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Threefold are a brilliant partner. They’ve enabled us to create our own center of excellence - a brilliant new media agency within Boots Walgreens - Boots Media Group. BMG delivers the very best of Boots Walgreens to our CPG’s - from digital to off-site to in-store.

Boots Walgreens Chief Marketing Officer

Editorial Advisory Board

Keith Albright

Kelly 46

Kimberly-Clark

Dana Barba

The Lemon Perfect Co.

Stephen Bettencourt

CVS Health

Lianna Cabrera

L’Oreal Paris Cosmetics

Mia Croft

Native

Christiana DiMattesa

Under Armour

Gregg Dorazio

Giant Food (Ahold Delhaize)

Paige Dunn

FIJI Water, JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, Landmark Vineyards & JNSQ Wines

Tony Fung

The J.M. Smucker 9 50

Bob Evans Farms

Patrick Hallberg Apple

Travis Harry Home Depot

Carter Jensen General Mills

Brendon Lynch

Joseph Vizcarra The Coca-Cola 12

Jushi Holdings

José Raul Padron The Hershey

Jonny Rigby Amazon

Rodney Waights Beiersdorf Ethelbert Williams Kenvue 10

Pioneering Retail Media

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Awards programs are one of my favorite things we do here at the Path to Purchase Institute. Showcasing excellence, celebrating the people and brilliant minds changing commerce, spotlighting impressive achievements and sharing those stories with the greater industry at large — it really doesn’t get any better than that. It’s an honor we take both seriously and delightfully.

So, it was with the utmost excitement that we launched a new awards program this year: the Retail Media Awards 2023. Our goal was simple: honor those marketers who are retail media pioneers making impactful change in their companies and in the industry. What wasn’t simple was evaluating the overwhelming onslaught of nominations that was to come. We were blown away by the quality of candidates who were nominated this fi rst year; it was a wonderful reminder of how vastly talented our community of marketers truly is.

And while we wished we could have selected far many more winners who were certainly deserving (the top 173 winners seemed like a bit of overkill), the editorial team was focused on keeping this year’s list of winners at 25. So, we meticulously reviewed entries (and re-reviewed and re-reviewed) until we narrowed it down to this year’s honorees. And wow, what a list of inspiring innovators it is.

From managers, directors and VPs to co-founders and CEOs, the winners of the Path to Purchase Institute’s inaugural Retail Media Awards represent a broad spectrum of industry expertise. Honoring the top 25 commerce marketers pioneering retail media, the awards recognize innovative leaders across brands, retailers, agencies and solutions providers who are effectively leveraging or helping others leverage retail media for successful digital and omnichannel campaigns.

P2PI celebrated this talented group of changemakers in June during our annual Retail Media Summit — at an awards ceremony and reception that gathered the industry’s top influencers and thought leaders for an evening of celebration and networking. And now, in this edition of P2PI Magazine, you can get to know these 25 winners (turn to page 14) and learn more about how each one has made an impressive impact on our industry and the evolving world of retail media.

And speaking of retail media … as we come away from our amazing Retail Media Summit in Chicago, P2PI is taking that momentum and planning some very exciting things on the retail media front for the back half of the year. From continued collaboration with IAB on retail media measurement standards and our Guide to Retail Media Networks (coming out with the September/October issue) to a retail media track of dedicated sessions at P2PI LIVE & Expo in November and more meetings of our Retail Media Guild share group, there are so many ways commerce marketers can get involved and stay ahead of the curve.

With retail media growing so rapidly around the globe and becoming table stakes across numerous market sectors, my bet is by this time next year, the words “retail media” may even become part of everyday vernacular. So, the next time someone asks what you do, and you blurt out, “Retail media!” you just might not get a blank stare.

JESSIE DOWD, Editorial Director

BRAND MANAGEMENT

Vice President, Brand Director Eric Savitch esavitch@ensembleiq.com

EDITORIAL

Editorial Director Jessie Dowd jdowd@ensembleiq.com

Executive Editor Tim Binder tbinder@ensembleiq.com

Managing Editor Charlie Menchaca cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com

Digital Editor Jacqueline Barba jbarba@ensembleiq.com

Managing Editor, Member Content Cyndi Loza cloza@ensembleiq.com

Editor, Member Content Heidi Bitsoli hbitsoli@ensembleiq.com

Events Content Director Lori Pugh Marcum lpughmarcum@ensembleiq.com

Contributing Writers Michael Applebaum, Ed Finkel, Erika Flynn, Jenny Rebholz, Bill Schober

ADVERTISING SALES & BUSINESS

Associate Director, Brand Partnerships Arlene Schusteff 847.533.2697, aschusteff@ensembleiq.com

Regional Sales Manager Orlando Llerandi 678.591.8284, ollerandi@ensembleiq.com

MEMBER DEVELOPMENT

Director of Retail Patrycja Malinowska pmalinowska@ensembleiq.com

Sr. Director, Membership Development Nicole Mitchell 203.434.5733, nmitchell@ensembleiq.com

Membership Experience Manager Ann Estey aestey@ensembleiq.com

Manager, Membership Development Brady O’Brien bobrien@ensembleiq.com

Membership Experience Manager Heather Kurtik 724.553.0093, hkurtik@ensembleiq.com

DESIGN/PRODUCTION/MARKETING

Art Director Michael Escobedo mescobedo@ensembleiq.com

Production Director Michael Kimpton mkimpton@ensembleiq.com

Marketing Director Marlene Shaffer mshaffer@ensembleiq.com

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

List Rental mbriganti@anteriad.com

Subscription Questions contact@pathtopurchase.com

CORPORATE OFFICERS

Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Litterick

Chief Financial Officer Jane Volland

Chief People Officer Ann Jadown

Chief Strategy Officer Joe Territo

Chief Operating Officer Derek Estey

Meet the Marketers

HERE’S A SNAPSHOT OF INDUSTRY LEADERS FROM THE P2PI MEMBER COMMUNITY.

Promotions

Main job responsibilities: I work on the development of national, channel and key customer strategy around pricing and promotions. This also includes budgeting, forecasting and developing promotional planning tools for our sales team. I serve as the liaison between fi nance and sales, with responsibility for our total trade budget, selling, general and administrative expenses, and revenue growth management. I lead an incredible team that manages our trade systems and ensures controls are in process for audit compliance.

How you win with shoppers during uncertain economic times: You have to be able to continuously adapt to the changing environment. What worked last year or even six months ago might not work today. Staying on top of trends, willing to take calculated risks and thinking outside the box have proven to be successful tactics for driving growth during these challenging times. Leaning in with digital initiatives has also proven to be a quick and efficient lever to utilize.

New marketing tactic that you use: Using the “always on” digital strategy in regard to digital coupons and discounts, such as buy and save. This has helped to increase basket size and capitalize on the growth of pickup and delivery while providing extra value to the shopper.

Best career advice you’ve received: Control what you can control. It took me a long time to realize the value in this statement as I am a passionate person. It helps put things in perspective and allows you to focus on what actually matters.

Recent travels: I traveled to Japan this spring to celebrate my birthday with a group of friends. I am half-Japanese, so it was amazing to see where my family came from and learn more about my culture.

SCOTTY MULLINS Senior Expert Services Manager Skai

Main job responsibilities: I work in the expert services team at Skai, which provides transitional support for clients who might be, for example, bringing their media programs in-house or in the middle of changing agencies. My team also provides strategic consulting and hands-on support. I specifically focus on retail media advertising. Day to day, my responsibilities include strategic planning, client enablement, account management and optimization of campaigns for some of the biggest consumer goods brands in the world.

New marketing tactic that you use: Off-site and offl ine tactics are increasingly becoming part of the retail media landscape. In our 2023 State of Retail Media study, we discovered that 76% of advertisers use search and social media to drive traffic to retail sites. Therefore, the last 12 months for us have been about taking retail media omnichannel. I’ve been driving clients to implement comprehensive omnichannel marketing strategies in order to find new creative efficiencies of scale and unify ad programs. By integrating retail, search and social channels, I’ve been able to push brands forward and create a seamless and consistent brand experience across various shopper touchpoints. Even more tactically than that, leveraging channels like search and social to drive traffic to retailers is a great way of tapping into new customers when you’ve maxed out the reach on a particular Amazon Ads keyword. It can help overcome rising cost per clicks, and the algorithmic rewards and brand referral bonuses can have a seriously positive impact on your bottom line.

Best career advice you’ve received: Never stop learning and embrace change. In the rapidly evolving field of e-commerce and retail media, staying up to date with the latest trends, technologies and consumer behaviors is crucial.

Summer plans: I want to explore the Pacific Northwest and Canada. I also want to play as much golf as possible.

APRIL KODA Director of Trade

Simply Good Foods Co.

Unlocking In-Store Retail Media

HERE’S HOW BRANDS CAN LEVERAGE THIS EMERGING OPPORTUNITY AT BRICK-AND-MORTAR SITES.

BY RICK SHUMAN

At Grey, we believe there will soon be an explosion of in-store retail media tactics. Only 9% of U.S. retail media networks offer in-store digital media for brands, but 90% of sales happen in-store, according to Merkle and Statista. A new and largely untapped opportunity is becoming clear — harnessing the power of retail sales data to execute highly effective in-store activations to build fully integrated omnichannel programs.

Retailers are adding capabilities and improving measurement within their retail media networks, and we expect to see this accelerate. Let’s look at some recent examples.

Kroger announced an expanded partnership with Cooler Screens to 500 stores. This followed a three-year pilot with the goal of improving instore shopping experiences through captivating interactive screens and digital merchandising.

Walmart also added new product demos and in-store radio to its retail media capabilities. The retailer already includes digital out-of-home media in its network. Walmart is enhancing these tactics through improved sales attribution and putting screens in highly desirable locations, such as checkout and the wall of TVs in the electronics department.

Another notable move was Wakefern Food Corp. rolling out 95 Freeosk units in ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer after a successful pilot. The kiosks serve as in-store discovery destinations for product and category innovation by dispensing free samples. Digital media space is offered on large touchscreens and the kiosks provide secondary merchandising space.

Physical stores lack personalized experiences, but sales data through retail media networks and retailer data licensing may be key to enabling brands to bring personalization in-store. The reality will still be one-to-many messaging for the near term, but we can slowly add additional levels of personalization to get closer to one-to-one messaging. Although the opportunities are limitless, we can imagine some near-term possibilities. QR codes could unlock personalized content based on shopping habits, such as unique discounts or trade price reductions that can help brands reduce subsidization. Augmented reality experiences could be dynamic and personalized, not onesize-fits-all. Even SMS and push notifications could move beyond geofencing and into being personalized based on previous purchase history.

All of this has mutual benefits for brands, shoppers and retailers. One of the key outcomes of in-store integration into retail media networks is an enhanced shopping experience. It’s about helping shoppers fi nd products they need faster and facilitating product discovery that may be relevant based on purchase history. Brands also can reach shoppers with important messaging at scale with closed-loop measurement near the point of conversion to ensure success. Lastly, brands can expose new audiences to product discovery and aid in category growth during moments when shoppers are likely to act on impulse while in-store.

As we prepare to embrace these new tactics, we face the reality that brand

Physical stores lack personalized experiences, but sales data through retail media networks and retailer data licensing may be key to enabling brands to bring personalization in-store.

budgets won’t get larger. So where do we pull spend from to execute the latest tactics? Retail media spend surpassed connected TV spend and is on pace to surpass broadcast TV by next year. When you think about eyeballs in-store as a media audience, they represent nearly double the reach of a retailer’s average digital audience — this is incredibly powerful. In-store budget typically fights for only a small share of overall budget. A case can now be made to tap into TV budgets, however, given the scale, increasing ability to closed-loop measure and proximity to conversion.

There is another area that could push investment into this space — trade incentives from retailers, such as incremental displays, digital support or even shelf placement. Most retailers aren’t making merchandising or trade decisions based on retail media spend, but some are beginning to explore this space.

In-store retail media is about to have its time in the spotlight. Let’s prepare for it together.

About the Author

Rick Shuman leads shopper marketing for Grey out of the Midwest office in Cincinnati. He has more than 12 years of experience in shopper marketing, consumer promotion and marketing leadership on both the brand (L’Oreal, Kao) and also the agency (pep, Grey) side of the business.

The Need for Measurement Standardization

ALBERTSONS EXEC TALKS MEASUREMENT IN RETAIL MEDIA — AND INCREMENTALITY’S ROLE.

BY CYNDI LOZA

Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm for Albertsons Cos., this summer shared a preliminary framework to standardize specifications, methodologies, terminology and disclosures across retailer media networks (RMNs). The initial version of the framework focuses on four areas: product characteristics, performance measurement, thirdparty verification and capabilities. The framework will be fi nalized after pressure-testing industry-wide priorities, according to Albertsons, and ensuring executional feasibility.

Guided by an advisory group, the framework will also expand and evolve further to support key initiatives by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The Path to Purchase Institute recently chatted with Evan Hovorka, Albertsons’ vice president of product and innovation, to discuss the need for measurement standardization and how AI is going to be a key unlock for retail media.

P2PI: The biggest challenges we hear from brands are data sharing and transparency, measurement standardization and managing so many networks. Any advice for brands?

Hovorka: Brands should demand a standardization framework be put in place to foster better collaboration and efficiency across retail media. Standardization wouldn’t just be a win for brand advertisers and agencies. RMNs have skin in the game, too, and should help pave the way for standardization to ensure the channel’s growth for years to come. RMNs are wasting engineering calories by trying to build end-to-end channel solutions when many of the product features are not, and should not, be differentiators. Adopting common patterns for basic features would make everyone’s lives better.

P2PI: You say measurement standardization is imperative for the growth of retail media, especially as the sector grows increasingly crowded. Can you expand on this?

Hovorka: While the number of RMNs has grown at an impressive rate over the past year, the absence of industry-wide standardization poses significant challenges for advertisers, agencies and RMNs themselves. Without standards to follow, each RMN has its own ad formats and measurement protocols, essentially operating as their own walled gardens. Because of this lack of transparency, advertisers do not have the resources to transact across many

RMNs at once. The result is an unnecessarily inefficient, costly and frustrating ecosystem for ad buyers. Without overcoming these challenges, RMNs put their future success at risk.

P2PI: How does Albertsons Media Collective define incrementality?

Hovorka: Incrementality is a measurement tool that calculates incremental outcomes of ad campaigns. It can be used to measure everything from conversions and sales to brand awareness. That said, not all methodologies are created equal. There is still an opportunity to muddy the numbers, especially when using synthetic hold out groups where ads are shown to the entire audience segment. At Albertsons Media Collective, we use a pre-campaign audience hold out. Before a campaign begins, the entire audience segment is randomized into test and control groups. An ad is then shown to the test group while being withheld from the control group. Having this audience control group at the start of a campaign helps to eliminate biases, providing advertisers with data-informed insights to optimize their next ad campaigns.

P2PI: How can incrementality solve retail media’s measurement problem?

