Instacart's Ali Miller and Tim Castelli - Live from Cannes Lions 2026

Summary

The CPG Guys Podcast

Episode: Instacart's Ali Miller and Tim Castelli – Live from Cannes Lions 2026
Date: July 22, 2026
Guests: Ali Miller (General Manager of Advertising, Instacart); Tim Castelli (VP of Global Advertising, Instacart)
Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan

---

Overview:

Broadcast live from the Cannes Lions Festival, this lively episode dives into Instacart’s evolving role in retail media, omnichannel commerce, and the future of shopper engagement, featuring those at the forefront of Instacart’s advertising innovation. Ali Miller and Tim Castelli share candid insights on AI-driven shopping assistants, vertical video ads, connecting digital and physical store experiences, closing the loop on measurement, and more. The tone is energetic, engaging, and at times playful, with sharp commentary on both industry trends and Instacart’s bold strategic moves.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Changing Consumer Behaviors & Evolving Retail Media (07:27)

• Ali Miller on the non-linear, "spiderweb" shopper journey:

  "The consumer journey of course is no longer this linear path. It's a completely collapsed funnel where inspiration and purchase, discovery, all these things are happening all at the same time in a spider web." (08:20)

• Instacart’s focus moves beyond building online grocery infrastructure to enabling brands to act at the speed of viral culture, leveraging 2,200 retail partners and deep data insights.

2. AI Shopping Assistant & What Differentiates Instacart’s Approach

• Tim Castelli on the new AI Assistant and practical family value:

  "It's not just a surface level search agent—what’s for dinner—but it's the depth of the machine learning infrastructure and the data behind this… That level of detail makes us different." (12:16)

• The AI leverages 1.6 billion transactions, over 100,000 storefronts, user preferences/history, and is “inventory aware”—personalizing recommendations based on what’s in-stock at the shopper’s local retailer.
• Ali Miller: "It’s not a blank slate. It’s based on everything that's already driving discovery on Instacart." (13:30)
• Real-world use cases include recipe recommendations meeting household dietary needs and time constraints.

3. Launching Vertical Video Feeds – Commerce Inspired by TikTok (14:46)

• Ali Miller:

  "You can create inspirational shoppable content to kind of inspire outside of the aisle... Now you can pair that with vertical video." (15:32)

• Tim Castelli: The goal is “inspiration-led commerce.”

  “People come there not only for the content, but they’re already in the mindset of looking for food, inspiration, shopping. So the more you inspire, it's going to lead to more purchasing for more brands.” (17:06)

• Vertical video ads mimic social, meet viewers where they are, and make content instantly shoppable within Instacart’s platform.

4. AI, Personalization & Ad Experiences – Curation Is Shrinking the Shelf (18:08)

• The visible shelf is shrinking from 50+ items to “one or two AI-curated recommendations.”
• Instacart is not yet running ads in AI-native experiences, intentionally taking a test-and-learn approach.

  "You make sure that ads are resonating with consumers when you build them on top of a consumer experience you understand." (Ali Miller, 18:33)

• Experimentation and user feedback will shape how and when ad opportunities are introduced into conversational commerce.

5. Measurement: Closing the Loop with Trust (32:42)

• Instacart’s advantage: receipt-level, purchase-verified deterministic data.

  "Everything is digital by nature... the level of fidelity we have is pretty incredible." (Ali Miller, 32:42)

• Independent third-party validation: Instacart ads are MRC-accredited, and the company partners with Circana for sales lift studies.

  "It’s not enough for us to say it. We have really leaned into third party partnerships and validation." (Ali Miller, 32:42)

• Instacart extends its tech—including measurement—to other retailers via Carrot Ads, helping simplify a fragmented RMN landscape.

6. CaperCarts & The Physical-Digital Loop (29:52)

• Smart carts create a "literal physical digital loop," personalizing in-store experiences while enabling measurement and closed-loop attribution.

  "It’s one of the only in store touchpoints where you can fully close the loop on the individual transaction basket because you're building it as you go." (Ali Miller, 31:09)

• Tim Castelli: "Having a strong offering tying in-store and online is the beauty of Caper... they're on fire right now." (29:58)

7. Building A Full-Funnel, Omni-Channel Partner (28:55; 38:27)

• Instacart’s in-house agency “Local Produce” (winner of AdAge’s #1 in-house agency) is now offered as a resource for CPG partners.
• The company is increasingly acting as a creative and data-driven full-funnel marketing partner, not just a lower-funnel conversion tool.

  "You'll continue to see us act more like an omnichannel full funnel partner to the CPGs that really get it." (Tim Castelli, 38:27)

8. Best-in-Class Brand Behavior (35:25)

• The brands seeing growth are those breaking down internal silos and taking an audience-first, test-and-learn approach:

  "The best in class where I see move, where organizations are breaking down those silos and looking at it more holistically." (Tim Castelli, 35:27)

• Commitment from both Chief Commercial Officers and CMOs is key.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ali Miller:

  "We’re really at this moment where commerce and discovery are converging and retail media data is making that possible." (10:59)

• Tim Castelli:

  "You have to let the consumer lead the way. That's how you build a durable platform, a durable company, a durable proposition." (21:29)

• Peter Vs Bond:

  "If it’s not moving volume off the shelf, physical or digital, it’s noise." (35:07)

• Ali Miller on AI and Content:

