What is the one thing you wish everyone knew about retail media? 

Retail media isn’t just another media channel. It’s the closest thing we’ve ever had to real consumer intent. The teams that run retail media and commerce operations are all starting to become one, blurring the line between commerce and media. Retail media links supply chain, shopper behaviour, media investment and sales in a single loop. This means that advertisers need to look beyond how they’re optimising bids & budgets and consider other signals such as digital shelf metrics. For example, if you can see that a product is low in stock, you will want to make sure that bidding is pulled back so you’re not paying high rates for a product that doesn’t have much more opportunity to sell.  

The brands that win won’t treat retail media as a budget line; they use it to uncover business insights for growth. The moment people see it that way, the entire conversation becomes more strategic. 

What’s the biggest misconception advertisers have about retail media? 

People assume that it’s easy. That you plug in spend and magic happens. In reality, every retailer behaves differently. The data is fragmented, as are the teams within media agencies that plan and buy retail media. 

If you consider retail media in Europe as an example, you have over forty countries, each with their own collection of retailers. In the UK, we have the big six grocers plus Amazon, all operating separately. It becomes even further fragmented when you look at the structure within media agencies where retail media is planned and bought by disparate teams. Many agencies have teams that focus purely on Amazon, with other retailers dealt with completely separately. This leads to teams fighting internally for budget, with no real view on how to spend budget most effectively across all retailers. 

This challenge is underscored by the misconception that retail media is a lower funnel, tactical decision. Historically, it’s been treated like search, for brands trying to make a sale. Today it’s becoming full funnel. Take Amazon as an example. It encompasses CTV and subscriptions with Amazon Prime, then has Amazon DSP plus sponsored brand and product opportunities. Advertisers and agencies must consider retail media holistically and better organise their agencies to get the most from it. It can’t be a TV team, a search team and DSP team each buying Amazon separately, it must be joined up. Once advertisers and their agencies realise this, their performance will be transformed. 

What are you most passionate about achieving this year in media? 

This year, beyond commercial goals, I’m passionate about pushing the conversation around neurodiversity in our industry.  

I have two autistic sons and watching how they navigate the world has reshaped how I think about workplaces. So many people in media are ‘masking’; holding it together, managing sensory overload or social pressure, just to get through the day. 

If we can build environments where people don’t have to hide who they are to succeed, the work improves and the culture improves. Creativity comes from cognitive diversity. For me, making the industry more inclusive and more human is just as important as any media trend. 

How can media agencies get the most out of retail media for their clients? 

There’s a real opportunity to be had in stopping firefighting and wasting time on how agencies and brands are set up operationally to instead start strategizing again.  

For me there are three things that agencies must focus on in retail media: 

1. Lean into AI – Focus less time on tasks that can be automated, and more time on delivering client value. Agencies (and brands) that use agentic AI for insight, planning and optimisation will move faster and deliver more strategic value.
2. Own the operating model – The retail media landscape is developing and changing so quickly that most CPGs and agencies are still figuring out their operating structures. It’s crucial for agencies to work with their external partners to connect the dots, align their technologies and bring everything together across retail media and commerce operations.
3. Use data as the connective thread – This is linked to connectivity. Agencies shouldn’t treat each retailer as a silo. Instead, they must find smart ways of using data to unify retailers so brands can plan properly. Brands are going to demand to see incrementality and business impact, not vanity metrics like ROAS. Yes, brands will pay their agencies for what they do, but increasingly, they’re going to pay for the performance they deliver and the guidance they can give them on how to spend their next pound to sell more. 

The agencies that do these three things will become indispensable partners. 

Skai is the world’s leading omnichannel platform unifying retail, search and social advertising with its AI-powered commerce media platform.