The Future of Retail Media with WPP Media’s David Fieldhouse

Retail media is entering a new phase where data collaboration is transforming how brands and retailers plan and execute campaigns. At Retail Media Pioneers, we sat down with David Fieldhouse, Head of Commerce (UK) at WPP Media, to discuss the opportunities and challenges shaping the retail media landscape, from making fragmented data actionable to balancing brand-building with performance marketing. 

ClickZ: Let’s start with some context. What’s your role at WPP, and what is the UK commerce division focused on right now? 

David Fieldhouse: I’m the UK Head of Commerce at WPP Media. We’ve got over 120 commerce practitioners across WPP media, and we take a T-shaped view - integrating commerce expertise into programmatic, social and so on, with horizontal subject-matter experts servicing large CPGs like Nestlé, Unilever, Danone and Coca-Cola.

A lot of our work is with Amazon, as you’d expect, but we also have deep relationships with retailers like Tesco. The remit spans sponsored search, social commerce, D2C, and data activation. 

ClickZ: WPP recently published a white paper on “The AI-Empowered Agency: 6 New Principles for a Transformed Future.” How is AI shaping your commerce and retail media work in the UK? 

David: AI is a huge topic globally. WPP’s AI-driven platform is Open, the marketing operating system our teams and clients collaborate on, underpinned by our data intelligence spine, Open Intelligence. We’re baking that technology into all workflows, our side and clients’.

We work with partners from Google and Meta to local specialists; making sense of the signals we collaborate with (we don’t ingest) would be impossible without AI - there are literally billions of data points. Open Intelligence analyzes those data points to give unique insights, anything from weather and location to panel data alongside media metrics, which we believe will give clients an edge over the next three to five years. 

ClickZ: In your session at Retail Media Pioneers, you explored how configurable ad-tech platforms can help automate and synchronize campaigns across multiple channels. What does “configurable” mean in practice, and how are you overcoming fragmentation to make data actionable? 

David: We approach this through a partnership lens with best-in-class vendors - Skai, Pacvue, Shallion, Criteo and others - rather than buying and bringing everything in-house. That lets us swap components in and out depending on client needs, move faster, and inform partner roadmaps. The result is bespoke, configurable tools within platforms, with exclusive elements ahead of general release. 

From a data perspective, the biggest issue is fragmentation - lots of retailers, lots of walled gardens, a patchwork of APIs. Open Intelligence for Commerce solves for this because the data doesn’t move: we can collaborate with partners’ and clients’ data securely, and because major platforms and media owners are connected on the other side, we can make data actionable within 24 hours. That speed to action is a key USP. 

ClickZ: Commerce Advertisers often need to run consistent activity across many channels and markets. What does that orchestration look like for you today? 

David: Amazon is comparatively straightforward - one ecosystem, closed, with relevant tools available - so we can look up insights and activate across markets in an afternoon. There are multiple different retailers working across multiple markets all with different processes. With Open Intelligence for Commerce, we’re collaborating with these retailers to bring their data through one workflow, effectively emulating the Amazon-like operation so we can deploy campaigns quickly across multiple markets and platforms. That’s the direction of travel. 

ClickZ: What are the non-negotiables for retail brands moving away from broad, untargeted paid media toward genuine brand connections? And are budgets shifting? 

David: Most clients run a two-pronged approach. In commerce, even “hyper-personalization” is a strong term. But personalizing from sales data is crucial, and commerce activity must have an end-point sale.

Beyond commerce, it’s a broader church: hyper-personalization isn’t always in the client’s interest; brand investment matters and can impact sales in the short and medium term. The two must work hand-in-glove - no global client can run only hyper-personalized strategies at their scale. That’s why we embed commerce thinking across teams, to inform brand planning as well as the “pointy end” of sales. 

On budgets, the majority of commerce spend is still lower-funnel (sponsored ads), but mature clients are moving up-funnel as sponsored inventory saturates. Amazon DSP is a mid-funnel example. We’re also running commerce/retailer-enriched advanced TV campaigns; they’re top-funnel but still data-driven (e.g., location or sales). Expect more up-funnel commerce over the next three years. 

ClickZ: How do you measure effectiveness across the full funnel, from awareness to conversion? 

David: It depends on the consumer end-point. We drive to conversion and get SKU-level sales to tie back to an impression, click or video view - essentially any addressable media. For advanced TV and digital OOH, we apply footfall analysis and look for sales uplift. It’s a mix, but most activity is addressable. 

ClickZ: What’s the one message you want Retail Media Pioneers attendees to leave with? 

David: Commerce is not a silo. It has to be integrated across everything we do. For the world’s largest advertisers (CPG especially), we’re increasingly looking at full-funnel commerce - influencer, social, programmatic - right down to sponsored activity on retailers like Tesco. It all needs orchestrating on the same plan and also compliment any trade marketing activity clients might be running.

ClickZ: Finally — where’s the most exciting innovation happening right now in retail commerce and media? 

David: Collaboration around data. Clients, agencies and media owners/retailers can now collaborate without data leakage, with security and privacy intact. Expect a lot more of that in the next few years.