THE OMNIES -The 2024 CPGGUYS Omnichannel Awards with NielsenIQ

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – THE OMNIES - The 2024 CPGGUYS Omnichannel Awards with NielsenIQ

Podcast Information:

• Title: The CPG Guys
• Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan
• Episode: THE OMNIES -The 2024 CPGGUYS Omnichannel Awards with NielsenIQ
• Release Date: February 22, 2025
• Description: CPG & FMCG eCommerce industry icon Sri Rajagopalan & consumer loyalty guru Peter V.S. Bond explore how brands and retailers understand and engage with consumers in-store, online, and everywhere in between.

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Introduction to the Omnichannel Awards

The episode kicks off with Peter V.S. Bond highlighting the rapid rise of retail media as a crucial channel for brands aiming to engage consumers effectively across various platforms. He emphasizes the importance of retail media in driving measurable performance along the consumer's purchase journey.

Peter V.S. Bond [00:00]:
"Retail media is rapidly becoming the go-to channel for brands, aiming to engage consumers with measurable performance along the path to purchase."

Peter and co-host Sri Rajagopalan (Sree) introduce the 2024 CPGGuys Omnichannel Awards, celebrating industry luminaries who have significantly contributed to the omnichannel landscape. This year, four distinguished recipients are honored for their lifetime achievements in advancing omnichannel strategies.

Award Recipient 1: Tanya Herring Douglas

Tanya Herring Douglas, Senior Vice President of Omnichannel Merchandising at Giant Food Stores, Maryland, is the first awardee. Tanya discusses her leadership principles, emphasizing empathy, accountability, authenticity, integrity, and continuous learning as the cornerstones of her approach.

Tanya Herring Douglas [08:36]:
"Leading with empathy and accountability... Authenticity helps to build trust and fosters strong team dynamics."

She elaborates on embracing omnichannel leadership by creating seamless shopping experiences both online and offline. Tanya highlights the importance of leveraging consumer data and staying informed through various learning mediums to adapt to the rapidly changing industry.

Tanya Herring Douglas [10:01]:
"Embracing omnichannel leadership means creating an environment where our customers can shop seamlessly whether it's online or in-store."

Tanya advises professionals with traditional merchandising backgrounds to embrace change, collaborate closely with digital experts, and utilize data to inform strategies, ensuring effective omnichannel leadership.

Tanya Herring Douglas [11:29]:
"By collaborating super closely with those digital experts, we can ensure our strategies are executable across all the channels."

Looking ahead to 2025, Tanya commits Giant Food to delivering exceptional value through outstanding customer service, refined product assortments, and innovative promotional strategies.

Award Recipient 2: Doug Joseph

Next, Doug Joseph, Head of Food Category for Walmart Connect, joins the conversation. Doug shares his leadership principles—honesty, vulnerability, and empathy—that have guided his successful career in retail media.

Doug Joseph [15:35]:
"Have honest conversations, be vulnerable, and lead with empathy to build trust and push the business forward together."

Doug discusses his approach to embracing omnichannel leadership by staying intellectually curious, attending trade events, and continuously learning from industry peers and experts.

Doug Joseph [17:39]:
"I listen to the CPG guys. I mean, that's where I get all of the information across the board."

He provides strategic advice for integrating traditional advertising with modern retail media, emphasizing the importance of mutual value creation and becoming an industry expert to foster strong partnerships.

Doug Joseph [19:39]:
"The value exchange has to happen. They have to understand what I'm bringing to the table and how we can mutually benefit."

Looking forward, Doug outlines Walmart Connect's focus on enhancing measurement capabilities, expanding customer touchpoints, and fostering innovation to eliminate ambiguity in the value provided to suppliers.

Doug Joseph [21:15]:
"We are going to be a pioneer in measurement... eliminating any ambiguity that any supplier has about the value that Walmart Connect provides."

Award Recipient 3: Sally Marino Moser

Sally Marino Moser from PepsiCo is the third honoree, recognized for her leadership in omnichannel marketing and retail media partnerships. Sally underscores the importance of empathy, adaptability, and team empowerment in her daily work.

Sally Marino Moser [24:39]:
"Leading with empathy, adaptability, and empowerment allows my team to do their best work and creates value for our customers."

She delves into the intricacies of omnichannel leadership, focusing on the holistic shopper journey and the integration of data and insights to enhance consumer experiences. Sally emphasizes continuous learning and collaboration with media partners and retailers to stay ahead of industry trends.

Sally Marino Moser [26:24]:
"I prioritize continuous learning, listening to consumers, and partnering with insights teams to stay proactive rather than reactive."

Sally advises the industry to foster collaboration, mutual value creation, and innovation, ensuring that retail media strategies benefit both brands and retailers.

Sally Marino Moser [28:43]:
"Stay collaborative and trust the process, but make sure that you lead it with purpose."

Looking into 2025, Sally highlights PepsiCo's commitment to driving omnichannel excellence by connecting brick-and-mortar and e-commerce touchpoints to create seamless brand experiences.

