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- [00:02]
A
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Set at the intersection of commerce and tech, your hosts Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Vaughn explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.
- [00:22]
B
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast. I'm your co host, pvsp along with my best friend, My Ride or Die. He is known by his daughter's fans as Paparaj. I call him the man known as sri. Former Chief Customer Officer General Mills. He's currently the CRO at Think Blue Consulting. Sree and I just got back from Las Vegas. Our annual sojourn to the Consumer Electronics show, or CES took place first week of January and we had an opportunity to throw a party, some dinners and do some podcast recordings. Before I get into more detail, I'll just make mention. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, wherever and if you're there, give us a rating. If you do follow us, it means that any new episodes that we produce automatically appear into your stream. So highly recommend that you follow us on those platforms. Okay, so let's talk about today's episode. We we recorded this episode inside of the Aria up in the Sky Suites and C Space. That's the area of ces. It's typically for consumer goods companies. C Space is very interesting. Increasingly, CES for consumer goods companies is where brands and retailer commerce media networks get together to kind of kick off the year. One of them represented very well there was Walmart Connect. We actually recorded this episode in the Walmart Connect Studios. I think it was on the 55th floor of the Aria Sky Suites overlooking Las Vegas. It was a great conversation. Back in June in Cannes, we had met the new VP of Business and Product Marketing at Walmart Connect Coromolik and it took us quite a while, but we finally managed to coordinate where we could all be together in the same place. And we have a wide ranging range of conversation about what's going on at Walmart Connect, the evolution that they're going through, some of the integrations and partnerships that they've made over the last year. I think you're going to find this to be a very interesting conversation. We hope you like it. So without any further ado, let's go back to our conversation. Vegas Shree and I speak with Khoram Malik from Walmart Connect.
- [02:44]
C
Khurram, welcome to the CPG guys. We're thrilled to be doing this live with you. Las Vegas 2026. Welcome indeed.
- [02:51]
D
Yeah, excited to be here. It's my favorite conference right after the.
- [02:54]
C
Holidays for the CPG guys too full time man. And for our audience, of course. We'll have links to Gurum's LinkedIn as well as Walmart Connect's LinkedIn and the website on the digital Niner notes of this episode. So I'm going to jump into it right away. Karl, let's do it. So you've recently taken on an expanded role overseeing business and product comms at Walmart Connect. How's that broader image shaped the way you think about telling the Walmart Connect story today?
- [03:23]
D
Yeah, it's a great question. So let me start with. It's a team that, that manages and runs with it. I just represent it all. But like, let's step back about what we're trying to solve for. We are being constantly asked more and more by CMOs and chief sales officers to make their dollar work harder. That's on the one hand, but on the other hand it's. Can you also decomplexify what you can offer us? And it's not just Walmart Connect. It's. It's the industry overall. And so to, to clarify, Ray, the, the. Our job is to tell a clear message and really we're here to spark sales for, for our advertisers. So that was the purpose of bringing business and product marketing together. Um, I can go deeper into that, but it's, I think one of the things people lose and I just, literally just came out of some, some sets of meetings is advertiser value. And we immediately in technology and media talk about the pipes and APIs and all that fun stuff, but it comes back to sales and impact. And so what I'm proud about is representing the team on how we can communicate value to our advertisers and partners.
- [04:29]
C
You know, we're going to spare you a lot of the pipes on the tech and the behind the scenes today because we want to really get into the business aspects of this. But for our audience, could you take a second before we go to the next question with the definition of what you think value is?
- [04:43]
D
Yeah, sure, of course. So I think value in media investments is an eye of the beholder or I think about it in the eye of the media investor. So if you're a national media buyer, value for you is reach or resonance of your investments across media channel types. If you are perhaps more of a performance marketer, value for you is reaction. Right. So. And reaction can be defined in many ways in the, of course, the classic space it's sales. And we believe that is the ultimate value. However, you know, if you go into like broader digital media, reaction can be things like app installs. And so I always think about value is reach, resonance and reaction, but it always ends up and it should end up in sales. So I think at the end of the day, when people look at all the investments people make and getting value out of it, how do you maximize the ROI and the sales associated with the media investment?
- [05:37]
C
You guys have a distinct advantage in the industry versus pretty much everyone else with that. Because your merchandisers are pros. I work with them.