  "We're demanding a little bit more of our search engines as people get used to conversational interfaces." (25:57)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:00 – 04:44: Episode opening, co-host banter, guest intros
• 07:27 – 10:59: The role of Instacart in enabling brands to move at the speed of culture
• 11:04 – 14:46: Instacart's new AI Shopping Assistant announcement; what makes it unique
• 14:46 – 17:51: Launch and strategy behind vertical video feeds; blending media and commerce
• 18:08 – 22:17: AI curation, ad experiences, and test-and-learn philosophy
• 29:29 – 32:01: CaperCarts, connecting digital and physical retail media
• 32:13 – 35:07: Closing the loop—independent measurement and attribution
• 35:25 – 36:48: What sets high-performing brands apart
• 37:31 – 38:55: What’s next for Instacart: simplifying retail media, testing AI-powered ads
• 40:00 – 40:25: Key takeaways from Peter and Sri
• 40:25 – end: Episode wrap-up and thank-yous

---

Closing Thoughts & Future Outlook

• Instacart is doubling down on contextual commerce, using AI to make inspiration instantly actionable and measurable—while resisting the urge to over-commercialize new surfaces until the consumer experience is validated.
• The company is expanding its role from a platform to a partner—bridging the gap between in-store and online, offering full-funnel capabilities, creative services, and a commitment to transparency in measurement.
• The team hints at more ecosystem partnerships, platform simplification, and deeper pilots in AI as key near-term priorities.

---

For further engagement, references, or to connect with today’s guests:
Links to Ali Miller, Tim Castelli, and Instacart’s platform can be found in the episode’s digital show notes.

---

"They're building that platform that enhances and complements customer experiences... adapting to how consumers are behaving and making it intuitive for brands to engage."
– Peter Vs Bond (40:00)

---

Transcript

[Ali Miller]

Hello from kin. I'm Ali Miller, the general manager of advertising at Instacart.

[Tim Castelli]

And I'm Tim Castelli, VP of Global Advertising and we're with the CPG Guys.

[Podcast Narrator]

Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast. Set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Sree Rajagopelan and Peter Vs Bond explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG guys.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPT Gas Podcast. Of course, Sri, your West Coast coast and also CEO and co founder of ThinkBlue Consulting, your trusted partner in your omnichannel journey where you can get in touch with me at SRI thinkblueconsulting co. Please do listen to my younger daughter Lara, the bank Cat's Eye who have now announced a full tour on the fall of Europe and US this time it's arenas. So I hope you're able to get a ticket. Indeed. And I'm joined today by my east coast co host and co founder, Mr. PVSP who also moonlights us at an industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. Peter Here in France we're hosting breakfast, lunch, dinners, happiers panels, so much more parties, whatnot. But this is a fun one we're getting ready to do here and it's in ac.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I know. I like the climate control. I have a lot of stuff because you talk about this concert tour and I can't get a ticket free. Like what good are you to me

[Sree Rajagopelan]

if I can't even live nation.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I know. God, you know, it's fun. I am having a good time. Sri. I got here yesterday, you put me right to work. I was like stocking the wonderful colon, Snap and go coolers that they sent us to display at the CBD guys. And we hosted. We host an event. We get tomorrow. Tonight we've got a happy hour. Tomorrow we've got a whole slew of schedules coming together. It finishes off. We're going to do a little happy hour with the women in commerce Media, one of our. One of our favorite groups with Ana, Laura and Emma. But all's good here. It's great to be great to be in can for our I think this is our fourth time together stream.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Indeed. So let me thank all our listeners and our sponsors. Without you, this podcast doesn't exist. Of course. Thank you. Make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on your preferred listening platform where you can get latest episodes and even go back and consume some of the 600 plus episodes we published.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Congrats.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Episode 600, of course was Tony Rogers, the CMO of Dollar General. We had full C suite lineup to it, including 599, which is the CEO of Newell Brands, Chris Peterson himself with a fabulous conversation on the ad. So we'll jump into our conversation with our guests Ali and Tim. I don't know who they are, so we're going to get introduced. But let me say something. Having the dynamic executive engine of Instacart live at their beachfront studio at the Lay. How do I say, Peter? Majestic. You got that right.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, that's good.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Caroline is an absolute blockbuster event. Peter, pull up a deck chair. Fire up your analytical break.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Are we on below down? Are we. Are we doing. Are we doing some Bravo TV here?

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yeah, you know what? Next year we should shoot for that.

[Tim Castelli]

We should do that full below that.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I think we need to bring that whole flavor of corn out the summer, Shereen.

[Ali Miller]

It would fit right in.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I think it would up in upstate New York.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So no putting up your deck chair, but you can fire up your analytical brain because today we're looking at how platform went from a digital picker app to the economic substrate of modern omnichannel grocery cars. You like my English, Peter?

[Peter Vs Bond]

You. You brought the grammar today. Sri. Quite brain. Elo. Grammar.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

It's. There you go into the car. There's a massive transformation happening right now with retail media. Programmatic personalization, immediate fulfillment are colliding into a single unified loop. Market is here at Cannes. Aren't just trying to figure out how to buy ad impressions or cheap reach. They're trying to figure out how to anchor their entire brand strategy in a dynamic marketplace that's moving in the speed of the shopper with all the volatility we have in the industry. But to help us cut through the noise and find the true commercial signal. Were joined live at the LA residence of Instacart by two absolute heavy hitters

[Peter Vs Bond]

who are actively apologize the audience.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

That just doesn't get. I guess so.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Sri. I think there may be some highlights in the transcriptions.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

To help us cut through the noise and find the true commercial signal. We're joined live by two heavy hitters who are actively architecting future of retail media and advertising in general. She's the general manager of advertising at Instacart. Ali Miller, second time on the show.

