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- [00:00]
Dan Hooker
Hi, this is Dan Hooker, faculty at Cornell University, and you're listening to the CPG Guys.
- [00:09]
Sree Rajagopalan
Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your hosts, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V S Vaughn explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.
- [00:28]
Peter V S Vaughn
Hello and welcome to this special episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm of course sri Co Founder, co host of the CPG Guys, co founder and partner, Think Blue, your key to unlocking your profitability potential. As builders, connectors and amplifiers, we shape the future of commerce to drive your growth. Please do listen to my older daughter Rhea Raja's music at www.riarajakam and my younger daughter Lara Raja, the member of the Geffen Records Universal Music Group Cat's Eye. Not joining me today is my fellow co founder Peter V S Bahn because it's actually Martin Luther King Day on the day of this recording and he's out with his daughter and all the way in sunny Philadelphia. And when he's not co hosting this episode, he serves as the head of the industry and client engagement role at Flywheel. Before we go on to our guests, we want to ask you to consider following us in your preferred podcast listening app. If you already don't do so, this will ensure you automatically receive new episodes as they're released. While you're at it, follow our sister podcast, the FMCG Guys and the CPG Scoop. And now the focus of this podcast announcing the first retail media executive education program in our industry from May 5 to 8, 2025 at Cornell Tech. The CPG guys are strategic partners for this immersive four day program that 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 to achieve your brand goals and of course all towards that joint value creation. Links to our Podcast Our sister cast social media profiles of my daughters Rhea and Lara offer more information on the Cornell Retail Media program, including registering. You can find that in the digital liner notes on the podcast. And now the main event on our episode today, our guest is none other than Dan Hooker, a second time repeat guest on the CPG Guys. Just three more episodes and he gets the famous Letterman CPG Guys letter jacket. He's faculty at Cornell. He was in the show back in Q1 2024 with another professor, Karan Jirotra and we're glad he agreed to come back because this is a special episode just for you, Dan. Sunny afternoon, I hope, up in Ithaca. Welcome to the show.
- [02:43]
Dan Hooker
Hey, Sri, it's great to be back. We are getting ready for the semester to start tomorrow. I think we're at minus four to kick off the semester, so it's good to see you.
- [02:53]
Peter V S Vaughn
Minus four? We're sitting here at 68, but it's 35 at night. 35. Vast is the deep freeze, which I guess would be summer in your case. But you know, usually day one back on campus has gotta be one of the most exciting days, I would think, of the entire year. Cause the entire campus, which was probably pretty deserted during the holidays, is now buzzed with activity.
- [03:14]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, it's good to see the students back. If you walk around campus now, the sororities and fraternities are holding their sessions and group meetings. We have the cafes and bars starting to fill up. Students are coming in by bus. The campus will start to come alive tomorrow morning when we kick off the semester. So it's a really exciting time just to see the campus come back to life after the long winter break. I'm excited for it.
- [03:42]
Peter V S Vaughn
So good to hear. Dan, as always, the CPG guys wish you and Cornell University the best for this upcoming semester in 2025. Before we get started with our Q and A segment, Dan, could you kindly give us a quick overview your role at Cornell University?
- [03:56]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, sure. I'd love to. So I've been here at Cornell University for six years. And my primary role here is I teach in the undergraduate Dyson School of Business Marketing and Supply Chain Strategy and have a really fun class called the Food Marketing Fellows Program where we take a group of students on an international trip over winter break. As a matter of fact, we were just in Greece, eating our way through the north and the south of that country. It was a wonderful experience. I also have a new class next semester in the Graduate school where I'll be part of the team teaching our marketing immersion for our MBA students. So that's a really exciting new class that I'm taking on and in partnership with you, SRI and some of your colleagues in the industry. And then the other half of my job is to work with industry leaders and executives as part of our Business development team in Executive Education. I am what we call the Executive Director of the Food Industry Management Program here at Cornell University where we work on exciting programs to help teach and train industry leaders across the food and consumer goods spectrum.
