Annie Symonds is Strategy Director, Initials. We asked her how she found herself working in the retail media industry.
What is your role and what does it entail?
I’m a Strategy Director at an independent creative marketing consultancy in London. My role bridges brand strategy, shopper marketing, and retail activation.
I help brands navigate the complexities of omnichannel retail and develop campaigns that not only convert at shelf or online but also build long-term equity across the wider customer journey.
Increasingly, this involves decoding retail media ecosystems to understand how to use retailer platforms and data to unlock smarter, more effective connections with shoppers.
How did you first become interested in retail media and move into it?
Retail media became impossible to ignore as it started reshaping the traditional shopper landscape.
What really compelled me was the strategic tension between what’s best for the retailer and what actually serves the brand. I saw a gap.
Many brands were investing heavily without clear understanding or value return. I realised this was an area where I could bring real impact by advocating for brand control within these new media environments.
What most excites you about the industry today and how will you help it develop to its full potential?
The exciting part is that retail media is still in its early innings.
The infrastructure is growing rapidly, but the strategic maturity hasn’t quite caught up. Right now, there’s a huge opportunity to shape best practice, from measurement standards to creative innovation and brand-retailer collaboration.
What excites me most is helping brands ask better questions, push for transparency, and integrate retail media into a broader commercial strategy, not just treat it as a budget silo.
To help develop the sector, I champion a “shelf-back” approach: starting with how shoppers actually make decisions and mapping media to influence those key moments meaningfully.
I also work with teams to challenge default placements or retailer packages and design activations that align with real brand goals, not just retail media availability.
Who is your biggest inspiration in the retail media sector and why?
Rather than one individual, I find inspiration in challenger brands and savvy marketers who question the status quo. The brands that don’t just accept retail media placements at face value, but interrogate the data, innovate creatively, and drive impact through strategic thinking – that’s what inspires me.
I also admire some of the thinking coming out of retail media specialists, such as Brad Berens and Colin Lewis who are pushing for greater interoperability, measurement clarity, and agency collaboration.
What one retail media campaign or strategy you’ve been involved in are you proudest of?
One that stands out was for a household FMCG brand launching a new range in a highly competitive category. Rather than simply buying standard placements in a retailer’s media package, we built a fully integrated campaign that linked retail media, shopper creative, and in-store activation around a unifying brand idea.
We used first-party data to segment based on purchase behaviour, mapped messaging across the journey, and deployed dynamic creative that reflected shopper mindsets by region and seasonality.
The result wasn’t just increased conversion, it also shifted brand consideration and improved value perception. That’s the sweet spot: when shopper, brand, and media come together with precision and purpose.