[Ali Miller]

Yes.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

And he's the vice president of global advertising sales. Finally we got Mr. Castelli himself. Welcome to the CPG Guys Live Here. Ken, how you both done doing Great.

[Ali Miller]

Doing great. Thanks for having us.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Jack.

[Ali Miller]

Two.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Two in the bag. Three more. You get the jacket.

[Ali Miller]

Oh, hey. I cannot wait.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah. So yesterday we were doing an event with eMarketer and Sarah Marzanik, who'd been on our podcast earlier this year, came on. She goes, by the way, I'm doing four panels today. That gets me my jacket.

[Ali Miller]

Although it's not the last thing we need here.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Actually. Sarah was very explicit. She's the first person came to us and said, I like it, but I want my varsity jacket in satin.

[Tim Castelli]

Oh, I like that.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I like that.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So she's.

[Peter Vs Bond]

She's insisted when the jacket goes to her, she.

[Tim Castelli]

I do have to say though, this is my second time as well. We did this together.

[Peter Vs Bond]

So you know what?

[Sree Rajagopelan]

I was supposed to say that both repeat guests. Wait a while since she had it.

[Peter Vs Bond]

We had one RMN leader who came on and said. She said, where's my jacket? And I said, well, you've only been on twice.

[Tim Castelli]

4.

[Peter Vs Bond]

She said, well, no, I had the three people from my. My company on as well. I'm like, no, no, that doesn't count. You don't get to count.

[Tim Castelli]

I don't. Without Alley.

[Podcast Narrator]

Just.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Whatever. We're going to go through it. I think Al may have to do a carry out Thursday.

[Tim Castelli]

Try the ve.

[Ali Miller]

See, the bro even comes through here. That was great.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Wait, you're. You're karaoke singer?

[Peter Vs Bond]

No, she can bring it here.

[Tim Castelli]

This whole other conversation,

[Sree Rajagopelan]

I know nothing about music. So you'll.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So thank you for making time live there and what's arguably a busy, busy schedule for all of us.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, thank you.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Before we jump into the hardening strategy, a quick reminder to our audience. Check out the digital show notes of this episode. We've dropped the LinkedIn hyperlinks for Ali and Tim, along with Instacart's corporate platform links, so you can multitask while you listen. And by the way, while you're there on Apple or Spotify, Peter insists that you must hit the five star,

[Ali Miller]

like, and subscribe.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Smash the.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Smash the five. That's great. That's a T. What's wrong with five? I like that number.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Smash the five. Quote, unquote, five for fighting. So, Ali, we're going to kick it off with you.

[Ali Miller]

Okay.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Massive macro trends. That's what I'm going to go straight out. We read Nick Modi from the latest RBC Capital Report, Modi's Musings Volume four Team number one.

[Peter Vs Bond]

It's out of jacket, by the way.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Go. Ooh. Hashtag goals now. Don't cast away. So Modi's musings volume force theme number one, Cultural relevance is what's going to help develop brand equity. Meaning scale alone doesn't protect you anymore. You got to turn online platforms into an active economic substrate from identity transaction flow. How is Instacart evolving its ad tech stack to let legacy CPG giants quickly move the speed of a viral TikTok trend or cultural moment? Turning immediate social media inspiration into a converted grocery basket?

[Ali Miller]

It's something we talk about a lot that the consumer journey of course is no longer this linear path. It's a completely collapsed funnel where inspiration and projects.

[Peter Vs Bond]

It's spiderweb.

[Ali Miller]

Spiderweb. Oh, creepy friendly neighborhood spiderweb. Friendly neighborhood spider web. Yeah, I'm a little arachnophobic so we'll

[Peter Vs Bond]

roll with it though.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Rolling in English language arachnophobic. Love that.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah. But you know, inspir inspiration, purchase discovery, all these things are kind of happening all at the same time in a spider web. Non creepy. And it's something that we've really embraced too. So from the very beginning we were really focused on building out the foundations of our platform and that includes of course, all the foundations of online grocery itself. Over 14 years of doing this in this business that Instacart's been around. And so that's building a strong data foundation, that's building the ability to understand what's happening across what are now 2200 retailers on our marketplace. So understanding that breadth and depth of selection, catalog hierarchies, everything that needs to come together in terms of shaping the purchase journey and shaping the groceries that are actually delivered to your door, that requires a lot of data fidelity and strong data foundations and that supported the rise of our initial on platform ads business. So we needed to make sure we were building those foundations. But now, especially looking at what's happened with E commerce, it's no longer all about on platform. Right. It's about supporting the use of that powerful first party data that we have, Digital first, representing 2,200 retailers, representing this incredible breadth and depth of selection across everyone from your local favorite grocer to some of the largest national and regional grocers and allowing that to be more of a capability that CPGs can take with them and use to target to drive purchase and to drive closed loop measurement, importantly really across any surface. So that includes TikTok, as you mentioned. It includes, you know, YouTube, Meta, the trade desk, Roku, NBC Universal, so many other places. And what I love about this is That I like to refer to kind of taking this e commerce data out of its own little corner. It's no longer about just on platform advertising. One specific stakeholder, one type of person who needs to care about retail media. This is now a layer or capability that can inform all types of advertising and make that experience much more relevant and targeted to the consumer. Give them a chance to buy that item, get it delivered to their door, get that product in their hands within an hour, and it allows the CPG and agency to close the loop and understand the downstream impact of purchase. So I think we're really at this moment where commerce and discovery is really converging and retail media data is making that possible.