- [05:10]
Peter V S Vaughn
Can there be any greater joy than actually being influential in the lives of so many and actually educating them to build a better world, a better America, a better business, a better industry. So, Dan, I'm really respectful of what you do. It's a big deal and that's why we're happy to have you on the cpg. Guys, thank you for also acknowledging that we are partnering with you in the MBA class, of course, through my other hat, which is as a partner of Think Blue, Today is all about the executive education program. So first, let me mention that in the digital liner notes of this episode, we'll of course include links to your LinkedIn profile, Cornell University's exec ad programs website for listeners to access while we go on with our conversation. So getting going, first, let me start up top 10 by asking you an obvious one which I'm sure is top of mind for all our listeners. Tell us about Cornell's overall executive education program. Who typically attends what, what kind of programs do you offer and why did you even design this in the first place?
- [06:13]
Dan Hooker
For over 25 years, we have a very robust online education business or operation called econell. And on E. Cornell, we offer hundreds of certificate courses, from artificial intelligence to leadership to marketing to digital commerce. So that business has been up and running and established for quite some time. In addition to that, we have what we call open enrollment programs. And the one that I'm so involved in or mostly involved in is called the Food Executive program. It's actually been running for over 65 years. And that program is where we bring executives to our campus here in Ithaca. And the program that we're talking about today, we utilize our newer campus, Cornell Tech on Roosevelt island in New York City. But we bring industry leaders from all over the country and world for that matter, to engage, network and learn about how to be better operators in their respective companies. And then in addition to that, we have custom custom programs that we might do for a specific company, whether that be a retailer, consumer, packaged good company, a supply chain company where we design specific learning and development programs for that specific company, could be live, could be online, or could be some type of combination of both. So I think that gives you an answer to at a very high level, what's Cornell executive education? And at least in the area that we're talking about today, we design programs for leaders across different levels of organizations, from managers all the way up to the C suite. And so it's not it's hard to say typically who attends, but just depends on how we customize or craft the specific class. But in in the case of this program, we're looking at leaders that are at the vice president level, senior director level, all the way up to the C suite, including chief marketing officer, because this is a very high level program where we're targeting a high level of person to attend the program. So that might answer part two of your question.
- [08:25]
Peter V S Vaughn
Absolutely, Dan. So first of all, as I mentioned, I'm thankful that you guys are shaping the future of the industry via education in the first place. Giving people an opportunity to come together, network, just building the future of our industry. Right. So what the next question that's obvious on people's mind is, do people have to go through some sort of qualification process? Do they have to apply for any one of these executive programs and is there a selection criteria of some sort? Like how does one actually become, you know, you mentioned a food executive program, an omnichannel program, coming to campuses, company campuses, and actually training people. Like, how does this get put together? How do people get qualified to attend?
- [09:09]
Dan Hooker
Yeah. Yep. So the programs that I'm involved in, Omnichannel, Food Executive, and this new on retail media strategy are put together by a combination of faculty and then industry expertise like the CPG guys like yourself, SRI and Peter that run the CPG guys. So my view and my belief is that a partnership of academics and practitioners will give the participants of the program the best environment to capitalize on, you know, learning and development for professional teachers like faculty at Cornell, and then from how to execute and tactically take back learnings from practitioners like yourself, sri. So that's how we put these programs together. And so how does someone go or how do you attend a program? There is a limit of seats and if we focus specifically on the retail media program, we do have a cap of 60 seats for the program. So it is something that we're going to be very selective in attending. But we encourage all those interested to either reach out to sri, reach out to Peter, reach out to myself, you can go on to Cornell's website and SRI is going to share the link in the show notes on how to do that and you can apply and then we review all applicants and then we, let's say we accept a select group to attend this program and we're really excited about this one and we wish we could offer more seats, but stay tuned, we may have more classes coming in the future.
- [10:46]
Peter V S Vaughn
Yeah. So thank you first for calling out that you're partnering with the CPG guys on the retail media program. So what was the urgency? Why now? Why 2025 and give us some details of where the actual program is going to be at. I think you casually mentioned Cornell Tech. Where is it? But why now? What's the urgency?
