P2PIQ-01/02-2021

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

Path Purchase

pathtopurchaseiq.com

TO

E N D - TO - E N D S T R AT E G I E S F O R D R I V I N G C O N S U M E R D E M A N D

INSIDE WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE: PROFILES OF WINNERS/FINALISTS

EVENT ROUNDUP: LEARNINGS FROM P2PX

STORE SPOTLIGHT:

RITE AID’S ‘STORE OF THE FUTURE’

ACTIVATION GALLERY: HOLIDAY 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

TRENDS

2021

Our annual report examines the accelerating path to omnicommerce POWERED BY

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“The global economy is dynamic and tumultuous.

But, there is always an opportunity to innovate, collaborate, and delight today’s shoppers.”

— TANNER VAN DUSEN, CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, ENSEMBLEIQ

THE FUTURE TAKES FOCUS

NOW

Unexpected market forces rapidly change the way we build trust in our brands. It’s time to join the only community that connects thousands of professionals to the insight and influence essential for solving business problems and driving growth into the future. The time to align with Path to Purchase IQ is NOW.

PathtoPurchaseIQ.com F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N , PLEASE CONTACT ARLENE SCHUSTEFF, ASSOCIATE BRAND DIRECTOR, AT ASCHUSTEFF@ENSEMBLEIQ.COM

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Contents E N D -TO - E N D ST R AT E G I E S F O R D R I V I N G C O NS U M E R D E M A N D

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Saluting Women of Excellence

We shine the spotlight on the Institute’s annual awards program with expanded profiles of the winners and finalists across nine categories.

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SPECIAL REPORTS

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Path to Purchase Trends Report This year’s coverage identifies “silver linings” produced by the pandemic and other key issues facing our industry’s future.

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P2PX Rewind

Walmart executive Whitney Cooper and country music artist and actress Jana Kramer headlined a host of industry thought leaders.

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VO LU M E 3 4 | ISS U E 1

January/February 2021 NEWS

DEPARTMENTS 6

Editor’s Note:

Empowered Women Empower Women

13

12

P2PI Member Spotlight:

Retail Aware

48

Activation Gallery:

Holiday 2020

52

P2P Toolkit

Spotlight: Artificial Intelligence

56

8 P2PI Member

8

Perspective

Omnicom Commerce Group’s Bryan Gildenberg helps us launch a new thought leadership showcase with a look at the confluence of retail/trade and media.

13 ‘Cheers to the Host’ Brown-Forman remixes its online focus to leverage the alcohol category’s surge in online buying and home delivery.

Store Spotlight:

Rite Aid’s ‘Store of the Future’

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NEW Horizons

62

Solution Provider News

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66

66 Rallying Walmart

Shoppers

General Mills’ Cheerios runs a cause campaign benefitting military families and veterans within the retailer’s communities.

Path to Purchase IQ (USPS 4568, ISSN 2688-4984 ) is published 8 times a year, by EnsembleIQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631. Subscription rate for the U.S.: $90 one year; $166 two year; $14 single issue copy (pre- paid only); Canada and Mexico: $108 one year; $194 two year; $16 single issue copy (pre- paid only);Foreign: $122 one year; $233 two year; $16 single issue copy (pre- paid only); $60 one year digital; $95 two year digital. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL 60631 Copyright 2021 by EnsembleIQ. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Reprints, permissions and licensing, please contact Wright’s Media at ensembleiq@wrightsmedia.com or (877) 652-5295. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Path to Purchase IQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631.

January/February 2021

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With our finger on the pulse of the evolving commerce landscape, our connected media expertise informs us how and where to deliver your brand message to convert search into purchase.

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Find us at hmtassociates.com connect@hmtassociates.com or call us: 216.369.0109

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Editor’s Note

Editor-in-Chief Peter Breen, pbreen@ensembleiq.com

Empowered Women Empower Women PATRYCJA MALINOWSKA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR/CONTENT

2020 was a strange year: frightening, chaotic and full of disruption, both professionally and personally. At times, just making it through the day felt like a tremendous victory.

Yet the industry did more than just make it through. Retailers, brands and marketers pivoted to adapt to shifting priorities and rapid changes in shopper behavior. Among them was a group of inspiring women deserving of recognition for continuing to innovate even in such a challenging environment.

Having the honor of shining the metaphorical spotlight on these women during the Path to Purchase Institute’s Women of Excellence Awards ceremony in November was one of my personal bright spots of 2020. I’m also kicking off the new year on a high note as this column is not only a personal milestone in my career – the first time, after serving as an Institute editor for more than a decade, that I get to address our readers here directly – but it also marks the first time in the history of the magazine that a woman has penned the Editor’s Note.