Sally Marino Moser [31:23]:
"PepsiCo will continue to drive Omnichannel excellence, connecting all shopper touchpoints to create seamless and memorable brand experiences."

Award Recipient 4: Kara Pratt

The final awardee, Kara Pratt, Senior Vice President for Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM8451), shares her insights on shaping the retail media landscape and leading with accountability and trust.

Kara Pratt [33:36]:
"Accountability and purpose are at the forefront of influencing decisions and driving growth."

Kara discusses the critical role of trust, empowerment, communication, creativity, and curiosity in her leadership style. She emphasizes the necessity of fostering innovation and maintaining open dialogue with partners to navigate the evolving omnichannel environment.

Kara Pratt [36:30]:
"Trust, empowerment, communication, creativity, and curiosity are the tenets of my leadership style."

She advocates for collaboration between merchandising and marketing teams, ensuring that both functions work together to drive category and brand growth. Kara also outlines Kroger Precision Marketing's plans for 2025, focusing on enhancing digital shelf experiences with sight, sound, and motion—essentially integrating video content to enrich consumer interaction.

Kara Pratt [43:26]:
"We are going to bring sight, sound, and motion onto Kroger's digital shelf, creating new experiences for customers."

Closing Thoughts

In the concluding segment, Peter and Sree commend the awardees for their exceptional contributions to the omnichannel space. They encourage other professionals to elevate their retail media and omnichannel strategies, aspiring to recognize future industry leaders in the coming years.

Sree Rajagopalan [45:43]:
"Congratulations to the four that did win this year. My hat's off to you. You are true lifetime achievers that have made a difference in the industry."

Peter V.S. Bond [46:35]:
"Thank you for joining us and both Sree and I look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys podcast."

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Notable Quotes:

• Peter V.S. Bond [00:00]: "Retail media is rapidly becoming the go-to channel for brands, aiming to engage consumers with measurable performance along the path to purchase."

• Tanya Herring Douglas [08:36]: "Leading with empathy and accountability... Authenticity helps to build trust and fosters strong team dynamics."

• Doug Joseph [15:35]: "Have honest conversations, be vulnerable, and lead with empathy to build trust and push the business forward together."

• Sally Marino Moser [24:39]: "Leading with empathy, adaptability, and empowerment allows my team to do their best work and creates value for our customers."

• Kara Pratt [33:36]: "Accountability and purpose are at the forefront of influencing decisions and driving growth."

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Conclusion

This episode of The CPG Guys Podcast celebrates the exemplary achievements of four leaders in the omnichannel and retail media landscape. Through insightful conversations, the hosts and awardees delve into the principles and strategies that drive successful omnichannel leadership, emphasizing empathy, collaboration, continuous learning, and innovation. These discussions provide valuable takeaways for professionals aiming to excel in the dynamic world of consumer packaged goods and retail media.

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, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter Vs Bond explore how brands and retailers engage in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I am your co host pvsp. When I'm not podcasting, I also serve as Head of Industry and Client Engagement at Flywheel, the e commerce accelerator division of the global advertising holding company Omnicom. As always, I'm joined by my co conspirator, my co creator, my co founder and my bff. He is the patriarch of the Raj family media empire which includes his performing artist daughters Rhea and Lara. Lara being a member of Cat's Eye, and of course his wife Kavita who co hosts the Lights Camera conversation podcast on iHeartradio. Lest we forget his three cats and their incredible Instagram following, which just absolutely overshadows anything the CPG guys have done on a platform other than LinkedIn, he's the man known as Sree Sri. How are you man? What's going on?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Doing awesome. You know I'M eagerly looking forward to this episode because we do this once a year. We recognize who's who, kind of from a Hall of Fame perspective, those that have really stepped up and delivered for the industry. So teed away, Peter. Tell us, what do we got going on and who are we talking to today?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, yeah. This is our annual Omnis hall of Fame Omnichannel episode. So as you mentioned, Sree, we're recognizing industry luminaries who have elevated the game around Omnichannel in their business activities, not just during the year. This is a lifelong recognition. Last year we awarded the first two. One to Diana Hosling from Colgate, Palm of the other from Christy Argelin, who who's now actually at Uber. And we have four recipients this year. We're trying to outdo last year, Sree. That doesn't mean we have to do eight next year. But this year we're going to do four. And we've got four very worthy winners of this award. We're going to speak with each of them in this episode. Before I make mention of who they are, I'll just say to our audience, please, if you follow us on and subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify, please leave us a rating. It helps people find us, feeds the algorithm and write a review so we know what you like and what you don't like. It'll help us guide the direction of this program. We also encourage you to listen to our sister podcast, FMCG Guys over in Europe and CPG Scoop here in the United States. You can find links to our sister podcasts, the social media profiles of the Raj family media empire, certainly our podcast, and a couple other things I'll make mention in the notes. You're all aware of SRI and how he was affected by the fires in la. We're going to have a couple of charities links to their their contribution pages in the digital liner notes. If you don't like them, find ones that you think are worthy. But please do give. I know, Sree, you've been very active dropping off liquid to fire department locations in LA to help the firefighters who are just tirelessly trying to get these things under control. But it's very important. So we're going to have links to those in the digital liner notes of this episode. But with that, I'll just say the four people that we recognized, they should be familiar to you because they've been on the podcast in the past. Let's start first with Tanya Herring Douglas. She's SVP of Omnichannel Merchandising at Giant food stores in Landover, Maryland. Doug Joseph, he's head of food category for Walmart Connect. We've got Celly Moreno Moser from PepsiCo. And last but certainly not least, our dear friend Kara Pratt, Senior Vice President for Kroger precision marketing at 8451. We have some brief conversations with each of them. We were so honored to be able to bestow these awards upon them for their lifetime achievements and Omnichannel. We hope you enjoy the conversation that we have with each of them. Thank you. Here. Now we go to our conversations. Hi, this is PVSP with the CPG Guys. I'm here in Landover, Maryland, and I'm being joined by James Hunt, Senior Vice President, North America Retail at Nielsen iq. James, how are you?

