Good morning from Retail Media Age HQ,
I’m returning to reality after three jam-packed days at MAD//Fest London – days that I spent either typing frantically in the audience or on stage with brilliant guests at the Retail Media Evolved stage; making my way around the venue in the blazing sunshine (after trying to decipher maps where everything is strangely hexagonal); and connecting with some familiar faces as well as new acquaintances.
I want to give huge thanks to all of the guests who joined me on stage and shared their expertise, which made my job as a moderator and facilitator an incredibly easy one! I enjoyed diving into Retail Media Beyond the Basket with Anthony Lawson at Deliveroo Ads on Day One and then tackling the ever-present question of creative with Luke Blackburn of PepsiCo on Day Two.
We considered questions of formats, consistency across channels and touchpoints, how brand-building feeds into retail media’s ability to deliver performance, and the persistently thorny issue of measurement. On Day Three, Retail Media Age became the host for the entire stage with RMA Editor-in-Chief Justin Pearse and I moderating each session and Justin introducing and closing the stage.
I facilitated two exciting panels, one looking at the future of retail media with a packed roster of speakers: Rob Edwards (Arla Foods), Parweez Mulbocus (OMD EMEA), Justin Reid (Tripadvisor), Ed Taylor (John Lewis Partnership) and Rob Smart (LiveRamp).
The panel broached the ever-present topic of what to call retail media (I even gave a hot take on this myself a few weeks ago) and landed on the conclusion that the “retail” half may well go away in a few years’ time – following a similar trajectory to mobile advertising. The insight-packed panel also covered the issue of AI’s impact on the customer journey and what brands can do to improve their discoverability in this AI-inflected landscape.
Later, I sat down with Scott Bodie of Arbex (the new name for Kimberly-Clark following a recent merger with Brazilian paper producer Suzano) to learn how his role has evolved over time and to get his take on where retail media is going, before a final excellent panel on creativity featuring Jessica Cooke (Kingfisher), Shane Buckley (Uber), Steve Edwards (Tesco Media) and Colin Horan (Bauer Media Outdoor). I enjoyed the throughlines between this discussion and my previous session with PepsiCo, with both sessions coming down firmly on the importance of human work in creative, while also considering how well retail media can deliver on brand storytelling and what more needs to be done to support its upper-funnel ambitions.
I’m now excitedly turning my attention to our upcoming Retail Media Age lunch in Manchester, which will see another fantastic panel brought together made up of Dean Harris (Co-op Media Network), Heidrun Thrainsdottir Kelly (Dentsu), Justin Tay (Epsilon) and Emelia Lavery (THG Ingenuity). The panel will be tackling questions of retail media fragmentation and maturity as retail media evolves as a channel, and it promises to be a hugely engaging discussion.
There are just a couple of tickets left – so if you’ve been considering coming along, now is the time to grab your seat! I look forward to seeing you all there!
Read more of Retail Media Age’s coverage from Madfest London 2026.