[Peter Vs Bond]

You can't come to Cannes without a press release in your hand. So, Tim.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yeah.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Let's talk about some news you at Instacart have announced that can listen to this week. Let's start with your AI shopping assistant.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yes.

[Peter Vs Bond]

What makes Instacart's AI assistant different than the rest?

[Tim Castelli]

Oh, you're right. You have to come to Canada with a press release or several pressures.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah, I just come with the father of pop stuff. That's all I got.

[Tim Castelli]

He's always has news,

[Peter Vs Bond]

don't worry.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yeah.

[Tim Castelli]

So it's funny, I think last can again, it was kind of a buzzword. AI was kind of a buzzword. It's still a buzzword, but I think there's real, there's real substance. This year I think that's the thing was changed. It's like built real things using AI to add real value to the whole ecosystem, which is what we built and we've been working on in and out. Right. So it's interesting. I don't know about your house, but a common conversation in my household like every day is what's for dinner? What are we making? What's going on? In fact, there was this recent Harris poll, right. Three out of four Americans are more stressed about what's for dinner and more difficult deciding what's for dinner than actual making dinner. Right. So that friction is what I think we can really solve uniquely. Right. So this year we've been working on it for long time, but we announced Instacart's AI assistant.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

And I think what makes it different is it's not just a surface level search agent what's for dinner, but it's the, it's the depth of the machine learning infrastructure and the data behind this. We've been at this for 14 years. 1.6 billion transactions, over 100,000 storefronts. And that level of data and infrastructure feeding that tool, I mean, it's inventory aware, based on your local retailers. It has all your preferences and its history. It knows what the household and how it shops. So it's that level of detail that I think makes us different. And it learns every transaction, every shopping experience, what they like, what they don't like, what they reject, what they buy, it refines. It's constantly learning, constantly making a better customer experience, which leads to bigger baskets, which leads to better brand experiences. So that's where I think it's the what's underneath these AI tools that feeds it that makes it different. I think makes us different.

[Peter Vs Bond]

So speaking is the only member of the household who cooks and the primary member of the household, grocery shops. I know that while I'm here in Cannes, Instacart is a primary driver of feeding the family.

[Tim Castelli]

It's great. Well, we're happy to help.

[Ali Miller]

Thank you for your business.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Anything we can do to make you

[Tim Castelli]

look a little busier while.

[Peter Vs Bond]

What are you doing? I'm ordering it.

[Tim Castelli]

Exactly right.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Exactly.

[Ali Miller]

As Tim said. I think one of the things, too, that's really helpful about this background and the data and online grocery capabilities that we have is for brands. This means it's not a blank slate. It's based on everything that's already driving discovery on Instacart. It's based on our own individual purchase behavior that's shaping recommendations, and it's helping to support these more complex needs and these true underlying needs of consumers to be able to express. Hey, I need to figure out a recipe for four that only takes 25 minutes to cook and satisfies all the dietary restrictions in my family.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Oh, my God. Everyone's got their own lifestyle. That's right.

[Tim Castelli]

So it could be a real being able to do that in a much more, you know, in an easier, more intelligent and seamless way. It's a game changer.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So, yeah. So, you know, what if. Now you guys are making me think. Because every person we meet in our corporate work life, they always tell us the same thing when we Food and cooking comes up. They always say instacart is if they're two working spouses or partners. They always say, instacart is my answer to getting grocery home.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah. And that's the whole thing. It saves you time so you can, like, spend time on the other things that are more important. It's such a convenience.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Such as with your pet.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Especially if you have a dog.

[Ali Miller]

I agree.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Absolutely.

[Ali Miller]

You also need to Eat.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

No debate. So another announcement that you just made is the vertical video feeds. Yes, tell us all about the vertical video feeds.

[Tim Castelli]

Yes, now you want.

[Ali Miller]

Sure, I can take that one. So you mentioned up top the, you know, the speed of TikTok trends. Right. So we're all in our, in our lives when we're not actively grocery shopping, we're browsing and enjoying content.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I think the term is doom scroll.

[Ali Miller]

Oh, but not for food and restaurants. This is what we call cleansing the feet.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Vertical video feed.

[Ali Miller]

Vertical video feed. So yes, when you, when you need to take a break from the doom scrolling and you want to consume amazing inspirational recipe and grocery related content, what form does that tend to take? Vertical video. And so that idea of kind of inspirational snackable video can now appear on Instacart. So we have this beautiful immersive feed that is really building on some of the more inspiration forward formats that we've launched over the last year or so. So sponsored recipes, sponsored occasions. Now you can create that inspirational shoppable content to kind of inspire outside of the aisle and kind of shape that intent of what folks might be interested in discovering and buying. And now you can pair that with vertical video.