[James Hunt]

Great.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Thank you very much. And welcome to everybody on your podcast out there. Well, we're here in. In Maryland for a reason. It's part of the 2024 CPG guys omnichannel hall of Fame Awards. We're here to award one of these awards to a very worthy person. She's been a guest on the podcast before, interacted with her quite a number of times both on the podcast at Cornell and down at fmi. And we are very pleased that one of this year's winners is Tanya Herring Douglas, who is Senior Vice President, Omnichannel Merchandising at Giant Food, part of AJO delhez usa. Tanya, how are you?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Hi.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

I'm good. Thank you so much for having me today.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We are so honored to be able to give this award to you, to recognize all the contributions that you've made in Omnichannel. This is the second year we've done it. We've expanded from two to three people this year, and you're one of our three winners this year. So we're so excited to be able to talk to you today.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

Thank you. I'm truly, truly honored that you would select me. I just feel like I just go about my normal day and then to get these to pop up. Just truly, truly. I'm humbled.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Well, we're. We're very happy to be able to talk to you today, so wanted to include some commentary in our podcast to recognize this. James and I have a couple of questions for you, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on this. This award is really about the leadership you've demonstrated throughout your career professionally. Would love to hear from you. What are the principles that you've anchored on that serve you well in leading the different roles you've had throughout your career.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

Throughout my career, I've anchored my leadership on several key principles. Leading with empathy and accountability to me is fundamental. It's crucial to truly understand the perspectives of others while taking ownership of our own decisions. Authenticity is another cornerstone of my approach. Being genuine helps to build trust and fosters strong team dynamics where everyone is valued and heard. Integrity is non negotiable. I consistently strive to ensure my actions reflect our core values here at Giant Food and clear communication is vital to make sure everyone is aligned and working towards shared goals. I prioritize setting clear objectives to guide our efforts and instill inspire my team through collaboration and really celebrating our collective achievements. And lastly for me, my commitment to continuous learning keeps me adaptable and informed and allowing me to stay relevant in our fast paced industry.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Thank you James yeah, so Tanya, just continuing on with the leadership component. We're curious to hear about how did you embrace omnichannel leadership and also how do you keep up with the learnings given all the rapid changes in our industry?

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

So embracing omnichannel leadership means creating an environment where our customers can shop seamlessly whether it's online or in store. It's really essential to understand that their shopping experience should be fluid regardless of the channel they choose to shop. To stay ahead of this dynamic landscape, I've leveraged consumer and customer data which really informs our strategies. I also prioritize my education through various mediums such as podcasts, just like the CPG guys books, industry articles so I can really stay on top of the emerging trends. Engaging with fellow leaders and mentors is also invaluable and really engaging with my multi generational team that this diversity of insights enriches our collective understanding and really ensures we're making informed decisions that will resonate with our customers.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Brilliant. So thinking about moving from merchandising into Omni Channel, we'd love to hear your advice that you would give to others in this space on how people with a traditional merchant merchandising background can start to partner with digital leaders to create a truly effective omnichannel leadership strategy.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

My advice to others in this sprite in this space is you have to embrace change wholeheartedly. The merchandising landscape has transformed and we now have access to extensive data that can inform our decision making process. Our competitive landscape has expanded dramatically as our customers have more choices of where, how and when to shop and additionally our communication channels with customers have truly diversified and our workforce spans five generations now for the first time in history so Each of those contributes a very unique perspective. So this environment can slow down your decision making if you're not managing it effectively. So by collaborating super closely with those digital experts, we can ensure our strategies are executable across all the channels, which enhances our leadership effectiveness and allows us to respond quickly to all the market shifts.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Great.

[Doug Joseph]

Wonderful. And so you've talked a lot about.

[James Hunt]

The different components within the leadership.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Can you tell our audience about a Giant and the retail leadership and what we can expect from you folks in the industry going into 2025?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

At giant Food, we're dedicated to bringing our employee value proposition to life through our associates with ongoing learning and development. Looking ahead to 2025, expect us to consistently deliver on our consumer value proposition, which is. Which has a strong focus on providing exceptional value to our customers. We will prioritize outstanding customer service by refining our product assortment, enhancing our promotional strategies, and communicating our offers effectively. Our commitment to innovation and adaptability will be at the forefront as we navigate the future of retail leadership and ensuring we remain responsive to our customers needs and the market trends.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Tanya, thank you for taking time to.

