now stretch across multiple environments — each with its own pressures and opportunities.

Breaking Down Silos and Budget Boundaries

The panel addressed the persistent challenge of organizational silos — particularly the fragmentation of budgets across brand, media, shopper and trade marketing. Woolley explained how Heineken is actively restructuring teams to unify media and shopper disciplines, but noted that wider transformation across businesses is still needed.

Moreton called for greater alignment across omnichannel teams, emphasizing the need for shared planning and regular collaboration — even as budgets remain separated in the short term. Lincoln agreed, adding that successful retail media planning often relies on internal teams building agile, cross-functional “squads” to meet market-specific needs.

Measurement: Still a Missing Link

While enthusiasm for RMNs is high, the panel was clear-eyed about the industry’s biggest challenge: measurement. From inconsistent attribution models to disconnected data systems, brands are still struggling to quantify retail media effectiveness in a consistent, actionable way.

Moreton noted a welcome shift away from ROI and ROAS as sole indicators of success. Instead, Unilever is focusing on customer acquisition, brand incrementality, and category uplift. Woolley echoed this, citing the need for a unified view across in-store activations, digital media and performance data.

Lincoln pointed out that while FMCG brands are insight-driven, they often lack the internal data capabilities to generate those insights independently. He called for stronger partnerships with RMN providers to surface the insights brands need to justify — and optimize — spend.

The Power of Partnership

A recurring theme throughout the session was the importance of deeper collaboration between brands and retail media partners. The panelists made it clear: brands want access not just to inventory, but to expertise, insights and performance data.

Lincoln challenged RMN providers to emulate the consultative approach of major digital platforms like Google and Meta — bringing proactive insights and measurement support to the table. Moreton emphasized the importance of trust and transparency, encouraging open dialogue around the shared challenges brands and retailers face.

For Woolley, alignment between media agencies and retailer partners remains a pain point. He called for clearer, joined-up KPIs and a more collaborative approach to joint business planning — particularly as media investments become increasingly central to commercial negotiations.

Looking Ahead: From Retail Media to Just Media

Looking to the future, the panel shared a bold vision for where retail media is headed.

Woolley described his goal of building a dedicated RMN team with clear budget ownership, deep expertise and a full-funnel media strategy. Moreton envisioned in-store environments becoming as personalized as digital ones — complete with app-triggered offers and dynamic screen content tailored to individual shoppers.

Lincoln suggested that, in time, the ‘retail’ label will drop entirely. Retail media, he predicted, will simply become another channel in a brand’s media mix — valued not as a siloed function, but as an integrated part of how brands build awareness, drive conversion and grow loyalty.

One thing was clear: retail media is no longer a niche opportunity. It’s a central pillar of how the world’s biggest brands are connecting with shoppers — wherever they are, and whatever the moment.

Unlock the insights—watch the full masterclass here.

Explore every session from London’s What’s In Store for Retail Media Networks event here.

The future of retail media is rapidly evolving, and Tesco is leading the charge. At the recent “What’s In Store For Retail Media Networks” event in London, Chris Riegel, CEO and Founder of STRATACACHE, brought together industry leaders from Tesco Media and ITV to share how their innovative partnership is reshaping the way brands connect with shoppers — combining the scale of TV with the precision of Tesco Clubcard insights.

Becoming More Than Just a Retailer

Stacy Gratz, who leads Tesco Media’s commercial and go-to-market efforts, opened the session with a bold vision: Tesco isn’t just a grocer — it’s now a media powerhouse. With over 23 million Clubcard holders (nearly every household in the UK), Tesco Media delivers unparalleled access to high-quality audience data and insight into when, where and what customers are buying.

Gratz emphasized Tesco’s ambition to move beyond bottom-of-the-funnel metrics. “We don’t want to be stuck chasing ROAS,” she noted. “We want to have real brand conversations — about uplift, consideration and long-term value.”

