{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast","title":"RetailCraft 65: \"Three sides of the table\" - Pedro Roche of Zalando","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2438,"description":"Three sides of the table: building a retail media business on a fashion platform\nIn conversation with Pedro Roche, Director, Strategy and Offering, Zalando Marketing Services\n\nPositioning\nThis conversation is for brand and commerce leaders who sell through platforms and want to know how a retail media unit earns a seat with the CMO and CFO rather than staying inside the trade budget. Pedro Roche has worked on all three sides of the table: brand (L'Oreal), agency (L'Oreal's Website Factory programme, then AKQA) and now platform (Zalando). He explains how trust, a shared goal and measurement turn a media sales conversation into a growth partnership, where AI is making campaigns faster and more accessible, and what Zalando wants its partner brands to say about it by 2028.\n\nKey themes\nThree sides of the table. \"Pedro started in marketing at L'Oréal in Germany, then led UK sales at Schwarzkopf Professional, where trust with salon partners had to be earned through technical expertise, not pitched. He then moved to the agency side, and now sits on the platform side. Each position shows him what the other two need.\nTrust before pitch. He starts with the partner’s problem, not his own agenda. Next comes a common goal and a structured roadmap with a tangible outcome to work back from. His systemic coaching and mediation training is the toolkit to effectively lead through ambiguity and conflict. The ‘sell’ becomes a means to an end. \nFashion retail media is inspiration-led. In supermarkets, he says, retail media starts with the shopping list. Zalando shoppers arrive with a purpose (a child's winter wardrobe, new runners, an anniversary outfit) but first need inspiration. That gives brands the opportunity to present themselves in a curated environment. \nFrom trade budgets to brand budgets. Trade terms typically fund lower-funnel sponsored ads and stay with trade teams. ZMS and the fashion store teams now sit down with CMOs, CFOs and trade together to orchestrate launches...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/VtMeM9x57oIyPtseCP2dq_HPum19jYWt97L3UTRpo8A/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9iYmFh/YmZlNTFiNTlhYjc2/ZDQ0MDYxNzIyNjlm/NjA0Ni5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}