[Doug Joseph]

Speak with us today.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

And congratulations on joining the CPG Guys Omnichannel hall of Fame.

[Tanya Herring Douglas]

Thank you so much. Truly honored.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So our first conversation was with Tonya Herring Douglas from the Giant Food division of AJO Delhais usa. Our second conversation today is with Doug Joseph. He is head of food for Walmart Connect, the retail media arm of Walmart, the Fortune 1 company. He's been on the podcast before and we're really pleased to be able to bestow this award upon our dear friend Doug Joseph. Congratulations. Welcome.

[Doug Joseph]

Thank you. Thank you. Honored and ecstatic to be here. So thank you for the honor. It is, it is something that, you know, I've been a longtime listener. You've had some incredible guests. I'm happy to be one of them. But I'm also just, just so happy to be receiving this award.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Well, Doug, it's great because you've had a lifetime of. Of contribution to the industry, particularly in the media aspect. As we think about retail media and its incredible contribution to the growth of Omnichannel, it's not about E commerce. It truly is about full funnel and it truly is about both brick and mortar and digital influence wherever a consumer shops. So for that we wanted to recognize you. A couple of questions as we think about this, and I would like to say and mention. Joining us today for this conversation is our dear friend, Jessie Mazur. She is a VP at Nielsen iq, working on the Walmart and Sam's Club business. So, Jesse, welcome. Welcome to you.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Thanks.

[Sally Marino Moser]

Thanks for having me.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So, Doug, let me kick it off. I've got a question. I'll ask Jesse to chime in in a second, but you've demonstrated a real lifetime of leadership in this industry. What principles are you anchored on that you feel have served you well in working with clients and supporting the growth of your businesses?

[Doug Joseph]

When I first got into leadership many moons ago, there's a principles that I anchored around and I start this with my teams, but it also translates over to the supplier world and internally. And three main principles that have that equate to one thing that I'll go through. The first is have honest conversations. Honest conversation is not just like, high five, we're doing great, or it's not, you know, you stink at whatever is happening. It's an honest conversation with each other about how to push the business forward together. Let's just be honest with each other and do it. Number two is be vulnerable. Nobody knows everything and everybody needs help, both with your internal teams and your supplier community and everybody internally and cross functionally. So just be vulnerable and be open to where you need help or where you don't understand things. And you build that. That trust. Right. Which is, which is super important. And then the third and the last is be empathetic or lead with empathy. Right. We never know who's had a terrible day or what's going on in people's lives. Don't assume bad intent across the aisle and to everyone. And I think that's really. Those three leadership principles come together and equate to then accountability at the end of the day for me. And it's just been something I've led by.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, I love what you said about being empathetic. I always use an equivalent term, which is be kind, because you don't know what other people are going through. They don't know what you or I are going through. So making sure you lead with empathy and be kind to the people around you serves you well as a leader and as a collaborator. Jesse, question from you.

[Sally Marino Moser]

Yeah, Doug, as you know, at Nielsen, we've been evolving our products substantially to really fully represent Omni. Can you tell us about how you've.

[Kara Pratt]

Embraced the omnichannel and leadership and how.

[Sally Marino Moser]

Do you keep up with the learning given all the changes that constantly occur in our industry?

[Doug Joseph]

Changes, Changes in Omni? Get out of here. No, I. Look, I spend an inordinate amount of time with the merchants and learning just about retail what they're doing. I go to all the trade events. I try to just listen to as many speakers as possible. Be intellectually or I try to be as intellectually curious as I can about all, all that are happening. I take tons of meetings with sales, sales people that pitch me their new ideas and concepts to understand what's going on in the industry. But most importantly, I listen to the CPG guys. I mean, that's where I get all of the information across the board. That's where I get up to speed. But that and all the trade publications as well. So you really have to do this in a, in a fully encompassing approach so you get all sides of what's happening to stay up to speed. It's really, really important.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

All right. Currying favor from the CPG guys will always win you extra points. And to that I want to say proof about going to conferences. The 20I for, for those of you watching on video, I'm holding up the 25 conference badges and associated lanyards that I accumulated over the course of 2024. So I feel your approach and in getting out and talking to people, not just sitting in my office and hoping that I'm going to learn everything by what I'm telling myself. So back to the leadership aspect, what I find interesting. Doug, you have a unique background in so far as your retail media was not where you started. You started in more traditional advertising and, and it's now being blended into everyday merchandising with, working with the Walmart merchandising teams. What's your advice to others in this space and how do you advocate working with merchants on, on building leadership as you engage with, with your brand clients?