- [11:06]
Dan Hooker
Well, let me start with why now? And for those listening to our conversation today and and your podcast in general, know that one of the hottest areas in the world of retail and consumer goods is retail media. Especially with the change in privacy laws by, you know, Google, Apple and the need for brands to connect with consumers, the need for retailers to retain loyal shoppers target those shoppers offer personalization, offer both sides, retail and brand. It's really an arms race to capture all those digital marketing dollars that are shifting or moving from call it traditional media like in store displays to everything digital. It's no secret that the shopper now uses their phones in the store to shop. They order online from their desk, sitting in their office or at home. Stores are very, very important part of this. But the whole omnichannel, shopper and omnichannel approach is critical and it's all happening right now. So the retailers and brands who capture more consumers the quickest and sree, I'd love to hear your view on this as well is what really matters today. And therefore we believe that we need to educate both brands and retailers on how to navigate and how to best optimize in collaboration mutual business for both. So that's really at what I view a high level view. I'm curious to say what you think why now and then I can talk a little bit about where it's happening, where it's taking place.
- [12:44]
Peter V S Vaughn
So Dan, if you look at the marketing funnel, you covered the lower funnel piece and it's quite detailed over there. Why now I'm going to go to the upper funnel piece. You know, I still remember when I was a practitioner leading sales as the chief customer officer for the General Mills Company. I still remember the day it was March 17, 2023 when business changed. There was a first time we experienced a volume slowdown in three years. The industry as a whole experienced has been for close to two years at this point due to snap dollars, EBT dollars and then the government assistance checks slowly starting to diminish and get extinguished. And one of the areas that became a huge area of focus was hey, when brands are losing households and they're losing it to private label and they're losing it to other smaller ankle biter, what's known in the industry as ankle biter competitors, what are tactics to kind of come back and gain those loyal households that you've had, but you're losing on the basis of opening price points to private label and store brands. And CMOs for the first time started taking a much more detailed involvement in retail media and the role of retail media in a media mix as opposed to retail media as a lower funnel sales activation engine. So now more than ever, Dan, it's important for brands, whether you're in a selling function, whether you're in a brand equity developing function, to truly understand the nature of retail media which presents itself everything from upper funnel, middle funnel, lower funnel, all the way from awareness to consideration to conversion and understand is it a media engine, is it purely a trade engine for the purpose of sales, or is it all of the above and does it belong in a media mix and if so, how do we get there as fast as possible? And that's what this program will really aim to shoot for and educate levels of the organization that really need to understand this, which is VPs of marketing, SVP's of marketing, CMOs, VPs of sales, SVPs of sales, even supply chain folks who need to gear up and understand that when you're pumping dollars into lower funnel activation, you need to know what kind of volume to expect so you're never out of stock. That's one of the worst ways to spend media dollars, by the way, chasing to an out of stock item. So that's why I would say the urgency is now so that this conflict can stop in the industry. And if you're a retailer, the reason you would want to attend is from a merchandising perspective, if you're losing households and you're not part of the upper funnel conversation with brands, you're never going to get a lower funnel because this household just isn't showing up. That's the reason why a merchandiser should be attending. And if you're an RMN engine, of course you need to be part of this because you're shaping the industry's future. That's why. Now then, that's the CPG guys opinion, but I'd love to learn where is this program?
- [15:35]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, so it's fascinating on how fast retail media is evolving and of course there's some very large players in the space and small players and lots of questions for practitioners on both sides of the desk, retail and cpg. So I can imagine, and I know this for a fact, but technology is driving a lot of what's happening. So therefore, what better location to host or have this program than at the financial and technology and media center of the world, New York City, where Cornell has a campus called Cornell Tech. We just had our 10 year anniversary and we have some fantastic facilities on our campus in Roosevelt island to host this program. There's a great hotel called the Graduate Hotel where everyone stays so we're all in one place. Great restaurants for networking and then of course the campus and faculty that are business school faculty focused on technology media, based in New York City on our campus in Roosevelt Island. So I believe it's like the perfect location for a forward thinking, tech enabled, tech driven leadership program that we're developing here together in partnership. So it's at Roosevelt island on our campus at Cornell Tech. Very easy to get to, very easy to get from. And it's a four day program that kicks off on a Monday night and concludes on a Thursday late afternoon. So really excited to have this program take place.
- [17:09]
Peter V S Vaughn
I have personally not had the opportunity to go to Cornell Tech and see the campus, but a little birdie chirps in my ear all the time that the rooftop location, which is where I believe as we start migrating now into our discussion on, you know, at a high level, what to expect from modules, that the program kicks off with a networking reception and a keynote at a special location with amazing views of Manhattan, east river as well as off Manhattan itself. Is that true?