Hovorka: Incrementality adds an extra layer of transparency to measurement and reporting by providing insight into sales, as well as how much of a sale can be attributed to an ad. This is especially important for advertisers who already have a large customer base of loyal customers. This level of granularity ensures retail media networks only take credit for the incremental part of sales, and not the loyalty the brand has already established with that customer.

P2PI: What role does AI play in helping marketers fully embrace retail media?

Hovorka: AI is going to be a key unlock for retail media, specifically for media buying, creative generation and audience creation. However, what many forget about AI is that it’s only as powerful as the data it sits on top of. This makes it especially powerful for retail media, but also a potential trap door. Many RMNs are built on top of unstable data foundations, and as AI only utilizes the data it has available to it, a poor data set will lead to poor results.

Editor’s Note: The full, extended version of this interview is available on P2PI.com.

Bed Head Celebrates Creativity

THE UNILEVER BRAND TEAMS UP WITH DIVERSE CREATIVES FOR AN EXTENDED CAMPAIGN.

BY CHARLIE MENCHACA

Bed Head by Tigi is putting a spotlight on inclusivity and self expression with the help of multiple unique voices.

The Unilever hair care brand in April launched the “Creativity Without Compromise” campaign. The effort spans the rest of the year and illustrates how hair styling with various Bed Head products can be a gateway for expressing oneself for any talent or background type.

“Staying true to our mission to unleash creativity, we searched for creatives from diverse walks of life that matched our bold, unapologetic mission to challenge the status quo,” says Nataly Avila, head of Tigi Professional, Americas, Unilever. “We enlisted Colin Dougan, a Calgary, Alberta-based director, to bring this campaign to life and help source talent.”

In all, 10 creatives will be showcased during the campaign, which kicked off with U.K. artist Taynee Tinsley and celebrity yoga instructor Jonah Kest. More than 200 pieces of content have been developed for the campaign to leverage across multiple outlets, including social media, paid ads, long- and short-form videos, static assets and in-store displays.

Bed Head is utilizing assets from the campaign to create engaging store displays for Ulta Beauty, one of the brand’s largest in-store retail partners, Avila says. For its online retail partners — such as Amazon, Target and Walgreens — Bed Head will incorporate its “how to use” short-form product videos to tie back to the campaign and inspire consumers to try different hairstyles, pushing the boundary of creativity.

While developing the content and throughout the campaign, Bed Head places an emphasis on highlighting styling products best suited for curly and textured hair, such as Foxy Curls contour curl cream.

“We want to increase consumer knowledge and build a deeper education about our styling products developed specifically for curly hair and our commitment to championing creativity for all hair textures, styles and colors,” Avila says.

The brand is using a #CreativityWithoutCompromise hashtag on social media to encourage creatives worldwide to share their hairstyles and tout the availability of Bed Head products at retail.

“This was a big reason why we went the creative versus model approach for this campaign — many of the talent have been inspired to create their own content in tandem with our assets and posted to their personal social channels,” Avila says. “Generating additional organic and authentic content was important to us to illuminate the true essence of Bed Head by Tigi and the inspiration behind our campaign.”

Besides Dougan serving as the visionary and a creator for the campaign, Bed Head worked with its agency partners at Razorfish to create and amplify its paid strategy, and Edelman to develop messaging.

Staying true to our mission to unleash creativity, we searched for creatives from diverse walks of life that matched our bold, unapologetic mission to challenge the status quo.

— Nataly Avila, Tigi Professional

Consumption Trade-Offs … and Snacking

RESEARCH EXAMINES SPENDING ON DISCRETIONARY GENERAL MERCHANDISE; PLUS, A LOOK AT SNACKING AND CANDY PURCHASING.

BY JACQUELINE BARBA

Financial Well-Being & Consumption Trade-Offs

Back in May, U.S. retail sales revenue — including both discretionary (or non-essential) general merchandise and CPGs — increased 2% compared to the same month last year as unit sales declined 3%, according to research from Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD Group).

Other takeaways include:

• The growth came primarily from food and beverage CPG spending (a 5% increase in sales revenue and a 2% unit-sales decline).

• Non-edible CPG sales revenue grew 2%, while unit sales fell 4%.

• Spending on discretionary general merchandise continued to decrease through May, with a decline of 5% in sales revenue and 8% in units.

• Sales of apparel, technology and other “traditionally high-volume”

categories declined from a year ago.

• Prestige beauty was the only category to exceed the sales growth noted in the food and beverage industry, with sales revenue up by 16%.

• Mass-market beauty sales grew by 9%.

• E-commerce gained the largest share of sales revenue so far this year, rising more than 2 share points.

• Department stores maintained a steady share of the market.

Also notable: the average number of items

purchased in a shopping trip this year is smaller than it was last year. Consumers have also begun their migration to more “value-focused” retail options, a change Circana says is likely a precursor of what’s on the horizon for the rest of the retail industry.

Additionally, according to Deloitte’s fi nancial well-being index and State of the Consumer Tracker for June 2023:

• Fewer consumers are citing concerns around their level of savings, worsening fi nancial situations and delaying large purchases as infl ation eases.

• Spending intentions have mostly remained flat across 2023 as consumers prioritize summer travel and building savings back up.

• Spending on durable goods grew 1.4% in April from March after shrinking in the previous two months.

Snacking & Candy Attitudes

According to the National Confectioners Association (NCA), June’s designation as National Candy Month is gaining momentum with both retailers and consumers nationwide. Major retail activations related to National Candy Month started in 2020 with just 570 stores nationwide. By 2022, more than 50,000 stores participated in summer promotions. The trend is continuing in 2023, despite factors impacting consumer spending habits.

Economic uncertainty, self-checkout lanes, omnichannel shopping, and natural and organic trends are impacting the way consumers are purchasing and consuming snacks and candy, according to a survey from Acosta Group.

For example, the increased use of self-checkout, which is preferred by 76% of Gen Z and 73% of Millennial

shoppers, is putting candy sales at risk. More than 25% of all candy sales occur at checkout, with self-checkout reducing impulse candy conversion purchases by 50%.

Other recent insights include:

• Chocolate is preferred (82%) over nonchocolate.

• 54% of shoppers say they eat more candy than they should.

• Four in 10 consumers are eating candy at least once a day, with Millennials and higher income households eating more.

• 30% of shoppers said they’re buying less candy than last year due to high prices and health concerns.

• A majority of adults regularly replace meals with snacks, with parents much more likely to do so (eight in 10 parents versus twothirds of non-parents), per a Del Monte Foods survey.

• More than three-quarters of adults said convenience and portability are qualities they consider with snacks (per Del Monte).

• Fruit is a key component of what is currently missing from snacks (per Del Monte).

Since summer 2022, fewer Americans are citing concerns around savings, worsening financial situations, and delaying large purchases

Sprinter’s Experiential Store

NEW CONCEPT FEATURES AN EXPANDED RANGE OF PRODUCTS, AS WELL AS IMMERSIVE AND INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES DESIGNED TO EDUCATE AND INSPIRE CUSTOMERS.

BY JACQUELINE BARBA

In 2023, Alicante, Spain-based sports retailer Sprinter opened its largest store to date, spanning 43,000 square feet, in a former Ikea store in Alcorcon, part of Spain’s Community of Madrid.

Sprinter is part of the British sports retail giant JD Sports (or JD Group) and specializes in sporting goods and sportswear, including footwear and accessories — with a focus on running, training and football/soccer.

Sprinter spent 12 months designing the megastore concept in partnership with London-based innovation and creative studio Dalziel & Pow (D&P).

The massive store allows Sprinter to introduce an expanded range of products, as well as immersive and interactive experiences designed to educate and inspire customers. The new concept offers enhanced product trials, performance advice, hands-on test-and-learn activations, product customization, footprint analysis and three dedicated places to practice track, soccer and tennis/paddle tennis and test equipment.

The store has two distinct retail spaces. Sprinter occupies the ground level, and Deporvillage — a digital-native cycling brand within the JD group — takes 50% of the upstairs on a central mezzanine with double-height space. The store is Deporvillage’s first physical retail space.

The 32,200-square-foot space for Sprinter boasts bright colors and a fresh feel, while the 10,700-square-foot Deporvillage area is darker, more dramatic and theatrical. The latter exclusively merchandises bikes and biking equipment, and offers personalized bike fittings. D&P said the spaces are “literally the reverse palate of each other,” in a media release shared with P2PI.

Specifically, the unique store features include:

• A nearly 32-yard straight running track behind a merchandising wall to test shoes and record your time against other runners.

• A “Runners Bar” where customers can pick up their sports shoes after selecting their size, brand and model on interactive screens.

• A spiral slide that links the kids bike section in the Deporvillage level with the Sprinter kids offerings on the floor below.

• A multi-purpose, timber-lined studio offering monthly programs, such as free yoga, Pilates, training and barre classes, as well as workshops on nutrition and mental health and exclusive activities for Sprinter Club members.

• A “Sports Lab” offering high-tech footprint analysis, in collaboration with Spanish podiatrist company Podoactiva, to recommend the most suitable shoe for athletes.

• A “Custom Shop” where customers can design and personalize sports T-shirts with a live screen-printing machine service.

• Additional services such as tennis racket stringing and sports equipment rental.

The space features a slew of materials contributing to its overall look and feel, including concrete, timber, white and black enameled steel, ribbed felt and translucent acrylic. Store navigation is aided with green and red (depending on the section of the store) suspended lamps over walkways that are not demarcated on the floor, but purely overhead.

Merchandising is flexible and features mid-floor walls throughout, aiming for a sustainable and “future-proof” architecture that can accommodate change in the coming years, according to D&P.

MEET THE 25 INNOVATORS WHO ARE FORGING THE EVOLUTION OF RETAIL MEDIA AND ADVANCING CONNECTED COMMERCE ACROSS THE PATH TO PURCHASE.

BY ERIKA FLYNN

After combing through a plethora of nominations, the Path to Purchase Institute (P2PI) selected 25 commerce marketers who are pioneering retail media for our inaugural Retail Media Awards program. The awards recognize innovative leaders across brands, retailers, agencies and solutions providers who are effectively leveraging or helping others leverage retail media for successful digital and omnichannel campaigns. P2PI honored the winners in June during an awards celebration and ceremony at our Retail Media Summit in Chicago. Read on to get to know the trailblazers making an impact at their companies and across the industry …

RISA ANDERSEN Head of North America Media & Data PepsiCo

Over the past six years, Risa Andersen has been an instrumental leader in driving PepsiCo’s in-house media strategy and planning team. She now leads all media and data capabilities for PepsiCo across North America, including retail media. Her team leverages PepsiCo’s proprietary measurement and scorecarding tools to collaborate with retail media networks to evolve capabilities and media performance, as well as other data-driven capabilities that serve national media, including measurement, insights and audience.

Andersen and her team have driven the standardization of ROI measurement across RMNs leveraging PepsiCo’s proprietary ROI Engine capability. They’ve also evolved its standardized RMN scorecard — a way to benchmark RMN capabilities — to include 11 distinct RMNs and 43 different criteria. By understanding each RMN across these attributes and side by side with one another, the team can better determine how it should invest while also doing their part to elevate capabilities across the industry.

The next big trend in retail media is: Adding incremental channels to RMN offerings. The future of retail media is increased flexibility. While offplatform media isn’t a new idea for RMNs, they will unlock new and optimized partnerships, execution and measurement opportunities with the likes of social and CTV platforms. Additionally, as they move to leveraging their shopper data in more ways, they will also offer increased flexibility in how advertisers can buy, optimize and measure via these off-platform channels.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Full-funnel media planning, because if the RMNs can deliver on flexibility, transparency and costs, companies could connect national brand creative with retail media capabilities via a collaborative planning process. That would allow for retargeting audiences with sequential messaging for more efficient and effective campaigns.

Retail Media Awards

YOLANDA ANGULO Director, Shopper Marketing Mondelez International

Yolanda Angulo leads the company’s retail media efforts as well as the integration of shopper marketing and e-commerce. She has been instrumental in building out ways of working, key learnings and processes with Mondelez’s core strategic omni-customers as well as with regional players. She developed a database of learnings, costs and returns that has been shared internally across the Mondelez organization. She also has led the company’s efforts in the digital outof-home space, and developed a retail media program at Ahold that won a North America Regional Excellence award at Mondelez.

In the past year, Angulo focused on a tech-forward, multimedia, omni-campaign driven by insights and a business opportunity for a key customer that leveraged weather patterns to promote summer activities using Mondelez cookie and cracker products. She initiated three test-and-learns with new digital media platforms/vendors across multiple retailers that garnered strong results, including sales lift and brought new buyers to the brand.

She is proud of the group’s work with its vendor partners, having opportunities to expand on and compliment current first-party retail media partnerships. She will continue to ensure there is clarity around key KPIs upfront, as well as continue to request and push for incrementality and/or clarity of measurement.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: The phygital world is here, but the level of technology has clearly improved and evolved over the past few years. That has resulted in the opportunity to leverage shopper data, connect with shoppers in a more 360-degree way and to deliver the content consumers are looking for, making the shopping experience easier and more enjoyable everywhere.

The future of retail media is: Hyper-personalization. Technology is enabling us to get to know our consumers and shoppers in perhaps a deeper way, to develop a relationship and build loyalty. It’s a two-way street, and hopefully we learn from each other to build our pipeline, create relevant content and stay top-of-mind/on her list all the time.

MELANIE BABCOCK

Vice President of Retail Media & Monetization

The Home Depot

The Home Depot Retail Media+ Network has experienced substantial growth in the last two years, which has led to team growth, investment in tools, processes and technology. Melanie Babcock sits at the helm of the group that has spent time this past year working on processes, role alignment and technology solutions to improve the associate experience.

When The Home Depot started its journey in retail media, there were fewer than 10 retail media networks in the market, heavily focused on grocery and mass retail. Since then, Babcock has successfully led her team to identify key strategic needs and make investments to drive tangible, revenue-generating outcomes, including growing the media business by more than two times year over year. Babcock assumed her current post in February after serving as the retailer’s vice president of integrated media for nearly four years prior.

KRISTI ARGYILAN Senior Vice President Albertsons Companies

Kristi Argyilan led the launch of Albertsons Companies’ retail media network, Albertsons Media Collective, which partners with marketers to grow their businesses through Albertsons’ ad tech platforms. Since 2021, she and her team have leveraged the retailer’s 34 million weekly customer base and first-hand knowledge of customer shopping habits to provide advertisers and agencies with a deeper understanding of their customers.

The team has seen the industry react to its push for transparency and its commitment to a co-op garden model. Its integration with The Trade Desk is a partnership that highlights the co-op garden model, featuring a focus on transparency and collaboration with its partners. While the retailer continues to invest in its own platform and solutions, it is also a priority to develop direct connections with other leading tech partners to deliver beyond its own walls. These partnerships make it easier for brands to reach the right audience across the internet and beyond, including the industry’s fastest-growing digital channels, such as connected TV.

