Mike Feldman Joins VaynerMedia as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Retail Media

VaynerMedia announced today the expansion of its retail media capabilities, following client demand and consecutive years of growth in the discipline. Mike Feldman has joined the agency as senior vice president, global head of retail media to lead the practice. Mike joins from dentsu where he was head of retail media and commerce.

Retail media has been one of the fastest-growing capabilities within VaynerMedia over the past three years, with media and revenue under management growing over 300 percent during that period. The expanded offering capitalises on the agency’s integrated approach, with creative and media working together seamlessly, enabling campaigns to move quickly and achieve better outcomes. Rather than looking at the retail media ecosystem through a data- and media-only lens, VaynerMedia is embracing an approach that builds contextual and differentiated creative against specific and advanced audience segments across platforms. In addition, the offering focuses on underpriced attention and real-time practitionership to help brands navigate the complex retail ecosystems more quickly and with better results.

“Brands continue to underestimate the importance of balancing their retail media strategy with their other marketing efforts to enable them to build demand,” said Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia. “It’s key to have a balance of retail media and broader marketing spend to maximise some demand creation, and not just be reliant on search within retail media environments.”

“At VaynerMedia, we do not view our retail media in a silo but rather as part of our broader agency solution in order to properly plan and achieve business outcomes for our clients,” added John Terrana, chief media officer at VaynerMedia. “By upleveling our retail media capabilities, we’re able to bring a differentiated offering to the market and compete against big, global agencies. Brands will have the opportunity to work with us in two capacities: in a consulting capacity on short-term projects, roadmapping, and planning assignments; or in a full-service agency capacity.”

As the SVP, global head of retail media, Mike will oversee teams responsible for strategy and activation for client partners across a variety of categories including consumer packaged goods, apparel, electronics, and more to innovate and optimise their marketing approach.

Mike joins VaynerMedia with a blend of agency experience from his time at dentsu, IPG, and Publicis and brand experience at Georgia-Pacific. In his role at Georgia-Pacific, Mike held the position of retail media and shopper marketing lead, owning the media and marketing technology strategies across all retail businesses as well as the relationship with retail media partners. Most recently, Mike led the commerce and retail media practice at dentsu, including standing up retail media teams and capabilities across Carat, iProspect, dentsuX, and more.

John Terrana said, “As we looked to expand our retail media capabilities, we needed someone who could keep pace with rapid innovation and change in the space. Mike is a hitter in the industry, having launched retail media practices both agency and client side. He truly understands how suppliers and retailers can best work together to drive mutual benefit, but in a future-forward, connected, and attention-grabbing way, which aligns with VaynerMedia’s model. I look forward to seeing how he further builds our offering.”

“It was a comment Gary Vaynerchuk made in 2015 predicting the death of shopper marketing that helped formulate my approach to the future of retail media. So, it’s full circle that I’m now joining VaynerMedia to further build their retail media practice,” added Mike. “I firmly believe if you are not integrating brand and retail media, you’re doing it wrong. VaynerMedia is advantaged here because of its unique approach, plus it’s an industry leader at bringing creative and media together. This is what attracted me to the agency—there are multiple opportunities here and I can’t wait to take advantage of the modern commerce and retail landscape and help clients build a competitive edge and drive true business results.”

Mike assumes his new role with immediate effect, reporting directly to John Terrana.