From Primetime to Precision: ITV’s Retail Match

ITV’s Jay Rajdev revealed how the broadcaster is evolving from a traditional TV network into a technology and data-driven media platform. Their collaboration with Tesco, originally called Matchmaker and now rebranded to Retail Match, allows FMCG advertisers to use Clubcard data to target known category shoppers — on TV.

“This is a new use case for TV,” Rajdev explained. “We’re helping brands reach not just the mums of today and tomorrow, but people who are literally in your aisle right now.”

ITV’s self-serve buying platform, Planet V, will soon offer 80+ Tesco audience segments alongside traditional demographic and program-based buys, democratizing access to high-value, precision-targeted media.

Data, Consent and Collaboration

Both teams underscored the importance of data integrity. Tesco is meticulous about consent and data usage, currently limiting the partnership to endemic advertisers while clean room technologies like InfoSum and LiveRamp ensure privacy is preserved.

Measurement is also key. While short-term conversion lift is already proven (through more than 70 studies) Tesco and ITV are now working to expand metrics to include customer lifetime value, brand loyalty and new-to-brand buyers.

“Smart Reach” is the New Prime Time

Rather than replacing traditional TV advertising, Retail Match layers on top of broad audience strategies. ITV’s approach of “smart reach” combines brand-scale exposure with precision targeting, helping brands do more with their AV budgets. And with no added premium (yet) for Clubcard-targeted audiences, it’s a compelling new option for media planners.

As Rajdev put it, “The challenge now is helping buyers consolidate 18 lines on a media plan into fewer, more effective layers — with ITV at the center.”

From Magnum to Makeup: Case Studies in Action

Unilever’s Magnum was highlighted as a standout success story. Using Tesco audience data, the brand targeted not just ice cream buyers but also confectionery shoppers — discovering that the latter converted at a higher rate. It’s a perfect example of how deep behavioural data can surface new, unexpected opportunities for brand growth.

The beauty category, too, is seeing strong traction. Tesco’s propensity modelling is helping brands discover customers who haven’t bought a category before, but are statistically primed to try.

Unlocking New Conversations … and New Teams

This partnership is changing the way brands and agencies work. Cross-functional teams — combining brand, shopper, trade and data leads — are becoming the norm. “Sometimes we have people meeting each other for the first time in these meetings,” Gratz joked, pointing out how uncommon collaboration is unlocking fresh insights.

Smaller brands are benefitting, too. Half of the Retail Match launch partners were advertisers Tesco had never worked with before. As the offering goes self-serve, access and experimentation will only grow.

Resilient Talent for a Fast-Changing Landscape

The closing remarks reflected on the pace of change and the talent powering it. “You’re looking for unicorns,” said Gratz — people who understand programmatic, linear TV and in-store activations. As brands and agencies retool for omnichannel retail media, it’s clear that the sector’s future will be built by hybrid thinkers and bold partnerships.

The Tesco and ITV collaboration isn’t just a campaign — it’s a case study in what’s possible when the walls between brand, data, media and retail come down.

Unlock the insights—watch the full masterclass here. 

Explore every session from London’s What’s In Store for Retail Media Networks event here.

As the retail media landscape continues its meteoric rise, agencies are stepping up to shape its trajectory. At the What’s In Store for Retail Media event in London, the fourth masterclass session gathered a powerhouse panel — Amo Aujla-Tse (Publicis Media), Jill Orr (Criteo), and Uche Ofili (SMG) — to unpack agency perspectives, emerging challenges and the evolving shape of in-store and omnichannel retail media.

Moderated by James Chandler, Chief Strategy Officer at IAB UK, the discussion offered a frank, multi-layered view of how agencies are adapting to support clients in this high-growth media space.

The Voice of the Demand Side Is Getting Louder

Retail media may have started as a retailer-led proposition, but recent years have shifted the conversation. Brands and agencies are now firmly in the driver’s seat, demanding scalable, integrated solutions that can navigate the fragmentation of Europe’s retail media market.