- [05:45]
B
Exactly.
- [05:46]
E
Karim, welcome to the Secret you guys podcast. We're pleased to meet you back in June at Cannes in France. Before I get to my question is, are you the person I ask about Walmart connects interest in SRI's new earpierce advertising platform? We have right here available. We have spare.
- [06:03]
A
It is available.
- [06:04]
D
I'll take it, I'll pin it. I don't know if I'll go in my ear, but maybe on my.
- [06:09]
A
We can put that.
- [06:09]
D
We can tell me.
- [06:11]
E
Or the Walmart Connect logo on his ear. That's what I'm saying thing. It's there now. It's there. Just think about it.
- [06:16]
D
I like it.
- [06:17]
C
The spark is what will get us from 5:57 episodes.
- [06:20]
D
I think it's going to get us over the top.
- [06:22]
E
All right, so it's interesting. In the five and a half years we've been doing this, we've been on this journey from when it was the Walmart Media Group and Walmart Connect. And you've really been evolving very quickly over the last couple years, in particular for listeners who still associate retail media mainly with lower funnel ads.
- [06:46]
B
Right.
- [06:47]
E
What's the biggest misconception you're trying to correct in your efforts in promoting Walmart Connect as a full funnel planner?
- [06:53]
D
Yeah, Before I answer that, I think it's always important to contextualize where retail media is and its journey. I've been in the industry long enough to know what social went through in the early 2010s, right. 2012-1415. At first, people are like, oh, this is social media. It's a cute platform if you think about social. It has now evolved into a full funnel solution where you can do video, full funnel, both brand solutions and performance. And so I think about that for retail media and what I mean by that is that it has evolved from a performance solution to be able to provide the full stack. And let me unpack that a bit. So one of the biggest misconceptions is that, hey, I can invest in retail media at lower funnel, get reactions and sales, but I, I don't know if I can go build a brand with that. Which we talked about value earlier.
- [07:47]
E
Right.
- [07:47]
D
How do I drive reach and resonance? And we can do that. And so the question I often get asked is like, so what, you know what's different about Walmart Connect?
- [07:56]
E
Right.
- [07:57]
D
And it makes me think about the who Knew campaign that we're in the market for consumers like who knew about Walmart Connect? Well, let me, let me share a little bit of who knew that walmart Connect. So the first is we've got the scale and we've got 150 million weekly omnichannel customers coming through our stores and web 4600 stores.
- [08:15]
C
But we're also, let's repeat that 150 million weekly 4600 plus stores.
- [08:20]
D
That's right. That's right. Scale. But what I'm excited about, call you.
- [08:24]
C
The world's most elite retailer. I don't know if you knew that.
- [08:27]
D
Well, I haven't heard the word elite retailer.
- [08:28]
C
That term is on the CPG guys often.
- [08:30]
E
That is our common reference.
- [08:31]
D
Love it. But what I'm excited about in scale is that we're also in new surfaces, so customers are engaging with agentic experiences.
- [08:42]
E
Right.
- [08:43]
D
So we're doing early experiments with Sparky so people can check product availability. And in fact, when we ask people and our customers about Sparky, it's 81% of the time they want to look and use Sparky for product discovery. So first one is we've got scale and we are where customers are. The second thing is the full funnel solution stack we have now, of course we have performance solutions, but we also with Visio now have brand solutions.
- [09:15]
E
Yeah.
- [09:16]
D
And I think that's really, really an important. It's been about a year since Vizio joined the party. We're excited to have them, but recent research we just released shows that our Walmart Connect, CTV and Visio buy can provide up to 55% incremental reach.
- [09:35]
C
55.
- [09:35]
D
55% incremental reach when combined with linear buys. And we do that research with Ispot, which is awesome. And so we have the ability to do reach in resonance with brand solutions. Of course, driving sales with our performance solutions is really important. And then of course the last thing of, you know, what we're excited about is the signals and the measurement we provide. And I think that part is really, really, really critical. And you all know this. We pride ourselves in driving sales, but we also want to be in the business of providing transparency and holding ourselves accountable. So two things to share with you there. This week we're excited to fully ga search incrementality and recent research on the food business unit showed that we provide $2.30 of IROAs with search incrementality.
- [10:21]
E
Right.
