We’re excited to feature Nick Burns Laycock, Head of CRM & Marketing Technology at Sainsbury’s, in our Amazing Speaker Interview series for The MarTech Summit London. With over 15 years of experience across agency, consultancy, and client-side roles, Nick is a forward-thinking leader in data-driven transformation. At Sainsbury’s, he plays a pivotal role in reshaping CRM, hyper-personalisation, and MarTech strategy at scale. His passion for innovation, stakeholder alignment, and business impact makes him a standout voice in retail marketing technology.
About Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s is one of the UK’s leading retailers, serving millions of customers each week through its supermarkets, Argos, Habitat, Tu Clothing, and digital platforms. With a heritage of over 150 years, Sainsbury’s continues to innovate in data, digital, and customer experience while remaining committed to delivering value, quality, and personalised service.
Quick Q&A with Nick Burns Laycock
Could you please give us a quick introduction of yourself?
I’ve been working with MarTech and AdTech for around 15 years, starting out in the world of agency DSPs in the early 2010s and diving into the explosion of mobile advertising, working closely with Google. I then moved over to consultancy in MarTech strategy and the implementation of tools like Adobe, Salesforce, and Braze. I then took the leap client-side four years ago to get deeper into driving impact on business growth through effective MarTech and data strategy. Outside work, my time is spent with my two young kids (5 and 4!), going to gigs and festivals, and trying to keep in shape by running & cycling!
Why did you choose to participate in The MarTech Summit London?
Having attended last year and heard some excellent content, I jumped at the chance to share my own experience. MarTech is still gaining pace in its prominence and impact, so events like this are vital opportunities for best practices to be shared, alongside examples of what not to do! I know of many current and former colleagues from multiple disciplines (CRM, Digital, Product, Engineering, Design) who really value the insight and direction shared at this event in particular, so I’m hopeful that I can play a small part in that information sharing this year.
Can you share a key lesson from driving enterprise-wide transformation at a legacy retailer like Sainsbury’s, especially in bridging traditional operations with new technologies?
Out of all the lessons I’ve learned in this space, I would say that robust stakeholder engagement is the one critical factor in delivering successful change. Identifying key individuals right from the start, whose support will be needed for connecting, configuring, running, or measuring, is essential; these individuals need to be heavily bought into the ‘why’ of the change in order to make it through all the inevitable budget, prioritisation, and technical barriers that will be encountered through the project. Giving them a voice in the project through a cross-functional steerco ensures a sense of shared agency, and drives visibility both up and down the chain; this embeds change within the organisation and so helps bridge the gap from prior ways of working. Of course, this approach requires clearly and robustly establishing the ‘why’ up front, which happens a lot less than you would think!
How is Sainsbury’s evolving its CRM approach in response to the growing demand for hyper-personalisation and real-time customer engagement?
As one of the largest retailers in the UK, we have a responsibility to offer customers the best possible experience while also leading the way in data governance and consumer choice. Your Nectar Prices at Sainsbury’s continues to expand, using opted-in customer data to give millions of personalised prices every week, and we’re really excited to be rolling this out onto tills in-store so that our less digital-native customers can take advantage of this feature and get the best prices for them. We’ve built this into our CRM communications too, dynamically feeding in YNP to bring this hyper-personalised messaging directly to customers. Our GM brands – Argos, Habitat, and Tu Clothing – play in a very different space, with less data and a highly competitive marketplace. Here we aim to identify the reasons to buy for each of our customers, whether that’s our trusted value, easy access, or incredible range, and surface a consistent message relevant to the customer by personalising across all outbound and inbound channels.
You describe yourself as ‘naturally curious’ and always seeking to innovate – what’s one recent MarTech experiment or innovation that has excited you most?
Natural-language prompts for objective-based journey creation have the potential to be an absolute game-changer in the world of Marketing comms orchestration. We’re looking at how to make engagement and conversion data available so that a non-technical user can ask our CDP how best to achieve a given objective, and receive target audiences, channels, journey stages, and CTAs. This could finally shift the paradigm from ‘campaign planning’ and better support Marketing’s role as a growth driver. Naturally, a huge amount of alignment is needed between data, channels, and content to execute this effectively – but the continued shift towards composable architecture will be an important enabler of this future.
Nick’s approach to transformation goes beyond tech—it’s about connecting people, purpose, and performance. Whether driving change at a legacy retailer or exploring the next evolution of orchestration through AI-driven prompts, he brings clarity and curiosity to every challenge. We’re thrilled to welcome him to The MarTech Summit London, where his experience will inspire teams navigating the growing demands of hyper-personalisation, real-time engagement, and data maturity.
The MarTech Summit London – The 5th Edition EMEA Flagship
Join us on 12 & 13 November 2025 at Convene, 155 Bishopsgate! We’re back with the flagship 5th annual edition of The MarTech Summit London, set to welcome 500+ attendees. With a powerful format featuring 3 focused stages over 2 dynamic days, this year’s summit is designed to fuel both strategic vision and tactical execution. Whether you specialise in B2B, B2C, or both – this is your destination for MarTech leadership.
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Last updated: August 2025
