2025 Agenda
The 2025 Retail Media Summit brought together a stellar agenda and a powerhouse lineup of extraordinary voices who lit up the stage with insights shaping the future of retail media.
09:40 – 10:15 | FOUNDING PARTNERS OPENING PANEL
Building a foundation for future growth: balancing make or break as retail media scales and adapts
Retail media is capturing attention – and increasing investment. Tech is powering the push to scale and adapt. Brand advertisers are optimising data-led creatives to reach customers wherever they are in their shopping journey. However, the performance and brand-building opportunities that run across the entire funnel also add increasing complexity.
Join us as we set the scene for harnessing retail media’s growth potential, and simplifying your approach:
- Industry focus: diving into how retailers are successfully shaping innovative media offerings within their ecosystems to boost brand awareness and performance
- Assessing what’s working for brands (and what’s not) when shaping multi-touchpoint campaigns across today’s fragmented customer journeys: which channels are most effective for each need?
- Laying out emerging opportunities for retail media networks: how must retailers and brands adapt to consumer behaviour to reach future growth potential – and ensure survival?
- Debating the evolving, non-negotiable role of tech and automation in scaling and optimising retail media operations
Listen in and get involved: submit your questions LIVE to our panel of experts.
Speakers:
- Grace Bowden, Journalist & Editorial Consultant (Moderator)
- Gemma Leutton, client director, retail & consumer products, Capgemini
- Ben Reynolds, VP – Business Development, Walkbase | Stratacache
- Pete Woodvine, head of retail media, JC Decaux
10:15 – 10:40 | GLOBAL PIONEER PERSPECTIVE: FIRESIDE CHAT
Trailblazer, future gazer: evolving at pace
Global insights from a retail media pioneer – we dive into inspiration and learnings from their journey and challenges; uncover ambitions; and tease out predictions for what’s ahead.
Speakers:
Lee Dunbar, senior vice president, Starcom
10:40 – 11:15 | PANEL DISCUSSION
Pushing retail media’s creative, brand-building limits for next-level, transformative experiences – and avoiding cognitive overload
- Uncovering game-changing, hyper-relevant retail media experiences, activations, formats and ads that prime and persuade consumers across OOH, in-store and online – from bold brand takeovers to minimalist elegance
- Is retail media seen as a genuine brand-building opportunity, or more as a margin generator for retailers – and how can this impact restrictions on brand creativity?
- Discussing when creativity can cross the line into chaos and cognitive overload: how far is too far? How can teams effectively collaborate and keep creativity customer-first?
- Exploring the opportunities that agentic AI brings to creativity – from dynamic, hyper-personalised updates to A/B testing – and what this means for scale-ups and legacy brands alike in terms of performance, costs and engagement
- Which metrics truly reflect successful creative campaigns and activations – sales lift, dwell time, social media engagement, return visits? If brands had stronger insight, would it justify bigger, bolder creative – and bigger budgets
Speakers:
- Grace Bowden, Journalist & Editorial Consultant (Moderator)
- Jessica Myers, chief customer officer, The Very Group
- Adam Smith, head of retail media, Iceland
- Andrew Mullins, creative solution director, JCDecaux UK
- Blair Cooper, creative director, Seen Studios
11:15 – 11:45 | NETWORKING BREAK & IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION
PANEL PERSPECTIVES: INTERACTIVE INSIGHT FOCUS
11:45 – 12:20 | PANEL DISCUSSION
To build or not to build? Ownership, agencies and the evolving potential of RMNs
- To build or not to build: are owned media networks the way to go? Does outsourcing your RMN mean giving up control and brand identity?
- How can smaller RMNs avoid the risk of consolidation – or is it unrealistic to avoid in a fragmented market?
- Media owner mindset: can retailers make more from selling media than selling data? (And if so, where does that leave traditional agencies?)
- Building the backbone: integrating a scalable, iterative AI-powered tech stack in an increasingly competitive space
Speakers:
- Grace Bowden, Journalist & Editorial Consultant (Moderator)
- Laura Williamson, client director, Co-op Media Network
- Leanne Yates, commercial lead, Ocado Retail
- Andy Barratt, head of retail media, Currys
- Lucie Vannier, senior customer engineer, Moloco
12:20 – 12:45 | RETAILER CLINIC: AUDIENCE-LED PANEL
Building your retail media future from the inside out: cross-functional team structure, culture and strategy
- Scaling internal capabilities to support a growing RMN while fostering agility and collaboration – where to begin?
- Creating cross-functional growth: breaking silos and aligning internal teams to drive sustainable growth
- Attract, train, and retain media-savvy talent in an emerging and competitive space: can best practices from other industries help retailers win the talent wars?
- Media owner mindset: moving beyond promotions -building teams to think in audience strategy, content value, and monetisation at scale
Speakers:
- Alison Dunham, retail media sales director, PRN – a Stratacache Company (moderator)
- Adam Smith, head of retail media, Iceland
- Alex Knapman, retail media lead, Halfords
- Paul Wright, Head of EMEA, Uber Advertising
12:45 – 13:45 | LUNCH, NETWORKING & IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION
BRANDS PANEL PERSPECTIVES: INTERACTIVE INSIGHT FOCUS
13:45 – 14:20 | PANEL DISCUSSION
Strategising brand spend: backing winners for investment impact
- In an increasingly crowded market, how should brands evaluate where to place their spend – from granular data insights to real-time performance metrics?