The partnership with Omnicom Media Group (OMG) leverages multi-party clean room technology, powered by Snowflake, allowing the team to combine its near-real-time shopper data with audience data from the NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros-Discovery linear and streaming channels in a privacy-safe manner. As a result, OMG clients will be able to directly connect advertising campaigns to purchase data with a high degree of precision, delivering increased media ROI and better business outcomes.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: AI. It will be a key unlock for retail media, specifically for media buying, creative generation and audience creation. Many of the tasks that humans still have to touch, like optimizing campaigns, can be accelerated by AI.

The future of retail media is: Endless. And less about retail, more about media. Standardization will strengthen the retail media ecosystem, causing all boats to rise with the tide. We’ll also see more retail media networks explore partnerships with non-endemic brands to open up their platforms to a new, broad slate of advertisers and generate new revenue streams.

The next big trend in retail media is: Extending retail media into the physical store experience. The retailer’s strong customer experience connection between online, app and in-store gives it an opportunity to enhance the in-store customer shopping experiences with digital outof-home messaging.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Retail media brings that “last-mile delivery” to reach the customer. Digital media ads are measurable and at the point of decision-making. That’s the last piece that’s been missing in that marketer’s toolbox.

RAY BALBERMAN Director, Strategy Loblaw Media

Ray Balberman was a pivotal member in the launch of Loblaw Media in 2019. He’s a trailblazer for learning and evolving the industry as retail media gains more traction with marketers in Canada. This past year, he supported the launch of Incremental Customer Long-Term Value (iCLTV) measurement, which uses transactional data to project the incremental sales impact of a media campaign for 12 months after the campaign ends. With this capability, Loblaw Media can help quantify retail media’s impact, providing a more holistic understanding of campaign performance. He also contributed as a key stakeholder in the launch of MediaAisle Sponsored Products Retail Media Platform, a self-serve, auction-based sponsored search platform built fully in-house by Loblaw Media. When combined with MediaAisle Demand Side Platform (DSP), Loblaw Media has made significant investments in its own technology, which will allow for maximum flexibility to build products to advertiser demand, and to reimagine new post-cookie identity solutions.

Balberman also integrated the company’s media and loyalty programs to drive holistic planning. By launching ad products and programs where media and loyalty offers are integrated seamlessly for Loblaw shoppers, the retailer is unlocking new types of digital engagement. Recent efforts that have made an impact include helping to drive the evolution of narratives surrounding retail media in Canada — from being focused on lower-funnel search and display products to a more full-funnel, omnichannel solution. Furthermore, Loblaw developed strategic planning best practices based on campaign results, custom analytics and industry meta-analyses on performance, which Balberman says drove a significant increase in clients planning for more consistent, omnichannel campaigns that resulted in overall improved effectiveness.

The next big trend in retail media is: AIbased shopping assistants and search algorithms.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Creating new jobs and professional growth.

The future of retail media is: Integration across shopper, trade and brand dollars.

IRINA BARSKIY Director of Digital Demand Generation Danone

An eight-year veteran of Danone, Irina Barskiy assumed her current post in June 2022 and began working on an e-retailer transformation internally that centralized all retailer media/search under one team. She created an infrastructure, working with many cross-functional teams to understand objectives and priorities for each channel/platform. The strategy allows the team to capitalize on opportunities and growth and right-size investments based on where the company has the largest opportunities to win.

Barskiy also onboarded a new agency to add to Danone’s strategic capabilities in retail media and partnered with its media and shopper team to have a best-inclass approach, resulting in a more than 30% improvement in its ad returns. She believes collaborating closely with all cross-functional stakeholders was key to evolving the company’s retail media success, in addition to building a cohesive plan and stacking multiple tactics across the entire consumer funnel that ladder up to overall objectives. Working with internal and external partners, Barskiy also helped the company understand the impact of its retail media dollars by leveraging new data points, including share of voice, sales lift studies and marketing mix models, to help understand incrementality and halo impacts.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Brand building versus performance marketing. As platforms beef up their advertising capabilities, retail media is a brand-building vehicle and not just another “performance marketing” channel.

The future of retail media is: Personalization and omnichannel cohesiveness. Personalization has been the name of the game for brands with first-party media. CPG brands selling through third parties can capitalize on some of these same personalization and data efforts as well. As more retailers enter this space, we can expect to see networks innovating with their offering, forced to improve tech, data/ measurement and capabilities to compete for more brand dollars.

RENEE CACERES Vice President, Retail Media Firework

Renee Caceres was one of the first internal associates at Walmart Connect. She led the development of the processes and tools that supported first its operationalization and later its migration to an in-house retail media business. Today, Caceres heads up the retail media efforts for video commerce company Firework, and this past year created its first-ever retail media network sales strategy, development and implementation for video commerce. Firework’s technology, she says, has made connecting with customers through video commerce in a meaningful and scalable way finally possible — thus evolving the media mix for brands and retailers.

She also spearheaded the company’s debut with regional retailer The Fresh Market for their shoppable video-live commerce retail media network partnership, as well as launched long-format and live video events with Sam’s Club to kick off the holiday season for its members. Through this partnership, Sam’s Club members were able to interact with products in a new way, combining the best of the instore experience, trusted influencer reviews and real-time shopping directly on their phones and computers.

The next big trend in retail media is: Standardization versus differentiation. Fragmentation in the market is rampant and brands want to consistently understand how their dollars affect KPIs and results across all RMNs.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Personalization at scale. Retailers are often data rich and insights poor, and retail media networks have the unique opportunity to be the bridge. By using data to better predict what customers want and why in real time, brands will be better equipped to deliver alternative options and personalized experiences to meet their customers’ needs wherever they may be, at scale.

Retail Media Awards

JEFF CLARK Vice President of Product and Omni-Commercialization Walmart Connect

Jeff Clark was charged with kick-starting Walmart’s retail media initiative when he joined the organization in 2017 and has since created the platforms and experiences that have fueled Walmart Connect’s substantial growth over the past few years. He led the development and growth of an API-powered infrastructure that enables agency partnerships, the company’s self-serve interfaces and the Walmart DSP — all of which were developed with robust and integrated measurement and reporting capabilities. He also oversaw the integration into Walmart’s in-store network of more than 4,700 stores across the U.S.

Clark heads up the teams that have integrated retail media into Walmart’s TV wall, self-checkout screens and in-store radio, with additional integrations coming soon. Last year, the team invested heavily in improving Walmart’s sponsored search products, with advancements such as second-price auction, evolved search algorithm enhancements, introduction of new search placements and expanded self-serve capabilities that reduced average costper-click and increased average ROAS for advertisers. Furthermore, he led the release of the Walmart DSP, which has enabled advertisers to connect and measure both online and in-store performance, offering targeting, reporting and omnichannel insights down to a granular level; and also Walmart’s Display Self-Serve platform, which provides more speed, flexibility and control to launch and manage display campaigns.

A more recent focus is on expanding advertiser access to omni-touchpoints with customers. With enhancements in display advertising, the group is leaning into providing new in-store experiences for shoppers, along with an expanded suite of omni-insights to connect across channels.

The next big trend in retail media is: Omnichannel solutions with in-store connections. Pure digital advertising isn’t enough anymore. Brands tell us they want to engage with shoppers across the entire shopping journey, including in stores.

The future of retail media is: Seamless digital-to-physical customer experiences. Search and display will always be the fundamental backbone for strong retail media strategies. But retailers with brick-and-mortar stores are starting to create an essential differentiator by bridging the digital-to-physical shopping experience.

ANNIE DERRIG Marketing Director - Walgreens

Procter & Gamble

Annie Derrig has spent more than nine years at Procter & Gamble, assuming her current post as marketing director on the Walgreens Customer Team in July 2020. Since then, she has helped shape and advance Walgreens Advertising Group’s (WAG) measurement, reporting and standards in its managed service and self-serve media models. She also helped broker the first self-serve media model test with WAG, establishing the roadmap to obtain third-party measurement. Her partnership with WAG has helped to shape the requirements for ad viewability, invalid traffic, brand safety and financial stewardship. Derrig also codified learnings from WAG media campaigns throughout the past year and applied those learnings to unlock both efficiencies and effectiveness of WAG campaigns.

JILL CRUZ Executive Vice President, Commerce Strategy Publicis Groupe

Jill Cruz leads commerce strategy for Publicis Commerce, sitting at the intersection of experience, CRM and media. She provides thought leadership, commerce training and enablement services to all Publicis agencies to build best-in-class retail media network practices. She is most proud of her work during the past year that resulted in deepening retailer relationships and building value into the team’s partnership agreements to help influence the product roadmap for the agency’s clients.

She is a member of the IAB Retail Media Network Council and will also be the co-chair of the Retail Media Measurement Working Group, which is working to standardize measurement across retailers and vendors. Prior to her current post, she held a dual role within WPP, where she was on the senior leadership team at Wunderman Thompson Commerce and helped grow commerce revenues by 2.5 times, leading three key clients to become some of the organization’s most successful ones in 2021. She also led Mediacom to help build its retail media network practice and developed a dedicated retail media team to serve one of its largest CPG clients.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Connected, digital in-store solutions. As RMNs add more media partners to their offerings, it is harder to measure reach and keep various messages from overlapping, causing a poor consumer experience and alienating shoppers from feeling the personalization that they expect.

The future of retail media is: Automated. We can no longer operate siloed and manually in an algorithmic world. We need an end-to-end service model that encompasses industry-leading tools and tech automation that will allow us to execute and measure flawlessly.

She led the development of P&G’s Women’s Wellness campaign aimed at women aged 45+ that kicked off in September 2022 at Walgreens in partnership with WAG. The campaign led to category growth, and Derrig and her team unlocked learnings that will strengthen future P&G/WAG partnerships as they continue to empower women throughout their ever-changing needs.

The next big trend in retail media is: Activating rich consumer insights via first-party data at scale. With more data available, there is a huge opportunity to both refine targeting and deliver personalized, relevant messaging to shoppers in a more costefficient way.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Delivering the right solutions at the right time. The competitive nature of the industry will continue to push retailers in their journey to enable seamless shopping (even faster) and, ultimately, deliver better outcomes for the shopper.

ADAM FISH Director of Omnichannel Strategy Wells Enterprises

Adam Fish leverages addressable audiences to drive omnichannel campaigns for Wells Enterprises and its family of brands. He led the team’s development of addressable audience segmentation to enable more precise media targeting and deliver more relevant messages to consumers this past year. The digitalfirst media planning approach that bridges brand and retailer media allows for a more seamless omnichannel brand experience that is tailored to where consumers are in the purchase journey. Internally, the capability is referred to as Unified Media, a process that allows Fish and his team to shift investment more easily across channels and audiences, and to optimize campaigns in real-time to maximize effectiveness and increase ROI.

The initiative integrated media planning processes across brand, shopper and e-commerce objectives — and drove an increase in media effectiveness to drive sales. The company has also been an early adopter of video search ads across several platforms, as well testing CTV to directly add to cart with QR codes. By leveraging retail media programmatic buying capabilities, Fish and his team can better connect activity between brand and e-commerce initiatives by overlaying audiences exposed to awareness messages with a retailer’s category buyers to deliver a more personalized message. The result is a more relevant experience for the consumer and increasing likelihood to purchase.

The next big trend in retail media is: Increased use of data clean rooms for measurement.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Connecting upper-funnel media like CTV to purchase.

The future of retail media is: Seamless integration across the purchase journey.

MARK HEITKE Director, Ad Product & Audience Strategy

Best Buy Ads

TONY FUNG Director of Shopper Marketing and E-Commerce

Bob Evans Farms

Tony Fung joined the company in early 2020, developing and conceptualizing the brand’s shopper marketing capabilities and retail strategy. He leads its shopper marketing strategy and execution across mass and grocery channels as well as e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities. He has continued to use retail media in his campaigns, most recently for the launch of Bob Evans’ mashed cauliflower assortment, which won Product of the Year accolades. The campaign included retail-sponsored search across key retailers, on-site and off-site digital banner ads, and national immersive digital ads.

Fung believes retail media networks give brands a great opportunity to drive the future of commerce marketing, and the ability to optimize in real time as needed. By partnering with retail media teams, the company has been able to tap into retailers’ first-party data and create unique and personalized messaging to reach its targeted consumers more efficiently — and, more importantly, to understand closed-loop measurement. With the constant evolution of retail media, he believes it is crucial to adopt a test-and-learn mindset and approach to help gain insights into consumers’ preferences and needs, and to also help create a benchmark for future campaigns.

The next big trend in retail media is: Using first-party data to reach consumers via connected TV (CTV). By using retailer’s firstparty data to target shoppers via CTV, brands can understand real-time conversions on the ads and connect impressions directly to purchase.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Closed-loop sales measurement and reporting. We will continue to see more brands allocating dedicated budgets for retail media advertising due to valuable first-party data, contextually relevant ad experiences and closed-loop reporting.

Charged with evolving Best Buy Ads’ retail media portfolio when he assumed his current post in January 2022, Mark Heitke has led his team and the enterprise in reimagining and relaunching an expanded and unified portfolio. He established a product hierarchy and operationalized a 360-degree portfolio across display, search, store, social and content advertising channels — with significant advancements in video, sponsored products and shoppable ads — and fostered the growth of self-service opportunities.

In partnership with Best Buy’s reporting and ad tech teams, Heitke championed a multi-year effort to launch My Ads, a platform designed for brands and agency partners looking for a more turn-key solution. My Ads is currently in pilot with seven brand partners and will be available more broadly later this year. Heitke believes that helping grow the expertise and knowledge of the industry only serves to create a more effective ecosystem. He has served as a consultative partner to other retailers who are just beginning their journey in the retail media space to ensure they are positioning themselves for success.

The next big trend in retail media is: Moving beyond e-commerce to stores. While retail media started online due to its measurement capability and standardized ad formats, leveraging the full footprint can help brands execute new and innovative experiences in the future.

The future of retail media is: The future of retail overall. Retail media investments are forcing retailers to rethink and balance their place as an advertising destination with their shopping experience, and I believe it will unlock innovation across retail categories.

Retail Media Awards

JENNY HOLLERAN Group Director Kroger Precision Marketing, 84.51

Jenny Holleran has been a member of the 84.51 team for nearly eight years, first in business development for omnichannel media and, since early 2018, heading up media sales and connecting brands with customers through data-driven media. She works to deepen relationships with client partners across the advertiser and agency community, helping them drive growth by balancing category business and brand priorities, while aligning their campaigns to measurable KPIs. She focuses on driving the value of effective media against brand objectives, and helping CPGs think differently about retail media as media and the power of audience targeting.

Holleran believes she has furthered the evolution of the space as she has worked to shape positions and perspectives on consumer-focused, accountable advertising across the industry, including through speaking engagements at the Path to Purchase Institute’s Retail Media Summit and Future Forward. She has also been “diving in deep” with global and U.S. media leads across the CPG community to partner during this transformational time. As CPGs restructure their brand and retail teams in an omniapproach to drive effectiveness and efficiency in the landscape, she sees it as a group effort, noting that building out joint learning agendas has been critical in the evolution.

