MediaMarktSaturn's Michael Schuld Named CMO of the Year
MediaMarktSaturn's Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer Michael Schuld has been named CMO of the Year 2026 at Munich's CMO Award Night — recognition for putting brand leadership back at the heart of Europe's biggest consumer-electronics retailer.
A win for brand-building in retail
Michael Schuld, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer of MediaMarktSaturn, collected the CMO of the Year 2026 title at the CMO Award Night in Munich, held the evening after Serviceplan Group's Innovation Day. The award recognises a marketing leader reshaping how a company shows up across its whole business.
For MediaMarktSaturn, the significance is the direction of travel. In a retail category long dominated by price promotions and the weekly leaflet, the recognition rewards someone making the case that brand — not just discounting — drives long-term demand for a big-box electronics chain.
Why the signal matters beyond Germany
Retail is where the tension between short-term sales activation and long-term brand-building is sharpest. Every euro has to justify itself this quarter, which makes it easy to starve the brand to feed the promotion. A high-profile CMO award for exactly that balancing act is a nudge to the whole sector.
It also reflects a broader shift: large retailers are rebuilding serious in-house marketing leadership rather than treating marketing as a leaflet-production function. When the marketing chief of a chain this size is held up as a role model, it tells boards that brand leadership is a growth lever, not a cost centre.
The takeaway for marketers
The lesson for any business that lives on promotions is that discounting and brand-building are not either/or. The retailers winning the long game use short-term offers to drive the week and sustained brand investment to make sure people choose them in the first place.
If your marketing is 100% 'this weekend only', you're renting demand, not building it. Schuld's recognition is a reminder that the brands customers seek out by name are the ones that quietly kept investing when it would have been easier to cut.
Our read: awards are symbolic, but the symbol here is useful — proof that even in hard-nosed, price-led retail, brand leadership is being taken seriously again.
Quick FAQ
Who is Michael Schuld?
He is the Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer of MediaMarktSaturn, Europe's largest consumer-electronics retailer, and was named CMO of the Year 2026 at the CMO Award Night in Munich.
Why does a CMO award matter to other businesses?
It signals that brand-building — not just price promotion — is being recognised as a growth driver, even in discount-heavy retail categories.
What's the takeaway for smaller retailers?
Balance short-term promotions with sustained brand investment. Offers drive the week; brand makes customers choose you in the first place.
It's easy to dismiss industry awards, but the message in this one is worth hearing. In big-box electronics retail, the pressure to just keep cutting prices is relentless. Honouring a marketer for defending the brand says the pendulum is swinging back — and that's a lesson for any business addicted to 'this weekend only'. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Takeaway: promotions rent demand; brand owns it. The retailers winning long-term never stopped investing in why customers choose them in the first place.
Is your marketing building a brand customers seek out — or just renting demand one promotion at a time?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Campaign Germany and Horizont.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