- [10:22]
D
And I, you know, not sure a lot of media platforms are going to talk about that this week, but for us it's really important. It's about sparking the sale. And then finally, like one of the questions we get asked is like, hey, how do you, how do you all do versus other media platforms? So this week we were releasing research that shows partnership with Circana, for example, that our IROAS is has more IROs than social media norms for Sakana. So to put that in a boat, I just threw out a lot of stuff. We pride ourselves in sparking sales for our clients. We've got the scale, but we have a full stack of solutions and we want to stand behind and improve it. And so that's what's different. And we want to do and serve our customers and advertisers.
- [11:08]
E
We love stats here on the CPT guys. Those who know us and follow us know that Sree and I met in the late 90s at IRI, what was then what is now known as Circana. So we have that in our blood.
- [11:21]
D
Yeah. So that's been, it's been a great partnership.
- [11:24]
C
The man knows his numbers for sure. So you mentioned Sparky. So I have to jump into what was a buzzword but is our reality today in the industry, which is AI reshaping nearly every part of the marketing stack, as you've kind of just said. Right. From your perspective, what does AI powered retail media actually mean? So I'm not referring just to the search aspect by Sparky, talking about the full funnel at this point and what does it enable that say, wasn't possible even a year ago.
- [11:49]
D
I'm going to contextualize this because frankly, I'm old enough to have lived through different variants of media and commerce. Right. The dot com, the mobile, the social, and now we're in the AI era. I think it's important for those that have been around the block to know. Remember when everyone talked about mobile, mobile, mobile, this mobile marketing manager, mobile, mobile. I think AI is kind of going through that where AI is going to be affecting every part of a media engagement model, whether it's targeting, optimization, measurement, insights, creative. So it's important to recognize that it's through every layer of media. Let me talk within the past year and even now. Two specific examples how AI is being set up to help our advertisers. One, you can think about back to our solutions. We have the Amarti advertising assistant. Right. So advertisers can use our Marty identic experience in order to optimize their campaigns. Look at keyword optimization, they can do that themselves. And in fact, what we found, our early surveys with Marty said 97% of the inquiries coming into Marty are distinct that we haven't seen before. Meaning it's helping us solve advertising problems more efficiently and faster. And you can think about not just the biggest advertisers, you know, the enterprise advertising, but also the SMBs.
- [13:06]
C
Right.
- [13:07]
D
So that's exciting. And those that are.
- [13:09]
E
People don't realize that in big enterprise brands it's a portfolio and oftentimes there are brands that don't have necessarily all of the resources the big billion dollar brands have. And so you have to, you have to cater to all sorts of.
- [13:24]
D
That's right. And we, we, we want to serve all sizes of advertisers, both big and small. But another example of AI and you, you know, you, you'll hear more and more about it is creative.
- [13:36]
E
Yeah. Right.
- [13:37]
D
And so, you know, we, we're doing some early work on our automated creative generator which can reduce creative display time by 80%. Right. So that saves you time as an advertiser. And so, you know, I bring it back to AI is something that will impact, you know, our scale. It's going to impact our solutions, of course, measurement as well. And so we're testing, we don't want to get too ahead of our skis, but at the same time we're excited about how. So those are just a couple of examples.
- [14:09]
E
So as you start making announcements in this space about Walmart's capabilities and particularly as you talk about AI, what are the problems that you're most focused on solving for advertisers through AI? Is it efficiency, is it effectiveness, is it measurement, is it all of the above or is it something else?
- [14:29]
D
Yeah, so it's a great question and it's a tricky answer. The tricky answer is the economist answer is it depends on the advertiser and their goal. So for example, if you are an advertiser that's primarily trying to drive reach and resonance for new, something new that you're bringing to market, you want to have AI potentially help you bring different creative permutations to certain audiences. You want to have AI help them.
- [14:56]
E
With creating those audiences and then figuring out correct.
- [14:59]
D
It's early days, but that's how AI can help. Okay, so back to the thing. AI will help with the effectiveness and efficiency across the value chain. And so if you're a small business, right, you want an agentic interface to help you optimize your campaign. So I think, like, that's a really, I think, key point. It's important to contextualize AI, something that's embedded and plays a part across all portions of media. Just like mobile was. And no one really thinks, oh, mobile. I have a mobile specific thing. It's just how I think.