The next big trend in retail media is: Sustainability in digital advertising, with retail media playing a key role. Insights can help direct ads to the most relevant households, reducing advertising waste and energy consumption at the same time.

The future of retail media is: A better experience for both consumers and brands. As the industry matures, we can expect to see retail media networks become easier to activate and more consistent across platforms, making it easier for brands and agencies to reach their target audiences and drive results.

JULIE KAHN Associate Director, Digital Strategy Blue Chip

Julie Kahn is a proponent of retail media network standardization, transparency and accountability — and she’s helped shape how many of Blue Chip’s clients engage with their largest retail partners since joining the company in July 2021. From key clients to the emerging brands that are newer to retail media investments, she focuses on strategy, activation and measurement, working to ensure their retail media spend is measurable and each dollar is accountable to results.

Through her work, she is also helping to evolve the industry toward more transparent and actionable measurement with the shared metrics from retail media networks. After months of conversations, she persuaded a prominent retailer to update their entire media platform to enable greater transparency and to share metrics they were not willing to share before. On behalf of several Blue Chip clients, she and her team oversee strategy and buying of retail media investments for more than 15 different teams.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: The emergence of omnichannel activations and media partnerships. Partnerships with media companies will enable brands to leverage retailer first-party data to reach shoppers at multiple digital touchpoints with unique and custom messaging.

The future of retail media is: Personalized and dynamic customer experiences. By customizing messaging and offers to specific audiences, brands will connect with and appeal to shoppers in ways that are more authentic, engaging and impactful. This will not only drive new customer acquisition, but also trial of new products among existing brand shoppers.

SAM KNIGHTS CEO SMG

Sam Knights leads the global SMG business, which has launched multiple omnichannel media networks for some of the largest retailers in the U.K., including Boots Walgreens, Morrisons, The Coop, The Very Group and Signet Group. These retailer media networks have seen double-digit percentage advertising revenue growth and have increased their profit contribution from this ad spend to their own retail P&Ls. In the last year alone, Knights and his team have spearheaded the launch of Boots Media Group, helping Boots monetize its first-party data via the launch of Audience360. It’s the first retail media network in the U.K. to offer CPGs the opportunity to use first-party retailer data for media targeting with closed-loop sales attribution, and other U.K. retailers are looking to follow suit and mirror Audience360’s success.

His team also launched Morrisons Media Group, a retailer media network for the fourth-largest grocer in the U.K. Knights champions efforts that will result in the retail media industry being increasingly transparent in its media performance reporting. His fundamental belief is to do retail media the right way by ensuring CPG brands see retail media through a marketing lens to drive growth for everyone. His passion lies in proving that retail media works and delivers positive results for both CPGs and retailers.

The next big trend in retail media is: Measurement. Retail media will only continue to grow if it is completely transparent and measurable. Using first-party data, SMG can now run testversus-control digital activations in order to get to incremental return on ad spend (iROAS), a significantly better measure of the incremental impact of marketing campaigns. Getting this right will be a crucial driver of future sustainable growth.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Omnichannel media, and connecting digital to physical. The big unlock will be to combine the U.K. and U.S., taking learnings from both markets to enable brands and retailers to activate campaigns that reach 100% of their shoppers across physical and digital estates, linked through loyalty data.

ERIN LASTRA Vice President of Retail Partnerships Criteo

Over the past year, Erin Lastra led the onboarding and transitioning of retailer partners from a legacy platform to Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform. She also coordinated and managed a market test for the global commerce media company’s new demand-side platform, Commerce Max, hand-selecting Best Buy and a video game brand partner to execute a self-service, full-funnel campaign that is armed with the platform’s audience builder to create their own segments using Best Buy’s first-party data. The team launched on-site and off-site ads, using Criteo’s closed-loop reporting to analyze product-level sales data in real-time, allowing them to adjust their strategy as needed.

Lastra had the opportunity to engage with global counterparts to help share best-in-class learnings of the success they’ve experienced in the Americas to its EMEA and APAC markets, traveling to Europe, Tokyo and Singapore. She also served as a catalyst to help the company’s retail partners succeed as they grow their retail media programs, often realizing that they have limited space on-site and can drastically scale their programs if

AUSTIN LEONARD

Head of Sales, Member Access Platform (MAP) Sam’s Club

Austin Leonard joined Sam’s Club in March 2022. He leads the partnership and sales team that supports advertisers, agencies and ad tech partners since launching the Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) in June of last year. MAP delivers an additive ads experience for members. He has also led the building of in-club attribution measurement for search, proving that online search behaviors lead to offline sales. MAP connects all member clicks to their offline sales for Sam’s Club advertisers and has realtime, first-party omnichannel data connected back to member IDs, including in-club, in-app and web. MAP therefore delivers accurate transaction data, while advertisers can see what revenue is generated by which ads, including search and sponsored products campaigns. The team has been able to deliver higher return on ad spend and increased sales in a truly omnichannel way. Overall, ROAS has increased an average of nearly 30% since adding in-club sales to the sponsored products attribution mix.

The launch of the MAP Retargeting Platform called OmniDesk was also a focus this past year. Sam’s Club MAP uses real-time, accurate data from verified Sam’s Club members, including data on purchase history, demographics, recent purchases of similar items and basket size — data that is not available on other retail media platforms. Thus, MAP campaigns can deliver personalized ads in real time to members who have expressed interest in a product but have not yet made a purchase, as well as stop serving ads once the member makes a related purchase.

The next big trend in retail media is: Measurement outside walled retail/social gardens. As consumers shop seamlessly between online and in-store, true omnichannel measurement will become increasingly important.

The future of retail media is: Breaking down the walls between “national” and “shopper,” which will open up better experiences for members (shoppers) and better opportunities for advertisers to reach highly engaged, highly coveted audiences.

they also prioritize off-site campaigns across the open internet. Her work has made this goal a reality for Criteo’s partners by advancing the company’s off-site offerings and working closely with retailers to ensure they are maximizing the potential of their off-site campaigns — enabling self-serve buying capabilities to garner more growth for their programs.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Expansion across verticals like last-mile delivery. Fast is the new slow. Consumers want things quickly, and retailers are partnering with order fulfillment and transportation companies to enable this fast delivery, providing massive opportunities for these companies to activate and enable their retail media offering to ensure they are reaching the consumer at the right time while they are shopping with relevant ads.

The future of retail media is: An overarching commerce media environment. Commerce media effectively enables both endemic and non-endemic players to access data, outside the walls of a retailer’s e-commerce site, to drive their campaigns, while also enabling retailers to expand their retail media monetization offerings.

JEFF MALMAD Global Head of Commerce Mindshare

Jeff Malmad has been leading the growth of Mindshare’s commerce capability for more than five years, first as U.S. commerce lead and, more recently, as the global lead, driving commerce media strategies and consumer engagement. He and his team have worked with leading retail media networks to improve data and measurement solutions in commerce; bring retailers’ verification and brand safety guidelines to the same standards as other digital partners; and expand clients’ access to retailers’ on-site advertising inventory, from product listing ads to shoppable video and more. Part of that collaboration has been working closely with GroupM on a commerce media scorecard that helps brands assess and evaluate retail media networks from around the world.

He also launched and grew Mindshare’s Commerce Media Bootcamp to train Mindshare teams across North America on commerce media and create new employee career paths as a result. Furthermore, he spearheaded a partnership with Kroger to create versions of Mindshare’s Inclusion PMPs that connect back to the products that brands sell through retailer sites and leveraging retailer media networks. Malmad believes that retail media is media — you can’t separate the two — and everyone working in the media and marketing industry needs to understand how to leverage it in order to better engage their consumers.

The next big trend in retail media is: Influencers working with retailers more broadly and more consistently to expand their programs and engagements.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: AI enhancing retailer search. Retailers should explore and leverage generative AI experiences within their destinations, because AI will allow for a more personalized search experience that will eventually evolve into a personalized retailer experience.

Retail Media Awards

SARAH MARTIN Senior Manager, Commerce Marketing J.M. Smucker Co.

Sarah Martin leads the Walmart media business for J.M. Smucker’s coffee and consumer foods brands. She drives significant new buyer growth and is building incremental sales for categories, including the 2022 Coffee Scale DSP Beta Test with Walmart Connect, among others. The campaign saw ROAS of more than $26, surpassing the $2 DSP baseline, and has been shortlisted in Zenith’s 2022 ROI Excellence Awards. Martin also led the charge for the 2023 Folgers Switcher campaign, which was aimed at gaining back shoppers who were trading to other brands. The campaign featured a partnership with brand and sales on a Walmart rollback, pinpoint targeting that resulted in strong incremental sales, a $20.90 iROAS, and the highest performing audience being lapsed brand buyers.

Martin begins every project and campaign with the shopper first, since she believes the amount of retailer data gives marketers much more actionable data to build their campaigns. Starting with the retailer data, like Walmart Luminate — as well as brand insights and industry trends — has made the targeting of the shopper more successful for J.M. Smucker campaigns, yielding not only strong ROAS for its media, but driving incremental growth by reaching and converting new shoppers for its brands.

The next big trend in retail media is: Total funnel media driving conversion. Leveraging media that is building awareness of brands and products, but able to drive immediate conversion for the shopper, can help brands and marketers meet their objectives and KPIs. With the data and traceable reporting, retail media networks can help brands and CPGs reach shoppers, retarget the shoppers and drive conversion through new media channels.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Staying current with growing social media channels. This is an exciting time for brands and marketers to stay relevant and authentic to our shoppers, while also developing new marketing strategies to communicate to them.

TOM MILLER CEO Sellr Technologies

Tom Miller has been at the helm of Sellr Technologies, with its in-aisle digital assistant, for nearly five years. His focus lies in the emerging retail media space, with a vision that goes beyond the online/in-app e-commerce channels — where the majority of retail media currently sits. He has a goal of securing more brick-andmortar retail media activations.

This past year, he oversaw the company’s efforts of market-testing its interactive, on-shelf Sellr digital platform with 1,000 devices in 100 physical stores, during which the team saw substantial sales lift and shopper engagement for both suppliers and retailers. Category-specific ads run on tablets placed on shelf, and still image “featured product ads with pricing” encourages shoppers to tap for additional information about the product or associated recipes. Shopper engagement is tracked, and suppliers typically realize double-digit incremental sales when advertising on Sellr, while retailers see 1%-2% total store sales revenue increases with the Sellr digital network.

Miller also led efforts as it launched ad conquesting, which enables advertised brands to market over non-advertised brands as shoppers browse, scan or search for competitor products.

The next big trend in retail media is: The incorporation of AI capabilities — for retailers to better understand shopper demand trends, for consumers to identify new products based on previous purchases, and for suppliers to personalize ad content to shoppers based on their shopping habits.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Precision marketing through technology. Opt-in consumers already get highly targeted content, but technology will become more sophisticated to aim content to “likely” shopper demographic profiles. Although anonymized to protect individual privacy, it will become more precise to the audience based on a growing combination of data inputs.

JOEY PETRACCA Chief Operations Officer & Co-Founder Chicory

Joey Petracca leads the creation, development and positioning of all of Chicory’s contextual commerce advertising solutions. He and his co-founder started the company in 2012 to help people more easily cook their favorite recipes at home, but they have expanded to building shoppable technology and solutions. Over the past year, he managed the building and development of two new products: Branded Cart and Featured Retailer. Branded Cart prioritizes a particular brand’s product at the add-to-cart stage of Chicory’s Recipe Activation experience — its signature shoppable recipe button. Featured Retailer offers different retailers a special visual spotlight at the retailer selection step of the experience. Both products seamlessly integrate marketing tactics into the e-commerce experience, enhancing the shopper experience and generating incremental revenue for retailers and publishers.

In developing and advancing in-recipe, contextual advertising technologies, the company helps CPG brands and retailers more easily reach high-intent shoppers and win the basket off-site, without the use of consumer data.

The next big trend in retail media is: Contextual commerce, which seamlessly integrates high-intent contextual moments and commerce experiences to drive consumers through the purchase funnel. The combination of these elements creates a powerful tool for expanding retail media beyond a retailer’s website without relying on cookies or online identifiers.

The future of retail media is: Solutions-based advertising, which focuses on understanding and catering to the broader context and needs of consumers. In the realm of CPG and grocery, consumers rarely engage in “spearfishing,” where they seek out specific individual products. Their purchases are inherently bundled and driven by the solution they’re seeking.

NICOLE RAINEY Senior Retail Media Manager Mars Wrigley

Nicole Rainey coordinates media planning and buying across national media and shopper marketing for Mars Wrigley, collaborating with her crossfunctional teams to develop fully integrated media plans. She facilitated a process across Mars Inc. segments in 2021 to align on joint areas of opportunity with customers’ retail media networks, for which she and the Mars Inc. team partnered with RMNs on mutual growth opportunities, unlocking significant value for the business. Rainey went on to design and launch an improved retail search strategy for Mars Wrigley U.S. in 2022. To do so, Rainey took a bottomsup approach, rooted in data, to build a business plan that maximized sales, returns and brand growth, and earned the support of leadership.

More recently, Rainey has developed a process for evaluating RMNs’ upperfunnel offerings to drive brand growth. She continues to focus on working to ensure the company’s national investment with RMNs is mutually meaningful to Mars and the network, and she works with her cross-functional teams and agency partners to build a process for partnering with RMNs to test their ability to deliver on national media goals.

The next big trend in retail media is: With the anticipated growth in retail media network investment coming from national media, coupled with RMNs needing to improve their reach-based media offerings, we may continue to see RMNs partnering with traditional media/streaming partners.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: The connection between Ads teams and Retail teams — a big area of opportunity in this space, both on the brand side and the retailer side. As media investment increases and the traditional path to purchase collapses, it will be more important than ever for them to be synchronized and ensure that inventory can keep up with the increased traffic to the retailers.

JOHN STORMS

NICH WEINHEIMER Executive Vice President, Strategy Skai

Nich Weinheimer leads the Skai Retail Media platform, managing more than $1.5 billion in retail media spend. He has been with the company for nearly six years, leading strategic partnerships and business development, e-commerce and, most recently, strategy since he assumed his current post in August 2021. This past year, he oversaw the launch of Skai’s omnichannel platform for walled gardens as well as an exclusive strategic partnership with retail search analytics platform, Analytic Index.

As key retailers have become digital publishers, it is common for them to limit the data they will openly share with brands advertising on their sponsored listings. Third-party data providers that develop proxy signals, like Analytic Index, provide brands and agencies the suite of data they need to augment retailer data sets in their efforts to understand share of voice, estimated sales and traffic, etc. Weinheimer leads the company’s efforts to continue the evolution of retail media as it drives top retail media performance for the brands and agencies leveraging Skai’s automation, cluster

Senior

Director

- Head of Sales & Business Development

Lowe’s One Roof Media Network

Lowe’s One Roof Media Network launched in 2021, with John Storms joining the team in early 2022. Since then, he has been a cornerstone of the organization, helping lead and build a retail media network client services team that champions the principles of Lowe’s. His extensive retail and media experience has helped Lowe’s One Roof Media Network achieve new revenue heights.

