New Digital Age (NDA) in association with LiveRamp is spotlighting the men and women championing a data-led revolution in the marketing industry. The ‘Meet the Revolutionaries’ interviews focus on the efforts of the industry executives helping to drive digital marketing forward into a new era of data collaboration.
Here, Andy Barratt, Head of Retail Media at Currys discusses the “foundational” role of first-party data in contemporary marketing and outlines the strategy he has pursued in building out Currys’ retail media offering…
Tell us about your current role.
I’m Head of Retail Media at Currys, a role that’s relatively new within the business and reflects the growing importance of retail media networks in the UK. Currys has been around for 141 years this year and, as a retailer, we’ve been doing some form of retail media since the very beginning.
My role is to build out our retail media proposition in the UK. The goal is not just to expand what we already do well, but to explore new revenue streams and media opportunities that go beyond product-driven marketing. It’s about tapping into shopper and brand budgets to build something that sits distinctly apart from our traditional trading activity.
Can you give an example of a time when you personally helped to drive innovation?
One big innovation piece in this role was establishing something visibly different from our existing commercial relationships. We needed to show we could access brand or shopper marketing funds in a more strategic way. So, we created a proposition based on four clear pillars: insight, off-site activation, on-site activation, and in-store activation. It’s simple, but powerful. It positions data as foundational – first-party data that’s consent-led and privacy-first, enabling targeting that benefits the brand, Currys, and most importantly, the customer. That’s a real win-win-win if we get it right.
What are the most common challenges to innovation?
Innovation can be challenging in an organisation like Currys that’s been around for 140+ years. There’s legacy tech, embedded processes, and siloed structures. Our tech was built for supply chain efficiency – not for retail media. So, part of my role is evangelism: explaining why what we’re doing matters and getting buy-in across the business. Being based within the data team really helps. It gives me direct access to the necessary information and helps us keep things agile rather than chasing some perfect solution that’s outdated before it’s even launched.
What tips can you offer others hoping to drive innovation?
Don’t underestimate the internal comms work that will be necessary. You might have an amazing new platform or dataset, but if your internal teams aren’t using it, it’s going nowhere. That internal adoption piece is huge. We’ve worked on a project to put all our customer and sales data into a live, interactive tool that brands can use. In tandem, we’re focused on getting our own teams to use it day-to-day too. That internal alignment creates credibility externally.
Understand your stakeholders and the business dynamics. Who owns what relationships? What’s the finance process? Get those basics right – forecasting, invoicing, approvals – because if you’re building a new business unit, you can’t skip the fundamentals. Also, prepare for the challenges of forecasting in a fast-growing business. When you’re doubling year-on-year, predicting future performance gets tricky fast.
How do you think digital marketing might evolve over the next few years?
AI is clearly going to play a part, but I think where we’ll see real change is in creative and attribution. Right now, building creative is one of the most manual parts of digital marketing. That’s going to shift. Personalised, dynamic creative at scale is coming. AI might also finally help us crack attribution in a more meaningful way, which has always been a pain point.
More broadly, I think we’ll see a convergence of different tech and cultural trends – just like the internet came about through the convergence of multiple technologies. The same thing’s going to happen again. Think: personalisation, creative automation, measurement, social commerce – they’re all going to merge in unexpected ways. And I think we’re going to look back in a few years and realize we were living through a significant transformation. That, in turn, will put pressure on publishers to keep pace.
Do you think ‘data collaboration’ will become more important to brand marketers?
Data collaboration is inevitably going to be more important to brand marketers, because it’s going to reduce wastage. An aspiring vacuum cleaner brand, for example, can now buy Currys data for the whole category and see which products are performing in which store on which day of the week. That knowledge allows marketers to be much more targeted in how they enter the marketplace. It lowers the bar of entry to new brands. It also allows established brands to be much more efficient in their own marketing and it lets them leverage the power of the retailer.
Retailers like Currys have deep, trusted relationships with customers, and that puts us in a unique position to help brands connect with audiences in a more personal and privacy-conscious way. It’s not just about targeting, it’s about delivering relevant experiences and helping brands understand where they can grow or defend their share. The more we can enable smart data collaboration, internally and externally, the better the outcomes will be for everyone involved.
In my career, I’ve been fortunate to have had a large number of roles with some great companies. Leading the charge on Retail Media at Currys is certainly the most exciting job I’ve had. It offers an ever-changing set of challenges and represents a transformational opportunity for Currys. The journey ahead is filled with potential, and I am excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve.