Jill Orr (Criteo) noted that despite pockets of progress, it’s still “very difficult for a brand or agency to activate at scale.” The acceleration of demand-side influence over the past 18 months has redefined how agencies approach media planning and buying across retail networks.

Agencies Evolve: From Siloes to Centers of Excellence

With the increasing complexity of retail media, particularly as it expands across onsite, offsite and in-store channels, the need for specialist knowledge remains. But how should that knowledge be integrated?

Amo Aujla-Tse (Publicis Media) advocated for a hybrid model: “Everyone being around the same table” supported by a dedicated center of excellence like Publicis Commerce ensures the right expertise is injected throughout the planning and activation process.

Uche Ofili (SMG) echoed this sentiment, explaining that “commerce functions or centers of excellence” within agencies are where the real stickiness lies for retailers. However, the agency structure must remain fluid, with flexibility to serve various verticals, each with its own retail media flavor — from FMCG to automotive to beauty.

Bringing the Store Into the Strategy

The in-store environment is gaining fresh attention as agencies and retailers explore how physical locations can amplify digital campaigns and vice versa.

“Stores offer the opportunity to have a bigger, broader view of the customer journey,” said Orr, referencing a LiveRamp–Boots partnership that connects offsite, onsite and in-store touchpoints. For brands, this can unlock higher average customer value and smarter targeting—particularly when digital data is used to inform in-store executions.

But the panel was cautious too. “Everyone’s racing to get screens in store, but I don’t think we’ve cracked what best-in-class looks like,” said Ofili. Without clear objectives, in-store retail media could risk becoming noise rather than a strategic asset.

Measurement, Maturity and the Case for Clarity

Measuring the impact of retail media remains a thorny issue, particularly in the store. While ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) remains a go-to metric, panelists agreed it offers only a narrow view.

“We’ve got to start really getting into what is happening on the agency and brand side,” said Orr. Agencies face platform fragmentation and inconsistent data access — especially from smaller or emerging retail networks — making cross-retailer planning complex and labor-intensive.

Aujla-Tse highlighted the potential of self-serve platforms and API integrations to reduce friction: “If you can’t give us APIs, bring us insights from your data.” The message was clear—retailers must consider what a “minimum viable product” for agencies looks like in terms of data access, activation, and optimization.

HFSS Legislation: A Curveball or a Catalyst?

The UK’s upcoming HFSS (high fat, salt, and sugar) online ad ban — slated for October — adds another twist. The panel discussed its potential to shift media budgets back to in-store and out-of-home environments, which are currently out of scope for the ban.

While there’s still ambiguity in how the law will be interpreted and enforced, agencies are already preparing. “We’re using it as an opportunity,” said Aujla-Tse. “Let’s get all the data we can now… so that we’re in a place where we’ve got lots of new customer data to use through the funnel come October.”

Why the Long Tail Matters

Amid the dominance of the “big boys” in retail media, the panel made a strong case for the growing importance of smaller, specialist retail networks. Convenience, health and beauty, and other vertical niches offer unique audience access and untapped value.

Retailers like Co-op are proving their worth with studies showing high brand recall in smaller store formats. And for agencies, working with a broader mix of retailers enables more targeted, innovative, and category-specific campaigns.

Final Thoughts: Complexity Demands Collaboration

From vertical-specific planning and data sharing to organizational flexibility and in-store innovation, the takeaway was clear: retail media is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

As Chandler reminded the room, the UK retail media market (including Amazon) is forecast to surpass £7 billion by 2028. Without Amazon, it’s already on track to pass the £1 billion mark this year.

The opportunity is vast — but realizing it will require collaboration, innovation and a willingness to reimagine how digital and physical media can work together.

 

Unlock the insights—watch the full masterclass here.

Explore every session from London’s What’s In Store for Retail Media Networks event here.