[Doug Joseph]

Yeah, I, you know, I spend an inordinate amount of time with my merchant friends at Walmart and look, it's a humbling experience coming into the, into the Walmart ecosystem and not necessarily knowing retail. So I just spent a lot of time, again, to my point before, about being intellectually curious. I kept my mouth shut, my eyes open, and I had a notebook in front of me and I just took copious notes. And the more I learned, the more or the more questions, the more I learned and the more I wanted to know, the more questions I had for them and the more interested they saw that I was in the business, which I generally wanted to know. And then the value exchange has to happen. They have to start to then understand. Well, the more that I know, what am I bringing to the table to this relationship? We are mutually exclusive, but how is it that they're seeing for the dollars that the suppliers are spending to the increased unit velocity that we can show and helping them understand the dynamics of it and how this all comes together was extremely important. So again, starting with learning about the industry, becoming an expert in it and then being able to partner with them has proven to be really, really powerful and an incredible relationship for, for, for me and Walmart Connect to foster.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Brilliant. That's, that's really insightful. Thank you. Jesse, why don't you close us out?

[Kara Pratt]

Well, Doug, we've really loved getting to.

[Sally Marino Moser]

Work closely with you and the Walmart Connect team over the years. Could you help to tell the audience about Walmart Connect and the retail media leadership and what can we really expect from you in 2025?

[Doug Joseph]

So loaded question, Jesse. There's a lot there. Look, I think what you can expect from Walmart Connect into next year is going to be a few things. Number one, we're going to be a pioneer and continue to pave the way with measurement. We have a bunch of incredible enhancements coming such as search incrementality and other areas. Essentially what our year is going to be is eliminating any ambiguity that any supplier has about the value that Walmart Connect provides. I don't think there's a lot of question with it right now, but want to make sure that we prove every single point that we're driving sale and volume. I would also say it's going to be a big year. We closed our acquisition with Vizio at the end of last year and last calendar year and this year it's going to be about how do we increase our customer touch points outside of just being in the Walmart specific ecosystem to this entire new universe. And you should expect a lot of really cool, fun things for that. We'll be building through this year and just the better ways that we can communicate and connect with our customer base.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Doug, thank you for joining us. We're so incredibly happy to be able to bestow the Omni's Omnichannel hall of fame award for 2024 to you and your continuing and enduring contribution to the growth of Omnichannel and Walmart Connect is very fortunate to have you helping them advance their cause as well, which fits quite neatly into this entire Omnichannel landscape. So thank you very much and we appreciate talking with you today.

[Doug Joseph]

Thank you both. I'm really honored to have this award. So appreciate you both and look forward to seeing you at one of those 25 to 30 events this year.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Indeed we will, Jesse. Thank you as well. And to our audience, thanks for joining us for the Omnichannels hall of fame 2024 for recipients award show. Our third conversation today is with silly Marino Moser. She's with PepsiCo and she's been on the podcast before as part of a collective. This is our first conversation with her, one on one. It was a great one. We hope you all enjoy it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We are very excited to present sally with the 2024 CPG guys omnichannel hall of Fame award for a lifetime of leadership in the media space. You know, the part that excites me the most about this winner is a lifetime journey. Being such a great advocate of media, which means she's touching consumers directly. She's the senior director of Omnichannel Marketing and head of retail media partnerships, an area all too close to what you and I do retail media. So we are very excited to present sally with the 2024 CPG guys omnichannel hall of Fame award for a lifetime of leadership in the media space. Congratulations, Sally. How you doing?

[Sally Marino Moser]

Thank you. Thank you guys for having me here.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

You bet. You know, Sally, While we say 2024, the award is contextual to a lifetime of leadership. And I'd love to ask you, Sally, what are some principles you anchor your everyday on that puts you in a position to lead something as big as retail media partnerships at PepsiCo?

[Sally Marino Moser]

You know, once again, first of all, Peter Sree, thank you again for this honor. I really do appreciate it. When I think about my career, I've tried to stay guided by some key principles. The first one that I can think about is leading with empathy, really understanding the needs of others, whether it's my team or my cross functional partners or even our customers. I really feel like this has helped me build relationships that have fostered collaboration as well as long term relationships. The next one I would say is adaptability. You know, the world is constantly evolving, especially with marketing and retail. Staying flexible and open to that change has really allowed me to stay relevant in the marketplace, particularly within all the end to end marketing roles that I've done. And it's allowed me to lead with especially through uncertainty, you know, and then finally I would say empowerment for my teams. You know, I believe that empowering others and creating an environment where people feel valued and that their point really matters allows them to do their best work. And at the end of the day, you know, leadership's about uplifting others. So, you know, I try to use these principles to help me navigate the challenges that I get, you know, seize Opportunities as well as create value for both my teams and my customers.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Wonderfully said, Selly. And congratulations on this award. So my question to you is about embracing Omnichannel leadership and being able to communicate that through your organization. Particularly, how do you keep up on all of the changes that are taking place and ensure that both you and your team are always learning with all of this rapid transformation?

