The CPG Guys Podcast

Episode: Collective Growth with Albertsons Media Collective’s Brian Monahan

Release Date: November 1, 2025
Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan
Guest: Brian Monahan, SVP, Albertsons Media Collective

Episode Overview

This episode features a deep-dive conversation with Brian Monahan, the incoming Senior Vice President of Albertsons Media Collective (AMC). Hosts Peter and Sri explore strategic retail media’s future, AMC’s evolving role in driving collective growth for brands, and how retailers can foster deeper connections with consumers in-store and online. Discussions cover new AMC initiatives, measurement challenges, building collaborative growth, and what it takes for grocery retail media networks to break out of the shadows of industry giants.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Brian Monahan’s Background & Path to AMC

• Personal ties to Albertsons: Brian shares his connection to the company, building family traditions shopping at Safeway (07:01).
  • Quote: “I raised my family at the Safeway at the corner of Camino Alto and Miller Avenue in Mill Valley, California.” — Brian (07:07)
• Retail media experience: Significant time at Walmart (helping launch its media network), Pinterest, Dentsu, and various agency experience.
• Motivation for joining AMC: Saw an opportunity to build “retail media right” at scale, especially after the Kroger merger pause and new executive leadership at Albertsons clarified a hybrid retail media strategy.

2. AMC’s Vision and the “Wow” Moment

• Diverse customer missions: Focus on the wide array of trip types to stores—stock-up, meal solution, pharmacy—which provide rich customer touchpoints (10:28).
• Mission for AMC: Drive “collective growth”—growth that benefits advertisers, merchants, and shoppers together.
  • Quote: “Our mission…is deliver collective growth. What’s good for our advertising partners, our merchant colleagues, and our shared customer.” — Brian (10:51)
• “Wow moment” goal: Creating a seamless, relevant experience where AMC can deduce not just who shops, but why, solving household needs by leveraging multiple data sources and channel touchpoints.
• Beyond basic media: Moving past sponsored product ads/programmatic display, AMC is expanding into connected TV (CTV), in-store signage, and app utilities (12:00–12:35).

3. Defining Success & Category Growth

• Primary metric: Category growth over mere revenue (13:46).
  • Brian: “We need to make the pie bigger…our North Star is category growth.”
• New-to-category shoppers: Focus not just on shifting share, but attracting new buyers into categories.
• Enterprise impressions: Introduction of a BOGO (Buy one, get one) style initiative where AMC matches paid brand impressions with its own enterprise-funded media (16:25–17:21).
  • Quote: “Buy an impression from the Albertsons Media Collective, and we’ll match it with another out of our own funded Albertsons enterprise campaign.” — Brian (16:25)

4. Measurement, Attribution & Industry Challenges

• Transparency in metrics: Publishes white papers on ROAS, using conservative methodologies to clarify performance (19:43).
• Synthetic controls: Incrementality measurement through advanced testing with key partners (21:10).
  • Quote: “We’re sleeves rolled right up with some of our biggest, most sophisticated advertising partners to really go through the methodology with them.” — Brian (21:38)
• Multi-touch attribution as major challenge: Integrating CTV, in-store, digital and third-party exposures; working with clean room environments and in-store beacons to bridge measurement gaps (23:14–24:54).
• Industry-wide challenge: RMNs and brands often function in silos with isolated measurement and JBP (joint business planning), missing the full consumer journey (25:20).

5. Technology, AI, and Innovation

• AI throughout AMC’s operations: Supports workflow, reporting, audience targeting, and user experience—including a Google-powered AI chat on their website (26:38–27:08).
• Looking forward: Building AI-driven, self-service, outcome-based ad platforms leveraging their unique data (28:08).

6. Fostering True Collaboration With Brands

• Education and dialogue: AMC focuses on showing how brands’ above-the-line brand campaigns can dovetail with retail-specific shoppers for multi-touch, full-funnel results (28:53–30:28).
• Hard conversations: AMC is honest about challenges in ROAS, encouraging brands to optimize both upper- and lower-funnel efforts with AMC data.

7. Internal Alignment & Organizational Strategy

• Reporting structure: AMC is fully embedded within Albertsons’ commercial organization (Jennifer Saenz as CCO), aligning media, loyalty, operations, and merchandising under common KPIs (31:48).
• Key Account Partnership: AMC’s team mirrors merchants’ structure, includes consultative sales, and supports SMB advertisers through self-service tools (32:20–33:43).

8. Future Investments and Capabilities

• Talent as priority: Consultative sales, performance marketing expertise, and engineering talent are focal areas for growth (34:06).
• Technology and infrastructure: Building a full-funnel, easy-to-operate RMN requiring external partnerships and ongoing tech investments.

9. Retail Media Ecosystem Risks & AMC’s Unique Advantage

• Biggest risk: Failing to unlock Albertsons’ deep, emotional local brand relationships, which are their “secret weapon” (36:50–39:05).
  • Quote: “The greatest risk…is not unlocking the power of the relationship between our retail brands and our customers.” — Brian (36:50)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On measurement complexity:
  “All my advertisers are asking me for different metrics…I sent out a survey…results came back with equal distribution across the 12 metrics.”
  — Brian relaying Sean Rassenberg’s anecdote (13:54)

• On collaboration:
  “This is the only medium where the objective of the buyer and seller is the same. We're both trying to generate an incremental sale from the same customer.”
  — Brian (17:46)

• On local connection and mission:
  “It’s the pillar of a local community…that’s our secret weapon. We’ve got data, other people have data, but we have this unique brand relationship that nobody else has to our audience.”
  — Brian (38:24)

Important Timestamps

• Introduction to Brian Monahan & Role (03:52–07:01)
• Why join AMC & vision for its platform (07:01–09:43)
• AMC’s “Wow” moment: trip type diversity & collective growth (10:28–13:01)
• Defining success: category growth & BOGO impressions (13:46–17:21)
• Measurement challenges & the state of attribution in RMN (23:14–25:20)
• Leveraging AI & innovation in retail media (26:38–28:23)
• Brand collaboration & alignment to category growth (28:53–31:48)
• Internal org structure & partnership with Merchandising (31:48–33:43)
• Risks for retail media & AMC’s community connection (36:50–39:05)

Episode Takeaways

• Category growth—not brand share—is AMC’s north star, driving all measurement and partner collaboration.
• AMC is embedding itself with merchants and leveraging data, technology, and unique community ties to deliver on retail media’s full promise.
• Measurement challenges persist, especially with multi-touch attribution—but AMC is proactive with third-party methodologies and open brand dialogue.
• True partnership, transparency, and organizational alignment are essential to collective growth.
• Albertsons’ local brand authenticity and customer relationships are positioned as the differentiator against industry giants.

For more info:

• Find links to Brian Monahan’s, AMC’s, and Albertsons’ profiles in the episode show notes.
• Tune in to future CPG Guys episodes and look for AMC’s activations at industry events like Grocery Shop.