The Convenience Store That Sells You Time | Inside the Żabka Marketing Factory
In this episode of Marketing Factories, a podcast by Effie Europe and REBORRN, Dafni Prosalika (Partner at REBORRN) welcomes Jarosław Serednicki, Marketing & Digital Director at Żabka Polska, recorded at Żabka's new office in central Warsaw.
In a single generation, Żabka has gone from a small Polish convenience chain founded in 1998 to one of Europe's largest convenience networks, now past 13,000 stores and opening roughly three new ones every day, with a foothold in Romania too. Jarek, who has spent almost ten years with the company, walks through the machine behind that growth: a model built on independent franchisees, a marketing function that sits inside the commercial department, and a shift in thinking from selling products to selling people back their time.
That shift, from the long-running "Little Big Store" positioning to freeing up your free time, opened a much bigger horizon. Żabka added services, gastronomy and quality food, built a super app with 11.3 million users, and turned an enormous stream of data (almost 500,000 customer opinions a month and 4.3 million transactions a day) into sharper decisions and, increasingly, a media business of its own through Żabka Ads. As Jarek puts it, this is not cookie-based advertising, this is real behaviour.
The conversation ranges across how the agency model evolved, why every single Żabka is run by a franchisee, where AI already earns its place, and what creative effectiveness really means to someone who sits on the Effie Europe jury: to be effective, not only impressive. As ever, the episode closes with the 58:hours challenge: the one problem Jarek would hand the world's best minds.
Key Moments
00:00 – Introduction: A taste of the conversation ahead.
01:45 – Welcome to Żabka's Warsaw Office: Jarek's road from P&G and AmRest to Żabka.
03:26 – One Generation, a New Way to Shop: Poland's boom, from hypermarket weekends to time-poor cities.
08:01 – Three New Stores a Day: Not luck but a system, from Romania to the autonomous Żabka Nano.
11:17 – How Marketing Is Built: Five pillars, inside the commercial department.
14:31 – Good Agencies vs Great Agencies: Four or five specialists, one common brief, and keeping pace.
17:36 – Retail Never Sleeps: Protecting brand building from short-term pressure.
21:04 – Two Hearts: Why every single Żabka is run by a franchisee.
24:51 – From "Little Big Store" to "Free Up Free Time": The Grand Prix Effie platform, and the shift to selling time.
28:45 – Selling Time, Not Products: Services, gastronomy and food with no compromise on quality.
31:50 – The Super App: Żappka, Żappsy and experiences money can't buy.
33:58 – The Data Advantage: Post-purchase surveys, real-time dashboards and personalised offers.
37:19 – AI Where It Earns Its Place: Survey analysis, store locations and logistics.
40:24 – From Retailer to Media Company: Żabka Ads and real behaviour instead of cookies.
43:24 – Effective, Not Only Impressive: An Effie Europe juror on patience, and relevance over reach.
47:32 – Test, Learn and Food: Real tests in 100 stores, and a love of food.
50:09 – Both Sides of the Table: What FMCG and hospitality taught him about brand partners.
53:23 – The Brands He Admires: Why sport brands win on emotion.
54:23 – The 58:hours Challenge: A brand that is everywhere, yet feels like your store.
Marketing Factories explores the world's most effective marketing teams. Hosted by Dafni Prosalika (Partner, REBORRN). Produced by REBORRN in collaboration with Effie Europe and the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA).
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