[Peter Vs Bond]

So when you look to engage with brands on that mechanism, do you want them to come to you with a fully baked plan, they know your ad product and just do this or are you actually looking to them saying no, come to us with what your problem, your problem is and let's figure out how we solve that together.

[Ali Miller]

All of the above I would say, excuse me, we definitely want to be flexible in terms of what brands want to come in the door with. We're very excited about collaborating on big moments, you could even share more about that. But if there is already a vision, if there is already fantastic discovery oriented content, content that, that brands are collaborating on with creators, we think that this is an awesome opportunity to bring that to life in a way that's going to resonate with consumers on our platform. But beyond that, we're also so excited and you know, being here and celebrating a lot of the, the marketing and advertising work behind what, you know, this, this entire place and we're also very excited to bring that to life for again in partnership with brands.

[Tim Castelli]

Can I say one more thing about the immersive? I think what's great about the vertical video and the short form, bringing that, you know, into the platform and we've been, we've been slowly releasing more inspiration ad formats for shop video and then recipes and occasions, you know, cross on merchandising but the video. If we can start tying inspiration into commerce, inspiration led commerce. I mean, because what's so unique about our platform is it's a contextually relevant platform. People come there not only for the content, but they're already in the mindset of looking for food, looking for inspiration, looking for shopping. So the more you can inspire on this platform, it's going to lead to more purchasing for more brands. So I think that's, that's like just the next level of tying that into our platform, which brands are super excited about.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yeah, I'm going to go back to you actually this for both of you. As consumers look to collapse, choice complexity because of low mental energy, rising anxiety, pricing, the visible shelf is shrinking from 50 plus items down to one or two AI curated recommendations. And Tim was already going there.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

How does this radically compress digital real estate? Change how you're thinking about the ad business strategy and join business plans that you have with brands year over year. And then you mentioned you're intentionally not running ads and AI experiences yet. Walk us through how you're thinking about in product. Yeah, walk us through your everyday conversations with brands. So maybe we'll kick it off with you first.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Sure,

[Ali Miller]

absolutely. So we talked about obviously so much excitement about AI. Like we're very much investing, we're all in, you know, internally in terms of tools and capabilities we're building for brands and other partners to make it easier for them to activate with Instacart behind the scenes to improve ranking and relevance and personalization on top of what we already do with machine learning, which remains very powerful and interesting even in the, in the age of generative AI. But then we get to of course chatbots, chat based interfaces, conversational commerce, all kinds of names for this experience. And, and we're so excited to be bringing this to life as Tim mentioned, you know, leveraging that 14 plus years of grocery experience and all of the data and personalization behind that. So there's so much potential here. But we're also really early in terms of how this is taking off in the online grocery space in particular with consumers at scale. So what I'm excited about is consumers have this ability to come to us with more complex needs with the need behind the grocery list. Like I need to figure out what to make for dinner, I need to figure out which personal care products are right for me, whatever it may be. And we have a really powerful way to help drive that kind of research and discovery recipe occasion basket building. But we still need to figure out what's really resonating at scale with consumers? And having been in ads for a long time, both of us, it's how do you make sure that ads are resonating with consumers? Will you build them on top of a consumer experience that you understand? And so this, this early stage of rolling out and expanding our card assistant, our AI assistant on Instacart to millions of consumers, we're going to be getting so much fantastic feedback. So feedback at scale on what consumers are actually asking when they come back, when they don't come back, what are they finding value in in addition to qualitative feedback that we hear. And so that's going to really set the foundation for ads, experiences that feel natural, that feel useful, that feel additive, and will actually add value to consumers and brands alike. And so that's really what we're looking forward to is towards the second half of this year, we'll be building experimentation, we'll be looking at what resonates and we'll be using that to kind of develop our ad strategy in these new surfaces. So I know we will get there. And we're already building these inspirational ad formats. We have sponsored recipes, we have great basket building content, we have promotions and deals that brands are leaning into. These are things that I expect will resonate with consumers in a sponsored context when they're using our, our AI assistant. But we want to make sure that it's really ready, ready to start rolling that out. So that's really how we're thinking about

[Sree Rajagopelan]

it part when you're sitting in gdp.

[Tim Castelli]

Well, no, like Alex said it. Well, like we're, if anybody has sitting here and we are podcasting, they've got this figured out on the ad experience. I think they're, they're lying because look,

[Peter Vs Bond]

which term is optimistic?

[Tim Castelli]

Well, I'm sorry, Optimistic.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Yeah.

[Tim Castelli]

Maybe a little naive.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

So the benchmark. So look, one of the things I love about working here is it's a very consumer led company.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

It always has been. Even from the way we look at the marketplace, we don't care where our consumers shop as long as they're buying our brands in whatever channel they're buying.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

And the consumer has to lead the way. That's how you build a durable platform, a durable company, a durable proposition. If you just jump to assumptions that the consumer advertising is going to interact and consumers are going to interact with ads in the same way the way we've been doing it, that may not be the right assumption. So we're going to learn, we're Going to just along the way, we'll let the consumer lead the way, what is the right experience and then integrate an organic brand experience into that, because that's going to be good for all things. So brands accept that they don't want us to jump too far, they're patient with us and we'll bring them along for the journey with us as well, which will be great.

[Ali Miller]

That test and learn mentality is going to be really key for literally everybody working in this team right now.

[Peter Vs Bond]

So let's double click on the immersive feed component. It feels like to some degree it's been a bit of a direct response to how people are actually engaging in social media.

