Retailers Grow Retail Media Leadership

Hy-Vee’s RedMedia

Midwest-based grocery chain Hy-Vee has expanded its RedMedia team with the recent additions of Kathryn Mazza and Britt Polihronis.

Mazza joined Hy-Vee in February as senior vice president of RedMedia after spending more than 18 years at Dick’s Sporting Goods, according to her Linkedin profile. She most recently served as vice president, media and Dick’s retail media network, which she led in the development and launch. At Hy-Vee, she leads the daily operations at RedMedia, which officially launched in September 2023.

Polihronis joined the Hy-Vee team as VP of operations for RedMedia at the same time as Mazza. Polihronis previously spent over three years at Dentsu marketing agency Merkle, and before that, nearly 13 years at Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide.

Macy’s Media Network

Michael Krans joined Macy’s as vice president of Macy’s Media Network/retail media. Krans oversees the company’s in-house media publisher dedicated to connecting advertising partners with Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s customers, according to a media release. Krans reports to Max Magni, Macy’s chief customer and digital officer.

Krans’ experience spans leading sales and marketing teams focused on digital media, e-commerce and publishing. He most recently led the fashion team at Walmart Connect as industry manager of apparel. Prior to that, he worked at media and marketing agency Titanium Worldwide and at publishers including Hearst and Conde Nast.

“We’re excited to welcome Michael to Macy’s, Inc. He takes the reins of our growing retail media network bringing with him more than two decades of sales and marketing experience,” Magni said in the release. 

Other Appointments

Dentsu has announced three new executive appointments. 

Shirli Zelcer joins Dentsu’s group management team as chief data and technology officer. In this role, Zelcer will be responsible for all of Dentsu’s client-facing data-driven, analytics and technology-enabled products and platforms, according to a media release. She’ll lead a newly formed team brought together from three core practice areas (media, customer experience management and creative). She’ll work closely with practice leads and Jean Lin, global president – global practices. Zelcer was most recently the global head of analytics and technology at Merkle, where she led a global division of over 5,600 practitioners. 

Dentsu also named Steve Simpson as president, data, audiences and technology, and Shiva Vannavada as president, data and technology solutions. Simpson previously worked at Publicis Groupe and Vannavada worked on Dentsu Solutions as global chief product and technology officer.

In this newly created role, Simpson joins the global media practice leadership team to support the development of a media practice community. He will be responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of a global, data-driven and technology-enabled audience platform, while Vannavada will focus on creating synergies across product and platforms, AI innovation, analytics and across Dentsu global services (DGS), per the release.