Storms implemented a client-centric playbook for growth by focusing on building strong relationships with both external brand and agency partners, as well as internal cross-functional partners, such as the merchandising team, to ensure all full-funnel media solutions fit the needs of the brand, category assortment and the customer. In accelerating year one program adoption, he leaned into his prior experience as a merchant to evangelize the importance of retail media and connection to driving mutually beneficial results for merchants and their brand partners.

The next big trend in retail media is: A connected off-line and online retail media offering that seamlessly invites brands to reach customers wherever they are in their digital or physical shopping journey in a frictionless and native way.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Climbing up the funnel. Lowe’s sees its next big opportunity with off-site channels like connected TV, streaming audio and digital out-of-home. Reaching customers along this journey is critical to driving traffic to the store and website.

bidding algorithms and tools for scale. Additionally, he leads strategic direction and development of Skai’s retail media operating system for retailers.

The next big trend in retail media is: Retailers monetizing first-party data in walled gardens. This powerful handingof-the-keys to the brand with the requisite control and transparency ushers in an extremely valuable and measurable performance media type that previously was unclear for the brand. This is changing the game.

The most exciting opportunity in retail media is: Clean rooms to measure full funnel. These solutions allow brands and retailers to collaborate “behind the firewall” and get the aggregate insights and measures that allow the advertiser to build a data-driven argument for future investment, and for retailers to capture growth and upside without betraying their privacy promises to the consumer.

Retail Media: THE AGENCY PERSPECTIVE

Our proprietary research digs into what agency professionals — and their CPG clients — really think about retail media.

BY CYNDI LOZA

In collaboration with

If you work in the world of commerce marketing and/or attended the Path to Purchase Institute’s (P2PI) Retail Media Summit this summer, you know there’s incredible excitement surrounding retail media. The sector continues to grow with retailer media networks (RMNs) expanding their partnerships and capabilities, and new networks and solution providers popping up regularly.

Recognizing all the buzz, P2PI over the years has produced various reports on the subject, surveying CPG brand marketers and shoppers alike. However, for this report, we wanted to understand and get honest insights on what agency executives really think about RMNs as well as the networks’ current and future status in the industry.

Together with CVS Media Exchange (CMX), P2PI fielded an online survey of agency professionals from March 7 through April 5. Eighty-six respondents answered questions ranging from their recommended retail media mix to must-have RMN product offerings.

To qualify for the survey, respondents had to indicate they lead or work in a role that included engaging with clients on retail media. All respondents had a client focus of CPG

Change in Retail Media Investments

Average

Q. Generally speaking, how have your CPG clients’ investments in retail media changed compared to a year ago?

manufacturers, while some also noted working with clients from other sectors, including retail (35%), direct-to-consumer (22%), technology (14%), home appliances/furnishings (13%) and automobiles (9%). When asked if their CPG clients are more often shopper or brand marketing teams, respondents noted shopper marketing most often (44%), followed by shopper and brand marketing (34%) and then brand marketing (22%).

Retail Media: Investing Today vs. Within a Year

Average

Q. What percentage of your CPG clients would you say are investing in retail media today? What percentage do you expect to be investing in retail media within the next year?

35% Average

Retail Media Budget: Allocation Today vs. Within a Year

41% among those whose CPG clients are primarily Shopper Marketing teams

30% among those whose CPG clients are primarily Brand Marketing teams or are an equal mix of Brand and Shopper Marketing

50% Average

56% among those whose CPG clients are primarily Shopper Marketing teams

44% among those whose CPG clients are primarily Brand Marketing teams or are an equal mix of Brand and Shopper Marketing

Q. What percentage of your CPG clients’ budgets would you say are allocated to retail media today? What percentage do you expect to be allocated to retail media within the next year?

Retail Media Investments & Budgeting

As one might expect considering the incredible growth of RMNs, a majority of CPG companies are increasing their retail media investments. Nearly 80% of respondents reported at least a minor increase in retail media investment from CPG clients compared to a year ago, while only 8% noted a minor or significant decrease in investment. (Survey takers whose clients are primarily brand marketing teams or a mix of shopper and brand marketing were more likely to report a decline in investment.)

Moreover, the agency respondents estimated that 60% of

their CPG clients are investing in retail media currently, and they expect close to three-quarters to invest within the next year. Survey takers primarily working with shopper marketing teams reported that a higher proportion of their CPG clients are investing in retail media today.

Looking at budget allocations, agency executives said their CPG clients are allocating about a third of their budgets to retail media today, and they expect clients will increase that allocation to half within the next year. The survey also found that CPG brands tend to have some structure to the way their retail media budgets are defi ned across retailers, with half of

Primary Allocation of Retail Media Budgets

How Firmly Retail Media Budgets Are Allocated

6% 44% 50%

Q. Where are your CPG clients primarily allocating their retail media budgets? Please rank up to the top three areas where your CPG clients are typically allocating their retail media budgets. [Note: The sample for this question was rebalanced to have equal representation of those working primarily with Shopper Marketing and Brand Marketing teams, as this had a significant impact on responses.]

Budgets are loosely defined across retailers but there is some room for adjustments

Budgets are firmly defined/fixed across retailers Budgets are not determined/fixed by retailer

Q. Which of the following best describes how retail media budgets are typically allocated across retailers for CPG?

Current Retail Media Mix

Will the Factors Influencing Retail Media Budget Allocation Change?

Q. What would you estimate the retail media mix of the following is for most of your CPG clients?

Q. Do you expect the influence of these factors to change in the next 1-2 years?

agency professionals noting their CPG clients have loosely defi ned budgets across retailers and 44% saying budgets are fi rmly defi ned and fi xed.

When the survey asked agency respondents what they would estimate the retail media mix is for most of their CPG clients, they shared that the current mix has a slightly heavier focus on on-site with it accounting for 34% of retail media activities, while off-site and in-store each accounted for around a quarter of retail media activities (28% and 24%, respectively). Direct (email, direct mail) had the least amount of focus.

Agency professionals who work primarily with brand marketing teams, or an equal mix of brand and shopper marketing, reported their clients’ current mix is heavier for instore compared to respondents working mainly with shopper marketing teams. Agencies’ ideal retail media mix for their CPG clients is also not far off from the actual mix today.

Next, the survey asked respondents to rank the influence of several factors — like size of business at retailer, exclusive ad inventory, targeting capabilities, historical performance, ease of buying, and ability to engage as a non-endemic advertiser —

Factors Influencing Retail Media Budget Allocation

Q. How would you rank the influence the following factors have on budget allocations across retail media investments for CPG? Please rank the top 3-5 factors, with #1 being the most influential.

Q. How do you expect these factors to rank in terms of influence on budget allocations across retail media investments in the next 1-2 years? Please rank the top 3-5 factors, with #1 being the most influential.

Path to Purchase Institute and CVS Media Exchange “Agency/CPG Retail Media Study” (March 2023)

Path to Purchase Institute and CVS Media Exchange “Agency/CPG Retail Media Study” (March 2023)

What Your Agency Won’t Tell You About Retail Media

BY PARBINDER DHARIWAL

Media agency executives gave retail media network (RMN) leaders rare insights into the minds of their CPG brand clients in a revealing study on the exploding RMN industry.

The study, in partnership with the Path to Purchase Institute and our team at CVS Media Exchange (CMX), confi rmed the momentum of RMNs shows no signs of slowing.

The study involved 86 CPG-focused media agency professionals with a focus on the present and future of RMNs. Our study’s insights give a blueprint for RMNs who want to be proactive rather than reactive in meeting buyer needs.

Insight #1: RMN investment is no longer a sliver of the marketing pie — it’s now half of it. Eighty percent of CPG buyers are going to spend more in retail media next year than they did this year. This increase is coming as they shift retail media dollars from 35% to closer to 50% of future budgets.

RMN takeaway: Now is the time to double down on showcasing your ROAS and highlighting exclusive inventory. We can track spending in ways other advertising channels can’t and reach audiences at a granular level. Dollars are being allocated to RMNs that tell that story best.

Insight #2: There’s a healthy debate in your buyers’ leadership meetings on deploying new dollars on in-store media vs. new channels like mobile app placements. You may feel like you have multiple RMN media channels worth investing in, but our study shows that senior leaders and mid-level leaders disagree on the value of each. Senior leaders showed a preference for in-store digitization, with 59% believing it’s necessary for success. Compared to 34% of midlevel leaders with the same belief, it’s clear that your media mix presentation may be received quite differently based on the audience.

RMN takeaway: Know your audience. Midlevel leaders are more open to app and other off-

site placements, whereas senior leaders value the in-store experience.

Insight #3: ROAS & ROI still dominate measurement, but incrementality is climbing the charts. ROI and ROAS are rated by agencies as the most important measurement for their CPG clients. But going beyond “How much revenue are we driving?” are key questions about whether retail media can bring additional buyers into the brand, category and store, with approximately 30% of respondents indicating “incrementality to category/brand” tops their measurement wish list.

RMN takeaway: Everyone is using different KPIs for measurement and effectiveness. It’s confusing for media buyers to compare effectiveness with other media channels. To meet the demands of increasingly sophisticated marketers, incrementality will be a metric that networks will need to accurately measure against to demonstrate positive ROI. The industry is still early in its inception, and there is a big opportunity for RMNs to partner with independent industry bodies to develop standardized metrics.

Insight #4: Agencies rely on RMNs’ ability to innovate with new channels and analytics to meet goals. Eighty-four percent of agency respondents said that retail media will be a strategic priority over the next two years for their CPG clients, with the innovative channels leading the evolution — especially shoppable video content, increased personalization, omnichannel audience tracking and in-store digitization.

RMN takeaway: Continue to innovate your offering, but always keep the consumer in mind. Build a product that is additive to their experience, in retail or otherwise.

About the Author: Parbinder Dhariwal is vice president and general manager, CVS Media Exchange (CMX).

To meet the demands of increasingly sophisticated marketers, incrementality will be a metric that networks will need to accurately measure against to demonstrate positive ROI.

Retail Media Capabilities: Must Have vs. Nice to Have

Transparency in how campaign performance is measured

Access to first-party data

Real-time campaign optimizations

Custom audience segmentation

Closed-loop measurement

Access to first-party data without media spend

Opportunity to test/pilot emerging capabilities

In-flight reporting

Managed service offerings

Live performance dashboards Innovative offerings Dynamic creative optimization

Access to insight products without media spend

off-site offerings Self-serve buying capabilities Ability to engage as non-endemic advertiser

Q. When considering a retail media product offering, what capabilities are must-haves for your CPG clients? What capabilities do you consider nice to have (but not necessary)?

on budget allocations across retail media investments. Agencies shared that their CPG clients are most focused on the size of their business at the retailer, historical performance, targeting capabilities and digital sales at the retailer. Nearly 60% of agency professionals believe the influence of these budgeting factors will change in the next couple

of years. Survey takers who expect these factors to change indicated they expect to see an increase in the importance of the availability of exclusive ad inventory, with a decline in the importance of historical performance/ability to determine positive returns and targeting capabilities. However, the overall ranking of the influence of these

Retailer Media Network Performance, by Must-Have Capability

Q. Thinking about retailer media networks today, how well do they perform on each of these nice-to-have capabilities?

Retailer Media Network Performance, by Nice-to-Have Capability

Q. Thinking about retailer media networks today, how well do they perform on each of these must-have capabilities?

factors today versus a couple of years in the future remains largely consistent.

RMN Capabilities & Areas of Improvement

The survey asked respondents, when considering a retail media product offering, what capabilities are “must have”

for their CPG clients and which are “nice to have” (but not necessary). For must-haves, transparency in how campaign performance is measured was identified by 81% of respondents, followed by access to fi rst-party data (66%) and real-time campaign optimizations (63%). About half of respondents also said custom audience segmentation, closed-loop measurement,

Retailer Media Network, Most Valuable Attributes

Is able to demonstrate favorable ROI/ROAS

Transparency in data collection/measurement methods

Focus on being a partner/building a relationship Easy to work with Flexibility Is innovative/constantly evolving Personalization capabilities

Focus on customer experience management

Q. What do you most value when working with retailer media networks? Please select up to three attributes that are most valuable to you and your CPG clients.

Mandatory vs. Up-and-Coming Retail Media Channels

the opportunity to test new capabilities and access to fi rst-party data without media spend are must-haves. When it came to “nice to have” but not necessary, respondents pointed to things like creative support to engage as a nonendemic advertiser, self-serve buy capabilities and exclusive off-site offerings.

Considering the areas they identified as must-haves, the survey had respondents rank the top three priority areas with one being the most important or critical capability to have in a retail media product offering for CPG brands. Access to fi rst-party data, real-time campaign optimizations, closed-loop measurement and transparency in how campaign performance is measured were named the most critical musthave capabilities.

Q. Which retail media channels do you consider mandatory for your CPG clients today? Which do you consider more up-and-coming channels?

When the survey asked respondents how well RMNs perform on each of these must-have capabilities, we found that perceived performance of these critical capabilities highlights room for improvement, particularly for areas related to campaign measurement. The must-have areas where networks are perceived to perform well are access to fi rst-party data, custom-audience

Effectiveness of Retail Media Channels

Q. How would you rate the effectiveness of each of the following retail media channels for CPG?

segmentation and real-time campaign optimizations (with at least 52% of respondents giving these capabilities at least a “good” score).

Shifting focus to the nice-to-haves, survey takers indicated the most critical among these capabilities was live performance dashboards. Looking at how RMNs perform when it came to these nice-to-have capabilities, no more than half of agency respondents perceived RMNs to perform well across any of these nice-to-have areas. The only nice-to-have capability that half of respondents gave at least a good score was creative support, which suggests individual networks have an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market if they can better deliver on these capabilities.

Retail Media Channels & the Future

Recognizing retailer media networks continue to expand and strengthen their product solutions, the survey asked respondents to identify the retail media channels they consider mandatory for their CPG clients today and which they consider more up-and-coming avenues. Social media, on-site advertising and brand pages, email and on-site sponsored search were seen as mandatory by at least 70% or more of survey respondents; followed by programmatic display (67%), mobile app placements (65%) and off-site search and product placements (63%). On the other hand, connected TV, affi liate, and instore radio and digital signage were more often seen as up-and-coming channels by a majority of respondents (or at least 55%).

When asked to rate the effectiveness of the retail media channels, on-site advertising and sponsored search, and social media were seen as the most effective retail media channels for CPG with at least 70% of survey takers indicating these channels were at least very effective. Channels more often seen as up-and-coming options — such as digital in-store signage, connected TV and in-store radio — had lower perceived performance.

No surprise here, but most agency professionals (84%) engaged with CPG clients on retail media expect it to continue to be a strategic priority for their clients over the next two to three years. When asked what the next frontier is for retail media, survey takers noted an array of burgeoning areas, most notably shoppable video content, increased personalization, omnichannel audience tracking and in-store digitalization.

