At Retail Media Summit UK 2025, industry thought leader Jessie Dowd sat down with Lucia Mastromauro (Deliveroo), Henry Stokes (PayPal Ads), Chris Norton (Marriott International/Riott Media), and Aaron Gallagher (Kinective Media by United Airlines) to ask a simple question: what happens when commerce media escapes the supermarket aisle? From hotel rooms and airplanes to payment platforms and on-demand delivery, the panel explored how non-grocery players are turning attention into measurable value – and what retailers can learn from them. The big theme: put the traveller, diner, or shopper at the centre, then let data and creativity do the heavy lifting.
The Bottom Line
Commerce media is escaping the grocery aisle – into hotel rooms, aircraft cabins, delivery apps, and payment platforms. The disruptors winning beyond retail are using first-party data + context-rich environments to build brands and drive conversions, often in the same campaign. Above all, they’re breaking the old rules by starting with what the traveller, diner, or shopper actually needs in that moment – then building the media around it.
The Takeaways
Your “network” is the whole experience, not just a placement
The disruptors on stage all start from the same place: the real-world context their customers are in. For Marriott and United, that’s a captive traveller with time – and money – to spend. For Deliveroo, it’s the “lean-back” moment when dinner is on the way. For PayPal, it’s the payment itself. That context shapes formats, partners, and measurement. As Aaron Gallagher put it, United’s focus is “reaching the consumer before, during and after travel” – from app to airport lounge to seat-back screen – and using that journey to enhance the experience, not interrupt it.
Stop treating retail media as “just performance”
Across hospitality, travel, and delivery, the panel pushed hard against the idea that retail or commerce media is only there to mop up last-click sales. Lucia Mastromauro called it a “massive brand-building channel” that can also work brilliantly for non-endemic advertisers if you match the message to the mission. Chris Norton showed how Marriott’s hotel-room media doesn’t just sell; it builds equity and behaviour. A hydration campaign with Gatorade drove 400% growth in loyalty sign-ups and encouraged hotels to stock the product, proving that “upper-funnel” storytelling and lower-funnel outcomes can come from the same idea.
First-party data is the fuel – creativity is the differentiator
Every panellist has serious data firepower. PayPal sees spend across 30M+ merchants. Deliveroo knows what customers are craving and when. Marriott and United understand travellers’ full trips. The opportunity is to go beyond generic segments and build genuinely distinctive formats and targeting. Henry Stokes talked about using PayPal’s unique vantage point to track market-share lift, while experimenting with playful ideas like emoji targeting in peer-to-peer payments so “Chewy.com can own the dog emoji within PayPal and Venmo.” The message: your data gives you permission to invent media that only your brand could sell.
Quote to Remember
“It’s all about the consumer. It’s building for the needs of the consumer, and I think there is a huge amount of opportunities there.” – Lucia Mastromauro, Deliveroo
