Retail Media Upfronts 2024

Figure-skater turned entrepreneur, Natasha Bowes, founded Biotiful Gut Health in 2012 with the vision to make natural Gut Health accessible to all. Knowing first-hand that Natural Gut Health is the catalyst for good overall health and wellbeing, the brand was built by making it simple and enjoyable for people to look after their gut with naturally delicious, nutritious products, every day.

Development division, successfully launching a new insight and media agency to the market called Insight to Communication (i2C), now known as Nectar360.

Amir leads over 200 colleagues as the Nectar360 team provides loyalty, insight, media, and digital services to over 900 clients every year. Clients span multiple industries and include many of the biggest brands globally, including British Airways, Esso, and AMEX through to Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Passionate about putting the customer at the centre of decision-making, Amir is also energised by building, leading and empowering high-performing teams to deliver great client work and commercial performance.

Sarah Millbanks is a Senior Marketing Manager at Kenvue leading the Listerine® brand across the UK, Ireland and Nordic markets delivering full funnel marketing activation. Prior to this, Sarah worked within Kenvue’s Skincare division for 4.5 years; driving brand penetration growth via evolving media touchpoints to the ever-changing landscape – retailer media and social in particular. Sarah has a passion for brand building & creative development & before joining Kenvue, worked at Innocent Drinks leading pan-EU consumer comms development. Prior to this Sarah spent 7 years at Colgate-Palmolive working across their oral care portfolio driving expansion of emerging need-states.

Tom Priestman is Nectar 360’s new Director of Client Services, overseeing all FMCG Retail Media partnerships. With a passion for Marketing, Media, and Data Driven Strategies, Tom is working with brands to accelerate their Retail Media journey and drive measurable business impact.

Prior to joining Nectar 360, Tom most recently led the FMCG team at Meta after spending 6 years managing some of the largest Global and UK FMCG partnerships through the evolution of Social, Mobile, and AI.

Prior to Meta, Tom worked client side spending 6 years with Colgate-Palmolive, predominantly in the US, driving digital marketing evolution for their North America Division, notably across search, content, and eCommerce.

Bianca is a Senior Insight Director at SMG. She leads a team of insight experts and analysts who measure the effectiveness of retail media campaigns for brands across a multitude of UK retailers. She is passionate about simplicity, transparency, and consistency in reporting that enable both brands and retailers to turn data into actionable insight for future campaigns

Emma Dean, started in retail media fresh from university joining what was then Capture, now SMG, as the first employee. SMG is now an international grouping of three award winning businesses leading connected commerce marketing – to enable the potential of brands and retailers to work closer together to improve shoppers’ experiences and, as a result, deliver brilliant business results.

Working with the founders to build the business from the bottom up, Emma was fortunate enough to experience the many different facets of an ever changing business and industry. Starting her career in a commercial role within a partnership in house at Sainsbury's, building their retail media proposition whilst simultaneously building FMCG brand trust, knowledge and ultimate growth in the channel. Emma broadened her retail side expertise into the travel retail sector when heading up a partnership on site at Heathrow.

Emma has worked with key stakeholders from the UK's retailers, media owners and top FMCG's in developing and leading SMG's Capture agency. More recently, Emma has developed her career in the people, culture and capability sector, in a centralised position within SMG.

Currently COO at SMG, with collective oversight of the Business Development, Marketing and People teams, Emma enjoys a broad role whilst fulfilling her position as a member of the agency boards.

Retail Media Sales Lead at Ocado.Working to commercialise Ocado's data through self-serve and managed service solutions. Previously led on the Digital Proposition at Asda for 18 months, where he was accountable for digital media revenue covering proposition, performance and reporting. As a consultant for SG-retail, Alex has a broad range of experience in retail media having worked with numerous clients and tech solution partners. 

As AdTech & Data Partnerships Lead for Ocado Ads, Ben is responsible for managing the tech stack and data partnerships strategy for one of the fastest scaling and most disruptive Retail Media Network’s in the UK. Prior to joining Ocado Retail, Ben has had the opportunity to develop a number of propositions which leverage AdTech to connect advertisers with their shoppers outside of the retailer's environment, whether physical or e-comm store. Having spent 5 years at Dunnhumby (part of the Tesco group), Ben has been in the unique position to observe and contribute as retail media evolved in line with the growing prominence of first-party data, something that still fascinates him to this day.

Paul Wright is the Head of Uber Advertising International. He is responsible for all advertising from Uber's Journey Ads to sponsored messaging in Uber Eats across EMEA and APAC.

Paul started his career at Sky, where he moved from TV sales into the commercial web. He later co-founded a sports focussed ad network and held a variety of digital roles at Bauer and AOL. He was appointed as the first Chief Digital Officer for OMD Group UK and then Omnicom Media Group UK.

Paul then joined Apple's first ad business, iAd, and ran that across international markets. He has also been involved in a number of other Adtech businesses, including Sizmek, which was sold to Amazon in 2019.

Paul is a passionate advocate for the power of digital advertising to connect brands with consumers. He is also a strong believer in diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Imogen is a multi-faceted and strategic Creative Art Director. Commercially focused with an editorial eye, Imogen is experienced across beauty, fashion, lifestyle and activewear.

Beginning her journey in TV direction before finding her way into fashion - first magazines and then advertising, she now crafts compelling 360° campaigns within the ASOS Creative Studio. Always keeping the customer and Gen Z culture front of mind; her portfolio showcases collaborations with a wide-ranging selection of brands like Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Estée Lauder (to name a few).

Imogen has been called a disruptor - she strives to make an authentic impact whilst pushing boundaries. A storyteller at heart, she marries up innovative concepts with striking visuals, transforming ideas into captivating narratives that resonate with the ASOS audience. Imogen thrives on collaboration, drawing inspiration from diverse perspectives and trends to create dynamic campaigns that not only that highlight the product but also evoke emotion.

Elton leads ASOS’s retail media business and is responsible for global strategy and operations.

ASOS Media Group helps brands win with ASOS across sportswear, fashion, and face & body categories to create striking content and campaigns that enhance ASOS customers’ experience and drives results.

Before ASOS Elton has built and led successful multimedia businesses for other leading international retailers Tesco (dunnhumby) and Amazon, as well as for digital publishers Tiscali and Sky in the UK, and across radio, TV and digital channels in South Africa for leading media sales house Mediamark (then a Kagiso Media and Lagardere joint venture).

He is passionate about working with brands to produce and deliver relevant, effective advertising anchored in technology and data.

Lauren Briley is a seasoned digital marketing professional with over 15 years of experience within digital youth brands and is currently leading social marketing initiatives at ASOS. With a strong background in creating data-driven strategies and innovative content and campaigns, Lauren has successfully enhanced brand engagement and loyalty across social platforms. Her expertise lies in harnessing the power of social media to drive customer connection and growth. Passionate about emerging trends and consumer behaviour, Lauren is committed to leveraging her knowledge in the name of brand storytelling and demonstrating the positive impact this can have on business and brand objectives.

Liv has worked at ASOS for almost 12 years and been in the industry for 17, having previously worked at magazines including Grazia, Stylist and Woman & Home. She started as a fashion assistant on ASOS magazine and now heads up the Fashion Team within ASOS’s creative studios and marketing departments. The Fashion Team produce content for a variety of different platforms across the business including Brand Campaigns, talent collaborations, ASOS homepage, CRM, Brand Partnerships, Social, PR and Video.

She is passionate about the brand, the people, and the work they produce, constantly striving to achieve the very best ‘fashion first’ content from her team striving for ASOS to be leaders in the 20-something fashion market.