SMG, the retail media network partner of Asda, Morrisons, Co-op, Boots and Deliveroo, has appointed a new CEO.
Katie Streeter Hurle has been promoted from chief strategy officer to CEO, following the promotion of Sam Knights to CEO of SMG’s parent company Next 15.
SMG is responsible for trading more than £1.9m in retail media daily. It operates five of the largest retail media networks across the UK, including LS Eleven Media Services, Boots Media Group, Morrisons Media Group, Co-op Media Network, and The Very Group.
The company had been comprised of three arms: agency Threefold, which builds and operates retail media networks on behalf of retailers; its commerce marketing tech arm, Plan-Apps; and its brand-facing business Capture, which specialises in delivering campaigns for brands including Procter & Gamble, Diageo, and General Mills. SMG has since “unified its operations under one global identity”.
Streeter Hurle started her time at the company in 2011 with Capture, later moving to Threefold.
“I’ve somehow been made CEO of SMG,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I’m feeling very grateful, slightly intimidated and, more than anything else, pretty lucky.”
“I’m feeling lucky in particular, because I get to be a part of the most brilliant leadership team anyone could hope for and I honestly love working with them. They challenge me, support me, make me laugh, and make the hard stuff feel easier. I’m also feeling lucky, too, to work with the people across the SMG business – the reason I joined, the reason I’ve stayed, and the reason this business is as special as it is,” she added.
Knights joined SMG in 2012 from P&G. He is replacing Tim Dyson as CEO of Next 15, the publicly traded owner of MHP Group and Archetype. Dyson is planning to retire.
“I know I leave the business in safe hands as we have asked Katie Streeter Hurle to step up in to the role of CEO. Katie has been at SMG longer than I have and is one of the most intelligent, principled leaders I have ever met,” Knights said.
In the past few years, SMG – which as well as securing partnerships with major grocers to run their media networks, on the brand side works with the likes of General Mills, McCain, BrewDog and Taylors of Harrogate – has established itself as the top partner for grocers looking to capitalise on the retail media opportunity.
The opportunity is sizeable: retail media is touted to be bigger than television by the end of this year, with advertiser spend set to surpass £1bn in the UK, according to IAB UK.
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