Expectations About Insights to Be Provided

48% among those who say their CPG clients have increased their investments in retail media over the past year vs. 16% of those who said their CPG clients’ investments declined or were flat* year-on-year

High-level metrics about expected performance

No data or insights unless included in the budget

Q. In considering your typical engagement with retailer media networks, which of the following best describes your current expectations about the insights to be provided during the planning phase of a campaign or investment?

Most Impactful Campaign Metrics

Retail Media: Probability of Being a Strategic Priority in 2-3 Years

Q. What do you forecast as the probability of retail media being a strategic priority for CPG over the next 2-3 years?

An AI Primer

BY BILL

Are you a bit befuddled or even alarmed by the avalanche of headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) the past 10 months? You’re not alone. Most people — if they’ve thought about AI at all — assumed it was just another behind-the-scenes technology slowly getting smarter alongside our smartphones, connected cars and talking coffee makers.

After all, AI has been around since the 1950s, albeit mostly running amok in movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Westworld.” In commerce marketing, AI has been running quite smoothly. U.K.-based Juniper Research reports that in the retail space alone, 325,000 companies worldwide have adopted some form of A.I. since 2019. There are lots of variations of AI already operating out there that you might recognize as:

• “Natural language processing,” which is used to run customer-service chatbots and even kiosks that employ “deep-fakes” of store clerks.

• “Computer-vision,” a technology that can analyze a customer’s living spaces to visualize furniture purchases or your facial features to show how makeup might look.

• “Predictive analytics,” which drive the programmaticbuying and effectiveness-monitoring of digital ads.

• “Spatial” software, which can crunch location data to follow shopper movements in every store aisle or throughout a mall.

• “Machine learning,” which can detect and drill into highly elusive factors like shifting customer sentiment to predict buying patterns or monitor online pricing in real time.

But in November 2022, AI stepped into the news-cycle spotlight with the launch of a “generative artificial intelligence” (GenAI) tool called “ChatGPT.” Released by research lab OpenAI, ChatGPT is a game-changer times two:

• It uses algorithms and large language models in novel ways, so that it can produce content in the form of text, images, audio and video.

• This amazing capability was packaged as a simple-touse productivity app that was being made available for everyday use (or at least test drives) by everybody.

Built on OpenAI’s neural network, ChatGPT (the GPT meaning “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) harnesses the power of GenAI, a technology that (very, very basically) works this way: After being given an appropriate prompt, GenAI can predict the next word or pixel in a series, and when programmed correctly, it can “intelligently” produce “new” content. The ChatGPT app has been trained to do a whole host of common tasks like summarizing documents, answering questions, translating languages or generating code.

NOTE: Don’t confuse generative AI with A.G.I. (artificial general intelligence). A.G.I. is still science fiction, a hypothetical level of AI that surpasses anything humans can do. Depending on whom you ask, A.G.I. will take years, possibly centuries, or may never be achievable at all.

What commerce marketers should know about artificial intelligence now — and how you can immerse yourself and move forward while the playing field is still level.

SCHOBER

The effect of all of this is to change our relationship with AI. No one expects a marketing executive to write all the complex source code needed to run a chatbot or monitor online pricing. But in the brave new world opened up by ChatGPT, suddenly we’re all expected to be a lot more “hands on” with this technology.

A New Gold Rush

Within days of OpenAI’s announcement, judging by keyword search data, ChatGPT became a household word. Just as quickly, Microsoft (via its Bing search engine), Google (Bard) and Amazon rolled out their own adaptations. Suddenly, by building off of GenAI platforms, an array of creativity and productivity tools came online in something of a software developer’s gold rush. According to Crunchbase News data, this year 15% of all startup funding has gone to AI-focused companies — so much so that now venture capitalist investors are complaining that they’re overrun with companies suddenly “powered by AI.”

Every rose has its thorns, however. Before you could say “AP Physics 1,” kids began turning in AI-scribbled term papers. On May 30, hundreds of scientists and tech CEOs signed a statement saying AI poses a risk equal to pandemics and nuclear war. And if that’s not scary enough for you: Forrester Research predicts that AI could displace as many as 7% of all U.S. workers by 2025, while Goldman Sachs says two-thirds of jobs are now exposed to automation.

After a rash of alarmist headlines ensued, Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU, reframed the threat: “AI is not going to take your job, but someone who understands AI is.” It’s just a tool, he says, but concedes that if you’re a subpar writer or a middling lawyer cranking out fill-in-the-blank leases all day, consider yourself on notice.

“If you’re a thoughtful person who’s creative, this doesn’t make you obsolete,” Galloway says. “It just makes mediocre people obsolete.”

That’s comforting, but it’s hard for copywriters and commercial artists to be comfortable with some of the sweeping claims being made these days. In March, Coca-Cola launched a first-of-its-kind AI platform (built by OpenAI and Bain & Company) that offered its creative brand assets to fans for “AI-powered experimentation” — in effect, crowdsourcing creative for placement on digital billboards in New York and London.

Heinz did something similar months earlier, offering ketchup image prompts to fans, creating “the first-ever ad campaign with visuals generated entirely by AI.” Then on May 28, WPP announced that it was partnering with chipmaker Nvidia to create a GenAI platform that will enable the agency’s creative teams to produce ad campaigns “more efficiently and at scale.”

Getting Hands-On

“This technology is here to stay, but integration into workflows is still in its infancy stage,” says Adam Colasanto,

In 2022, Heinz lent ketchup image prompts to fans using DALL-E who, in turn, helped create “the first-ever ad campaign with visuals generated entirely by AI.”

In March, Coca-Cola launched a first-of-its-kind AI platform filled with brand assets for “AIpowered experimentation.” Members of the public who came up with the best ideas saw them placed on digital billboards in New York and London.

head of services at Vizit, a Boston-based visual analytics company. “We’re seeing the ‘technology adoption curve’ play out in front of our eyes. Innovations like ChatGPT have made AI more commonplace and accessible and have helped to remove the fear of the unknown, making it safe to experiment with low table stakes and a freemium model. But brands are very much still learning how and where to integrate within their business units.”

It seems inevitable that your ability to master GenAI will determine whether it’ll be a helpful co-worker or just bossing you around. If you haven’t already, go online (chat.openai.com) or to your smartphone’s app store and start playing around. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, look online for more specialized apps but don’t be overwhelmed. “This is a test-andlearn phase with so many tools coming out, it seems, every week,” says Todd Hassenfelt, eCommerce Director, Growth Strategy & Planning, at Colgate-Palmolive.

Some of the GenAI tools Hassenfelt has gravitated to include: Perplexity, Boomy, Synthesia, Gamma, Runway Gen-2, Recast and Wordtune. But don’t get hung up on any one tool right away, he says, adding: “It’s all about seeing which tools have the potential to help solve problems for you or your business.”

Nick Jones of OMNI Marketing Solutions says he uses Copy.ai almost every day. Other tools he suggests playing with — most are free or have free trial periods — include MidJourney, Codeformer, Resumeworded, Looka.com and QuillBot. “But I think my favorites so far are Beautiful.ai, a presentation design system, and Otter.ai, which takes notes in video meetings. What’s particularly clever is that Otter provides a summary and organizes meeting notes into discrete sections. It somehow just ‘knows’ when you shift topics.”

Colasanto says right now is the perfect time to immerse yourself in AI because it’s still a level playing field. He suggests taking free courses via Google, looking for product demos and then signing up for beta access.

Tools for Commerce

Predicting exactly how AI will impact commerce marketing is still anyone’s guess. But Colgate’s Hassenfelt sees three areas that brands should be working on right away:

• Improving the digital shelf with product-detail page enhancements, at scale. Focus on titles, bullet points, product descriptions and eventually images.

• Doing competitor and SWOT analyses using well-crafted prompts on GenAI tools. For example, you can run a “PDF summarizer” app on an earnings call transcript and other publicly available information.

• Similarly, a team can do brand value proposition assessments using well-crafted prompts and current data tools.

Jones says that some of the “less sexy” AI apps — website and e-commerce testing tools — could have the biggest impact: “Think about prompt-based testing where, once you have a master set of prompts for what to look for, instead of a human doing hundreds of hours of excruciatingly dull click-by-click testing, a bot can do it in seconds.” He suggests examining GoTestPro, which the app-maker claims can cut testing costs by 70% and recommends fixes for any found bugs.

In the longer run, experts agree that we’re likely to see fullscale automation of AI solutions, the creation of new roles and processes within existing business units and integration into workflows. “There’ll be end-to-end automation of the entire e-commerce ecosystem,” says Vizit’s Colasanto. It will start with the “development of brand identity, copy and content creation for ads or product development pages, the syndication and management of products to respective channels, and the measurement of important KPIs — all managed through artificial intelligence.”

Hassenfelt thinks AI will also become an essential management tool. ChatGPT-like tools, for example, could improve the speed and quality of the employee onboarding process. By using AI apps that examine workflow management, leaders can assess where teams are inefficient and how to improve those gaps. Finally, an AI tool that automatically summarizes meetings could identify who contributes the most profitable ideas, an assessment that would loom large in performance reviews.

Watchouts

Colasanto warns that as it becomes easier to create art, ad copy or even simulate a brand’s “voice,” it will be harder to know what’s fake or misrepresented. Constructs will need to be put in place and industry-wide rigor established to protect AI’s legitimacy.

Then there’s the issue of bad results, which Hassenfelt calls “Degenerative AI,” and others have dubbed, AI’s “hallucination problem.” At least some GenAI content is “created” by less-than-rigorously grabbing information off the internet. In May, a skeptical Wired magazine editor in charge of testing and reviewing tech products asked ChatGPT, Bard and Bing Chat to do her job and recommend headphones. The results seemed reasonably reliable until

ChatGPT’s cultural impact was immediately felt, far and wide. This ad by a Belgian agency, Impact, went up in June to attract new construction workers.

AI is often used to run customer-service chatbots, but the advent of “deep-fakes” is raising concerns about brand-messaging control.

Vizit’s generative-audience AI simulates the preference and biases for imagery of specific cohorts of shoppers, enabling creative teams to tailor content effectively.

the Google Bard AI oddly asserted: “I have also used a few different pairs of workout headphones myself.”

Hassenfelt believes that some apps, such as product image creation for brands, have been overhyped a bit. “GenAI still struggles with putting words correctly on images, especially brand names. There are some outliers that have found ways, but it’s not a simple process so far. And while language translation is definitely helpful, some of the GenAI produced videos on LinkedIn exaggerate the quality of videos that can be produced by a single prompt.”

Keerthi Vedantam, a reporter at Crunchbase News, recently warned that some GenAI startups don’t actually have their own proprietary language models or data sets; they’re simply placing an intuitive interface on top of another company’s technology.

“If using these tools for work, be sure to stay extremely close to your legal and IT teams on which are approved for use,” Hassenfelt warns. “Does your organization have a list of approved tools, the costs, a link to the terms of service, the departments most likely to use them and easy-to-understand descriptions? Are employees clear on what information is proprietary so they do not input it into an open-source tool? Is the company’s crisis-PR team ready for any deep-fake situations? And don’t rely on just having big workshop-type meetings to manage all of this, because they tend not to have much depth to them.”

Bottom line: “Companies have to find the right balance of managing the risks of GenAI,” he says, “without stifling the many opportunities it offers if used in a responsible way.”

EXCELLENCE IN ACTIVATION

Best-in-class campaigns from the 2023 REGGIE Awards.

BY MICHAEL APPLEBAUM

FOR THE FOURTH STRAIGHT YEAR, the Path to Purchase Institute has teamed up with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to share a roundup of mini case studies for selected winners of the ANA’s annual REGGIE Awards. Each of these shopper-focused campaigns are worthy of “best in class” designation for the unique ways in which they engaged shoppers and drove results. “REGGIE,” shorthand for “cash register,” is an acknowledgment that the ultimate objective of any brand activation program is to drive sales.

The 2024 ANA REGGIE Awards program will be open for entries this fall. For full details and to download an entry kit, visit REGGIEAwards.org.

Unilever Kroger Scents of Confidence

Marketer: Unilever

Agency: Arc Worldwide

Reggie Categories: Age-Targeted Marketing (BRONZE);

Shopper Marketing, Retailer-Specific or Omnichannel Marketing (GOLD)

Today’s tweens are increasingly exploring their gender identity outside of traditional norms. Yet this aspect of their personality is rarely (if ever) recognized by mass deodorant brands, which are typically labeled either “for men” or “for women” and are almost entirely oriented toward adults.

In order to boost sales of its deodorant brands and grow overall category sales at Kroger, Unilever set out to build a relationship with tween parents by providing the necessary resources to facilitate their tween’s “fi rst deodorant moment.” At every touchpoint in its “Scents of Confidence” omnichannel campaign, parents were encouraged to shop according to their tweens’ personality and passions — not their gender.

The program featured a multi-page, dynamic experience on Kroger.com and social ads via Facebook and Instagram. Video content tapped into the peers of “Puberty-Puzzled Parents” — i.e., Kroger influencers with teens and tweens who are navigating this life stage. Unilever also sponsored the Kids Zone at Kroger’s Wellness Festival to provide an immersive experience for parents and tweens that helped shoppers confidently explore Unilever brands in real time.

Scents of Confidence saw a 24% penetration lift for household trial of Unilever deodorant and captured repeat purchase of 26% of those new households. The gender-neutral marketing approach helped grow sales by 20% year-over-year, with top brands experiencing significant sales lifts during activation, including Dove (11%), Degree (11%) and Axe (7%).

From Chaos to Confidence

Marketer: Whirlpool

Agency: Digitas

Reggie Category: Digital, Social or Mobile Marketing (BRONZE)

Appliance shopping is a chaotic experience that is often made more challenging by information overload. To turn that chaos into confidence, Whirlpool curated a bespoke digital shopping experience that mapped shoppers’ needs to the right appliance through the brand’s fi rst-ever Pinterest virtual showroom.

Using 360-degree camera technology, Whirlpool created a photorealistic virtual showroom in which shoppers could see how appliances fit into different spaces in their kitchens and interact with hotspots that showed detailed videos and imagery replicating a physical store. To bring in the right shoppers, Whirlpool used custom interactive PinX units designed with messaging that spoke to the unique needs of specific audiences.

In an appliance category where shoppers are overwhelmed with options, research has shown that guidance drives consideration and purchase intent. By meeting shoppers where they were on their journeys (i.e., researching on Pinterest) and giving them an improved 3D virtual shopping experience, Whirlpool was able to move to the top of the consideration list among Millennial inmarket shoppers.

As a result, sales revenue from Pinterest grew 773% (totaling $5.2 million), boosting return on ad spend (ROAS) and increasing consideration by 4% with a key audience for business growth.

REGGIE Awards

H-E-B Texas Barber Bracket

Marketer: Unilever

Agencies: Arc Worldwide and Publicis

Hawkeye

Reggie Category: Local, Regional or Market Specific Marketing (BRONZE)

Looking to inspire its target audience of “disheveled dudes” to recommit to the level of personal grooming habits they had prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Unilever leveraged the insight that college basketball players put great trust in their barbers to have them groomed and ready for the big NCAA Tournament in March.

