From Startup to Industry Leader: Troy Townsend’s Journey with Zitcha

Retail media has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sectors in digital advertising, transforming the way brands connect with consumers. As this industry grows and connects, more innovative platforms are enabling retailers to unlock the full potential of their own media assets. Among other leaders driving this transformation is an Australian entrepreneur whose vision has set a new standard in this sector. His journey from digital marketing to retail media is a career full of bold moves, market changes, and a deep understanding of ads. Let’s get to know more about him and his work. 

A Marketing Leader’s Early Steps 

Everyone’s journey starts with making decisions and taking first steps. For Troy, it began after he started his career in digital marketing and advertising. His career went upwards after the year 2003 as a Senior Account Manager at DDA. Here, he developed his foundational skills in client management and relations, along with marketing strategies. The early years laid the foundation of experience for him that helped him in his entrepreneurial days ahead. 

He later became the Managing Director of Insured Creativity Australia, gaining experience in leading creative teams and helping in scaling businesses. Over the years, he learned about leadership roles at companies like Geotoko and Greenoen, which helped him sharpen his skills more in digital marketing. 

After gaining experience in marketing and advertising, he co-founded Tiger Pistol in 2011. This social advertising platform was designed to automate Facebook ad campaigns for small businesses. It offered scalable solutions that quickly attracted a global client base. The platform’s success caught the attention of a U.S. private equity company, Next Sparc, which acquired Tiger Pistol, marking a big milestone in his career. 

Following the acquisition, the Melbourne-based services arm of the firm was rebranded as The Pistol, a digital advertising company that continues to scale and grow today. It helps brands create compelling digital campaigns. This early exposure to digital marketing became the foundation of Pistol’s later achievements in retail media. 

Troy’s Education

Townsend’s path to becoming a successful entrepreneur began with a good educational background. He has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce with a major focus on Marketing and Public Relations from Deakin University. This degree provided him with the tools to understand consumer behaviour, brand building, and communication, which are important skills for someone who wants to create a career in digital marketing. Troy also completed a course in PS146 Insurance Broker Compliance at the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance ( ANZIIF ) in 2008. This might seem totally different from what he started with, but it gave him valuable insights into managing risks and understanding complex rules and regulations. 

The Big Idea of Zitcha 

The idea and concept of Zicha were born out of a clear vision of Troy – retailers own multiple amounts of data and estate on their own. And most of this data goes to waste as they don’t have any idea how to use it properly. This is where Troy thought, why not create a platform that uses the retailer’s data and makes profits? This is exactly what Zitcha does. It is a platform that contains websites, apps, and more to provide brands with an easy way to reach the right customers through their data and assets. Troy knew that retailer media’s future depended on using their data. With increasing privacy rules and the removal of digital cookies, brands were eager for new ways to reach their customers and find out their potential ones. Zitcha provides a platform that simplifies how retailers manage and make money through their data and reach the right customers. By giving retailers complete control over their ads, Zitcha cojoins marketing and revenue for retailers. 

Strategic Partnerships and Global Reach 

Zitcha did not take much time to show growth and leave a strong impact. Since the beginning, it has grown its reach and secured partnerships with major retailers and global brands. In Australia, it collaborates with Coles Group, which is a big supermarket industry; in New Zealand, it collaborates with The Warehouse Group, and in Canada, it partners with Peavey Mart. The platform also extends its services to major places around the world. Their appeal and approach didn’t just stop at retailers. They also touched multiple consumer brands like Microsoft, Lego, Unilever, and Sennheiser. All these big brands started using the Zitcha platform to make better retail strategies. These companies were looking for ads that directly targeted their consumers through retailer-owned channels. Troy provided them with everything they were looking for and more, and helped them generate some extra income along with reaching the right target audience. 

What Makes Zitcha Stand Out?

Unlike traditional ad platforms, Zitcha focuses on bringing everything together to one platform instead of using multiple websites or apps, so that brands can easily plan and execute advertising from one single platform. This saves a lot of time and also improves accuracy in targeting customers and analysing the outcomes. One of Zitcha’s biggest selling points is its focus on first-party data. With customers increasingly becoming conscious of data privacy and laws getting stricter, brands need a reliable and more trustworthy way to understand their customers. Retailers, meanwhile, sit on a goldmine of data they extract from purchase histories, loyalty programs, and much more. Zitcha uses these resources, giving brands direct access while maintaining consumer trust.

Why does the U.S. market matter?

The U.S. retail media market is huge. Its revenues might range between $110 billion and $120 billion by 2027. Major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are already making money through their media assets. But there’s more space for companies, mainly those who come with creative solutions. By moving to the U.S., Troy aimed to put Zitcha at the center of this booming and flowing market, making it a leader. It partnered with Axonet and expanded its access to first-party data from a number of convenience stores. This collaboration gave new opportunities to Zitcha to provide perfectly customized campaigns to the U.S customers. 

Securing Funding 

Funding is important for companies that are scaling, as they require capital for multiple tasks. In October 2024, Zitcha hit a milestone and secured $15 million in a Series A funding under Troy. The money raised through this funding was used for major purposes. It was led by major companies like VMG Partners and OIF Ventures, which is an Australian venture capital company. Through this funding, Zitcha wanted to enter and grow in the American retail market. They had a plan to set up new offices in multiple American cities and hire more sales and customer management employees. The U.S. expansion was so serious that Troy himself shifted to check everything. This also showed his seriousness and way of working, signalling that the U.S. was more than just a market; it was important for making Zitcha a global leader. 

Partnership That Matters

One of the most exciting collaborations came when Zitcha partnered with StackAdapt. This is a programmatic ads platform. This collab meant that the companies using Zitcha can now run ad campaigns across different channels, including video, display, and more. This was a complete turnaround as it brought even more scale to retail media, allowing brands to reach customers where they spend most of their time. The StackAdapt partnership shows Zitcha’s commitment to creativity. By giving brands a way to use programmatic buying, the company ensures that retail media campaigns are not only targeted but highly adaptive as per customer behaviour. 

The Road Ahead for Troy and Zitcha 

As Zitcha continues to grow, Troy’s vision remains clear to empower retailers to become media owners and give brands a more reliable way to reach the right consumers. Their strategy is not just about using data but using it in an effective and ethical way, which is profitable and builds customer trust. Zitcha’s model is a complete blueprint for the future of retail media using innovation and practical solutions that benefit the retail companies. As the company expands further into the American and other markets, it’s set to become a cornerstone in the retail media. 

Leading the Media Revolution

Troy Townsend is a different and unique leader because he has the ability to see opportunities where others see issues and hurdles. Whether it’s using first-party data in a privacy-focused world or creating a platform that includes every aspect of retail ads, his approach is consistently forward-thinking. Zitcha’s success story has just started, but its foundations are very solid. With Troy as its backbone, the company is well on its way to shaping the future of how retailers think about media ownership.