[Sally Marino Moser]

So Omnichannel, this is my absolute favorite subject because it's all encompassing. This is really about seeing the shopper journey holistically, everything from discovery to purchase to post purchase. And so, you know, what I've tried to do throughout my career is lean into data and insights and understand how these shoppers are moving so seamlessly between brick and mortar and online, as well as even now, social shopping. So I try to prioritize continuous learning. That's just the way that I do it, you know, listening to consumers and shoppers, whether it's, you know, they're shifting behaviors or their preferences. And I try to do this real time or partnering with my insights partners. Definitely collaborating with partners. Partners like you, you know, partners like our media partners, our retailers, and even my brand peers who can help me discuss what potential innovative solutions can look like. And, you know, I think finally, for most of us, it's about staying curious. You know, I try to carve out time for thought leadership, whether that's reading industry reports or attending conferences like you guys do. But I try to stay proactive instead of reactive and embrace this change and, you know, and try to be confident about what's ahead of us.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Peter, she actually said partners like us, we must be important in. Yeah, what do you think, Peter?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We're legends in our own mind. Sri.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'll take that, man. So, Sally, we've already kind of said lifetime of leadership, right? Without that, we don't. This conversation doesn't happen in the first place, but very specifically in the world you work in, there's this new word that even though it's existed for 15 years, it's become important in the last three, four years, ever since COVID hit us, which is retail media. You're a marketer. Advertising. You already talked about outreach to consumers and staying on top of it. Very eloquently put. You know, what Omnichannel is about is really this new shopper journey. That's 360. But advertising is now blended into retail media. It's causing massive confusion over the last four years. Sales owns it, marketing owns it, IMC owns it. Agencies don't know what to do. It's like all over the place. Right. So what is your advice to just people in the space and especially, how do you advocate working with? You just name partners. Right? It could be media partners, agency partners, RMN partners, brand partners, sales teams. Love to hear your advice.

[Sally Marino Moser]

Yeah, so my advice to others would be, you know, to lead with collaboration and purpose. You know, so this really requires us to truly keep the consumer and the shopper at the center of everything that we do. So when you think about the partners that you're working with, you know, I always advocate for transparent communication upfront. You know, let's, let's set some clear objectives upfront and expectations, KPIs and open, keep yourself open to dialogue. If you do that and align on KPIs and what your objectives are up front, then it's much easier to address the challenges and opportunities that you're trying to get to. And so the other one that I would say is mutual value creation. Right. You know, retail media thrives on both brands and retailers seeing tangible results and growth. So it's important for us to develop strategies that leverage this partnership. But ultimately it has to grow the categories and the brands that we work on so that mutual value creation is critical to partnerships. And then finally, I would say we've got to figure out how to continue to foster innovation. You know, let's encourage partners to experiment and iterate, whether that's through new ad formats or in store programming, enhanced target capabilities, anything that's out there, new ideas drive growth, and we have to stay true to that. So ultimately, my, my advice to everyone is stay collaborative and trust the process, but make sure that you lead it with purpose.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I want to emphasize again what you said around joint value creation. I think too often people consider these kinds of activities to be very transactional in nature. And it's not a destination, it's a journey. And to your point, creating value for both equations, and that requires some measure of transparency and honesty. And about here's what I need to get what to be able to give you what you need and understand that the stakeholders in this equation all have different positions. And there is a way you can get to joint value creation. You just have to work at it. Sally, I'll close this out with, as Sree mentioned, retail media. And we all know how incredibly important it is in the omnichannel digital ecosystem. It's growing at such a rapid rate. What should we be looking for relative to retail media at PepsiCo? Looking into 2025, where do you sit in terms of Understanding its value in your overall media strategy.

[Sally Marino Moser]

You know, PepsiCo's always been at the forefront of innovation, and at the end of the day, it's because of our commitment to lead with true consumer centric strategies. So I think what you're going to continue to see from a PepsiCo perspective is to continue to see us drive Omnichannel excellence. It's going to be from brick and mortar to E commerce, but you'll continue to see us connecting all those dots across all the shopper touch points, creating seamless and memorable brand experiences for our consumers with the brands that we proudly love from a PepsiCo perspective. And the industry can continue to see us as a trusted partner, an innovator, and an advocate for growth, always with that shopper need at the center of what we do.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So, well said. Today's shopper is 100% digitally influenced. That's how strong we feel about it here on the cpg. Guys, Selly, congratulations again. It was an honor to host you on this episode.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Sree. To close it out, we're going to talk with our dear friend Kara Pratt. We were with her in Las Vegas for CES where we recorded this vignette. I hope everybody enjoys it. Recognizing Kara's contribution to Omnichannel, here we.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Are from iconic Las Vegas at CES 2025. And I'm here with Dan Bohnard from Nielsen Nike. How you doing, man?

[Kara Pratt]

Good.

[James Hunt]

Good to be here.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And none other than our favorite hero, the awesome Ms. Cara Pratt from none other than Kroger Precision Marketing 8451. And congratulations, one of the winners of our 2024 Omnichannel hall of Fame Awards. How you doing?

[Kara Pratt]

Thank you so much, Sri. I'm doing great. How are you?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Awesome.

[Kara Pratt]

Good, good, good. Thanks for joining, Dan.

[James Hunt]

Yeah, glad to be here.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

First of all, congratulations. But we've got a couple questions for you whenever you're ready. Good to go.

