Transcript
A (0:02)
Hello, it's January 20th, 2026. Welcome to episode 18 of the Commerce Riff with the CPG Guys weekly short segment. Snackable 10 minutes of content, audio and video. We hope you enjoy our curated stories. I'm of course your co host pbsb. I'm joined by Paparaj, the father of Pop stars Co founder CRO Think Blue Consulting. Bree, what's going on this week?
B (0:21)
How you doing man? So excited to be at FMI Midwinter again. We presented retail media to the Fresh Food Council yesterday. It was very well received. Today we're in front of the Growth Forum and a whole bunch of other forums on a new concept of enhancing joint business plans to be anchored around joint value creation. So what do you got for learnings?
A (0:37)
Coca Cola is shaking things up with a newly created Chief Digital Officer position as part of broader leadership changes tied to its CEO transition. Zef Salingan Sahin, a 20 year Koch veteran currently running the company's Eurasian Middle east operations, will step into the role. She'll lead digital transformation efforts and work to streamline cross functional collaboration. It matters because while Coca Cola has long positioned itself as a digital marketing leader, this formalizes digital strategy at the C suite level. Incoming CEO Henrique Braun called the role pivotal to the company's future, signaling digital isn't just a marketing plan anymore, it's enterprise wide strategy. The mission her immediate priorities are assessing how Coca Cola can strengthen execution, simplify workflows and deliver to consumers with more precision and speed. Classic digital transformation mandate for the CPG space. This is part of Braun's leadership team reshuffling. He was named CEO last month, as you remember Shree, replacing James Quincy, who has held the role since 2017. Sahin will take on some strategic responsibilities currently handled by the CFO John Murphy and report directly to Braun. Bonus move is that the Chief Marketing Officer, Manolo Arroyo is getting an expanded role too, picking up customer and commercial leadership duties from Murphy. His new title Chief Marketing and Customer Commercial Officer. All appointments are taking effective at the end of the first quarter. Coke is betting big on digital transformation At a time when CPG brands face massive technological disruption, creating a dedicated C level row shows that they're serious about making digital central to its entire business, not just marketing function. Over to you sri.
B (2:21)
Yeah Peter, I would say it's about time Coke got one of those roles because they're very advanced digitally. We see it in the marketplace every day. But sky and Stratably's 2026 data retail media report finds omnichannel orchestration and gen AI maturity separating winners from laggards Retail media has entered a defining new phase. Now accounting for nearly 30% of all U.S. digital ad spend, the channel is no longer a standalone or negotiable lower funnel tactic, but a central driver of omnichannel advertising strategy. According to this 2026 State of Retail Media report released yesterday by Sky Constratably, an independent research and advisory firm, brands that failed to integrate radiometer across search, Social, programmatic and CTV are rapidly falling behind. Based on an exclusive survey viewers, consumer goods brands and agencies, the fifth annual report showed that seven in 10 advertisers now meet or exceed their retail media performance goals. However, the study reveals a widening performance gap between leaders and laggards. Top performers are investing in unified orchestration, real time incrementality measurement, advanced applications of generative AI, while others struggle with fragmented, execut and limited, I would say visibility into true performance. Kroger in fact just announced their partnership with Google Gemini, so do check that one out. The brand succeeding in retail media aren't just spending more, they build fundamentally different operating models, said Michelle Irwin, CMO at Sky. Leading advertisers are treating retail media as the connective layer across cert, Social, Programmatic and ctv, she said. As I just mentioned, they're measuring incrementality in flight and applying AI across the full campaign life cycle, not just lower frontal measurement. In 2026 we'll also see agentic channel and AI driven inner interfaces continue to evolve and brands that don't plan, organize and measure for it or find themselves invisible at the point of discovery and decision. Invisible is the word. Peter Some findings. Brands now allocate 30% of even paid search dollars, 34% of paid social dollars to drive traffic directly to retail mass advertisers are coordinating 32% of total media budgets, not just digital. Through retail media, 59% are increasing retailer research spend, 57% boosting social commerce, 50% expanding CTV and 52% moving display budgets from open web to retail media DSPs. Those are huge numbers. 63% of marketers are using Genai and retail media programming, but its role is shifting. While early usage focused heavily on creative and content, brands are increasingly applying gen AI to campaign management, optimization, analytics, personalization. Brands actively measuring incrementality report tangible results 54% reduced waste spend, 49% increase new customer acquisition and and 29% improved competitive positioning. You heard it first year on the CPG guys five and a half years ago. If you are not a retail media guru, you are not a media guru anymore. Over to you, Sree.