[Podcast Narrator]

Right.

[Peter Vs Bond]

So I guess my question is this, how do you make sure that the experience feels additive and not just another ad unit? And does this foreshadow more to come with media publishers and creators from your perspective?

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah, I mean, I think Dr. Will go add on to it. So I think consumers are used to scrolling or getting inspiration from different place in their feeds and video, et cetera. All we're doing is again, try to compress that from inspiration to transaction and make that easier and seamless. So I think we're going to learn here as well. So we're piloting it right now. Can we make that inspiration make it in a contextually relevant place? And it's shoppable and it's instantly measurable. I'm excited to work with brands to see, okay, which content is actually driving the behavior that they think it's driving having which one are they is purchasing, which one is then adding to lifetime value. We're guessing a lot of that. By trying to connect different platforms here in one place. If you can look at that different content and follow it all the way through, I think we're going to learn a lot with brands along the way.

[Ali Miller]

Absolutely. And I say in the context of just making sure we're not adding just another ad unit. I think a lot of this comes into the type of content that we're promoting. What we think will resonate with each individual as a consumer based on past purchases or interest in different categories. And we really, you know, with every single thing we launch on Instacart, we make sure that we run lots of a B test. We understand the impact on the consumer experience, on the brand experience, and really kind of tying it together with the approach we just talked about with our AI assistant, we're really trying to build in the direction of value. And what we see is of course, vertical video content, especially when you think of recipes and when you think of demonstrations of how to use products, it's so natural and it's so resonant to a consumer. So the ability to just have that information in context and quickly add those items to your cart is going to be really, really simple. And then when you further look out at where we're doing these integrations with platforms like TikTok and Meta, it helps to really bring that whole story together. Like this is exactly the behavior that we can help to drive when you are in a more kind of discovery oriented inspiration forward platform, which can also benefit from tying to that purchase and giving the consumer that choice to add something to their cart on Instacart. And now we're kind of bringing that full circle, bringing it back on the platform.

[Peter Vs Bond]

I absolutely think that the contextual aspect of it is going to dramatically improve the shopping experience. Yeah, I've always said one of the reasons I had historically avoided shopping online for events like 4th of July was it was spearfishing forever to experience fishing. I just want to say let's go throw parties for my friends in the backyard and I want the, I want the, the, the, the platform to come back to me and tell me, maybe ask me a couple questions in return. Yeah, you've got an including free people coming and then boom, here's what, here's your how many people, here's what you need and the right quantity. That's right.

[Tim Castelli]

And, and again it's, it's that contextual relevance and it's that mindset of the consumer and the mode they're in while they're there.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right, right.

[Tim Castelli]

And what they're looking for. And if you can start using AI to think like you're thinking in holistically, I just need that or inspire using contextuality, relevant content, you know, whether the brand's bringing it, whether we eventually get to creator content and start tying that, all of that just makes it a richer experience and more relevant.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Allie, are you seeing it play out more where actually in the number of characters that are appearing in your search term are starting to grow as people are getting comfortable with contextually conversing with your engine?

[Ali Miller]

We've definitely seen some of that and this, you know, even dates back to some of the conversational search and generative AI enhanced search that we were piloting over the last couple years. So, you know, we've been at this for a little while like learning what's resonating with consumers. And definitely, I mean we've been all trained to have very Specific search terms, very narrow search terms that will help us get exactly what we're looking for. But yes, as people get more used to working in conversational interfaces, we're demanding a little bit more of our search engines. And I think as you see that kind of popping up across the industry in grocery or not or beyond E commerce, a lot of that can be reflected on our platform. And just to give a shout out too to all the non food CPGs, I think one of the things I love, love about this sort of occasion based shopping is, hey, I'm doing a summer grill. What do I need? In addition to the meat and the condiments and the buns and everything, you need your bug spray, you need your lighter fluid. Sunscreen, you know, sunscreen. Exactly. So it's, it's, it's really helpful to kind of tie together this idea of truly authentically useful basket building that, that helps to kind of touch every part of the aisle.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah. My daughter came to me the other day, I knew she was from the northeast when it was sunny outside and she walked up with a tube of sunscreen, said, daddy, would you smear me?

[Tim Castelli]

That's really.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Give me a smear.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

This one's for you. And it's ads for viewers.

[Tim Castelli]

Yes. Another question.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Essentially the way we see it, you're opening up Instacart's own marketing engine. Yes. And partners.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yes.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

What made you confident enough that that internal capability of yours, you're actually to turn it into a commercial offering.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah. So, so we've been at this for a little bit.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

In fact, Laura Jones, our CMO is fantastic. She's built an incredible marketing team, an incredible marketing machine and in fact, our in house agency, Local Produce, just won Ad Age number one in house agency that year. Right. So best. Unbelievable. Right. So, and we've been. So we thought, hey look, we should be tapping into this creative engine and all of the knowledge we have of our consumers and all knowledge of our brands to like work together to elevate and accomplish the marketing goals as well. So we've already been started doing this. There's about 200 brands, we've done probably about 400 different campaigns and we see great results. So when brands integrate into our moments, our seasonal moments, we're seeing like 80, 90% new to brand impressions bringing into the fold. So probably the biggest example of this was two years ago at super bowl where we had all of our brands delivering the groceries as part of our super bowl commercials. We leaned hard into a lot of it. Ancillary content with that. So I think it's, it's bringing that expertise to help brands. And whether it's we're leaning into our seasonal moments or things we're doing or we're actually creating bespoke creative campaigns offering that capability, that's what our brands are looking for. So it's really using us for not just the performance. Yes. But the full funnel capabilities and how we can add value. And the great thing too is then all of this is underpinned by this rich first party data to help inform the full funnel based what's online, what's off platform and all closed loop measurement to drive performance. So it really is from a marketer standpoint and the brands that are really getting us are starting to look at us that way. I think we could be much more than just a lower fellow solution.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