- [15:33]
E
For me, the thing about AI is it's not just about the sexy creative that you're generating. It's just about everything you need to do to bring a product to market and get into people's hands. How can you use that to activate campaigns, to make sure the product gets there, to have all the right copy? All of that is intrinsic in a good customer experience.
- [15:51]
D
That's right. But I also, I want to. This is just more a bit of a personal point. I think if you're telling a story as a cmo, you should be thinking about whether to use machines or using people and teams, creative teams, to tell that story. And it's really about your objective, your timelines.
- [16:09]
E
Right.
- [16:09]
D
You know, I can tell you have a lot of close friends in the creative agency world and they do beautiful work. And I don't think AI is anywhere close to doing that type of high fidelity storytelling.
- [16:21]
E
Right.
- [16:21]
D
Can it get there one day? Maybe, but it's very early.
- [16:25]
C
Still pictures. Yes. I think AI today is really crushing. Still pictures. That's right, storytelling.
- [16:32]
E
Tried to get the AI to create the CPC guys logo rotating around the lit Las Vegas sphere before we got here. Didn't really come out that great.
- [16:39]
D
Let me give you an example. I was on a ski trip with my family recently. Just bear with me for a second. We got a oversized golden doodle dog who everybody in my family loves. And the kids have started making pictures of him breakdancing and he's jumping up and down and doing cool stuff. And my point is the pictures, the generated pictures are great.
- [17:01]
E
Yeah.
- [17:02]
D
And then you. But if you try to turn that into a video, it gets a little careful. It's very early days.
- [17:08]
E
Would you. Would you be surprised to know that I found out Shree has been building an agent for a podcast? Podcast co host replacement. I don't think I didn't notice that, buddy.
- [17:16]
D
We'll talk about that later.
- [17:18]
E
About that later. All right, so from a marketing leader's vantage point, what are the biggest challenges CMOs are staring down at as we enter 2026.
- [17:29]
D
Yeah. You know, you could think about it like a CMO's role is like, it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. It's like, you know, it's the best of times because you have so many more tools and it's the worst of times because you have so many choices. Here's what I. You know, we do a lot of voice of advertiser conversations. We really recently did some research in chatting with CMOs and also Chief Sales Officers, specifically CMOs, the board level and CEO appetite for capital and media impact. The time is getting shorter and the patience is getting shorter.
- [18:06]
E
Yeah, We've watched over the five years we've been in this space, retail media evolved from shopper marketing responsibility to a CMO responsibility to frankly, board approval. Because of the dynamics of the industry and the fact that retail media is replacing antiquated mechanisms of mass audience creation. Linear television, print media.
- [18:31]
D
That's right. I actually think your show and your audience, you, you both can actually help bridge that evolution too.
- [18:38]
C
Are you saying the CPG guys are.
- [18:40]
D
I think you guys are, but it's, it's. I think that like, you know, CPG as a category is kind of leading that evolution. But back to your question about CMOs. It's value, right. And I think the patience for value is lower, a lot lower. Patience by board level. And so I'm excited if people ask me if I, you know, CMOs, et cetera, what should, what do you recommend? I'm like, work with partners that are willing to stand up for incremental sales lift and impact. Work with partners that want to hold themselves accountable for transparency. Work with partners that are more staked than just sizzle. Right. And so that's what, what brought me here. I really enjoy the team and we're committed to value.
- [19:21]
C
You know, Kauram, on the show here, we're at the cutting edge of transformation. What's new? But we also remind our audience frequently, which are CMOs and CCOs and CEOs very frequently, that the old doesn't go away. It's a blend. But the most important message we're trying to get out in the industry now is retail media has evolved to become media at this point and that you can truly. Some people don't like the use of the word full funnel campaign. I find that comical when they just want to dismiss the word as old school. But retail media today is deep, true. Full funnel. Right.
- [19:53]
D
That's Right. I mean there are other, quote, retail media platforms that are investing in content, connect to television, et cetera. Right. I think that. Back to that what I mentioned about social, social is not just Facebook News feed as an example. Right. It's grown into much, much more. And I'd say the retail media is much, much more. And I think it's just we have an opportunity to connect with customers in a brand safe, contextually relevant way.