Recognizing H-E-B’s commitment to local communities, Unilever created the Texas Barber Bracket — a gamified men’s grooming experience that put NCAA fans in the barber chair for a grooming consultation during a traveling tailgate with a custom-designed Airstream trailer.

During the NCAA Tournament, Unilever hosted pop-up events at four H-E-B locations featuring the “Final Four” barbers from our bracket. Shoppers were rewarded with free haircuts, received personalized recommendations on products, watched games on livestreams, and spun a prize wheel for gift cards, products and tickets to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.

The Barber Bracket launched via a microsite highlighting 16 up-and-coming Texas barbers and a way for shoppers to vote for their favorites.

The Texas Barber Bracket more than doubled anticipated sales results with an 11.8% sales lift versus the 10 weeks prior to the promotion. The program also brought entirely new users into the category, as 18.6% of shoppers who redeemed offers had not purchased men’s grooming products at H-E-B in the previous 52 weeks.

Walmart Land

Marketer: Walmart

Agency: Publicis NY

Reggie Category: Metaverse Marketing & Beyond (BRONZE)

Walmart has high favorable ratings with Gen Z shoppers, but the relationship has been largely transactional and based on a promise of quality goods at a low cost. To deepen Gen Z’s brand love with Walmart, the retailer met the audience where they were — hanging out in the metaverse — through an experiential platform called Walmart Land.

With a first-of-its-kind, programmable and continually evolving experience, Walmart Land changed the way young adults experienced the brand, delivering a new path for discovering everything they love — from learning to deejay and exploring fashion trends to meditating and finding their new binge-worthy show on Netflix trivia.

Roblox influencers were deployed to introduce Walmart Land to their fanbase. These gaming gurus streamed on their social accounts and teased free avatar accessories, giving them access to exclusive virtual merchandise upon completion of secret tasks. The program’s reach was amplified through a partnership with the popular Roblox game “Livetopia.” Walmart dropped a series of “hype” videos targeting young adult gamers with YouTube pre-rolls that offered a high-energy preview of Walmart Land, while companion banners linked to Walmart Land’s Roblox homepage.

Within the fi rst two weeks, Walmart Land saw 4.9 million visitors. As of Jan. 31, 2023, Walmart Land stood at 12.3 million total visitors.

Hershey’s Celebrate SHE at Walmart

Marketer: The Hershey Co.

Agency: TPN

Reggie Category: Multicultural or Lifestyle Segment Marketing (BRONZE)

Hershey has long recognized the contributions of women and owes much of its success to women in senior leadership positions. Thus, the company wanted to go beyond traditional tactics in an exclusive Walmart program to celebrate this segment of the population during Women’s History Month in March 2023.

Hershey’s Celebrate SHE program focused on breakthrough POS tactics in Walmart stores. The company reimagined its iconic logo and collaborated with Walmart on a limited-edition 12-pack of HerSHEy bars that “Celebrate She.” The bars also featured messages of admiration and inspiration, using words like “brave,” “ambitious” and “strong.” Hershey and Walmart also used the bars to celebrate women and girls by encouraging gifting. The campaign urged all stakeholders, including Walmart employees, to “Share one. Inspire all” and to post their commendations on social media with #CelebrateShe and #WalmartHerSHEy.

U.S. Olympic gold medalist and women’s collegiate coach Jordyn Wieber created posts for the program and urged women to speak up. Hershey sponsored the nonprofit organization Girls on the Run, which grows girls’ confidence and self-esteem through physical activity and by hosting a luncheon in Bentonville, Arkansas. The program’s sales were more than twice what Hershey had anticipated. Growth of the Hershey’s Milk regular count and 12-pack rose by 12.8%, accounting for 26% of the growth of the total Hershey franchise take-home and instantconsumable sales growth.

Sour Patch Kids Fruit Fight at Circle K

Marketer: Mondelez International

Agency: Phoenix Creative Co.

Reggie Category: New Product or Service Launch (BRONZE)

Millennial and Gen Z shoppers are notoriously elusive, spending a considerable amount of time in their cars, on their phones and on the go. And they’re always looking for something new.

Thus, Circle K and Mondelez International teamed up on a program to captivate these shared customer groups by giving them a sweet summertime diversion in the form of new grape and peach flavors of Sour Patch Kids candies, along with a new limited-edition strawberry-and-watermelonflavored Froster fountain drink at Circle K stores. Streaming radio spots, targeted digital activations and paid social media were deployed to get customers excited about trying the new fruit flavors before they headed to Circle K. GSTV media at Circle K gas pumps reminded shoppers of the new Froster and bundled snack solution.

In stores, the program caught shopper attention with candy-aisle signage and displays around the Froster machine. A bundle offer and promo incentivized purchase of the candy and Froster pairing. At registers, LIFT screen digital engagements drove impulse purchases.

The campaign blew away projections with a 177.48% year-over-year increase in category sales during the campaign period. The program drove a massive lift in Sour Patch Kids brand sales with a 95% lift versus the prior period and 340,000 incremental display units sold.

REGGIE Awards

Walgreens Untold Beauty

Marketer: Unilever

Agency: Arc Worldwide Reggie Categories: Shopper Marketing, Retailer-Specific or Omnichannel Marketing (SILVER); GEM Award - 2023 Special Category (BRONZE)

Two words sum up Unilever’s challenge with multicultural shoppers at Walgreens: just browsing. Data showed that while culturally diverse shoppers made 22 trips to Walgreens each year, they only purchased beauty and personal care products on four of those occasions, leaving other retailers to capture the majority of their spending.

Unilever created Untold Beauty to amplify multicultural voices and beauty stories that have historically gone unheard. In the process, it sought to change perceptions of Walgreens from just another store to a vital partner in multicultural shoppers’ personal care regimens and an extension of their beauty community.

Throughout the program, Walgreens’ beauty consultants engaged with shoppers on the unique benefits of the products. In-store interviews with the consultants/ambassadors were featured in a social campaign, while micro influencers’ voices and curated collections of must-have products were displayed on the Unilever brand shop page at Walgreens.com/UntoldBeauty.

On-site and off-site Walgreens media drove additional awareness and traffic to the e-commerce environment. Influencers’ beauty collections were scannable at shelf via a QR code that led to the brand shop page on Walgreens.com.

This Is How Live Commerce is Driving Business Growth for The Fresh Market

Marketer/Agency: The Fresh Market

Reggie Category: Experiential MarketingVirtual Events (BRONZE)

Looking to expand beyond its traditional older demographic, specialty retail chain The Fresh Market partnered with Firework, a live commerce and shoppable video platform, on a series of livestream events to attract next-generation customers to its brand.

Firework’s shoppable livestream platform allowed participants not only to buy products that they saw on the videos, but also to interact and engage through polls and a live chat. The fi rst livestream featured a celebrity chef as part of a showcase of the store and its unique products. In the second livestream, micro-influencers guided viewers through the entire shopping experience. The Fresh Market hosted a Thanksgiving cooking demonstration using a lifestyle expert and TV personality in its third and fi nal livestream.

Throughout the Firework partnership, The Fresh Market curated 30-second short-form videos and incorporated them on the retailer’s website and in emails. Social media (paid and organic Facebook and Instagram posts) and paid media in the form of video ads supported the program.

Results outperformed expectations on several fronts. The campaign generated some 500 pieces of earned media with a combined value of $8.5 million. Engagement rates were 15 times higher than industry averages. All told, The Fresh Market gained more than $500,000 in combined e-commerce sales and more than 2 million views for its livestream events.

The World’s Stinkiest Sock

Marketer: Reckitt

Agency: McCann

Reggie Category: Experiential Marketing - Live Events or Installations (BRONZE)

Most people don’t realize that laundry detergent only covers up the smell of stinky socks without killing the odor-causing bacteria. Lysol Laundry Sanitizer (LLS) teamed up with the Boston Red Sox and conducted a pop-up cleaning event with the players at Fenway Park, where visitors could experience the before-and-after performance of LLS on some of the truly stinkiest socks.

Build for Better

Marketer: Kellogg’s

Agency: Haygarth, a division of Tracy-Locke

Reggie Category: Gaming or Esports Marketing (BRONZE)

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of multicultural Millennial parents say their kids influence the brands they purchase. Kellogg tapped into the gaming and “make a better world” passions of these kids with a Minecraft esports partnership that included special packaging, custom retailer activations, a cause-related in-game playground feature and YouTube video integrations with popular Minecraft influencer, MrBeast.

Xbox + OPI Spring Collection

Marketer: Microsoft Xbox

Agencies: Tripleclix and Wella Company

Reggie Categories: Gaming or Esports Marketing (GOLD); Partnership Marketing (SILVER)

Looking to make inroads with the underserved female gaming population, Xbox partnered with the OPI nail polish brand to create the fi rst-ever Xbox-inspired palette for spring 2022. The Xbox + OPI collection, which debuted exclusively at Ulta Beauty, was backed by an integrated campaign that included co-branded instore displays and a sweepstakes with a chance to win a color-matched Xbox Wireless Controller.

REGGIE Awards

Pilk and Cookies – A ‘Dirty Soda’ Twist on a Holiday Tradition

Marketer: PepsiCo

Agency: PepsiCo’s In-House Content Studio

Reggie Category: Holiday or Seasonal Marketing (SILVER)

Looking to spur unabashed enjoyment of its cola products during the holiday season, PepsiCo teamed up with Lindsay Lohan on a viral #PilkandCookies holiday challenge and an ad campaign with robust PR and paid media support. Social channels buzzed when spots featured Lohan and Santa Claus embracing the TikTok craze of combining milk and Pepsi into a “dirty soda” to wash down some cookies.

Shaving Skincare for Anyone & Anywhere

Marketer: eos Products

Agency: Collab and Mischief @ No Fixed Address

Reggie Category: Influencer Marketing (BRONZE)

Known for its blunt talk in a polite category, women’s skincare brand eos wanted to further destigmatize women’s shaving habits with the “Shaving Skincare for Anyone & Anywhere” campaign for eos Shea Better Shave Cream. Outdoor ads in high traffic metro areas were followed by TikTok videos featuring 11 diverse creators shaving their “unconventional” body parts and sharing testimonial experiences.

#DetoxYourFeed

Marketer: Dove

Agency: Edelman

Reggie Category: National Consumer Brand Activation (BRONZE)

Dove’s #DetoxYourFeed platform gave permission to young girls and teens to unfollow social media accounts that promoted toxic ideas about beauty and led to feelings of low self-worth. Dove amplified its message through a partnership with actress Gabrielle Union and daughter Zaya Wade, and by working with influencers to share personal experiences and create educational branded content.

Corona Cincogram: Sparking Celebrations While Spiking Sales

Marketer: Constellation Brands

Agency: Upshot

Reggie Category: Promotion Marketing (SILVER)

The Corona Cincogram campaign embraced the spontaneous nature of Cinco de Mayo celebrations by making last-minute party preparations a snap. Accessible via retail QR codes and social/digital media, the Cincogram was hosted on Corona’s website and featured a digital pinata that consumers could crack open for a chance to win rides and food delivery from Uber and UberEats.

Ragu Cook Like a Mother

Marketer: Mizkan

Agency: Digitas

Reggie Category: Rebranding, Repositioning or Reintroducing Brand Marketing (SILVER)

Facing declining share and household penetration, Ragu decided to modernize the brand’s Italian mother heritage and created the “Cook Like a Mother” campaign as a rally cry to home cooks to fight the pandemic-induced burnout and get meals done. Emotional storytelling messages were leveraged across connected TV and streaming video, as well as social media, audio and print.

Michelob Guy

Marketer: Michelob Ultra

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

Reggie Category: Digital, Social or Mobile Marketing (SILVER); Small Budget Brand Activation Marketing - Budget less than $500,000 (BRONZE)

When the image of a man (Mark Radetic) standing behind Tiger Woods holding a can of Michelob Ultra at the 2022 PGA Championship went viral, the brand immediately sprang into action. Michelob Ultra immortalized Mark as the “Michelob Guy” with his own commercial, custom merchandise and Ultra-sponsored appearances at the next PGA Tour stop, thus leveraging the viral moment with zero production or media support.

Social Media Marketing

Social media has taken brand marketing to new heights as its reach, creative and targeting capabilities have evolved significantly over the years. Engaging with social media is one of the most popular online activities worldwide, and we can expect even more growth in the coming years. According to Statista, in 2021 more than 4.26 billion people were using social media. That number has grown to nearly 4.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to increase to almost 6 billion in 2027. Perhaps the hottest social media marketing trend is video as TikTok usage surged, and the potential for success on the short-form video platform is undeniable when done correctly. (By correctly, we mean an advertisement that isn’t immediately identifiable as an ad.) Social media trends have evolved from a simple sponsored Facebook update to something more intentional that grabs consumers’ attention and engages them, leveraging pop culture or the latest viral trend. Here’s a sampling of unique and subtle social advertisements.

BY JACQUELINE BARBA

Shane: “Do the chair everyone piles their clothes on.” Shane shared the paid (but original) video on TikTok with the #tidepartner hashtag. It has garnered more than 464,000 views. 2

1

Procter & Gamble’s Tide noticed one of 2023’s breakout TikTok stars, Jake Shane (or @octopusslover8). Shane had a quick rise to popularity after his signature octopus reviews turned into an original comedic improv bit where he plays out scenarios his followers suggest, such as “do the founding fathers after John Hancock signed his name super big,” or “Diet Coke’s reaction to Coke Zero.” With many of his videos garnering millions of views, Tide suggested (and commissioned) its own idea to

Pabst Brewing Co.’s Pabst Blue Ribbon leveraged one of the biggest pop culture moments and celebrity cheating scandals of 2023, known as “Scandoval.” It involved three castmates from Bravo reality TV show “Vanderpump Rules,” including Ariana Madix. In a subtly sponsored May Instagram update, Madix is seen holding a PBR can with the caption “Vanderpabst Rules #TeamAriana” and a link to the brand’s Instagram profile and shop. 3

Chubby Snacks , an emerging packaged snack brand billed as a better-for-you alternative to regular peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches, ran sponsored video ads on Facebook directing users to Fresh Thyme for a free bag of PB&Js. The ad linked to a branded landing page that requested users’ mobile numbers and encouraged them to purchase Chubby’s at their local retailer and text their receipt to redeem a special offer, powered by cash-back platform Aisle.

4

Post Consumer Brands’ Pebbles ran Snapchat video ads featuring children’s unique creations made from Pebbles cereal boxes (e.g., a sword and armor) as part of its “Create with Pebbles” platform and “Yabba Dabba Dunk” creative challenge. The ads invited children/parents to purchase a specially marked box of cereal, create their own comic story and submit it (via video/photos) on CreateWithPebbles.com (with a link provided in the ads).

5

Skincare brand COSRX ran a #LayerYourSPF TikTok campaign in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam from April 14 to May 7. The filter-based challenge encouraged users to educate others on the importance of sun protection through a wide range of video content. According to the company, the campaign reached a total of 193 million views under the hashtag #LayerYourSPF and 1.9 billion views under the brand hashtag #COSRX.

