Tesco Media held its much-awaited Upfront event last week, giving brands an exclusive look at how Tesco’s position as one of Britain’s leading retailers provides a cultural lens through which it can better understand customers.
Hosted by comedian and TV personality Joel Dommett, the event opened with a nostalgia-filled look back to 1995 – the year Clubcard launched – and celebrated Tesco Media’s journey of listening, learning, and evolving with brands.
The event combined insight, inspiration, and entertainment, showcasing Tesco Media’s upcoming brand refresh and evolved proposition. It also highlighted the new opportunities the retailer has for advertisers to reach curated audiences in privacy-safe ways, while building brand awareness and driving performance for business.
Tesco Media is a trusted media partner offering clients:
- Insight to show where and how media can resonate and connect with customers: a view into the motivations and behaviours of our nation
- A multiplier of brand and performance media: getting the entire plan to work as one within its ever-expanding ecosystem
- Creative effectiveness via its multiple touchpoints from Sofa to Store and new approaches to delivering work with impact
- Frictionless access to planning and buying retail media, powered by the latest science and AI technology, including a brand-new Creative Studio
Tesco Media celebrates 30 years of Clubcard which enables a deeper connection with customers
“Tesco continues to be part of the fabric of the nation, with Clubcard weaved in at the centre. By harnessing the power of Clubcard insights, we ensure customers remain at the heart of everything we do – then, now and in the future,” said Nick Ashley, director client development, Tesco Media.
2025 marks the 30th year since the launch of Clubcard. Today, over 24 million UK households have one, up by more than a million since last year. In a country with just over 28 million households, that is unmatched penetration. Tesco Media offers advertisers the ability to plan and measure campaigns with precision, powered by Clubcard insights and dunnhumby’s powerful science across the entire retailer ecosystem. Tesco’s unique position as Britain’s biggest retailer means it can act as a cultural lens through which to understand the customer. Tesco has long brought families together to bond over food, shopping and mealtimes, and can help brands truly understand emerging trends and growth opportunities among a brand’s unique customer base.
Tesco Media drives brand and performance with the customer at its heart
Tash Whitmey, managing director at Tesco Media, said: “Retail media’s strength is that it is where the interests of the advertiser and the retailer are aligned in driving the right outcome for the customer. Our mission is to build media solutions that work for customers, advertisers and Tesco, in that order, by enhancing the shopping experience in store, bringing some everyday magic and making it easier to discover your products existing and new.”
Whitmey continued, “The media landscape feels like it is shifting all the time – new channels, new technologies. More choices to make at a faster pace. Retail media is right at the heart of this movement.”
According to WARC’s latest Multiplier Effect study, the distinction between brand and performance advertising is a false choice. Advertising is most effective when it pursues both goals. Tesco Media helps brands do just that, activating across the full funnel, from sofa to store, always at the point of influence.
Tesco Media’s Marketing Team commissioned new, unprecedented research into revealing that shopper mindsets are fluid and shoppers are in inspiration and discovery mindsets throughout their path to purchase. It reveals that two-thirds of shoppers are open to discovery during the shop, jumping to 80% for those with children, showing how grocery shopping is not a functional activity, but offers many moments of discovery. The insights will help brands to be in the right place, at the right time, to reach shoppers online and in-store at times that are most open to discovering new products.
Tesco Media announced new premium video formats on Tesco.com and the Tesco app, giving brands immersive, brand-safe ways to reach high-intent shoppers close to the point of purchase. This allows brands to extend brand storytelling at a key moment of influence and enable brands to connect awareness campaigns directly to purchasing decisions. It also taps into discovery mindsets, with 67% of shoppers using supermarket websites as a source of inspiration and discovery, according to the new research.
These new offerings allow advertisers to deliver engaging, relevant content across multiple channels, while remaining fully privacy-safe and measurable, reinforcing Tesco Media’s position as both a brand-building partner and sales driver.
Driving creative effectiveness via everyday brand magic
Stacy Gratz, marketing and sales director, spoke about how “Tesco Media leverages creative excellence to cut through the noise, drive attention and deliver impactful campaigns. By combining smarter targeting, contextual creativity, and proven business outcomes, the team is helping brands achieve greater effectiveness.”
With this in mind and to tackle the challenge of delivering campaigns across different retailers, Tesco Media has launched Tesco Media Creative Studio – a brand-new digital tool designed to simplify and speed up creative production. Powered by GenAI, it automatically generates compliant ads in all the formats brands need, across both onsite and offsite.
By customising creative for current shoppers, lapsed buyers, and new customers, Tesco Media ensures that campaigns feel personalised and relevant. This approach not only drives immediate results but also builds long-term brand equity.
Tesco Media announced a series of different new opportunities to reach audiences creatively across its retail media network, from online brand zones to turning the Tesco stores into brand-building opportunities. These include till takeovers, digital screen rollouts, special builds and working with Influencers.
Market-leading technology for a frictionless media buy
Tesco Media revealed the next phase of Tesco Media’s Sphere platform, a self-optimising, AI-powered retail media ecosystem that unifies planning, activation and measurement.
Key features include:
- Self-serve multi-channel campaign management, allowing brands to activate across in-store, onsite, CRM and off-site media from a single dashboard.
- Tesco Media Creative Studio that automates ad formats for Tesco.com and social channels using GenAI and real-time price and promotion feeds.
- Live optimisation and reporting through enhanced measurement tools such as multi-channel incrementality and multi-touch attribution.
Tesco Media’s investment in AI technology represents the next phase of its growth, one connected platform, creating a seamless, frictionless experience for advertisers while unlocking smarter, faster, and more measurable campaigns.
The event closed with a tease of Tesco Media’s new creative identity, which is set to launch in early 2026, marking the next chapter in its evolution as a true media partner built on insights, creativity and human understanding.