- [17:39]
Dan Hooker
Absolutely true. Imagine being on an island in the middle of Manhattan and feeling like you're actually on an island. That's what Roosevelt island feels like. It's quiet, but up on that rooftop bar you have this amazing view of the east river and midtown Manhattan and you can see the city lights and if the weather is good, which has been in our omnichannel programs when we run them, amazing views, amazing company. The rooftop bar is outside. Great drinks, great company, great conversation. So that's where we kick it off. And sri, you might have some insight, but we have some of the industry leaders that perhaps will be joining us for that kickoff dinner as our keynote speaker. Maybe we can't do necessarily announced that yet, but we anticipate some really exciting speakers kicking our program off and being present throughout the program.
- [18:33]
Peter V S Vaughn
Can't reveal it today Dan, but it will be in the upcoming couple months. But we have an amazing keynote on the state of retail media and the industry on what I would call day zero or day one as part of the networking event. More importantly Dan, I think the networking event serves a very important purpose and that is practitioners from brands. Meet with your peers from sales, across disciplines, across categories in the center store and then meet with the actual RMN's who's who so you can have those discussions yourself in a very safe space, private setting, ask the questions that were always on your mind during that period and then meet with the one or two key, what we believe are service providers that a turnkey and really influencing positive change in the industry to bring back what all of you are telling us repeatedly is a big challenge, which is volume growth across the board in the industry. So I for one am certainly looking forward to that networking evening as well as meeting who's who in the industry in media and retail media. So let's have a discussion then and see if we got this right on modules. Right. So as we kind of you and I started talking about you, me and Peter for that matter, and even Think Blue, because Think Blue will be part of this curriculum in education as well. What are we actually bringing to the table here in terms high level in terms of the modules? Right. One of the things we heard loud and clear is clarity on is retail media media or not? So we're definitely going to address is retail media media or not? Is retail media a new phenomenon? Is it old? Has it been around forever? And then how do I start thinking about if it is media, how do I start thinking about it? There's been a lot of confusion on what sort of tactics constitute retail media in the first place. So we're going to jump into that, you know, we'll get into more conversation, you and me, on what, what that really means, because there's all types of inventories and then we evolve from there into helping build joint value conversation between a retailer and a brand. How can you positively change the industry to bring back volume growth via joint value creation in the first place? And none of this is good unless you can measure the investment. Brands are investing, retailers are executing. So what's that measurement framework? What kind of data is available to anchor that measurement framework? And then the key word of all of this is ROI. What KPIs really matters. And also dispel the myth of what KPIs don't matter. Because all too often, Dan, I hear ROAS is the only way. And I ROAS is the only way. And is that really the fact? And then it's important to understand the world around us. So what are some global perspectives? For example, in our partnership with Uber ads, we know Uber is touching the whole world with retail media. You know, I was in Japan just over the holidays and I saw a bunch of Uber media actually running on Ubers that I took. Of course I got to see cat's eye on most of the cab rides, I went as well because they were performing that week. But the world is, the world of media is changing every hour, every minute, by the day, by the week. We're going to cover those. Of course, there are some ethical considerations and challenges in retail media, especially with AI and content. And then, you know, to be fair, Dan, I think there's a, there's some immersive learning. It's important to ask the room, did you learn? And some of the best ways you can ask someone, did you learn is actually do a workshop with an outcome to tell us, did you learn? What did you learn? And that sums up kind of high level what we're doing. Tod Stan, do you agree, do you think we're missing something?
