Live from Commerce Media Brand Summit with Bayer's Chelsey Alexander

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – Live from Commerce Media Brand Summit with Bayer's Chelsea Alexander

Episode Overview In this engaging episode of The CPG Guys, hosts Peter V.S. Bond and Sri Rajagopalan (Shree) delve into the evolving landscape of retail media and eCommerce with special guest Chelsea Alexander, Vice President of Emerging Digital Platforms at Bayer. Recorded live from the Commerce Media Brand Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 11, 2025, this episode offers valuable insights into the intersection of traditional retail and digital commerce, the rise of social marketplaces, and effective leadership in the CPG industry.

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1. Introduction to Chelsea Alexander and Bayer

The episode begins with Shree welcoming Chelsea Alexander, who provides an overview of her role at Bayer. Chelsea explains her responsibility in ensuring a unified branded experience across fragmented digital commerce platforms.

Notable Quote:

“We are having a unified branded experience within this sort of fragmented commerce experience across these different digital platforms.”
—Chelsea Alexander [03:30]

2. Career Journey: From Traditional Retail to eCommerce

Chelsea shares her unique career path, starting with a 12-year tenure at TNG, followed by a pivotal move to the eCommerce startup Pharmapax (later Pharmapacks). Despite the company's bankruptcy, this experience paved the way for her current role at Bayer, blending traditional retail expertise with digital innovation.

Notable Quotes:

“I felt like a bit of a fish out of water. And so I just started looking at people who I admired...”
—Chelsea Alexander [05:17]

“Joining Pharmapax was a fantastic learning experience, even through its challenges, and that's how I ended up at Bayer.”
—Chelsea Alexander [08:25]

3. The Importance of Dual Experiences: Brick and Mortar Meets eCommerce

Chelsea emphasizes the value of her dual experience in both traditional retail and digital commerce. She highlights how understanding physical availability and mental availability is crucial for brand building in today's fragmented consumer landscape.

Notable Quotes:

“Building any brand comes down to physical availability and mental availability.”
—Chelsea Alexander [10:06]

“Being able to translate between traditional retail and eCommerce allows us to bring people along and create cohesive strategies.”
—Chelsea Alexander [13:08]

4. Marketplaces and Social Commerce: The Rise of TikTok Shop

The conversation shifts to the burgeoning world of marketplaces and social commerce. Chelsea discusses the significant growth of third-party (3P) marketplaces, such as Amazon's 3P business and TikTok Shop, and their implications for brands.

Notable Quotes:

“Marketplaces are just going to get bigger because you offload the cost of shipping and provide expanded assortment.”
—Chelsea Alexander [14:19]

“TikTok has created an obsessive level of engagement that seamlessly flows into commerce, making it a powerhouse for brand discovery.”
—Chelsea Alexander [17:21]

5. Content Strategy and the Role of AI

Chelsea addresses the evolving expectations around content creation, especially in the age of short-form content platforms like TikTok. She underscores the enduring importance of differentiated content and explores how AI can support, but not replace, human creativity in content development.

Notable Quotes:

“Content is still queen. It consistently drives over 50% of the incremental attribution to our sales.”
—Chelsea Alexander [20:15]

“AI is great for backend tasks like data entry, but when it comes to content differentiation, human creativity is still irreplaceable.”
—Chelsea Alexander [23:38]

6. Navigating the Consumer Journey and Funnel

Chelsea provides insights into the modern consumer journey, emphasizing the challenges of driving awareness in a highly fragmented media landscape. She points out that while mid to lower funnel activities are becoming more refined, top-of-funnel awareness remains a critical and challenging area.

Notable Quotes:

“Driving awareness has become so fragmented, making it increasingly difficult to get large audiences to recognize and consider your products.”
—Chelsea Alexander [24:53]

“Retail media must prioritize creative strategies to enhance awareness amidst fragmented consumer touchpoints.”
—Chelsea Alexander [26:21]

7. Leadership and Mentorship in the CPG Industry

Chelsea shares her leadership philosophy, focusing on personalized management and the importance of understanding team members' individual motivations. She also highlights the dual roles of mentorship and sponsorship in her career development, advocating for paying it forward to support other women in the industry.

Notable Quotes:

“Managing people in the ways that are most effective for them unlocks new ways of seeing leadership.”
—Chelsea Alexander [28:28]

“Mentorship has been crucial in my journey, and I believe in the importance of sponsorship to push careers forward.”
—Chelsea Alexander [35:02]

8. Trends to Watch: Engagement to Commerce and Beyond

In the final segment, Chelsea discusses emerging trends such as the "engagement to commerce" model, where high engagement on platforms like TikTok and gaming communities leads directly to sales. She also touches on the potential of gaming as a new frontier for commerce media.

