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The birth and evolution of retail media

July 20, 2026
Matthew Lee
Co-founder, SMG

In this episode of The Retail Media Show, Steve Gray speaks to Matthew Lee, Co-founder of SMG, about the origins of modern retail media, the entrepreneurial journey behind one of the industry’s most successful businesses, and why the future depends on delivering measurable growth for retailers, brands and shoppers.

Matthew reflects on more than 25 years in retail media, from the pioneering days at dunnhumby through to founding and scaling SMG. He explains how a focus on customer outcomes, campaign performance, culture and continuous innovation helped retail media evolve from coupon campaigns into a strategic growth capability.

In this episode:
  • How the first generation of modern retail media was built at dunnhumby
  • Why customer outcomes and campaign performance became foundational
  • How coupon marketing evolved into a scalable retail media business
  • Why Matthew left dunnhumby to build SMG
  • How SMG scaled into a major retail media business
  • Why culture and developing people became a competitive advantage
  • The challenges of scaling across multiple retailers and brands
  • Why retail media should be treated as a strategic growth engine
  • How technology is helping professionalise and simplify the industry
  • What the next phase of retail media could look like
  • About The Retail Media Show

    The Retail Media Show is a weekly conversation with the people building, buying and shaping retail media. Hosted by Steve Gray, it brings together retailers, brands, agencies and technology leaders to explore what's changing, what's working and what comes next.

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    About SG-retail

    SG-retail helps retailers turn retail media ambition into practical, commercially effective propositions. We work with retail businesses to shape strategy, strengthen capability and create the operating models, propositions and partnerships needed to make retail media work in practice.Our focus is on building approaches that are commercially valuable, customer-led and sustainable — helping retailers move from opportunity to execution with greater clarity and confidence.

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