Time For A Reset Marketing Podcast: Insights from Global Brand Marketers · Overline

79 - Balancing Product Innovation, Test and Learn, and Agile Strategies in Retail Media: A Conversation with Jack Johnson of Ocado Retail

·42 min·2 clips

Ocado Ads is launching the MPD Lab to test products in 3 to 6 weeks with hidden customer groups.

1. Time For A Reset Marketing Podcast episode 79 focuses on balancing product innovation, test and learn, and agile strategies in retail media at Ocado Retail. 2. Paul Frampton-Calero hosts Jack Johnson, who runs Ocado Ads, with experience at IRI and Dunnhumby before moving into Ocado Retail. 3. The episode asks what retail media teams should reset, and Jack's answer is to stop repeating the same retail media plan year after year. 4. Jack says repeating last year's plan can hamper growth when brands need to try things they have never done before. 5. He defines innovation as trying something new with a clear goal, whether that goal is more effective advertising or better product development. 6. Jack describes the MPD Lab as a new Ocado Ads capability that uses a small segment of the Ocado customer base to launch products quickly. 7. He says the MPD Lab can support product launches in three to six weeks and simulate tests for brands and suppliers. 8. Jack says those tests can cover promotions, media assets, and how an MPD launches versus competitors. 9. He contrasts that with bricks-and-mortar retail, where brands face buyer meetings, range waits, and more research before launch. 10. Jack says the Lab is meant to address the high failure rate and complexity of new product development launches. 11. He explains that Ocado Retail is the world's largest online grocery retailer and has operated for over 20 years without stores. 12. Jack says Ocado Retail uses Ocado Group technology, full end-to-end fulfillment, and a partnership with M&S for M&S food online in the UK. 13. He says Ocado has more than 40,000 products, which he describes as an unbeatable UK range and more than twice a big supermarket. 14. Jack says Ocado Retail is the fastest growing retailer in the UK at the time of recording and has been fastest growing for the last six periods. 15. He says Ocado Ads benefits from 100% purchase capture, natural closed-loop measurement, and a broad set of media options including search, favorites page placements, targeted couponing, and sampling. 16. Jack argues for a flexible operating model that can support self-serve and managed service rather than forcing brands into one way of working. 17. He says retail media success depends on balancing the retailer, suppliers and brands, and the customer, not just optimizing for ad spend or margin. 18. Jack describes customer journey mapping across search, favorites, recipe pages, inspiration pages, and promo pages as the basis for customer first brand growth. 19. The conversation has an interview style with practical examples, direct comparisons, and a steady, businesslike pace. 20. People working in grocery retail media, shopper marketing, and product launch strategy will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting broad consumer-brand theory may skip it.

As heard by us

Retail media is treated as an operating problem, not just ad inventory.

Jack Johnson treats Ocado Ads as an operating question as much as a sales one: how fast products can launch, how they behave with customers, and how the retailer keeps suppliers, brands, advertisers, and shoppers in view.

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Why you'd press play

See how Ocado turns retail media into a live product-testing engine for brands.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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