Catalina, welcome to MartechHeads! Let’s start with your background. Tell us about your journey across the martech and adtech world—and your role today at Wolt Ads. Thanks for having me! I’m Catalina Salazar, born and raised in Colombia, and I’ve spent the past 16 years navigating the global advertising landscape. I started out as a Software Engineer, then moved into digital performance marketing in Australia. That evolved into global media leadership roles with Dentsu in the UK and LATAM. After over a decade in agency life, I made the jump to tech—joining Rappi, one of LATAM’s leading super apps—where I built out their retail media solutions and launched a full-stack brand ads ecosystem, including a programmatic offering and an agency partnership program serving 100+ global brands. Now, I’m leading the global ads business at Wolt, a Finnish last-mile delivery powerhouse. At Wolt Ads, I’m focused on building scalable, high-impact adtech products that help brands and merchants connect with consumers across digital touchpoints—and drive measurable business performance. Retail media is heating up fast. What major shifts are you seeing in the space right now? Retail media is evolving at lightning speed. We’re seeing a surge in investment—not just from traditional retail players, but also from sectors like finance and health that are building media solutions on top of their rich first-party data. In a privacy-first, cookieless world, first-party data has become the new currency. But this rapid expansion is creating a fragmented landscape. For brands, it’s increasingly complex to navigate—new platforms and offerings emerge constantly, making it harder to allocate budgets with confidence. Media agencies, too, are feeling the strain—many lack the specialist resources to guide clients through this new terrain. That’s where technology has a massive opportunity: to simplify, unify, and empower brands with smart, AI-powered tools that can manage complexity and maximize ROI. With retail media becoming more prominent, how can B2B brands leverage these channels to grow? B2B brands have traditionally had limited digital advertising options—think LinkedIn, content syndication, or CRM-driven campaigns. Retail media opens up a new frontier, especially in transactional environments like marketplaces or industry-specific platforms. To succeed, B2B brands need to embrace test-and-learn. Run short pilots on emerging platforms, measure the impact, and scale what works. That agility is key. Also, take a page from the B2C playbook: blend brand-building with performance marketing. Awareness campaigns strengthen brand recognition, which boosts the effectiveness of bottom-funnel tactics. It’s not just about driving leads—it’s about creating an end-to-end experience that builds trust and drives conversion. Digital advertising is noisy—what helps brands break through? First, own your positioning at the top of the funnel. Sponsored listings, premium placements—those high-visibility spots still drive impact. At Wolt Ads, we use machine learning to ensure those top placements are hyper-personalized for relevance, improving outcomes for both brands and customers. Second, brands must stay culturally relevant. Even B2B players should pay attention to where attention is going—TikTok, Instagram, or other social-first environments. Ignoring these channels makes brands feel outdated. Embrace the risk, stay authentic, and show up where your audience spends time. Third, connect promotions and personalization. Segment your advertising and tailor offers to customer groups. Smart, consistent messaging—combined with contextual promos—can be a serious growth lever. What recent innovations in adtech and martech have caught your eye? AI is hands-down the most exciting force in digital advertising. From automating creatives to tailoring messaging for different customer segments and surfacing insights in real-time, it’s enabling a level of agility we’ve never had before. At Wolt Ads, machine learning powers our recommendations engine—matching customers to the right venues and products based on intent and behavior. CRM innovation is also moving fast. Real-time problem-solving and enhanced shopping experiences—especially through NLP—are reshaping how brands deliver service and satisfaction. And let’s not overlook Asset Management Platforms. Brands with huge SKU counts or sub-brands can’t afford inconsistencies. These tools keep messaging and visuals unified across every touchpoint, which is mission-critical in today’s fragmented landscape. Before we wrap, what does the future of retail media look like from your perspective? Retail media is the future-proof solution for a world without cookies. It enables brands to reach the right people at the right time, using real intent signals. But not every platform will win—success will come to those that offer more than just ads. Data insights, media integrations, omnichannel activations—that’s the full-stack future. At Wolt Ads, we’re building just that: a retail media ecosystem that connects in-app experiences, offline moments, and deep consumer insights. As AI continues to evolve, creative marketers will be able to craft more meaningful, personalized brand experiences using retail data as fuel. We’re just getting started—expect big things. MartechHeads Takeaway:Retail media is becoming the most powerful new channel in the marketer’s toolkit—and leaders like Catalina Salazar are showing us exactly how to harness it. From AI to asset management, personalization to promotions, the future is retail, digital, and data-rich.