- [22:25]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, I would agree wholeheartedly on how we've put this program together. We have some of the best faculty at Cornell University, professional teachers, retail and consumer practitioners like yourself. Some of the sessions that you talked about, like the history of retail media and how to build a successful retail media strategy will be on day one. You mentioned collaboration and partnership and the importance of working together. Something that we're really focused in on day two. And of course, the return in measurement. You know, as I talk to consumer goods companies, have a handful coming to my class this semester. When I talk about retail media, the first thing that often comes to the conversation is return on investment or return on ad spend or you know, boil it down to simple terms what on earth am I getting for the money that the retailers are asking me to spend? So these are all the things that we're going to focus on during the program. And I'm going to quote someone in the industry and you mentioned sri and this is a very safe space. It's closed. We're not opening it up to the media. The networking and the conversations that happen is, and I quote, this is where the magic happens. I think I heard that from you, sri, but it's in these sessions that the magic happens. And let me just give you a great example. In our Omnichannel program that we have as well, we invite food retailers, non foods retailers, retailers in the sporting goods space. And you know, in last year's program, we learned so much from a call it a retail that's not in our traditional space, but was in sporting goods about their approach to the omnichannel shopper. And this was during the call it non classroom time. So these networking opportunities that happen outside of the classroom and the workshops and the discussions are really, and I'll say again, where the magic happens. So it's such a great safe space. You're, you're, you're away from your day to day job and you just get a chance to learn, network and engage with your peers. It's a fantastic opportunity for all that attend.
- [24:49]
Peter V S Vaughn
Let me remind our audience that I'm speaking to Dan Hooker, faculty at Cornell University and we are discussing the newly launched Retail Media Network executive education program that is set for May 2025 at Cornell Tech in Roosevelt Island. So before I get into details of each of the days and the modules in bitter detail here, Dan, let me first again acknowledge that the CPG guys is excited to partner with Cornell on this. The industry kind of told us that the various events that we go to, whether it's CMOs, VPs of brands, chief customer officers, North America presidents, CEOs at retail, chief merchants, that this education is very necessary for the senior levels of CPG and retail. And the CPG guys is grateful that you picked us to partner with and get this going. And we're very excited that we can get it going. And one of those things that you have just briefed us on pretty eloquently right there was the importance of networking. If we're going to get this right in the industry go forward and retail media is going to be acknowledged as media, we need to shake hands across the aisle. Retailers and brands need to shake hands, service providers need to enable that. And that's how we will build an enterprise over here for the future, really for the benefit of consumers at the end of the day. And that's what we're all focused on at the end of the day. So I don't want to underemphasize that. I'll repeat again, safe space. Any question on your mind is fair game and we will answer it. No media not being recorded, live telecast, no gotcha moments, none of that stuff. So if you're a participant in this program, you're welcome to ask anything. There's no bad question. All questions are good questions because you're influencing future of the industry over here. So now let's get into individual days and what one can expect really more than with the spirit here of what's being covered in the program. We've talked about the networking opportunity on day one and a keynote on the state of the industry overall as we get into day one. I think it's important, Dan, to start with consumer behavior. You know how retail media is not a new phenomenon. What's really changed is the pandemic forced it to be seen as a new phenomenon or a phenomenon in the first place. Retail media has actually been around forever. So we'll cover that. We'll talk about the different facets of a successful retail media strategy and post lunch we're going to get into the different types of inventory for retail media on site, off site, the evolving today's really hottest topic within retail media in store. We'll have plenty of time for audience Q and A across all of those. And then how do you storytell retail media? Most of you will be managing budgets and probably need to look for incremental budgets or justifying your budgets. So how do you actually create the content that storytelling retail media, how does that sound for day one?
- [27:52]
Dan Hooker
Sounds like a lot to cover in day one, but we're excited for it. And I would just add sree that this isn't the typical conference style learning. We're going to have small group work, we're going to have panel discussions, we're going to have lectures. It's going to be very hands on, engaging. The time will fly. It won't be like, you know, you're coming to one of my classes at Cornell here and I have to keep you awake with my, you know, know my song and dance.
- [28:23]
Peter V S Vaughn
I don't believe that's true. I believe that someone's attending dance classes. They're awake because they're there to learn.
- [28:28]
Dan Hooker
Sometimes I have to bribe the undergrad.
- [28:31]
Peter V S Vaughn
He'S going to invite me to his class to be a guest lecturer. I look forward to that.
- [28:35]
Dan Hooker
I have to bribe the students every now and then with snacks, but it seems to do the work, do the magic.
- [28:41]
Peter V S Vaughn
You know, we could try CPD guys flag.
- [28:43]
Dan Hooker
Yes. Let's bring it in. I they, they will take anything.
- [28:47]
Peter V S Vaughn
Yeah.