6

Molson Coors tied in to June 8’s designation as “National Best Friend Day” in a sponsored Facebook update, promoting Coors Light and Blue Moon as well as a chance to win a trip to Colorado to visit the beer brands’ breweries. The sweepstakes ads were exclusively on Facebook and featured Jewel-Osco’s logo, indirectly encouraging users to shop there, and linked to an entry site.

Tech Tools

WE COVER THE TECH TOOLS THAT ARE DRIVING CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING, ENGAGEMENT AND CONVERSION ALONG THE PATH TO PURCHASE.

BY BILL SCHOBER

In mid-June, Google announced that shoppers can virtually “try on” women’s tops from brands across Google, including Anthropologie, Everlane, H&M and Loft . Google’s new “guided refinements tool” (which uses machine learning and visual-matching algorithms) lets shoppers fine-tune choices using inputs like color, style and pattern. Google said it internally developed a new image-based AI model that produces lifelike images. When searchers find a product with a “Try On” badge, they can select a model they deem appropriate and the clothing image will reflect how it drapes, folds, clings, stretches and forms wrinkles and shadows on a diverse set of human figures. Google says it will input more sources of information as people test its “search generative experience,” which will be accessible only through its experimental Search Labs.

Mercedes-Benz is adding ChatGPT to its “connected car” MBUX system. Mercedes says integrating artificial intelligence (AI) will make the “Hey Mercedes” voice assistant more intuitive. Noting that most voice assistants are limited to predefined tasks and responses, ChatGPT’s large language model will expand the number and complexity of topics it can handle and enable it to respond with more comprehensive answers. Mercedes is collaborating with Microsoft on this integration, but says it will keep driver data private.

PepsiCo reported in May that it has been able to unlock cross-basket insights faster from its loyalty programs using AI technology that transforms documents into structured data. Instead of using a manual process that relied on an outside clearinghouse, PepsiCo began using Veryfi’s platform. “We were able to add user-friendly receipt capture and data extraction to our JOY customer loyalty app, reducing our purchase validation time from seven to 11 days [down] to a few seconds, while unlocking unprecedented cross-basket customer data,” said Edgar Reyes, a director at PepsiCo. The information gleaned can include where and when customers are purchasing, brand affinities across the company’s product line as well as competitors, any price and special-promotion sensitivities, and share of wallet and repeat purchasing trends. Veryfi can extract data from 85 currencies, 39 languages and more than 110 defined fields (vendor, total, purchase order, product name, SKU, etc.).

Zenni Optical launched an AIpowered “Image Search” tool on its website and mobile app. It enables customers to upload any photo of a frame — whether they saw it online, in print or snapped it themselves in real life — and locate a match out of the retailer’s more than 3,000 frames. By leveraging AI and machine learning, the company claims a user can match a design within seconds. A “Try-On” capability lets shoppers take a five-second video of their face, turning side to side; the AI then calculates the proper sizing.

In May, AIpowered cannabis retail platform

In June, VSBLTY announced a partnership with Shelf Nine and Phoenix Vision to build a national in-store media network with active digital signage technology that uses AI. Activations will start in New York and roll out nationally into as many as 4,500 stores in Tampa, Florida; Las Vegas and Hawaii. Its AI-driven software uses facial recognition to identify the age, gender and emotion of shoppers, and the way they dwell or interact with screens and QR codes. The tech is already used in Canada, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

In June, SimplyCodes launched a ChatGPT plugin through OpenAI’s plugin store. After installing the plugin to their ChatGPT account, users can ask it to find coupons at 300,000 retailers. SimplyCodes uses crowdsourcing and blockchain to incentivize shoppers to contribute to its coupon database. Later this year, it will introduce iPhone and Android apps as well as additional AI features.

New York-based start-up Verneek recently launched One Quin, a proprietary AI shopping platform that can field and answer personalized questions through voice activation or text. The company claims this GenAI platform combs through updated public and proprietary data in real-time, providing a type of AI support unavailable on Alexa, Siri, Google Search or ChatGPT, and that it can fulfill even awkwardly phrased requests, for example: “Umm, where’s that salad dressing that’s sugar free?” Investors include a former Coca-Cola CFO, Beyond Meat’s chairman, and the head of J.P. Morgan Chase AI Research. It’s currently in use in the Sprouts chain.

In June, Newegg Commerce announced the use of AI to launch Home Showcase, an interactive online shopping experience. Newegg uses Stable Diffusion AI to improve product photos and illustrate features for customers, and ChatGPT to create succinct product descriptions on abbreviated quick view pages. Home Showcase is available now on Newegg.com.

Genetica announced seed funding to expand into more dispensaries as well as grocery stores and pharmacies — as many as 350 locations in the United States and internationally over the next quarter. Genetica’s “Flora AI,” the underlying technology, is able to deliver personalized product recommendations by analyzing more than 650 million data points, including in-store inventory, customers’ dietary habits, activity levels, age, medical conditions and desired effects.

Muddy Bites Launches at Walmart

BRAND LEVERAGES ‘OPEN CALL’ FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, THEN CELEBRATES WITH GIANT ICE CREAM CONE.

BY SAMANTHA NELSON

Walmart Open Call alumnus Muddy Bites, a bite-sized sundae cone snack brand, launched at more than 3,000 of the mass merchant’s locations in April.

The retailer has been hosting Open Calls for a decade to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to pitch their products. The mass merchant is especially eager to gather exclusives that appeal to younger shoppers.

“Walmart was a big supporter of the brand from the moment we presented,” says Jessie Ferraioli, head of marketing for Muddy Bites. “We presented during Walmart’s Open Call for small businesses. The Muddy Bites sales team secured a ‘golden ticket,’ securing nationwide shelf placement at 3,000-plus Walmart stores. Before we even hit shelves, we made it onto 1,500 endcaps.”

To celebrate the launch, Muddy Bites built an 11-foot-tall ice cream cone outside a Walmart store in Denver. With the help of vlogger Matthew Beem at a May 18 event, the 100-pound cone was fi lled with 300 pounds of chocolate and 1,000 pounds of vanilla ice cream. Attendees received scoops of ice cream topped with Muddy Bites, which are miniature waffle cones fi lled with milk, dark or white chocolate.

“Walmart has been an incredible partner to launch with nationally,” Ferraioli says. “They believed in us from the beginning and have continued to support us in many ways, including pulling off this event with the world’s largest ice cream cone.”

The event was part of a fully integrated campaign that included paid and organic social media activity, influencer marketing and doling out more than 300,000 samples through Walmart’s click-andcollect and delivery services. Beyond the endcap, an additional in-store display rolled out in June.

Muddy Bites also gave Walmart an exclusive flavor. “Walmart was eager to launch with an exclusive flavor, so we thought there was no better partner to launch our fi rst chocolate cone SKU with,” Ferraioli says. “The chocolate cone white chocolate SKU is such an exciting flavor for us because of the nostalgic flavor combination of cookies ‘n’ cream, which feels very on brand for us.”

Walmart was the fi rst national retailer to sell

Muddy Bites. The product then debuted at select Target stores in June. The brand now can be found at numerous regional retailers, including Meijer, Kroger’s Harris Teeter and Ahold Delhaize’s Giant.

“In particular, our brand has really resonated with Millennial and Gen Z audiences who see indulgence as a part of a well-balanced lifestyle,” Ferraioli says.

event.

[Walmart] believed in us from the beginning and have continued to support us in many ways, including pulling off this

— Jessie Ferraioli, Muddy Bites

Featuring special retailer guests in each episode, join us for a dialogue about current trends and strategies that are driving innovation for the next era of retail.

In partnership with Great Northern Instore, the Path to Purchase Institute invites you to listen in to a discussion with executives from today’s leading retail chains, emerging brands and parallel industries as we dive into the issues impacting the evolution of retail.

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• Experiential & Interactive Tech

• Omnichannel Creative Services

• Retail Media Strategy

• Digital Shelf Optimization

Brand engagement fueled by real-world experience and bold thinking

With our results driven approach, we deliver fully integrated solutions that connect consumers’ hands, hearts and minds to your brands. Rooted in strategy and fused with real-world experience, we create culturally relevant, actionable ideas that drive awareness and ultimately, sales for our clients’ brands.

From insight to activation, our team thinks boldly, pivots quickly and activates flawlessly to deliver results. Privately owned and fiercely independent, we take pride in our award winning work and lasting client relationships.

We blend insights, experience and creativity to craft unique, culturally relevant, actionable ideas that drive awareness and loyalty.

We take the complexity out of conversion and navigate all channels of commerce; engaging, influencing behavior and converting to buy.

From ideation to execution, we design experiences that build your brand community and create passionate brand advocates and loyalists.

Our approach to personalized sourcing and fulfillment provides effortless, efficient program management, complete with real-time reporting and optimization.

We build relationships, we make lasting brand impressions and we drive conversion.

Major Clients

Mondelēz International Abbott Nutrition

Lactalis American Group, Inc.

PepsiCo ACE Hardware

Our Leaders

Patti Conti – President/CEO

Rick Einhaus – EVP

Joe Conti – Managing Director

Mandi Kleppel – Managing Director

Scan to check out our award-winning work...

Contact connect@hmtassociates.com

Experiential

Omnichannel Commerce

Consumer Engagement Fulfillment

A team of agile, omnichannel experts.

Our Capabilities

Pathformance empowers advertisers to create a unique strategy across all your advertisers and extend your reach beyond existing customers and retailerspecific data.

• Our unified media targeting strategy presents a more dynamic and adaptable approach to digital advertising, enabling you to reach potential customers with a high degree of precision, measure the direct impact of your campaigns, and cultivate a more direct and beneficial relationship with your audience.

• Ability to optimize campaign performance in real-time, based on in-store and real time digital shelf data.

Our Philosophy

At Pathformance, we believe in empowering brands to take control of their marketing strategy. We believe in equipping our clients with the tools and resources they need to make informed decisions based on reliable data. Brands shouldn’t settle for varied results produced by inconsistent methodologies or rely solely on self-assessment. Instead, we provide a comprehensive measurement solution that can be utilized for all tactics and strategies. By providing comprehensive insights and innovative solutions, we enable brands to make informed decisions, drive results, and achieve their marketing objectives.

What Makes Us Different

With over 14B Impressions Measured across $125M+ Media Budgets, Pathformance has the experience and expertise to help our customers create unified media strategies and execute with our integrated partners, allowing for the most precise campaigns and the ability to measure media impact across partners and channels.

AT-A-GLANCE

• Our competitive landscape overview makes it easier than ever to refine pricing, promotions, and product positioning resulting in digital shelf marketing efforts that drive better results.

WHO WE ARE

Pathformance is a dynamic shopper marketing agency dedicated to transforming brands’ shopper marketing strategies. With our innovative solutions and data-driven approach, we empower brands to captivate shoppers, drive engagement, and achieve exceptional results.

EXPERTISE

Today, Omnichannel CPG advertisers have one choice: spend SMART or spend MORE. Leveraging Pathformance’s unified media targeting strategy allows for a more dynamic and adaptable approach to digital advertising with a high degree of precision, optimization, and measure media impact.

Pathformance is leading the industry in Measurement and Marketing technologies. Recognized by Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for two consecutive years and included as an Honoree in the 2023 AdExchanger Top Women in Media and AdTech – Tech Trailblazer Category.

INDUSTRIES SERVED MAJOR CLIENTS

• CPG industry

• Ad-tech/Media

• Agencies

• Brands

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

• Digital Shelf

• Sales Lift Measurement

• Marketing Strategy

• Data Management

• Integrated Marketing Plans

We’ve helped over 400 brands unlock their data’s potential, driving meaningful growth. With 29 unique ad-tech partners, and sales data from 86 retailers, Pathformance is the go-to agency for ROI-focused brand marketers, CPG marketing, and ad tech agencies.

KEY EXECUTIVES

• Elizabeth Johnson, CEO

• Chris Bedford, COO

CONTACT

Elizabeth Johnson, CEO elizabeth@pathformance.com

Retail Media Networks aren’t your only option

Simplify your strategy and optimize to your audience, not the retailer’s.

Experience the Pathformance di erence and how we can help you understand the results, then apply that knowledge to your next campaign.

Book your FREE strategy session now!

EVERYTHING FROM PACKAGE TO PURCHASE

Branding, packaging, advertising, shopper marketing, digital, social... the experience your customers have with your product is about more than just having all the right components. It’s about having them all work together right.

At Phoenix Creative, we have dedicated, in-house expertise for every point along your product’s and shoppers’ path to purchase. That’s why we understand how your packaging can play a vital role in your advertising, how to tailor your in-store pieces to magnify the impact of your social e orts, and how to make your branding matter in even the most cluttered retail environments.

Whether you need a single service or a complete program that gets your product from the warehouse to their house, we can help.

QUICK THINKING. NIMBLE RESULTS.

We work hard for our clients. Although we’re much more than a “quick-turn” agency, we’ve been known to work wonders with the deadliest of deadlines. Whether it’s getting a simple shelf-talker to press or getting a 360-degree, channel-specific strategy ready for launch, we do whatever it takes.

Dedicated account sta , top-tier designers—all working together to get the job done. We value good people and great thinking. It’s not unusual to find a client or employee who’s been with us for 20 years or longer. No matter the title, each of us honors the strategic perspective of an account executive, the vision of a writer, and the passion of an artist.

WE LIVE RETAIL

We work with brands, but we also know retailers. Brand marketing only gets a part of the way down the path-to-purchase. In order to reach the end and win basket share, we have built ourselves into a partner that knows how to position brands with an eye toward each specific retailer’s footprint, digital assets, loyalty programs, and marketing requirements. Brand messaging plus retailer know-how equals a winning combination.

WHO WE ARE

We’re an award-winning agency located in downtown St. Louis. We’ve been helping businesses of all types find their voice in the marketplace since 1989. In our book, big ideas aren’t limited to big budgets. Everybody’s message can shine.

EXPERTISE

Our shopper marketing know-how comes from 30 years of extensive, battle-tested, retail experience. Strategic planning, concept development, and design/message execution are all of equal importance to our agency vision and our clients’ success.

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KEY EXECUTIVES

• Abbey Ash, Partner, Chief Marketing O cer

• David Dolak, Partner, Chief Creative O cer

• Keith Schwahn, Partner, Dir. of Prod. Services

• Matt O’Neill, Senior Partner

Featuring special retailer guests in each episode, join us for a dialogue about current trends and strategies that are driving innovation for the next era of retail.

In partnership with Great Northern Instore, the Path to Purchase Institute invites you to listen in to a discussion with executives from today’s leading retail chains, emerging brands and parallel industries as we dive into the issues impacting the evolution of retail.

Attendees will:

•Hear firsthand retailer insights and experiences navigating successes and challenges in the market

•Discover how changing shopper behavior is reinventing retail across various segments

•Explore the shifting dynamics that will impact commerce marketing across all channels of the retail arena

Sign up now to gain insights, get inspired and go enact change at your own organization with the learnings from Retail Intel 2023.

2023 WEBINAR TOPICS