[Kara Pratt]

Let's go.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So, Kara, obviously winning a hall of fame award, you've shaped this industry. You shaped advertising well before retail media was born. And now you're one of the true leaders trailblazing retail media as well. That is a lifetime of leadership. So what are some principles that you're anchored on that actually gives you the luxury of being this amazing leader that you are to set standards for the industry?

[Kara Pratt]

You're very kind. And it has been just a real privilege to be early on in this industry looking to shape change and really recognize the power of what retail can do to influence and improve a roughly 30 year young digital industry. And, you know, when we set out In October of 2017, we really focused in on accountability. Accountability. We talked about accountability, we talked about purpose, we talked about business outcomes. And when you're a retailer and you're working with brands, you have a joint commitment to help drive growth and connect with customers in meaningful ways. And so, from a business perspective, that's always been at the forefront influencing decisions. Now, from a business practice standpoint, how do you inspire? How do you lead change? There's a couple tenants that have always been important for me. First, really anchors and trust. You have to be able to trust your team. You have to be able to trust your partners. You have to be able to live that each and every day, which then dominoes into empowerment, enable people to make decisions, to be bold, to face failure versus fear. Failure. Recognize we're going to make some mistakes and we're going to just get back up and keep moving forward, but we're going to learn from those mistakes. And then I domino into communication. We're making big decisions and small decisions every single day. And as teams grow, as dynamics change, as visions continue to evolve, it's so important to bring everybody along on that journey and make sure everybody recognizes the power and potential of what they are doing. They are influencing on the front lines. That level of ownership and autonomy is so critical because these businesses grow and these businesses thrive through everybody on the team, frankly. Well, more so than anybody that has the privilege to have these conversations and engage at CES with such iconic brands and tech partners and. And advertisers and agencies. The last thing that is certainly important is creativity and curiosity. These are spaces and places where we have to try new things. We have to recognize what. It's not always what's old is new again. We have to reframe the old and become better practitioners for. For the future, based on new innovation and new opportunities.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So are you saying grow as isn't everything?

[Kara Pratt]

It's not everything. It's not everything good. So the evolutionary tactics are trust, empowerment, communication, creativity. Those are real tenets of my leadership style.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Thank you.

[James Hunt]

Yeah, no, I love that. I think trust is the backbone of your team, your partners, and all of it. And I love your thought around, like, you know, you say winner, it's like you. It's not win or lose, it's win or learn. Right?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yes.

[Kara Pratt]

I love that.

[James Hunt]

That's it. Right. And so you learn something through failure and the fact that you embrace that, but that's how you get to where you are today. So that's awesome to see. And, you know, you talk about embracing omnichannel leadership. How do you keep up with the learning? Right. This, like, you know, we're here at CES and the evolution of this business has been, you know, you talk about 2017 and we're seven years in and, you know, I think it changes almost every month. What's, what's happening in the market? How do you keep with all the changes in the industry and making sure that what you're doing and what you're putting in place for the team is helping them go where the puck is going?

[Kara Pratt]

It's a great question. The reality is no one human can do it. And making sure you've got leaders within the team at all levels, across all levels of specialization, are again going back to trust and empowerment. They're at the edge. They're exploring what these new opportunities are, they're assessing new partners or pressure testing things day in and day out and making sure that you continue to live that mantra. You have the right discipline, you have the right stage gates and discovery. That's a really important piece. But for me personally, I'm surrounded by phenomenal talent that is curious. They're connected, they push to the edge. We are learning. And I think we go back to, I think Winston Churchill has a quote of success is not final, failure is not fatal. It's just the push to go on that matters. And I think that's just a premise. In this industry and in many others, if you lead with that mindset and you've got great talent around you that's looking for what is the next best thing that's going to impact customers in meaningful ways, Good things will happen. Keeping that at the center is something that delivers the right promise because we're gonna, we're gonna make better decisions.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Right?

[James Hunt]

I love that. It's great.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Well, well said indeed. Right. Teams matter, people matter. And in that spirit, one of the things that the, the changes in the industry, or what wasn't yesterday, isn't today kind of the spirit of what you said. One of the things that we've observed in the industry is with full funnel marketing as prevalent as it is today, merchandising and marketing is actually blending. As a merchant, you now have to understand the digital shopper. You have to understand what impressions actually mean. I chuckle when I say that, but that's the reality, and vice versa. Marketers need to now understand how a planogram is built. So in this world of this fast collapsing merchandising and marketing, what do you advocate to the industry. How do you coach merchants and how do you bring them along with you?