Notable Quotes:

“Platforms that achieve high engagement are now focusing on swiftly moving users to commerce, recognizing the limited window to capture consumer interest.”
—Chelsea Alexander [36:43]

“Gaming is a trend to watch, with streamers engaging audiences for hours, presenting a significant ROI potential for advertisers.”
—Chelsea Alexander [38:08]

9. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Shree wraps up the episode by thanking Chelsea for her valuable insights and reinforcing The CPG Guys mission to educate and evolve industry practices. The hosts encourage listeners to engage with their content and participate in shaping future discussions.

Notable Quote:

“Thank you for having me. I want to say my hats off to you all for what you are doing in the industry.”
—Chelsea Alexander [39:12]

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Key Takeaways:

• Retail Media's Growing Importance: Retail media is essential for brands to engage consumers effectively across multiple channels, leveraging data-driven targeting and comprehensive media strategies.
• Marketplace Expansion: Third-party marketplaces are expanding rapidly, offering brands greater flexibility and expanded product assortments without the overhead of traditional retail.
• Social Commerce as a Game-Changer: Platforms like TikTok Shop are revolutionizing how brands engage with consumers, providing highly engaged audiences that seamlessly transition from discovery to purchase.
• Content Differentiation: High-quality, personalized content remains crucial. While AI can aid in backend tasks, human creativity is indispensable for meaningful content creation.
• Leadership and Mentorship: Effective leadership in the CPG industry involves personalized management approaches and a commitment to mentorship and sponsorship, particularly in supporting women leaders.
• Emerging Trends: The integration of engagement-driven commerce and the potential of gaming as a commerce platform are key trends to watch for future brand strategies.

For More Information: To learn more about The CPG Guys and explore additional resources, visit www.cpgguys.com.

Transcript

[Peter V. S Bond]

Retail media is rapidly becoming the go to channel for brands, aiming to engage consumers with measurable performance along the path to purchase. Retailers are increasingly empowering brands to accurately target meaningful audiences based on their longitudinal purchasing behaviors and execute media impressions across on site, off site and in store channels throughout the entire marketing funnel. For brand marketers, effectively incorporating retail media into their marketing budgets is essential for growth in today's omnichannel landscape. To address this critical need, Cornell University has partnered with the CPG Guys, along with leading industry executives and visionaries from around the world to launch the first ever retail Media Strategy Executive Education program. This immersive four day program at Cornell Tech May 5th to the 8th, 2025 brings together industry thought leaders and renowned faculty to share best practices for building compelling retail media platforms. You'll discover how to collaborate on creating best in class tech stacks, measure performance to ensure brands Access the necessary KPIs based on Campaign objectives and establish strong partnerships between brands and retailers. In addition, the program covers optimizing brand strategies using AI driven campaign design at scale to achieve marketing goals. By the end of the Retail Media Strategy program, you'll have gained a deep understanding of the retail media ecosystem and how both brands and retailers can accelerate organizational transformation to thrive in the future of performance marketing. See the link in the digital liner note to this episode to learn more about the Retail Media Strategy Executive Education Program at Cornell Tech May 5th through the 8th, 2025. Welcome to the CPGuys Podcast. Your hosts, Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Bond explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now here are the CPG Guys to another episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm your co host pvsp and when I'm not co hosting this podcast, I serve as Head of Industry and Client Engagement at Flywheel, the E Commerce Accelerator division of Omnicom. My co host is of course the Chief revenue officer of ThinkBlue Consulting. He is the patriarch of the Raj family media empire and he is formerly the Chief Customer Officer at General Mills. He's my best friend, Sri. While Sri's not here with me in the intro, he's actually the one conducting the interview in this episode. More about that later. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform, Apple Spotify. If you're on those, make sure to leave us a rating. It's what helps make our podcast more discoverable by people like you looking to be educated and entertained about the industry we work in. And make sure to listen to our sister podcast, the FMCG Guys and CPG Scoop. This episode was recorded by SRI in Atlanta, Georgia on the 11th of April and it was done at the Commerce Media Brand Summit where SRI appeared. We hope you enjoy it. It's with bears Chelsea Alexander. And now onto the episode.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Hey, Chelsea, welcome to the CPG guys. It's exciting to have you on the show.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So, Chelsea, before we start, can you give me a quick overview of Bayer and what your specific role is over there?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Sure. So my official title is Vice President of Emerging Digital Platforms. And what that means is if you think about commerce over the last five years, it's significantly changed, obviously, but it's creating a bit of this, almost this fragmented commerce experience from a consumer standpoint that's looming. We used to talk about it as headless commerce a few years ago.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I do remember that.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. And we would always say like, good luck with that. And now we're here. Right. We would say, hey, there's a, there's going to be a time in the place where a consumer goes into any app in their phone and they're going to expect to be able to see, if they see something, they should be able to buy it within five to six clicks. We used to say that's never going to happen. Well, it's here. And so my job is to make sure that we are having a unified branded experience within this sort of fragmented commerce experience across these different digital platforms.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Now, thank you so much, Chelsea for of course, our listeners. Chelsea's LinkedIn profile Bayer's LinkedIn profile Bayer Online will be available in the digital liner notes of the podcast for most of you that follow us while on the go. And now let's jump into the question. Chelsea, you ready for this?