No debate. But let me remind our audience who's speaking with Ali Miller and Tim Castelli from Instacart and we're live at Cannes in France. Over to you, Peter.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Let's talk about new revenue streams and business models. Yes, CBG brands, Tim, are desperately trying to evolve from old school unit driven transaction models towards ecosystem based monetization. With Instacart capercarts rolling out smart screens right into the physical brick and mortar aisles, you guys have built a literal physical digital loop.

[Ali Miller]

Yes.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right. How should brands rethink co created real time physical store experiences using your connected hardware?

[Tim Castelli]

We're super excited about what's going on in store with caper. So first of all, and you guys know this like in stores will continue to be is a massive opportunity.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

For most of the transactions are as fast as e commerce is.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Even if people are cutting their cables and maybe not watching cable TV the way they used to, they're still, they're

[Tim Castelli]

still selling and most people are omnichannel.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

So there's a lot. So having a strong offering or finding a way to tie these two worlds together in store and online is really the beauty of Caper. So we bought this company, invested in Capercart and it's on fire right now. We'd like 3x deployments. We're at 100 cities across 15 states and growing. And your ability to develop a relationship, say bring everything you love about the digital space into that personalization to physical space, know where that shopper is in store and be deliver an ad or offering. We're seeing people who use Capers build bigger baskets, spend more time in stores. The retailers like it, consumers love it. So it's, it's really been a unique

[Peter Vs Bond]

part of our offering and brands love

[Tim Castelli]

it too because now they're starting to look at it. How can you tie physical and online together? And that's just opening up a whole new area of conversations and opportunities.

[Ali Miller]

And importantly it's one of the only in store touch points where you can fully close the loop on the individual transaction basket because you're building the everything else is relevant.

[Peter Vs Bond]

You're actually personalized.

[Ali Miller]

As Kim said, it really is bringing the best of E commerce kind of back to where it all started in

[Tim Castelli]

the already happens like so. So Chicana tells us even if you're exposed to an ad on Instagram but didn't buy, you're showing up 15 to 20% increase of buying those, those, those products in store just from the exposure. So these things are already happening. It's just how can we get more and more signals that tie them together and more touch points for consumers.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Yeah, multi touch attribution, you have to understand it's part of the, it's part of the experience.

[Tim Castelli]

Back to what you said, it's like consumers look at it holistically. You know we just look at it in silos and budgets of those types.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, it's almost like we can break down those s

[Tim Castelli]

at those, look at those.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So I guess we're starting to deeper dive into the physical aisle which we would call as the ultimate frontier. Ali, we can't be here at can lions without talking about our favorite word closed loop measurement.

[Peter Vs Bond]

That was three words, maybe one was hyphenated.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

We took too much cred way too early for good. English marketers are completely burned out on self attributed platform metrics. Yeah, Instacart's value proposition is anchor of receipt level purchase verified deterministic truth. So for the brand marketers listening work out in the validation trap, what does mathematically clean independent attribution look like over the next few years and then how do you actually enforce it?

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, this is so huge for us and we were talking about kind of the incredible rise of course of E commerce and online grocery and with that came this incredible number of retail media networks and this fragmentation of the space where to your point many different attribution methodologies, many different buying interfaces, varying degrees of kind of quality and trust around what those metrics are showing. And so kind of going back to the roots of what Instacart does uniquely well is everything is digital by nature. So not only do we have the receipt, we have the actual basket building details. We have how did a consumer actually build the basket we have, you know, substitution preferences that they might, might be expressing to us if a product may not be in stock. They have, you know, all kinds of, you know, true competitive sets that they're essentially inferring to us based on what they're searching and what they're choosing from. So the level of fidelity that we have on this data is pretty incredible. And so that leads to a really strong measurement foundation. But of course it's not enough for us to say it. We have really leaned into third party partnerships and validation and verification. And we were really proud to be one of the first retail media networks that was accredited by, by the mrc. And so that's a very, very, very, very, very detailed auditing process to make sure that, you know, our core metrics are, are, you know, validated and trustworthy. And then as Tim was talking about, you know, we've worked with Circana and others to really prove out impact as well. And then the thing that I'm really excited about is that as part of our model of offering our ads technology to other two retailers or other e commerce players in the space, we can take that strong foundation of measurement, that optimization that's powered by it, that accreditation and that trust and we can offer that technology to retailers so they don't need to invest in what it takes to kind of bring all of this online at a level of fidelity and trust and expertise that obviously takes a lot of time and energy and money to build. And you know, grocers may not want to invest in all of that end to end. But by working with us through our Caradots partnerships, they can gain access to all of that technology ready to go. And at the same time we can help to then defragment and kind of simplify this retail media ecosystem by making it easier for brands and agencies to buy through Instacart Ads show up across the 2200 retailers on our marketplace and the over 310 partners that are using our carrot solutions.

