We are pleased to feature Stefan Haase, Head of Engineering for Performance Marketing at Zalando, in our Amazing Speaker Interview series for The MarTech Summit Berlin 2026. Stefan leads three engineering teams focused on building the data and backend infrastructure that powers Zalando’s performance marketing. His team plays a central role in campaign automation, ROI measurement, and signal-sharing with ad platforms, all while navigating the growing complexity of privacy regulations. At this year’s summit, Stefan will join the Panel Discussion | [AI-Powered Campaign Strategy] Optimising Media Mix Channels with Intelligent Marketing AI, sharing his expertise on how Zalando blends privacy-aware engineering with AI-driven media mix optimisation.
Data Demystified Summit Berlin | Thursday, 5 March 2026
Co-located with the Data Demystified Summit Berlin! Don’t miss this co-located event, the only summit dedicated entirely to customer data. Dive deep into the world of customer data and uncover the realities behind data governance, management, and activation.
About Zalando
Zalando is Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, offering a curated selection of over 7,000 brands to customers in 25 markets. Headquartered in Berlin, Zalando combines data, technology, and creativity to personalise customer experiences and drive innovation in digital commerce. With a growing focus on privacy-first marketing and AI-driven optimisation, Zalando continues to shape the future of fashion retail through intelligent performance marketing and responsible tech leadership.
Quick Q&A with Stefan Haase
Could you please give us a quick introduction of yourself?
I’m leading the AdTech Engineering teams for Zalando’s Fashion Store. Our department’s scope ranges from campaign and creative automation, backend data sharing with ad platforms, to building a data foundation for our in-house return-on-investment measurement, as well as creating improved landing page experiences. Given the importance of data privacy and the attention data protection authorities have on Zalando as VLOP, I am also closely working with our legal department to drive strategic and tactical alignments, e.g., when it comes to the extension of our signal sharing with ad platforms to building out our marketing privacy principles and testing privacy-enhancing technologies.
Why did you choose to participate in this summit?
It will be my first time! I heard of it last year, but didn’t manage to join. The content and participants seem very relevant to my daily work, so I’m looking forward to not only contributing but also networking with colleagues across the industry.
Your team is actively working on privacy-enhancing technologies. How do you see the future of advertising evolving with privacy in mind, and what role does AI play in this shift?
Thinking of measurement, I do expect that we will continue to require a baseline of deterministically tracked conversions, not necessarily enabled through the old-fashioned way of Pixel and SDK-based tracking, though. AI already serves as a ‘gap filler’ today through conversion modeling and synthetic data generation. We also see developments in the field of privacy-preserving attribution led by W3C and major industry players, aiming to establish a privacy-friendly standard to run in-browser attribution without requiring extensive user tracking across websites.
I’m also curious how far we’ll get in targeting in a privacy-preserving way powered by AI, assuming increased investment in contextual intelligence to better understand and respond to ‘in-the-moment’ intent and interests.
Media mix optimisation is becoming increasingly automated. How do you ensure that human creativity and strategic thinking still have a seat at the table in AI-supported campaigns?
AI excels at execution and rapid creative production, but it remains a tool requiring human guardrails to ensure meaningful outcomes. In our media mix optimization, humans, for example, remain in the driving seat when it comes to setting business objectives for marketing that are aligned with the company strategy. Similarly, while GenAI supports creative experimentation, scaling it cost-efficiently without sacrificing quality or brand consistency is difficult. Ultimately, human creativity and strategic oversight remain essential to guide these technologies, a reality I don’t see changing soon.
Looking ahead to 2026, is there a technical or strategic milestone you are particularly excited to pursue in the intersection of AI and performance marketing?
Despite the above outlined challenges on GenAI for creatives, I remain bullish on the direction. Specifically, the quality of produced assets has improved tremendously over the last couple of months. On a related note, creative intelligence is another hot field that we’ll be investing further into this year, and I do have high hopes that, combined with GenAI-based asset generation, we will see a flywheel effect that increases the quality and appeal of Performance Marketing creatives over the coming years.
Stefan’s work at the intersection of engineering, privacy, and AI reveals the future of performance marketing: intelligent, adaptive, and deeply responsible. His insights into privacy-enhancing technologies, creative automation, and attribution modelling show how marketing teams can stay compliant while unlocking AI’s full potential. As Zalando continues to lead in both innovation and accountability, we’re excited to welcome Stefan to The MarTech Summit Berlin 2026, where he will share strategies for driving measurable results while staying true to data ethics.
The MarTech Summit Berlin is back on 5 March at the JW Marriott Berlin!
We’re thrilled to announce the return of The MarTech Summit Berlin, taking place on 5 March 2026 at the elegant JW Marriott Hotel Berlin. This proven annual flagship brings together over 350 MarTech professionals for an English-speaking regional summit. The day will be packed with more than 40 carefully-vetted, industry-leading speakers, offering insights into the latest MarTech trends and facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges among forward-thinking marketers.
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Last updated: January 2026
