How Opella’s In-House Team Redefined Retail Media Mastery at Scale with Kenshoo Skai

Pharmaceutical company Opella made the strategic decision to in-house its retail media management to increase performance and accelerate growth. Retail media had been positioned as the primary growth driver for the global e-commerce business, expected to deliver 50% of an ambitious +20% compound annual growth rate target over three to four years. The agency-led model in place was not built to meet that ambition, creating a strategic liability across real-time control, market visibility, data granularity, and commercial agility.

Opella architected an entirely new operating model, with Skai selected as the technology backbone of the in-house operation. Skai's omnichannel commerce media platform provided the unified visibility and cross-retailer flexibility that made genuine in-house control possible at global scale.

Global hubs were built across Barcelona, Hyderabad, and Kuala Lumpur, with 27+ specialists trained from zero platform experience to certified experts within six months. Where platform capabilities fell short, both teams co-created solutions that didn't previously exist. When tactical mastery was achieved, a structured 30-Day Challenge embedded advanced AI-powered optimisation frameworks directly into the team's practice.

The results: Media revenue grew +29% year-on-year -- more than double the growth of the overall e-commerce channel -- whilst ROAS improved +12.6%. Prime Day 2025, managed entirely in-house, delivered +55% revenue versus the prior year. Opella has built a blueprint for what in-housing retail media can achieve with the right technology partner.