- [28:47]
Dan Hooker
And then great day one, very packed. We have a great dinner planned for day one as well. And then we get up bright and early. And one of the great things about Roosevelt island, there's great places to walk, exercise, get a short workout in in the morning if that's your thing. So we have some of that built into the program as well.
- [29:08]
Peter V S Vaughn
I'm a deep believer if you're visiting Manhattan. Unfortunately, I'm a visitor now living in Los Angeles. Don't live there. There is no way you come to New York City and don't get up early and enjoy a walk. I mean that is the only city in America where you can walk a mile, 2 mil, not have to worry about anything from safety to just views or just people watch across the board. Right. But that said, Dan, the one thing you pointed out, and I want to kind of emphasize one more time is you're coming here to learn, but you're also shaping the future of the industry as senior leaders. This is not a conference style presentation where you take four paragraphs of notes after four days or look to fill two pages with notes on what with bullet points. You're actually going to participate because you're shaping the future of this industry. Very immersive. And the quality of the education is only as good as the questions you ask and the feedback you provide and what you take away with you. So do plan for that. So as we evolve into the next day, you know, obviously after we recap the learnings from day one, fairly immersive day one, we walk into the data and analytics part because this is once you set a strategy, you got to be able to measure the execution and the outcomes. So what sort of data is available in the first place? There's a very important word that's floating around and I'm not referring to mops and brooms. It's called clean rooms. Your thought on clean rooms and audience building, Dan?
- [30:40]
Dan Hooker
Well, clean rooms enable, call it the ability to share information in a safe way. And therefore I think it's a big part of how collaboration is going to happen going forward. Can't do it without. There's, there's. I know if you ask CEOs of retailers and CPGs, I'm sure cyber security and data and the potential to be compromised is a topic that's high up on their concern list if there's such thing. So it's important.
- [31:10]
Peter V S Vaughn
Yeah. Dan, I think you pointed out you've highlighted something very important here. Cybersecurity and the security around data privacy and protection. How is this done? Assuring people that the protection of data privacy still stays in place and given that we've had a couple of hacks in the last 90 days of a couple of large retail ecosystems, how is this done in a secure manner? Clean rooms definitely enable that. Then we get into audience building, targeting, focusing on the right audience and then the emerging technologies that are available, which is really in store media. And then I think it's also important to understand Cornell's viewpoint. So we'll have academia come in and talk to us about Cornell's viewpoint. You know, you talk to who's who in the industry as Cornell, you also work with some of the brightest students and also some of the largest companies in the world. Love to get your viewpoint on the academia presentation and what to expect.
- [32:06]
Dan Hooker
Well, the faculty will be interspersed throughout the program and will be facilitating a lot of the program and a lot of the sessions. A couple examples, we have some top thinking in consumer behavior and research around how consumers buy. So that's a part where our Cornell faculty can really lean in and provide a lot of cutting edge research and insights in the consumer. We also have leadership faculty and you know, once we have a session like this and you know, we talk about best practices and implementation, you know, leaders need to go back to their organization and make it all happen. So that requires leadership and how to, to to create an organization that's focused and on the future and success and going through the whole change management process. We have supply chain expertise, we have Karangarotra, who's based at Cornell Tech, is an expert on artificial intelligence and of course AI will play a role in anything digital. So that's another faculty member that can really add value to the program. So there's many more to talk to, many more to add that will be joining the faculty. I mean I have 30 plus years of experience and you'll have probably get tired of seeing my face as MC and host of the program along with you, Sri and Peter. So I'll bring my expertise as a not only a retailer, operator, marketing merchandiser, I had lots of years in private brands which plays a big role in the retail of the future. So I think combined faculty, our experience and then of course any participant that comes is going to add value to the program just by being there and participating. So it's just a great recipe for curating crafting the future of the industry.