[Chelsea Alexander]

I'm ready. Let's do it.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

First thing I'd love to know is about you, the human being, the person. Take us to your career growth from starting in the drug channel at P and G to all the way leading emerging channels. You have a very unique role in the CPG industry. I'm not so sure there's a bunch of VPs of emerging channels. So bear and you are obviously doing something right because I admire that a lot.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, yeah. So whenever I talk about myself, I like to start with my heart. And I had a really unique growing up experience where I was raised by a single mother who was a nurse. And you know, have you ever been around people where they're just operating in their purpose and you just know it and so I got to see that from a very early on age, and it's Women's Month, so you're going to hear me shout out women quite a bit.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

A shout out for International Women's Day. That was yesterday. And Women's Month here on the cpg, Guys. Chelsea.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Every March is Women's Month. Only women can come on the show.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. Oh, fantastic. So. So that was a really unique experience that I had growing up, and I think it was sort of a bit of my guiding light. I remember my mom going into her home health care visits and I would see patients faces light up when she would show up. And so I think that that was a bit of a guiding principle for me that actually started to bleed over into how I thought about my career. So when I started, obviously I was raised by a nurse, so we're operating in a little bit of different fields. But so when I got started in business, I honestly just took it upon myself. I kind of felt like a bit of a fish out of water. And so I just started looking at people who I admired and said, hey, would I want to be like, doing what they're doing in the future? And sort of got curious and just asked them about their early experiences since I was just starting.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

But, Chelsea, I can imagine having a mom as a nurse means empathy has been there from day one.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely, absolutely. And curiosity. And so I think. So I started asking questions. And so here's what I found. I found that a lot of the top leaders that I knew and respected, they spent their earlier parts of their career learning how to manage a business in a P and L, learning how to sell, getting the autonomy to sort of have some freedom to try different things and make some mistakes. And so. And then a lot of them had touched the Walmart business. So when, you know, they gave me. I remember they gave me this laundry list of cities that I could potentially go to. And I saw Bentonville, and I was like, okay, I know that one. Everybody told me they touched that business. So that's how I ended up in sort of my first sort of sales role within P and G. I spent.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Most of my life in a commercial sales career. And it was drilled in my head right in the beginning. You got to do a tour of duty at Walmart. I actually turned down Metro for freedom, and instead they asked me to lead Ecom.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Okay.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Which at that point I thought was the dumbest decision on planet Earth. But it changed my life eventually. That's what I got grounded in. And that's why we have the CPG guys with my best friend Peter. But yes, Walmart.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes, it was. So it's interesting because I think we had similar experiences. So I like to think of my career as sort of like the Tale of Two cities. So I had sort of the fundamental building. I had a 12 year career with TNG and absolutely. I mean they're known for building out the fundamentals from a brand standpoint as well as from a business standpoint. So I feel like that laid a fantastic foundation. And about 11 years, 10, 11 years into my career, similar to you, I started looking at the landscape and I said, wait a second. I feel like in order to be that leader that I was asking questions to when I first started, I think that the things that I need to know and understand are going to be different in the next four to five years. So I decided to make a pivot. I wanted to learn more about agility and entrepreneurship and building and e commerce. And so I jumped and I decided to go to a startup. So I went to an e commerce startup for a few years.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Which one was it?

[Chelsea Alexander]

It was called Pharmapax. And then later of course pharmapacks.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I have a whole bunch of buddies there that started the company.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes, yes, a fantastic organization. I joined that organization.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Mr. Andrew himself.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, exactly. A true visionary. Honestly, part of the reason why I was so excited to join was Andrew and his vision. But so I can give background on this, but essentially joined Pharmapax. We announced that we were going to go public about a month or two after I joined. We filed and announced for bank announced bankruptcy about maybe two years after I joined. A little less than two years. And so obviously very different than the expectations, but a lot of really good and robust learning in that entire experience. And so that's actually how I ended up at Bayer. So Bayer was one of my clients and essentially what Bayer said is, hey, you were doing a lot for us in this space from a partnership standpoint.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

They said, Chelsea, it's about time. Head over.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

That's what happened.

[Chelsea Alexander]