[Peter Vs Bond]

We've talked about all these great innovative capabilities but at the end of the day, Tim, I know you understand this. If it's not moving volume off the shelf, physical or digital, it's noise. So the question to your is what's separating the brands that are actually moving the numbers from those that are running the same 20 year old playbook.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah, no, we've, I think we've talked about this before.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

I know it's like, you know, so it's a couple things and I've always, you know, when I'm Relatively new. I've been here about three years and I was, I was surprised by the silos and the level of the silos that exist in this part intrinsically in the retail space. But it's here and channel hit traits here and she partners.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Welcome to our family.

[Tim Castelli]

The marketing side was always about an audience right. Versus you know, and, and like we're an audience first consumer first platform.

[Podcast Narrator]

Right.

[Tim Castelli]

We didn't exist 14 years ago. We look at it that way. We want to look at it in silos. It doesn't matter where he or she buys, it's that she buys. So I think the best in class where I see move where organizations are breaking down those silos and looking at it More holistically, it's $1 trying to drive an outcome. So being in the meetings with not only the chief commercial officer but with the CMO as well, looking at holistically and you get enterprise commitment that E commerce is important. So that's really best in class. So look across holistically, prioritize it as a priority channel for growth. Right. And then this mindset of being willing to test and learn and try the new things. Not everything's going to work but you have to have that mindset because we haven't figured this all out like we were talking about in the AI space. So be curious and see what works and then try and scale it from there. And I think that's where you get best in class class in this marketplace right now.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Okay Tim, what are we going to do man? We can no longer call you the media guy. Enter the detailed one fully immerse yourself

[Tim Castelli]

proud, proud, proud COR members.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Welcome, welcome.

[Tim Castelli]

Feel good to be here.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So let me, let me wrap this one up conversation for both of you. So thank you for the provocative insights getting into measurement in a pretty deep way and what you're building on the platform before we back up and head out back onto a beautiful sunny walk on the cross at so this place especially is very notoriously famous for the birthplace of massive landscape shifting partnership announcements, enterprise platform reveals Alim this is only day two.

[Tim Castelli]

Day two.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

So this means what do you guys cooking up under the hood for instance that you can uniquely share with the CPG community live today.

[Ali Miller]

Yeah, let's share that confidential thing we're just talking about. I mean I would say, you know what looking forward to a couple things. We talked a lot about being sort of early innings, early days on conversational commerce. And so it is no secret yet we you know, still have a lot to figure out in terms of what the ad experiences are going to be here. And so for me, when I look ahead to the next six months, understanding what's working for consumers, understanding how to meet brands in terms of what they need, that to me is going to be a really exciting next step that we're going to test and learn together. And then similarly, as we continue to expand this ecosystem approach that we're taking, really looking forward to, to simplifying the fragmented landscape of retail media, we are not done there. There's definitely going to be more news on the horizon and so I'm really excited about continuing to expand.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah. And like Ali said, I think you'll continue to play that role to simplify this complicated marketplace. We're going to continue to test and learn in the AI space together with brands and then you'll continue to see us act more like a Omni Channel full funnel partner to the CPGs that really get it, really lean in and look at us knowledge, just performance, but mid and full funnel, using our data to wrap it all together in a closed loop measurement way. So I think that's, that's the path you'll continue to see us on.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

He is full retail now,

[Ali Miller]

But Omnichannel,

[Sree Rajagopelan]

yes, still holding on. No, not coming over to the store only world.

[Tim Castelli]

Give me time, give me time. It's all right. It's early days. Come on.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Let me remind the listeners you can find all of our content by simply going to a Web browser. Typing cpguys.com is the URL. Etc. If you are someone you know something to contribute to this ongoing discussion with CPG guys, please reach out to us. Pretty straightforward. Drop us an email at reach us cpgas.com that's R A C H U [e-mail] to our audience, I want to say thank you for the likes, clicks, comments, direct messages meeting us at trade shows, coming to our event.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Thank you for responding into our DMs, MySpace, DMs.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

That's what thank you for recording episodes with us like we've done today. And to our sponsors, us always grateful to you. The show doesn't exist without all of you. You work with us all year. We're grateful to have you as your audience partners. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Peter. It's been a pleasure doing this with you. Give me the big takeaway today that

[Peter Vs Bond]

they're building that platform that enhances and complements customer experiences, plain and simple. Right? They are adapting. Adapting. They see how consumers are behaving and they are building a platform that that makes it very intuitive and very natural for brands to be able to engage consumers.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

My big takeaway, Tim has plunged into the detail.

[Peter Vs Bond]

He's joined the dark side. Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

Thank you Peter. History in the making, guys. Lots of great announcements right here at Ken. Looking forward to the next few months playing out as well and what you have cooking under the factory. Thank you both Ali and Tim for taking time out of your hyper busy. Can schedule to drop this master class with us us live here and to our audience. Check out the digital show notes, click the hyperlinks, follow Instacart's ongoing ad product rollouts. Thank you guys.

[Peter Vs Bond]

Thank you so much.

[Tim Castelli]

Yeah, yeah, here we go.

[Sree Rajagopelan]

That's all we have for you today. See you soon in another episode of the CPG Guys.

[Podcast Narrator]

The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGuys, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPG Guys, llc. The views expressed by guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys, LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPT Guys, LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, of reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.