[Kara Pratt]

Yeah, I love, I love that question. Because if you go back to the very beginning, we at Kroger purposefully kept distance to merchandising. We did that very intentionally, which many people look at and question. We did that very intentionally because we believe it is so critical in this industry and in this business to earn investment. We didn't want to feel like a forcing function coming from the brand side. We've gotten to a point where it's a tipping point of incredible amount of investment that's coming through where we have proven the value, not just through return on ad spend. Of course, you can look at the incremental roi. You can look at household penetration lift, you can look at ltv. You've got so many other data points that can swing in that are really impacting about identifying really how these dollars not just within retail commerce assets, but full funnel, how you can connect with people and capture demand, create demand and convert demand in really special ways. And as you look at how the industry is evolving, there's some organizations that were on the early days years ago saying we're not going to have e commerce team and a shopper marketing team separate anymore. We're going to bridge those together and they're going to be Omni. Now you get into the next layer of change and you're looking at organizational design constructs that are really evolving for brands. You're looking at big acquisitions happening in the agency space to kind of accelerate their capability curation. That's all really, really important. But the ability to make sure that brand building and basket building can coexist and these dollars can really impact performance has been important. Back to merchants. Merchants do have a real need to understand and respect the power of investment and how the audience, intelligence and audience.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

How it can help them as well.

[Kara Pratt]

Yeah, can help build categories and be really respectful and help brands win in the right way. And so it's a big education, it's an important education and it's been really fantastic to see the lean in and interest. And it can start on the commerce side within a retail property. And you've got digital merchandising specialists and core merchants. And when you have those conversations about the digital influence of a buy that happens on a physical brick and mortar store, the wheels start moving. So you know, it is, it's been a real journey, very intentional journey for us to have separation, then to start to bring in more connection but maintain that commitment to what's right. For the brand, then we're going to expose the right customers to that. We're going to help build categories and in that way everybody wins. So anchoring on the customer stays through and through. And I'll say it's not easy. It's not easy because there is a litany of history and business dynamics and investment strategies. And back to let's stay at the edge, let's look at modern marketing. This is a part of it.

[James Hunt]

Yeah. I mean it's a three legged stool, right. That we're all sitting on and we're trying to figure out how to make it all work together. So I love the fact that like you think about business outcomes, right. And you drive business outcomes and merchants are a part of that. But marketing is a big piece of that. You stand on that and in how you operate your business. So that's, it's impressive to see. So we entered 2025. Here we are. Yep, we made it. Tell our audience a little bit about what people can expect from KPM and you know, as we think about this year and maybe what next year looks like from your team.

[Kara Pratt]

Yeah, 2025 for us is going to be a nice evolution and extension into the work that we've been very intentional on over the last few years, which is of course continuing to improve and bring more signals on Kroger's digital shelf. We will bring sight, sound and motion onto Kroger's digital shelf. We are, we are ripe to bring that forward.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So if you say sight, sound and motion, that means video. Do I bring an umbrella this year to France?

[Kara Pratt]

Maybe we should bring an umbrella. But as we, as we think through, what's the level of inspiration that can happen in that digital shelf? Of course we've got plans to continue to push the envelope and create new experiences for customers. That's going to be great. The evolution that we've been on for, well more than three years into self serve, off site, the audience intelligence that we have, how that audience intelligence can influence an agency planner on behalf of brands, how it can go all the way and thread through into the actual channel allocation and buy. The accessibility that we provided first with the trade desk and now with Yahoo for advertisers to buy in their seats with their inventory and their rates and their brand safety and suitability, you know, controls that'll all carry forward. And so throughout that process, one of the things that's very much on our mind is simplicity and removing friction. There are a lot of systems, there's a lot of tools, there's a lot of different places and spaces to tap into different audience intelligence and to, and to ultimately action and understand the effectiveness of those impressions. And you know, we believe that, that we need some more simplicity that starts to shine through. And so that's another space that we are going to be active on with different partners of ours.

[James Hunt]

So you want to make it easy.

[Kara Pratt]

That's. That is the goal. That is the goal.

[James Hunt]

And in a category in which we make it sometimes more challenging than it has to be. So that's, I'm sure that a lot of our audience will love to hear that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I for one, am looking forward to the sight, sound and motion piece, especially as the year progresses. Dan, thank you for joining me. Kara, congratulations again. The CPG Guys is very proud and honored that you can be the one sitting in the seat and having this conversation with us. I wish you and KPM8451 an amazing 2025 and much more success to come. Thank you.

[Kara Pratt]

Thank you so much.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Awesome.

[James Hunt]

Congratulations.

[Kara Pratt]

Thank you.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So, Sree, there you have it. Four really great conversations. People that we think are doing a bang up job growing the influence of education and performance in the Omnichannel world. What are your thoughts?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No doubt, Peter. I'm very pleased that this year we have a merchandiser that to a senior merchandiser of Sinestore at a large division of Adusa. I encourage all step up the Omnichannel game, Step up your retail media game, Step up your click and collect. Be part of this. We want to recognize you and hopefully you'll be one of the four in the industry this upcoming year 2025 as December swings by. But congratulations to the four that did win this year. My hat's off to you. You are true lifetime achievers that have made a difference in the industry.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Real captains of the industry. Wouldn't you agree, sri?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Of course, Peter. Captain. Captain. Captain. Hats off.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Absolutely. And sri, we're already on to thinking about who are going to be the 2025 winners. So our job is never done. There is no rest. The journey continues. And thank you for being on it with me, Sree.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

You bet, Peter. And now let's close out this episode for our audience.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Thank you for joining us and both Sree and I look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys podcast. Goodbye Foreign 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 CPG Guys llc. Where 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 CPGuys 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, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.