So I sort of feel like my role in Bayer is sort of merging those two experiences, which is exactly what I wanted on this sort of journey that I'm on.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Listen, there's a dearth of talented brick and mortar veterans who have morphed into E comm evangelists and experts. Especially if you have a third party service background of a couple of years, it is nothing short of platinum. I won't even say gold. So congratulations on the career journey you've had. Now let me ask you that very question. Right. E Commerce last few years, brick and mortar first, let's say decade or so. How is that brick and mortar experience serving you well for what you do today? Emerging channels or even in the E commerce world overall? Because as I mentioned, there's very few like you.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. So I think one of the fundamental, I guess, learnings that I've had over the years is that the building any brand comes down to physical availability and mental availability. And so I think from a physical availability standpoint, I'm super grateful to have had a sort of traditional retail experience to start, because ultimately I think especially Walmart. Exactly. And so I think especially because I think execution is so important and it's now more important than ever, I would argue. And so I think the traditional retail experience gave me sort of that background of being able to put yourself in the shoes of the retailer or even the customer in a retail environment. I think from a mental availability standpoint, it's been really interesting over the last five to six years because I think that's one of the spaces that has changed the most. The consumer experience is becoming more and more fragmented. I read a report the other day that consumers now officially spend more time on their digital devices than they're spending on any other surface. So you can imagine this sort of fragmented experience where I'm watching TV and I see maybe a commercial. I'm trying to avoid it, but then I get on my phone and now I'm having a different sort of media experience. And so I think that one of the.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

We agree with you that linear TV is almost a complete waste with the exception of a few live programming, maybe the super bowl, maybe a handful of the playoff games, NBA, the Oscars, Grammys. But short of that, absolutely everyone's scrolling. People are avoiding ads.

[Chelsea Alexander]

You're exactly right. And I think it started with people sort of trying to move en masse to subscriptions to avoid commercials. And so I think one of the interesting things about that from a branded standpoint is because of the fragmentation, one of the things that is going to still be important with the reduction of linear TV is how are we going to drive awareness. That's how brands last long term. And it's becoming increasingly more difficult to sort of create these audiences to get new eyeballs on your products. And so I think where I'm thankful for the sort of experiences that I've had and specifically focusing in on digital media over the last several years is I think that is going to be the way to move the consumer fully through the funnel in that sort of consumer journey and driving mental availability. I think the other thing I'm grateful for in the sort of dual experiences that I've had is I'm grateful that I had a more traditional sort of sales brick and mortar experience and the E commerce experience because I'm able to sort of translate. So we were just talking about before we got started, the number of folks and decision makers in the branded marketing sales space who may not have had experiences along their career directly managing digital or e commerce businesses. And so I think one of the reasons that I'm grateful for the dual experience is sometimes you need to translate so you can bring people along. So I told this example of like, you know, I was in a meeting and I was talking about the buy box and I was like, buy box, buy box. And someone said, I just heard it.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, on the panel.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly. And someone said, wait a second, what is the buy box and why is it so important? And so I said, oh, okay. This is all about availability online. It's like having a tag on the shelf and the products in the back. It's not where the consumer would see it. So being able to translate to then build the capability to bring people along is also, I think, an added benefit of having those dual experiences.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

No doubt about that. Chance. I believe in that myself. That's what my career eventually morphed into.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Right.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So speaking of your role now, obviously in the last few years, I'd say now more than ever, social marketplaces, the TikTok shop, the all too infamous famous TikTok shop, as well as marketplaces in general. Very few people know that Amazon's 3P business is larger than its 1P business.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. And growing faster.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah. Our prediction on the CPG Guys, five years from now, Amazon doesn't need to be a 1P. It can be a fully 3P business, selling ads backed on EWS. Why would you do a 1P business and lose money?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

All that said, your role specifically looks at this. You're very close to this growing phenomenon we believe deeply in the TikTok shop.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Love to hear your thoughts on social and marketplace. Social shops and marketplaces.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll start with marketplaces. I mean, this is a place. These are both spaces where I have a lot of passion. Obviously, I think I'll start with marketplaces. You're exactly right. So many people don't know how large the 3Pmarketplace is. I tend to agree. I think it's just going to get bigger. Right. Because you get to pass over the Cost of the most expensive part of your business, which is shipping the stuff to people, the brand. And then I think the other interesting thing about marketplaces, the other thing with.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Marketplaces I realized when you're in a 1P business is you get into competing with regular brick and mortar on discounting.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

And doing all kinds of promo activity. When you turn it over to 3P, you don't have that responsibility anymore.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely, you're exactly right. I think the interesting thing. I'll tell a story from my early days on Walmart. I had a buyer who, you know, I obviously be coming in obviously with new products or trying to sell expanded distribution. He'd say, look, my shelf ain't getting any longer. And I think what's really cool about marketplaces is the shelf is actually getting longer. I think it provides a really cool and unique opportunity to provide expanded assortment for.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

