TWICM 206: Nectar360’s Amir Rasekh on Customer Insight, Retail Media and Agentic Commerce

Amir Rasekh, Managing Director of Nectar360, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss customer insight, retail media, AI-powered measurement and how agentic commerce could change the way people shop.

This episode explains how retail media has evolved from loyalty data, targeted coupons and direct mail into a sophisticated, measurable channel spanning in-store, onsite and offsite media.

In this episode, we cover:

– Why customer insight remains the foundation of effective retail media

– How Nectar360 connects loyalty, insight and retail media in one customer-focused system

– Why brands hold retail media to a higher measurement standard than traditional channels

– How Nectar360 measures incrementality and multi-touch attribution across omnichannel campaigns

– How its AI-powered Pollen platform makes campaign planning, creative production and measurement faster

– What agentic commerce could mean for retailers, marketers and customer decision-making

– Why AI should support better human relationships rather than remove the people involved

Amir also shares early results from Pollen, including 2.5 times more incremental sales from omnichannel campaigns and evidence that retail media can influence the middle and upper parts of the marketing funnel, rather than acting only as a conversion channel.

The conversation also explores an important tension for marketers: technology can make retail media simpler, faster and more measurable, but clients still expect strong relationships, expertise and human judgement. A useful listen for marketers interested in customer insight, retail media, marketing measurement, AI in marketing, incrementality, omnichannel strategy and the future of commerce.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

01:27 Amir Rasekh’s career in retail and Sainsbury’s

04:34 Building an insight-led culture

05:00 What Nectar360 does today

06:06 Why retail media suddenly became so prominent

07:18 The fundamentals of retail media

08:52 Why measurement expectations are increasing

10:28 Introducing Nectar360’s Pollen platform

12:15 Are marketers rigorous enough when testing campaigns?

13:33 How AI accelerated retail media technology

14:21 AI audience building, creative scoring and production

14:38 Cutting creative production from weeks to 90 seconds

14:59 Early results from omnichannel retail media

16:10 Retail media as a brand-building channel

17:05 How customer shopping behaviour is changing

18:00 What agentic commerce means for retail

20:03 Will consumers shop through ChatGPT and AI agents?

22:16 Why physical stores still matter

24:00 How Nectar360’s teams are using AI

25:16 Building AI literacy across an organisation

25:47 Why clients do not want technology to replace people

26:04 Closing thoughts

That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.

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This Cannes Sessions episode is produced in partnership with The Digital Voice.

Find out more at: https://www.thedigitalvoice.co.uk

That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.

Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.

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