- How to capture attention right where it matters most: at the digital shelf, in the aisle, or across the omnichannel journey
- Balancing investment between on and off-site per retail partner – and avoiding cannibalisation
- With a growing number of RMNs, how do you spot underperformers early and double down on those that move the needle?
Speakers:
- Lee Kenny, Editor, Retail Gazette (Moderator)
- Adrienne Rowland, senior manager retail media EMEA, Wella
- Aaron Gray, senior digital content lead, Arla Foods
- Mandeep Khatkar, Head of Insight, JCDecaux UK
14:20 – 14:45 | BRAND CLINIC: AUDIENCE-LED PANEL
Building aligned, cross-functional teams for retail media success
- Breaking down silos: who really owns retail media within businesses – sales, shopper, media, or digital?
- Optimising cross-functional collaboration: bridging the gap between opposing mindsets to drive cohesive strategies and eliminate inefficiencies
- Structuring teams and integrating retail media into broader brand and commercial strategies: partnering effectively with retailers for more impactful campaigns
Speakers:
- Lee Kenny, Editor, Retail Gazette (Moderator)
- Paul Gordon, head of activation, Heineken UK
- Aaron Gray, senior digital content lead, Arla Foods
- Adrienne Rowland, senior manager retail media EMEA, Wella
14:45 – 15:15 | NETWORKING BREAK & IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION
15:15 – 15:50 | PANEL DISCUSSION
Power players: uncovering how retail media, CTV and social platforms are rewriting the rules of modern advertising
- Exploring the powerful convergence of retail media, CTV, social platforms and influencer channels, and the subsequent connection of subscription and loyalty data sets: are we heading toward a truly unified advertising ecosystem?
- Outlining what successful collaboration looks like between retailers, broadcasters, agencies, and brands: understanding how to approach this new state of play
- Storytelling meets sales: can the rise of formats like shoppable video, TikTok trends, and influencer-driven demand really convert buzz into measurable retail outcomes?
- Levelling the playing field or widening the gap: is this convergence democratising advertising access or further entrenching power among large players – and what’s needed to reduce disparities?
Speakers:
- Grace Bowden, Journalist & Editorial Consultant (Moderator)
- Dave Morrissey, Former Head of Lifestyle Retail & Ecommerce, TikTok
- Jay Rajdev, controller of advanced advertising | commercial and online, ITV
- Alexia Nakad, vice president brands & commerce media, UK & EMEA, LiveRamp
15:50 – 16:20 | KEYNOTE FIRESIDE CHAT
Changing the game: retail media’s role in underpinning the customer relationship & future growth strategies
Retail media is transforming how brands connect with customers, and nowhere is this shift more evident than in the automotive sector. In this keynote, Feedonomics Lucy Wilsdon sits down with Dr Gareth Menton, Head of Product for Retail Media at Carwow, to discuss redefining the customer relationship and unlocking new growth strategies. Drawing on his experience at Just Eat and now Carwow, Gareth will explore the evolution from onsite display to offsite and connected channels, the critical role of first-party data, and the future potential of AI-driven campaign planning. Expect a forward-looking discussion on bridging brand and performance in retail media.
– followed by audience Q&A
Speakers:
- Lucy Wilsdon, Strategic account director, Feedonomics | Part of Commerce (Moderator)
- Dr. Gareth Menton, Head of product – retail media, Carwow
16:20 – 16:55 | CLOSING PANEL DISCUSSION
Commerce media: defining the next frontier in advertising
Beyond the frontiers of traditional retail, other sectors and non-traditional retail environments are providing fresh opportunities for retailers and brands to connect with their target audiences.
Commerce media is the term used to describe these opportunities, and leading non-retailers are innovating and enjoying great success. Retailers and brands alike can take away key learnings from their strategies and learn how to better work with them.
In this session, we hear from:
- Commerce media tech provider Koddi on what ‘commerce media’ means and outline the scale of opportunity for brands and retailers
- Rail and coach ticketing provider Trainline will discuss how it’s commerce media offering allows retailers to capture high-intent consumers across its digital channels before they arrive at travel hubs lined with physical retail
- Automotive marketplace Carwow will reveal how it has built out its commerce media offering onsite, and its offsite activations across partners such as ITV and Youtube
- Halfords will bring the retail perspective, discussing its offsite media strategy and what works and what doesn’t
Speakers:
- Owen McCabe, vice president, digital commerce – global consumer goods & retail, Capgemini (Moderator)
- Sonal Kalra, revenue director, Trainline
- Alex Knapman, retail media lead, Halfords
- Victoria Bruce, senior agency lead, Carwow
- Paul Dahill, managing director, sales, Koddi
16:55 – 17:00 | CLOSING COMMENTS
17:00 | CLOSE OF DAY & DRINKS
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