From a consumer lens, McMillan, kind of. Doug McMillan, the CEO of Walmart. Right. Just announced the shooting for a million SKUs on the marketplace. Wow, one million. He didn't even talk about how many SKUs. One p. Right. Marketplaces, one million.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly. So the shelf is literally kind of expanding from a consumer standpoint. So I think that's a really interesting opportunity. I also think it provides an interesting opportunity for brands if they're willing to make that choice to take control of your brands. It's a bit of a hybrid between sort of brick and mortar and D2C. I would argue a more economical one. So I think that that's the interesting thing about marketplaces. I think from a social commerce standpoint it's been really. You mentioned TikTok. It's been a really interesting thing to watch over the last three to four, the significant growth and expansion in that space. I think social commerce plays a really unique opportunity in engaging consumers in the discovery of new. Again, I think that there's a sea of messages and I think some of the data that I've seen is that consumers are maybe getting a bit worn out with the number of conflicting messages. But I think social commerce provides this really unique opportunity where there's sort of this like unique level of engagement and then you're very quickly pulling people into the consideration for commerce, which I think is really interesting. And so if you think about TikTok as an example, TikTok went from, you know what like in 2020, 2021 people like Lip syncing battles and dance off competitions to now 180 million users who.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Are now open to purchasing numbers are absolutely staggering. And most people in the US I don't think understand the importance of TikTok. It's like Alibaba. Right. Alibaba never came into this country. Many times the size of Amazon, world's second largest retailer after Amazon. Did you know that Walmart is third now Amazon is overtaken as one, Alibaba second and then Walmart's third. But that said, most people don't understand the phenomenon of why TikTok is such a big deal.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, yeah. They created a platform and I think we're going to see more of this. I'll talk a little bit about that later. But they've created this unique level of engagement, almost this obsessive level of engagement which then flows the ad dollars. Right. Because there are eyeballs that we're trying to catch as a brand to drive awareness and then quickly you realize your ability to drive commerce. I think I read the other day that 60% of the TikTok users are open to or have discovered a new brand or product via the platform. I mean that's magical from a brand.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I'm thinking Gen Z. Right?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Right.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Gen Z spends hours on TikTok as well as reels, Instagram reels, you know, all kinds of short form content. YouTube is new now with thrills. If you're Gen Z, odds are innovation.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

That's the only way you're going to discover it. True or false.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Say that one more time.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Brand innovation. Someone puts out new innovation.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

One of the only ways you're going to read Gen Z is one of these social marketplaces.

[Chelsea Alexander]

I think it would definitely be a primary source for sure. It would definitely be the number one place I would go because I think if you think about that generation, there's a couple of things. Number one, they're engaged to your point on the platform. So I think you're right. It's like an hour and a half that people spend in general a day on TikTok. But then I also think that that generation also has a different expectation of what makes your content differentiated versus your key competition. I think that generation has an expectation of authenticity, frictionlessness. Right. Like make it feel like you're not really pitching me and then also stand for something. And so I think it's a unique platform to be able to communicate all three of those things in one place.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Speaking of content that you referred to. Yeah, strongly. We strongly believe that the world is moving from generic one to many content, which is what brands have built their industrial strength on and scale to one to one and personalization, if you're a large scale Brand. How do you do this today? How do you grasp this concept of one to one content? How do you create it, how do you scale it and how do you get it done?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Are you starting to think about this yourself?

[Chelsea Alexander]

For sure. I think that the content expectations are absolutely changing to your point. I mean, you used to shoot like what, a 90 second commercial. You splice it into some 15s and 30s, you do a couple of action shots, make those different package images. I think the content expectation is significantly different. Just use TikTok as an example. One of the benefits and one of the or the perceived benefits from a user standpoint is I never have to see the same thing again. Which by and large then means that your content deliverables need to be very different. We are definitely thinking about that. Here's what I'd say about content. Number one, the data that we're seeing is that content is still king. And having your content differentiated, it's women's.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Month here, we're going to say content is queen.

[Chelsea Alexander]

There you go. All right. Content is queen. So content is still queen. What I mean by that is if you take a look at the different levers, content targeting, personalization, content is the one that has stayed consistently driving 50% or more of the incremental attribution to our incremental attribution of incremental sales. So what that says to me is whether it's 2017 or now, content is still massively important in showcasing that you're differentiated versus your key competition. Now, there are different things out. Oh, go ahead.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

When you look at the marketplace in general, I'm not asking Bayer, but just when you look at the marketplace in general, have large brands understood and you as a consumer feel satisfied with the content you receive?

[Chelsea Alexander]

I think that the evolution requirements have elevated significantly in a short period of time. So if I take that into consideration for context, then I think, yes, I think that we are definitely trying to elevate or raise, raise the tides. I think that going forward, I think it's going to have to be. They're going to have to be different ways that we're thinking about. How do you scale that and how do you personalize that in a way that's meaningful for consumers? I think activating across these different emerging digital platforms is definitely going to be a way to do that. So if you think about TikToks as an example, does it mean that I need to have 400 different ways different still shots of a brand? No. But do I need to have a different, do I need to have a different level or a different makeup of content creators who are talking about my brand. Yeah, right. And so I think figuring out that's.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

One way to get one to one content.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Outsource UGC content creators.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely. So. And over 75% of TikTok Shop's volume comes from partnerships with TikTok or with the creators. So I think that's definitely another way. I think there's a lot of conversation about AI out there. Look, my perspective on that is I think AI has a really big opportunity to help us with a lot of the sort of back end things that are, that are needed from a, from a digital commerce landscape standpoint, product data entry, so a lot of the PIM functionality, search engine optimization, bullet writing, title writing, a lot of the non sexy stuff.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

But look at Chelsea on top of her AI and all the different use cases.