- [20:20]
C
So I have a follow up on that one in the contextual way. You others might be investing in over investing in streaming platforms and 30,000 other ways, but you have a secret weapon that no one else does. It's 4,600 plus stores. How do you leverage that in full form media?
- [20:38]
D
Yeah, it's a great question. Whether it's a streaming platform as an investment, whether it's social, whether it's out of home, whether you pick traditional digital, whatever. I think it goes back to the same question. How do you help me drive sales and how much of those sales are incremental? And so with our store footprint, our digital footprint, new surfaces, we want to stand, stand behind that and show that. And I think that, you know, the term Omni Channel gets thrown around a lot. Look, people want choice and customers buy in different ways. And we should, we want to be wherever they are and serve them wherever we can. And so our ads are at service of that.
- [21:23]
C
So look, we call you the world's most elite retailer because your e commerce penetration is about the highest in the industry from a retail perspective. It is. And it's 20 plus, last time I checked, maybe 21 and a half or something like that, but it's growing every single day.
- [21:40]
D
That's right.
- [21:40]
C
It's because you all have, your merchandisers have embraced Omnichannel. John Laney's let that himself a long, long time ago.
- [21:47]
A
Right.
- [21:48]
C
But one of the things we shouldn't forget is there's another 75% of consumers who still habitually like to come in store. That's where they do their purchases. But they do whip out a phone at the shelf. That's why I asked you the question, your secret weapon, 4,600 stores. No one else is even close to those numbers.
- [22:08]
D
That's right. So I think like the. There's also. And thank you for raising that. There's another important point within that. So if you think about a store experience and how it's evolving, you know, a store experience, not only are people coming to the store, they open the app in the store and you have a store Experience. Exactly. That's what I do. That's right. Also, you know, there are strategic placements within the store intended to introduce new brands to people. And so again, I think about it as giving people choice to shop however they want and provide convenience to customers and value to advertisers.
- [22:44]
C
So speaking of value, many CMOs, you've mentioned this already about 20 minutes ago, right. They're under pressure in this aura of shrinking volume last two years. Remember the date etched in my head, March 17, 2023, when SNAP benefits started shrinking. But now they're under pressure to do more with less. So it's not just media budgets that remain still, they're actually shrinking, which means then you have fewer partners, you can work with tighter budget. Therefore value, which is accountability, goes up a lot. Where does Walmart connect and retail media uniquely help address those problems of value?
- [23:19]
D
Yeah, it's a great question. So let me start with a lot of media planning and buying is very fragmented, right. So you've got the commerce media team, you've got a connected media team, you've got the shopper marketing team, you got.
- [23:34]
C
The, and shouldn't brands evolve like enough of that nonsense of seven teams doing this stuff with Walmart, it needs to be integrated.
- [23:43]
D
That's right. And you know, are you trying to drive a brand outcome? Are you trying to performance outcome? I think that, that to, to answer your question, I think that it goes back to holding a high standard for impact and, and not just investing in a platform partner because it's convenient and it's easy to do. I think holding a, holding a high bar. Like I, I, I mentioned the search incrementality.
- [24:07]
E
Right.
- [24:07]
D
This is an example. And our recent research on, on search incrementality in the food segment brought $2.30 more of incremental. So I think like if you're a cmo, you're an investor of media dollars, whether you're CMO chief sales officer, ask yourself, is my partner sparking sales? And, and how do I know that and who do I, who do I want to lean into for the long haul? You know, and I think those are really, really important questions and we're excited to be one of the partners that can make that happen.
- [24:38]
E
So continuing with what's on the CMO's desk, how do you think retail media's role in their media planning will shift over the same next year and a half, two years, especially relative to traditional digital and linear channels?
- [24:53]
D
Yeah, it's a really, really good question. I think a lot of it is going to be the higher expectations being placed on sites out in motion really as def the CTV surface. And so what that's a fancy way of saying holding a higher bar for ctv. You think to a degree they've been.
- [25:09]
E
Spoiled by performance marketing and lower funnel search.
- [25:12]
D
Yes.
- [25:12]
E
And and and they're kind of expecting that in some of the upper funnel awareness.
