At the Brand & AI Safety Summit London, a panel asked: Every brand wants and needs a retail or direct-to-consumer (DTC) story. What is yours, and how does it scale?
Moderated by Darren Jacobs, Partner for Media Sales at Grace & Co, the panel featured Ben O’Mahoney, AdTech & Data Partnerships Lead at Ocado Ads; Sara Mitzner, VP of Marketing at AS Beauty Group; and Jennifer Ballou, Senior Partnerships & Portfolio Marketing Leader at Mondelēz International.
From navigating complex agency-brand dynamics to moving beyond short-term ROAS metrics, the discussion considered how brands and retailers can collaborate to build scalable, multi-channel ecosystems.
A recurring theme throughout the session was the historical fragmentation between retail media (traditionally funded through trade or commercial budgets) and broader brand marketing.
Jennifer Ballou highlighted how Mondelēz International has transformed its structure over the past year to tackle this challenge head-on. Historically managed by separate, disconnected teams, retail media and brand media now report up through a single, unified team.
“We actually have visibility now into how one piece of the ecosystem is impacting another,” said Ballou. “We can get them working more cohesively together.”
Ben O’Mahoney echoed this shift from the retailer perspective. When launching Ocado Ads, the ambition was clear: sit on the same floor as the buying team to connect retail media directly with joint business plans. However, O’Mahoney acknowledged that the real growth lies in bridging the gap between trade budgets and top-of-funnel brand spend.
“Agencies and brands are working more intrinsically across their entire media portfolio rather than just looking in those silos of trade versus brand,” O’Mahoney said. “That’s going to be one of the really crucial bits that keeps evolving in the right direction.”
Balancing DTC heritage with retail scale
For legacy DTC brands expanding into wholesale environments, entering the retail media space presents unique opportunities and friction points.
Sara Mitzner discussed AS Beauty Group’s perspective as a predominantly DTC-born portfolio company. When expanding into major retailers, such as a recent launch on Boots.com, the brand faced the challenge of balancing retailer recommendations against its own proven DTC playbook.
“What the retailer suggests based on what other brands are doing isn’t necessarily aligned with what we’ve seen success with in our DTC story,” Mitzner explained. “Finding that middle ground between our own knowledge of our brand and customer, and the information we’re getting from the retail media network on what works for them, is key.”
Mitzner said that AS Beauty runs its media in-house, giving the brand direct control over creative messaging and brand safety, a crucial factor when launching on new retail platforms.
When asked how retailers measure incrementality and campaign impact, O’Mahoney pointed to a fundamental shift in how the industry views performance metrics. While traditional campaigns fixate heavily on immediate Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), the true value of retail media lies in long-term customer acquisition.
“The true value of media activation isn’t just on that immediate sale,” O’Mahoney emphassed. “If you acquire a customer on Ocado, that customer will repeat purchase, we see about 70% repeat purchases from ‘Favorites’ once a customer buys a product. Building models around Customer Lifetime Value alongside incrementality is where the industry needs to go.”
Mitzner strongly agreed, saying that educating executive teams to evaluate lifetime value rather than relying strictly on short-term ROAS remains an ongoing mission for brand marketers.
Hindsight lessons: What panelists would do differently
To close the session, Jacobs asked each panelist to share one key lesson or strategic change they would make if starting their retail media journey today:
- Jennifer Ballou (Mondelēz International): Start with an aligned ecosystem. “We would have started a lot earlier on making sure our retail media was tied to our brand media. Historically, different teams managed it, and while they were getting results, it wasn’t working to build a unified ecosystem. Starting with that alignment in place is key.”
- Sara Mitzner (AS Beauty Group): Trust your own brand data sooner. “I would lean into trusting our own instincts and data about our customer right from day one. While it’s important to partner with retailers, you know your brand best. We would set that balance earlier on instead of waiting 90 days.”
- Ben O’Mahoney (Ocado Ads): Embed commercial cadence from day one. “I would double down on setting up the right framework and cadence with our commercial and buying teams earlier. Ensuring that offsite and onsite retail media conversations happen seamlessly alongside traditional partner discussions creates a much smoother experience for brand partners.”