[Chelsea Alexander]

It's, you know, it's not the sexiest stuff but it's needed. You know this.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Couldn't agree more, right, that we shouldn't let AI become a buzzword in the industry, but we need to get into the unsexy everyday brass tacks work that can benefit significantly from AI.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely. So I think, and I think that does a couple of things. Number one, I think there's so much work that goes behind executing something digitally and frankly there's so much information that I think that the people within our organizations are almost over inundated with the level of activity that needs to happen to execute something. So I think AI presents a really cool opportunity to sort of free up capacity of the humans within our organization to do what we want them to be doing, which is storytelling, making sure that our content is differentiated. Here's what I'll say from a content standpoint because I know there's a lot of kind of back and forth on hey, just, you know, just use AI. I'd say it's not quite there yet.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Well, most people who say that don't really understand AI. They think of ML and AI as the same thing.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Right. And so I think, look, I've heard a lot of really cool and I've seen a lot of cool, interesting case studies where people use AI as like a first cut for content. I think it's probably there, but in terms of content, again if content is still queen, it still needs to be differentiated versus your key competition. And I still think that that is something that we want the people within our organizations to be leading. And so I'd say it's not quite there yet to just like Set it and forget it. In that way, I'd say AI is frankly sometimes better at the sort of data entry than humans because you eliminate human error. But from a content standpoint, I don't think it's there, but I do think it is going to get significantly better over the next two years.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You bet, Chelsea. And we'll be looking forward to that. A quick reminder to our audience that I'm speaking with Chelsea Alexander, vice president of emerging digital channels at Bayer. So let's jump into fun area now. The customer consumer journey or the shopper journey. A lot has been talked over the last few years. I hope brands have renewed a new path to purchase and a new consumer journey. But as you look through today's consumer journey, which parts of those do you believe brands need to be best in class? Upper funnel, mid funnel, consideration, lower funnel, all over the place, full funnel. I'm just curious.

[Chelsea Alexander]

I think that the sort of explosion of commerce media, digital media, in store media, retail media has made us really good. And I feel like we're getting really sharp mid to lower funnel. Right? Because we're right sizing measurement, making measurement more effective. And those are all very like mid to kind of lower funnel functionalities. I think the opportunity area is one of my concerns, and this is just a general concern as I look at the landscape is about awareness. I mean, brands are built over bringing people to the top of the funnel, driving awareness over time again and again, year after year. And one of the things that I'm seeing is the awareness driving functionality has become so fragmented like we were talking about earlier. And it's becoming increasingly hard to get large audiences to look at your stuff or consider your new things. And so I think one of the opportunity areas is how to drive awareness. One of the cool things I'm starting to see is, you know, getting more effective at using different vehicles to drive awareness, like social commerce marketplaces, but also in store. I think retailers are getting really sharp and focused and smart. We used to say distribution is a gift that keeps on giving. Right. Well, why? Well, because what better than, you know, I think I read Walmart has 255 million consumers that walk their store every single week. That's a lot of eyeballs. So what better to get people to recognize your new brand?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I think you just gave Doug Joseph Set Dillard and Ryan Mayward an idea on monetizing in store retail media. And the answer was in screens. The answer was you've already got end caps out there. You've already got i95, you know, the action aisle. Right. As you walk in past the greeter, you can monetize all of that as retail media. It doesn't have to be just end caps and displays because, you know, when it's end caps and displays, the buyers are selling you single use cases. When it's retail media, it's awareness. Whole different ball game. You gave away the plot.

[Chelsea Alexander]

I hate. I mean, look, as a passion person in this space, you know, as I just kind of try to call it, like I see it as I look at the landscape, but I think it's really interesting and getting creative in how to drive awareness. But that I feel like is going to be priority number one to figure out how to do that ongoing. I think the other challenge will be in that space is measurement's already a challenge. Right. And we're getting better at it.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

We heard enough about it in one hour at the summit. You and I both.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Which is the Commerce Media Brand Summit.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Both panels that I watched talked about measurement is single biggest challenge.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. And the challenge and why I think we really need to be talking about and focusing on awareness going forward is measuring awareness was already difficult enough. Right. The level of transparency, expectations and what's behind the information is going to rise. And I think, you know, even with awareness driving in general, you have to wait like how many months for MMMs to come back and things like that. So if you think about it now in this digital media landscape, it's going to become even more important for us to have faith and confidence in its ability to drive that topic funnel.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

And you're always welcome back on the show. That's a whole separate podcast. Measurement, because the industry is in the middle of a warp knot, is the best I can think about for measurement. But now let's talk about people and culture.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Sure.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

No leader can be successful without a great team.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

And teams uplift their leaders and it's the responsibility of a leader to give back and uplift the team in return. So tell us about the teams you have. You've had.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