- [25:18]
D
Correct? That's exactly right. But let me let me back to value. Let me let me share a interesting story. One of my best friends is a CCO for a major creative agency that will go unnamed but it's a one of one of the the biggest ones, the best ones. He told me that clients are coming to him before they brief before they come back with the idea for the creative. They're actually coming to them and saying you must be able to tell us what the how you measure the value of the creative. How will you atomize the creative for not just CTV for different media touch points and then you can come with the idea.
- [25:53]
E
Sir.
- [25:54]
D
So my point there is like the creative leaders are being asked to say you can have a broad canvas to tell a story. That's where creative comes in. Totally get it. But you know what you should be thinking about? How will you measure the impact?
- [26:08]
E
No measurement is is top of mind for every investment dollar that people creative.
- [26:13]
C
Now you concept in the industry. Nobody was having conversations on the value of the creative.
- [26:19]
D
Correct.
- [26:20]
C
But creatives strokes emotion.
- [26:22]
D
That's right.
- [26:23]
C
Emotion sells product.
- [26:24]
D
That's right. It's magic. I love creative. I think it's a critical variable that's about as early days in AI as we are. But I think that's a big part to answer your question about what's on their mind for next 12 to 18 months it's going to be how do I invest in sights on emotion? How do I hold my CTV and television investment dollars to the same threshold that I hold performance dollars to.
- [26:48]
C
So I want to give an example own life example. Right. You were talking about value creative, my own daughter's cat's eye, the band and the Gap ad that recently was done the lower funnel performance in the recently quarter for Gap Q4 the numbers are there to show the outcome and they connect it back to the amount of time they invested in the creative. And for me to listen to that as a CPG lifetime person I'm like hallelujah. Light bulb went up for the first time in the industry. Then the creative resulted in the results.
- [27:25]
D
That's right.
- [27:26]
C
And I think it wasn't just search or campaign and things of that Nature.
- [27:29]
D
That's right, that's right. That's a great example.
- [27:32]
C
So since joining you've let a brand refresh for Walmart connect new narrative as well. You've simplified the story into two buckets. Brand and performance. Why was that distinction so important to you and Walmart and how does it help advertisers better navigate the platform? Brand.
- [27:47]
D
Sure, sure. Yeah. So a couple things first, you know, we started our brand refresh value prop refresh with what are the needs of CMOs and CSOs. Right. And the essence we got to was they're looking for sales. So we start with let's spark sales. We're here to let us together, not just, you know, Walmart connect.
- [28:07]
E
Right.
- [28:08]
D
With let us spark sales. And the spark part is important, that is honors Walmart and our tie to Walmart and spark being innovation, getting it going and then sales is the ultimate outcome when we talk to our customers. So it starts with that and then back to the solutions area. So we think about our solutions as brand solutions, performance solutions and measurement solutions. So I think about the brand solutions being upper funnel, performance being lower funnel. But there's an important kind of spine on the side. You can imagine the spine being measurement solutions. We want the brand solutions and performance solutions to be accountable for impact.
- [28:45]
C
Also lean on the measurement solutions.
- [28:48]
D
That's right. And you know, we're excited about the measurement solutions we can provide as a first party. But you know, we want to work with third party partners as well. And you all have been in cpg. You want your own measurement partner to be able to write and you know, we welcome that trust issue and it's okay. That's why, you know, independent third party measurement providers. So that to answer your question, it was really to get to the essence of what we provide our customers and the fact that we can do it across a journey.
- [29:17]
E
You've compared this moment. We're into a bit of a who knew campaign you referenced earlier.
- [29:22]
D
Sure.
- [29:22]
E
What are the most surprising capabilities of Walmart Connect that you feel brands aren't still fully appreciating or realizing that they should really start to focus on.
- [29:32]
C
I'm gonna vote for store.
- [29:34]
D
Yeah, store for sure.
- [29:37]
C
Is what comes.
- [29:38]
D
Yeah, exactly. So like back to the brand solution side. I think it's the who knew of like, wow, who knew you could tell a story that sells.
- [29:44]
E
Yeah, right.
- [29:45]
D
And so I'll go back to what I mentioned earlier. I knew it through a lot of stats out to the audience. But Walmart Connect TV and Vizio CTV buying can provide Incremental reach when compared to, when compared to put with a linear TV buy. But up to 55%.
- [30:00]
C
Big numbers, Karam.
- [30:01]
D
Yeah, well I spot, we work with, I spot to say that.
