I was on stage at SMG’s Retail Media Summit UK alongside Alex Hodge from Warner Bros. Discovery, talking about what happens when CTV’s premium environments meet retail media’s data-rich capabilities. The session was presented by SMG and Adweek, and the full replay is available.

We covered a lot of ground including the shifting consumer behaviour around streaming, the new economics of CTV advertising, and the tension between brand-building and performance. The core argument is that retail media and CTV are colliding, and the result is a channel that can deliver both emotional reach and measurable outcomes.

One of the things I pushed on was the importance of retail media embracing the branding and awareness measures that came before, rather than staying siloed in lower-funnel performance. CTV gives retail media the opportunity to move across the entire funnel, but only if the industry plans and executes more holistically.

Alex brought an incredible perspective from his time across Sky, Triad, Discovery and now Warner Bros. Discovery, and his point about not optimising yourself into a corner just because you can measure everything really landed with the room.

Watch the full replay on SMG