A (3:30)

Yeah, I'll say one thing about Rite Aid, former president Lou Lehrman. His family founded it. He's a fellow Hill School alumni. I remember growing up in going to prep school in Eastern Pennsylvania and that was a big part of it, right? Sad to see them go. Yeah, Big announcement. Sree going on with Amazon and Spotify. They've announced a global strategic integration that provides advertisers using Amazon's DSP or demand side platform, programmatic access to Spotify's high quality streaming audio and video inventory. This partnership brings Amazon's trillions of shopping, streaming and browsing signaled together with Spotify's global audience of nearly 700 million monthly users, enabling advertisers to reach engaged audiences at scale while providing access to full funnel measurement and attribution. From today, the offering will be available in the US, Canada, the uk, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico. Further countries will be added in 2026. Quote by combining Amazon's diverse audience and first party signals with Spotify's high quality content and engaged fan base, we're creating new and meaningful ways for advertisers to amplify their omnichannel advertising strategies, said Meredith Goldman, Director of Amazon DSP at Amazon Ads. Quote Amazon DSP now has unprecedented scale across Amazon and open Internet audio supply, allowing us to set new standards for holistic campaign planning and activation. Wow, this is really big. Advertisers using the Amazon DSP will have access to Spotify streaming audio and video ad inventory, enabling omnichannel activation at scale. This partnership allows advertisers to incorporate Spotify's high quality content alongside Amazon's diverse content or rather diverse connected TV inventory, supporting effective full funnel planning, activation and measurement in A single solution. You know shree. Amazon DSP just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's a juggernaut. Sree email is still the most effective owned channel for CPG brands, even though it hasn't changed in decades. Now it has changed. Zamo works with your existing ESP to embed interactive websites inside of the email inbox itself. Customers can now purchase products with one click, edit their subscription and leave reviews directly in the email without leaving the inbox. With Zamo, CPG brands typically see a 20% reduction in churn and a 50% increase in cross sells. The best part is implementation only takes 30 minutes. Brands like Everyday Dose, Kitsch, Armra and Ghost Protein use Zamo to get more out of their email lists. And if you're using Klaviyo Braze or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Xemo integrates with your existing setup. Reach out to Zaymo. That's Z-A-Y-M O.com to get a demo before Black Friday.

B (6:48)

Yeah. What was another one they recently announced? Just recently. We had talked about it on the Riff a couple of weeks ago.

A (6:54)

Oh, they added Netflix and so now they have Netflix.

B (7:00)

Yeah, now they get Spotify. Like what?

A (7:01)

Audio, video. They're everywhere. Sri, they have all. Everyone is plugging into Amazon. They want access. And a lot of it has to do with the Amazon marketing cloud. Right. It's a measurement tool that everybody wants part of that clean room.

B (7:16)

Also, to some extent, I feel, I can't say this with certainty, but if you're in the TV business, streaming TV entertainment business, same as Spotify. Maybe in the future, as clickable buy happens within connected TV and audio as well, it lead to a buy on Amazon. Let's see for speculation here on that one. And indeed turns out to be right. But Peter and I, the CPG guys, we are good friends with Amazon ads. We featured them on the show. You know, we had Tanner Elton live from Cannes lions this year. It was episode number 500. It was a blockbuster. An episode. I think it's a big deal and so does Peter. So with that whopper of a partnership, let's transition to a recent earnings announcement for Q2. The 360 Merchandising Solutions assessment of Kroger's Q2 2025 earnings call made it clear the grocery game is being redefined around. Let me go slow. Freshness, scalar digital and efficiency. Did you hear me say anything about Sinistore Fresh is outspacing center Store pricing and promotions are being simplified. Kroger says our brands continue to outperform national brands and e commerce growth is fueling retail media profitability. Hallelujah. Store networks are being reshaped with closures. Faster builds more efficient layouts while cost and sourcing efficiency remain top priorities for the company. For brands, Kroger's message is simple. Align with Kruger's new playbook fresh cues, digital visibility, margin friendly promo and efficient partnerships or risk being left behind. Even sinistro brands should lean into fresh cues to clean ingredients packaging, positioning it on health convenience. Kroger's personal brands products once again outpaced national brand sales, continuing a trend of shoppers trading into private label for value and quality. They've already said e commerce grew, but it grew 16% year over year quarter driven by more hustles and higher order frequency. The key word here being more households. And if you get that with higher order frequency you're exponentially growing everything. Kruger emphasized the digital momentum is an all profit driver as I mentioned through retail media. Peter and I through our own experiences working in retail media know at this point it's a clutch for retailers. It's happening folks. Make sure you do those partnerships. Digital shelves are becoming increasingly important as a core growth engine. Who better than Peter to tell us about that? Kroger is also closing approximately 60 underperforming stores while accelerating new openings with more efficient layouts, faster construction timelines, expecting 30% more openings in the future brands pay attention to your JBPs. Focus on the retailers priorities Fresh private label and digital e commerce. Peter, what do you think about Kroger in their earnings release saying digital is that important to him? Getting new households?

A (10:05)

Sree they've been building their capabilities for 25 years beginning with the partnership they established with Dunn Humby. They ingested it, turned it into 8451. They are Avant garde, they understand their consumers. They have about a customer first policy. Don't you know? Avoid them at your own peril. They're a force to be reckoned with. Sri we're four months away from Super Bowl 60. Can you believe it? Nads four the big game are already sold out. Commercials bringing in more than $8 million for a 30 second ad spot for broadcaster.

B (10:42)

That's like 20, 30% of even the largest companies ad budgets.

A (10:47)

It's crazy Shree. I'm still amazed that people will drop all this money in this day and age. But you know, with so much cable cutting and people not watching linear television this is the one event where you do get reach. And the reality is for broadcaster NBCUniversal they know that Super Bowl L became the most watched super bowl ever. There is unprecedented demand for advertisers for this year set there on February 8. Adding to the hype, Puerto Rican music phenom Bad Bunny will perform during the super bowl halftime show. From Bad Bunny to potentially the Duracell Bunny, CB guys will track every ad, advertiser, teaser trailer, full commercial and major update as it plays out next year. We'll have a recap immediately after the game. Sree finish this out.

B (11:40)

Close it out Peter by saying, those of you that you know, react to Bad Bunning, who is Bad Bunny? He is one of the most downloaded artists of our times these days. Like me up there with like, I don't want to now make the Taylor Swift fans crazy, but he's up there from a male performer. So do check out who Bad Bunny is All right folks, that's our take on relevant commerce happenings from so many announcements this past week we thought were meaningful and could not be passed on for a rifle. We thought last week that Accelerate was powerful. Get informed. Be curious. This week we went all the way from Accelerate up in Seattle to the super bowl next year. We hope you enjoyed it. Please do click like our post on all platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and now YouTube. Thank you. We'll see you next week for another edition of Commerce Rift by the CPG Guys. And with that, let me also say to all our sponsors, Grocery Shop 2025 from Peter and me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. See you next week.

A (12:40)

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