- [30:04]
C
But just saying it's a big number. People should pay attention.
- [30:07]
D
That's exactly right. And so that's the big one. It's like we can help you tell a story that sells and we're, we're, we're excited about it. It's early days, you know. Vizio has been with us for just over a year. But we're very, very excited about what we can do.
- [30:19]
C
Looking forward to seeing the outcomes from that. Let me move to the next one here. So we talked about CMOs under a lot of pressure these days. But let's ask you some advice. So you have a CMO sitting across the table from you if you are advising that person or let's say a media leader like the SVP of media, imc, whatever it is these days in the CPG world, what's one thing they should be thinking of that they haven't already thought of to be ready for where Walmart Connect and retail media is headed in 2026? Is it full funnel value?
- [30:56]
D
Yeah, so. So I think it's incremental value. And to hold your media teams accountable for incrementality every campaign. Yeah. Just be careful about slotting by media channel. Perhaps think about organizing teams around outcomes. This is my reach team. Right. So it's anchor mentality I think is a big one.
- [31:18]
E
If you're trying to launch a new product, your goal is awareness. It's not a cracker mentality.
- [31:23]
D
Totally right. Totally right. So the flip of it is if you're introducing something new, how can you bring the performance mindset to a brand solution? And so how do I use new reach platforms like ctv?
- [31:34]
C
Would love to get a definition of what incrementality is in your mind. Is it new consumers who haven't tried the brand new. Is it something else?
- [31:43]
D
The simplest way is sales that you would have not gotten as a result if you had not made this investment. And that can come from new and existing. That's and it's primarily a performance solution. Play. But I can tell you it's all right.
- [32:00]
E
Before I ask the last question, I'll make mention that the word of the day was spark for you playing at home. Karam mentioned it nine times, so that was good. But seriously, I want to know what's next for Walmart Connect? What excites you personally most about what's coming and What? Give us a little hint for what our our audience should be listening carefully for in the near future.
- [32:24]
D
Okay, so two things. First is doing more with video and the ability for video especially on CTV but also our walmart.com services and have it become much more performant and having creative options there. So video. The second is, you know, Maybe you have SMBs listening to CPG guys. We need to get to them but serving them with more efficient, energetic experiences. SMBs and help them sell more through our third party marketplace, et cetera. So I think you've got video there, doing more there. You'll certainly see that I know you'll be a fan. But then also for SMBs. And how do we encourage SMBs to.
- [33:04]
E
Spark sales on them as the Marketplace Summit is on our agenda for later this year. Okay, great.
- [33:09]
A
We're.
- [33:09]
E
We're looking at.
- [33:10]
D
At exp.
- [33:11]
E
Expanding our reach and being at more vets.
- [33:13]
B
Excellent.
- [33:14]
C
Plus Kurum, you mentioned Ken. Right. So I think one of the things we could do to service the industry, our industry is maybe do a follow up with you again and see how the first six months. I really am very intrigued by value and see how the first two quarters of planning went by the time we get to June.
- [33:32]
D
Makes sense.
- [33:33]
C
As we wrap up here, let me first thank the Walmart Connect comms team Vath Julia for giving us this wonderful space here at Walmart Connect Studios here at CES in Vegas. And then Kuram, I want to thank you for making time during a busy conference, arguably to spend time with the CPG guys and being on the show.
- [33:51]
D
That was great guys. Thank you so much. Enjoyed it.
- [33:53]
C
Thank you so much.
- [33:59]
B
All right, that was a fantastic conversation. We hope you enjoyed the topics at hand. Karim was very direct and inspirational in how he pictured the future for retail media and particularly at Walmart, the SRI and I refer to them the most elite retail in the world. Just some very interesting information that he shared. The direction they're going, how they support brands, real focus on trying to build out capabilities for small and medium businesses to take advantage of the platform that the big enterprise brands have already availed themselves of. So look for more. We'll reconnect with Karam in K and Lions this summer. Look for an episode probably in in early July as we meet with him. In any event, make sure you're following us on your favorite platform. Please give us some likes. Star rating would be really nice. My favorite number is five. I know it's Shree's two. And we hope you join us on the very next episode of the CPG Guys Podcast.
- [35:06]
E
Goodbye.
- [35:20]
A
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