- [34:08]
Peter V S Vaughn
Fabulous. Stan, I have a strong suspicion given your background, the CPG guys will be asking you to be part of the academia as well. But we're going to reveal all that in the next 60 odd days. Details of who's giving what class, etc. So then we focus on we said hey data, clean rooms, that's how you get to learn. But then roi, very important part. So we'll be getting into both budgeting for the roi, how you budget different components of the budget and then definitely how you calculate ROI and try to bring us together for a discussion on what are the metrics that matter. Several metrics need to be reported out, but there's only two or three at the end of the day that really matter from a decision making yay na go, no go standpoint. So we'll be discussing that. We'll get into the global perspectives which are equally important to understand what's going on in the rest of the world. That will migrate over to the U.S. for example, in store retail media has been around in Latin America as well as in Western Europe forever. And now it's migrating over into the United States. And then ethical considerations really, with AI and content, and then what trend should one look forward to? You and I have already called in store retail media. And then, Dan, we're going to evolve into some presentation and coursework, a little bit of homework, which I think is important, not because we just want to give you work, because that's what tells us, did we deliver what you wanted and your opinion on what matters, as well as you're shaping the industry. Tell us how you're shaping the industry. We'd love to learn from you as well. So you'll break out into. And how's that typically done, Dan, in a Cornell executive program?
- [35:49]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, it's typically done. We put our participants, this size of 60, into small groups of four or five. And the four or five are given a challenge or as part of the curriculum or the class, there's a project to work on. And just to use as an example, in our Omnichannel program that we put together last summer, we had the participants utilize AI to answer a question around merchandising or product assortment. So we'll put the participants in a small group. They'll have a challenge, they'll have the night to work on the project. And oftentimes that's know, at dinner or at a bar over a few, maybe not coffee, maybe some other types of beverages. And the idea is to work on this project, come up with a solution or a strategy, and make a very brief presentation on the final day. And that's also an opportunity for each of the teams and participants to ask questions, to engage, to dive deeper into the subject. And there's a lot of learning that takes place there. For those that don't like to get in front of a group, it can be a little bit intimidating. But you have a team behind you and great faculty support. So it's a great learning opportunity. So in this program, we will have some homework, a project, and the opportunity for each participant to engage.
- [37:16]
Peter V S Vaughn
You know, to be honest. And every executive program I've attended in my life, I've looked forward to the presentation part myself. I wanted to be a part of it to express my views, but more importantly, the other presenters, different topics in the room to learn from them what they had to share as well. So I, for one, definitely look forward to that part of the segment because I love doing that. And you have already Pointed out, Dan, but we'll be mixing people in small groups but diverse backgrounds. So you might have a retail media provider with a practitioner from brand, with somebody, maybe on the commercial side with somebody from faculty. Maybe Dan himself will be in your cohort for the presentation. Maybe Peter will be from the CPG guys, maybe Parag from Think Blue. But we look forward to this. And now let's evolve to the final day where one of the most important questions I have for you is people complete this program and the successful presentations, do they get a Cornell Exec education certificate on completion and how does one qualify for it?
- [38:15]
Dan Hooker
They do. Every participant that completes the program will get a certific in retail media strategy from Cornell University. So you'll have a formal certificate. You can put it on your wall next to your diploma if you like. You can put the Link on your LinkedIn profile or whatever social media handles you use. So it's an official certification from Cornell University. In addition, there's continuing education credits that you can apply for too, or get and receive. So you do get a genuine or a real certificate from Cornell. So Peter's already a graduate from Cornell University, so he might help us issue some more.
- [38:59]
Peter V S Vaughn
I know Peter shows it off every single time on LinkedIn. So for everyone here that does come to the program graduate, of course you can Showcase it on LinkedIn. But more importantly, that certificate is proof in the pudding that you're here to influence the right positive change in the industry and return to volume growth via retail media as one of the mechanisms to get there. And so the CPG guys then are demanding some sort of a small graduation ceremony. Is that in the mix?
- [39:31]
Dan Hooker
Yeah, on the last day we have a graduation where all the participants that graduate because you have to complete your project and you have to be present during the course, but if you graduate, you'll receive a certificate at our formal graduation ceremony at the conclusion on Thursday. It's a lot of fun. We give out some prizes and everyone gets their certificate. And I would just add the certificate's great, it's great to have, but, you know, you probably meet some new people, you'll probably make some new friends. And those friendships, those people outside of what we do in our day to day jobs, will be invaluable. It's just, you know, so rewarding to make new friends and have new experiences together.