And how you actually orchestrate this aura. Uplifting your team or uplifting you through leadership principles. What matters to you the most?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Sure. So I've had a varying number and size of teams and skill sets and tenures, and that's given me a really good unique opportunity to sort of learn across, you know, various ways of leading and different ways that you can. That you can lead different groups. I think a few of the sort of leadership principles that have come from learnings that have been from afar or trial by fire. I think number one is you need to manage people in the ways that are most effective for them, in ways that they want to be managed and not ways that maybe are most effective for you or in the ways that you've been managed. I think a very quick story in that space. I think the second thing also is knowing your people and their why for being there is super important. And a quick story on the how I learned those two things is when I first became a people manager, I had a small team of about four or five, and, you know, I was very excited. I think this was the company sort of. It felt like the company was saying to me, hey, we have aspirations for you to do something maybe bigger, but this is your opportunity to now show your ability to be a leader. And I had this situation where I think that I was maybe potentially, you know, frustrating a couple of folks on my team, and I wasn't quite understanding. And I think one of the key things I found out is that I had people with these disparate whys and these disparate desires of how they wanted to be managed. I had one person who said, hey, I love my family time, so really, honestly, for me, I'd love to maximize the amount of time that I can spend with my family as possible. And another person who said, hey, I want to be you, so I want to get to where you are in the same timeline and those types of things. And so those are very different whys and very different expectations. And what I found is I was sort of just managing them in the ways that I had been managed or the ways that made sense to me instead of in the ways that made sense for them. And what that really did is sort of unlock this sort of new way of seeing leadership, which is truly knowing your people and then adjusting your style for what's most beneficial for them. I think the other thing I've learned from a leadership standpoint is sometimes, just as humans, it's hard to see yourself, because our whole experience is just. It's. It's filtered through, you know, what we believe and how we see ourselves. And so I think having the humility to be able to understand yourself through someone else's lens. So I think, you know, it's one.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Thing to say, so well said.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

It's one thing to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, and the world changes.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Exactly. Because it's one thing. And sometimes it's hard. Right. So we're all human because it's like, look, if I say, like, Hey, I really care about people and what matters to them. And someone says, hey, I don't really feel like you're focused on what matters to me. It's like, oh, that's kind of true. It's so true. Exactly. And so I think one of the. Honestly, the more beautiful experiences I've had as a people leader is the ability to see myself through other people's eyes and then use that to grow as a. As not only a leader, but honestly as a. As a human. And so I think that's been another sort of principle that I've taken away.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Speaking of those very two principles, what about mentorship? What's the role of mentorship? Have you gotten mentorship over the years? What's the value? And then how do you pass that back on, especially for other women in the industry?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, it's super important. So I'm a Gemini. For those that are into zodiac signs.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I'm a Gemini child.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, I'm a Gemini child.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Now we're gonna call you Chelsea, the Gemini child.

[Chelsea Alexander]

There you go. And so I love getting exposure and stimulation from different types people in different ways and in different formats. And so I've had a number of very, very impactful mentors who have just sort of helped me grow in very specific ways. I like to shout out people specifically. And so it is Women's Month. So again, you're going to hear me shout out some really, honestly, just sharp, brilliant women who have honestly invested in me even beyond what I expected. So, you know, I've had. I've had mentors who have inspired the way that I think. So one of the people that has inspired me both from my engagements directly, but then also from just seeing them from afar. Monica Turner. I mean, for me, one of the most inspirational things about my engagements with her.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You mean Ms. P and G herself?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, exactly. Yes. Is just her ability to inspire us to think about the possibilities beyond what we can see today.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

She is the boss.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I had the fortune of serving with her on the board of NextUp.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Back in 2023.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. Yeah. I was involved in Next up as well. And so I think just this ability to not only say, hey, what's possible? But then let's have a discussion about building the plan for what could potentially be possible. Maisha Webster, also a png, someone I worked with, a png. She really helped me think about language and how you can use your language to bring more people along. And so I remember many times where I would sit down with her and say, hey, I'm about to have this discussion, or I'm about to present this thing and her sort of whiteboarding with me on, like, okay, but what are the ways in which you can articulate that that are gonna bring more people along with you and what you're trying to accomplish?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

What a great formula, right? If you bring people along with you, it's a win for everybody.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Should Maisha be on the show?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah.

[Chelsea Alexander]

She gets my vote.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So we're gonna have you on the show, and Chelsea's gonna help us get you on the show.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Okay.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

All right. So mentors, keep going.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Gosh, I could go on for days, but Jen Davis was another one who. And the thing that I learned about that is. Or the thing that I learned from her is there's one thing to have the vision and the strategy on paper, it's a whole nother thing to take it all the way through to execution. So that's another one where I remember just whiteboarding of like, have you thought about this? And what about if this happens? And how many scenarios have you planned out? And so that was a really cool experience, I think Chris Haimbeck had on the podcast.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Oh, yes. Yeah. Good friend.

