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Melanie Zimmermann joins Criteo to lead its global retail media practice
Mumbai: Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO), the commerce media company, has announced the appointment of Melanie Zimmermann to lead its global retail media practice. As general manager, global retail media, she will be responsible for further building and scaling Criteo’s retail media business and developing its sales strategy worldwide to better support evolving client needs and solidify Criteo’s leading position in commerce media.
Zimmermann comes to Criteo from Macy’s, where she successfully built Macy’s Media Network, the company’s retail media network that reaches more than 46 million customers across Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s and influences more than 440 million transactions online and in-store. In her most recent role as VP, Head of Macy’s Media Network, she was responsible for developing and executing strategy and leading all retail media operations from media planning, sales, campaign management and analytics.
At Criteo, Zimmermann will report to chief revenue officer Brian Gleason and her team will be in charge of driving the global vision and strategy of Criteo’s retail media practice and forging alignment across regions. She will also play a pivotal role in retail media product strategy and prioritization, closely connecting commercial needs and product development.
Zimmermann’s hire comes on the heels of Stephen Howard-Sarin’s appointment as managing director of Retail Media in the Americas in December 2023. Most recently at Instacart as VP and general manager of Retail Media, Howard-Sarin brings to Criteo over a dozen years of retail media experience with leadership positions at eBay Ads and Walmart Connect. His focus is on building and growing Criteo’s retail media footprint with advertisers and retailers in the Americas and reports to Americas executive managing director Sherry Smith.
“As we continue to evolve alongside the industry, we’re excited to expand our deep bench of retail media talent with the addition of two key industry leaders. Melanie has an impressive track record of building and scaling a high-performing retail media network. Her experience at Macy’s kept her at the forefront of innovation and will be a key asset as we help unify an ecosystem that’s poised for a new stage of growth,” said Criteo CRO Brian Gleason. “In addition, I am confident that Stephen’s diversified experience leading retail media teams for the last decade will help grow our footprint and continue to transform the business in the Americas.”
According to McKinsey, commerce media could generate over $1.3 trillion of enterprise value in the U.S. alone, positioning it to transform the world of digital advertising in a manner not seen since the rise of programmatic. Retail media as a subcomponent of that category is expected to generate $100 billion in ad spending by 2026.
“With its massive global retailer footprint and thousands of brand advertiser partners, Criteo is not only a pioneer in retail media, but it’s also constantly evolving its unique position by tapping into strategic growth areas and building solutions to create an ecosystem that drives the most value for retailers, brands, and agencies,” said Zimmermann. “I’m excited to join the company as it continues to develop solutions for its clients’ specific needs and help them reach their full potential with retail media.”
Zimmermann started her career in consulting with Bain & Company in Europe before joining Macy’s in 2013, where she held different leadership positions including corporate strategy over the last 10 years. With both hires, Criteo expands its roster of executives with deep industry expertise to further shape the future of commerce media.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