- [40:16]
Peter V S Vaughn
That's one of the most beautiful things about this industry, Dan. The amount of people we meet, diverse backgrounds, different training, different ways we've reached the positions we have and how we influence outcomes in the industry. So I'm glad there will be a graduation ceremony as one of the people designing this program. Do I get a certificate then?
- [40:39]
Dan Hooker
No.
- [40:39]
Peter V S Vaughn
Sree.
- [40:40]
Dan Hooker
Maybe sri, but we can call you Cornell faculty.
- [40:44]
Peter V S Vaughn
We'll take that any day then. We'll take that any day.
- [40:47]
Dan Hooker
I'll be evaluating that week how you do and how you perform.
- [40:50]
Peter V S Vaughn
I will promise to be on my best behavior and I'll make sure Peter does that as well. So how does one remind us again, Dan, how does one register and attend the event and is it different to register and qualify if you're a retailer of representing a brand or a service provider?
- [41:07]
Dan Hooker
No, it's not different. There's. We're accepting participants from both brands and retailers and supply chain companies and consulting firms, technology companies. So we're not necessarily screening out and we're welcoming all. So there's a couple different ways and you'll probably post in the show notes the link to apply to go to the program. You can reach out directly to sri, you can reach out directly to Peter, myself at Cornell University. In fact, I mean if, if you're just listening to this, you can actually put in your search bar Cornell Retail Media. And more than likely you'll show up on our landing page and you can apply that way as well. So many different ways. And we're encouraging all participants or all people who would like to join the program to apply. We do have limited seats though. SRI limited. There is limited seats. So we have a cap. And one of the reasons for the cap is it makes for a much more rich learning environment. So there is a limit, an upper.
- [42:17]
Peter V S Vaughn
Limit quality of the education. But I encourage all of you to apply do remember we qualify. So once you do register, we'll let you know. But it's important that you do. As Dan mentioned, you will find the link to apply and register on the digital liner notes of this episode. If you forget, you will see it on the CPG guys LinkedIn page often enough. You can also just scroll to Cornell University's website and you should be easily in the search bar be able to find the program or as Dan mentioned, the only way you don't find it through a Google search is if you have VPN running because of the temporary 12 hour TikTok ban has spooked you out. Otherwise you're going to find it in just a few minutes. Damn. The CPG guys are very excited to work with Cornell on getting this right for the industry. If I'm a practitioner, I want to be in that photograph. Of the graduation because this is a first in the industry and there's no greater joy than being one of those that was first in the industry. Because you know the CPG guys will make sure that this is etched into the CPG Guys hall of Fame moment for the industry. So Dan, I encourage everybody, don't miss that opportunity. Let me remind our audience of you can find all of our content simply by going to a website and typing cpguys.com in the URL. If you think you or your company has some thought leadership to contribute to a community discussion, simply drop us an email@contactpguys.com again that email is contactpguys.com and maybe you can join us on the podcast if you want to reach out to us regarding the program no more. You can also drop us an email@contactpguys.com shripguys.com that's sripgguys.com PVSP that's Peter's email. PVSPguys.com Reach out to us. That way. You can also ping us on LinkedIn and we'll be happy to chat with you. And maybe you can also join us on the podcast in the future. Don't forget to drop us a rating@cpguys.com, it's important because it tells us how we're doing, but most importantly, the review tells us if we're having the right conversations like we are on retail media right here. To our followers on LinkedIn. We can't thank you enough. We can't thank you enough for the clicks, likes, direct messages, for engaging with us on conferences, coming on the podcast, and to all our sponsors throughout the year. A big thank you. You make the CPG guys happen. Dan, I can't tell you enough times how excited the CPG guys are for this opportunity you've given us to work with you and Cornell University in shaping the first ever industry executive education program in retail media. Thank you for joining me on the show and this opportunity.
- [44:54]
Dan Hooker
Thank you Sri. I'm grateful.
- [44:56]
Peter V S Vaughn
I look forward to May I look forward to those wonderful views. I look forward to now being able to say, faculty at Cornell University. For all of you, I look forward to the certificate, but most importantly, what Dan and I look forward to is you collectively shaping the outcome of retail media for this industry. That's a wrap of this episode. See you soon on another episode of the CPG Guys.
- [45:30]
Sree Rajagopalan
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 CPT Guys, 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, or reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.