[Chelsea Alexander]

He's been a mentor for years.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You'll miss him, though.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. And one of the things I love about Chris is he sort of helped me sort of think about being bolder as a leader. You know, say what you mean and say what you think and ask for what you want. So that's something I've been really appreciative. So, I mean, again, I could go on for days. But I think one of the. Really, one of the things I attribute to where I am today is the really impactful mentors that I've had. I will say one thing. One of the things I feel like I learned in sort of the second half of my career is not only the importance of mentorship, but also the importance of sponsorship. And that was very different, right?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Mentorship, sponsorship.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, you're exactly right. Like, mentors is, you know, that sort of like, okay, these are the skill sets I want to develop, or even sometimes just an ear. Like, hey, I'm struggling with this thing. What would you do if you were me? I think sponsorship was a different muscle. I had to learn how to flex, which is. It's just a different relationship. It's more of, hey, these are my aspirations. Am I thinking about this correctly, given where you are? But then it's also a person who is willing to use their social capital or their power in rooms that you Won't be in, you know, push your career further along. So that's something that I feel like I learned and that's a different muscle to flex.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So, Chelsea, I gotta ask you, are you doing that for other. I'm gonna be very pointed with my question.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Are you doing that for other women? Because you need to. The industry needs to.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely. I feel like, because I attribute much of where I am today because of those mentors who took the time to pour into me, I have to pay it forward. And so it's definitely something that is massively important to me and honestly, not only in cpg, but also my community. So I actually serve on the board. I serve on the board for an organization out of Cincinnati. They're called Mortar M O R T A R. And they are a nonprofit that focuses on investing in new business owners with a. With a focus.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Love that name.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Business owners. Yeah. So that's awesome. With women. Focus on women business owners and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

And they're welcome to come on the show, tell their story to the entire industry. And anytime do connect us, we'd be happy to have them and tell the mission, especially if they're focused on women entrepreneurs. Because Peter and I believe deeply we have a long way to go in the journey.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Lastly.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yes.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Trends, trends. AI. Buzzword. Real. And AI is just a word.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Right.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

But what trends are you following?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, one trend that has been super interesting for me to follow and I feel like it's going to evolve even further over the next two years is this trend that I'm sort of pointing is like engagement to commerce. So what has been interesting about using TikTok as an example is that they were able to form this unique level of engagement with a large group of people, a large audience. Then came the ad dollars. And so I think number of brands saw the opportunity and started investing heavily from an ad standpoint. And then came commerce. And I feel like that is sort of a trend that I'm keeping my eye on. It's almost like we're trying to move people through the funnel very quickly because we're recognizing that we don't have a lot of time with the person. Right. So you move them to commerce as quickly as possible and I think you're going to start to see more of that. Once a platform recognizes that they have a high level of engagement, how quickly can I get them to commerce? Could I sell things to them? I think gaming is one to watch. It's. It's been a really interesting thing. I've Been reading about it, these tick and seeing these, these gaming streamers like Kai Sanat, I think I'm saying his name correctly but the level of engagement they have for the amount of time that they have, I mean these gamers, these streamers are getting people to watch them for hours, days.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

If advertising went to those, the ROI would be insane.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Incredible.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

But then brand marketers are still thinking about in store display.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah. So how do we get them there?

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah, I mean I think they're starting to get there. Right. And I think that you're starting to see that with investments on Tick Tock. You're starting to see that with investments on. On Facebook marketplaces and YouTube shoppable videos. And so I think we're starting to get there. But I think it's gonna to your point, I think it's gonna be a need that evolves even further. I think gaming's one to watch. I think YouTube is doubling down on shoppable videos. So I think you're going to start seeing more where there's high level of engagement. We're going to, you're going to start to see tests around commerce.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I loved you were the first person on the show in forever. When we asked this closing question about trends.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You did not refer to artificial intelligence. My hat's off to you. I mean there's a couple of things that are exciting you're speaking about that everyone should be aware and the answer is definitely not AI is already here today as here to or do you stay? Chelsea, I want to thank you for making time during a busy summit, the Commerce Media Brand Summit, to be with us and join us on the show.

[Chelsea Alexander]

Yeah. Thank you for having me. And I want to say my hats off to you all for what you all are doing in the industry. It's just really cool the ways in which you're bringing this trended information to build capability and honestly make sure we keep evolving.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

That's the goal and mission of the CPG guys to provide education to all of you listening in. Get in touch with us. Easy. All you have to do is simply go to a web browser and type www.cpguys.com as a ur. And if you or anyone you know would like to shape the discussion on the CPG guys, just drop us an [e-mail] again that email is contactpguys.com to our followers. We can't say thank you enough times. You shape the show for doing what Chelsea just did. Actually recording a podcast at one of these conferences, getting in touch with us, clicks, likes, comments, DM shaping us. We absolutely from the bottom of our heart, Peter and I thank you. If you have a second Apple podcast, do leave us a reading. Why we ask you for that is the reading tells us how we're doing. The review will actually tell us whether we are having the right conversations. That's a wrap. See you soon on another episode of the CPG Guys.

[Peter V. S Bond]

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