There has been no better time to empower women, because while no person escaped the effects of the once-ina-lifetime pandemic that rocked the world, women have borne the brunt of COVID-19, a crisis that exacerbated issues that are centuries old for both single women and partnered women, for mothers and women without children, for women now working at home and those still braving a commute.

The United Nations published a paper in April asserting that the novel coronavirus is having devastating social and economic consequences for women nationwide. This is largely due to existing inequalities in the workforce, in access to healthcare, and even in the home.

These losses and casualties are threatening to undo years of gender progress. The annual “Women in the Workplace” study from LeanIn.org and consulting firm McKinsey & Co. indicates at least one in four women were considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce altogether last year because of COVID-19. This marked the first time in six years of the annual report that the researchers found evidence of women intending to leave their jobs at higher rates than men.

Losing women in the workplace, especially senior-level women, could have devastating implications for women at all stages in their careers as well as for business results for organizations as a whole. Senior-level women tend to have a positive impact on company culture and are more likely than senior-level men to advocate for both gender and racial equality in the workforce. And a diverse workforce is an innovative workforce – something we all really need to keep up today.

So, it is critically important that we retain our women leaders.

I believe the gathering of women, and certainly business leaders such as those we honored during the Women of Excellence Awards ceremony, is how we’re going to make a difference and change the paradigm – by showing up, sharing our stories and putting our heads and hearts together to work toward true equality. I’m thankful to our industry for stepping up and ensuring our women leaders are seen, heard and recognized — and thankful to them for paving the way for the women who come after them.

And that is what the Women of Excellence Awards are all about: women excelling in leadership and lifting other women up as well, because if you excel only for yourself then you aren’t truly achieving your full potential.

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Executive Editor Tim Binder, tbinder@ensembleiq.com Managing Editor Charlie Menchaca, cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com Associate Director/Content Patrycja Malinowska, pmalinowska@ensembleiq.com Associate Editor/Content Cyndi Loza, cloza@ensembleiq.com Associate Editor/Content Jacqueline Barba, jbarba@ensembleiq.com Editor Emeritus Bill Schober, bschober@ensembleiq.com Director – Production Ed Ward, eward@ensembleiq.com Creative Director Colette Magliaro, cmagliaro@ensembleiq.com Art Director Michael Escobedo, mescobedo@ensembleiq.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Erika Flynn, Ed Finkel, Michael Applebaum, Chris Gelbach, Dawn Klingensmith, April Miller, Samantha Nelson

SALES & P2PI MEMBER DEVELOPMENT Managing Director Tanner Van Dusen, 312.518.5000, tvandusen@ensembleiq.com Brand Leader Joe Territo, 973.727.7338, jterrito@ensembleiq.com Associate Brand Director Arlene Schusteff, 773.992.4414, aschusteff@ensembleiq.com Associate Sales Director Lisa Hirata, 630.400.8951, lhirata@ensembleiq.com Senior Account Executive Katrina Lopez, 813.732.5281, klopez@ensembleiq.com Senior Director/Member Development Patrick Hare, phare@ensembleiq.com Director/Member/New Business Development Todd Turner, tturner@ensembleiq.com

AUDIENCE

List Rental MeritDirect Marie Briganti, 914.309.3378 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES/CUSTOMER CARE TOLL-FREE: 1.877.687.7321 FAX: 1.888.520.3608 contact@p2pi.org

ENSEMBLEIQ LEADERSHIP TEAM

Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Litterick Chief Financial Officer Jane Volland Chief Innovation Officer Tanner Van Dusen Chief Human Resources Officer Ann Jadown Executive Vice President, Events & Conferences Ed Several Senior Vice President, Content Joe Territo

EDITORIAL AND EXECUTIVE OFFICES 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60631 Phone: 773.992.4450 | Fax: 773.992.4455

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urner,

Do you know what shoppers really want?

Learn how to gain real-time behavior data about in-store shoppers at retailaware.com and increase your ROI.

everal

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Member Perspective

shopper/retail teams is often around defining and describing success.

We’re Going to Need a Better Boat Shopper marketing in an age of confluence THE WAVES: FOUR STEPS TO “CONFLUENCE MARKETING”

BY B RYA N G I L D E N B E R G

Seafaring explorers have always feared where two massive bodies of water come together (like Cape Horn). Today, shopper marketers and their agency partners find themselves involuntarily navigating these treacherous seas as two “money oceans” – retail/trade (below the line) and media (above the line) – converge. Navigating these waters will require a strong sense of where to go, the right crew and a read on the waves in the immediate future.

THE SEASCAPE: WHERE ARE WE GOING? COVID-19 is best described as a sudden, severe storm disrupting these oceans.

The behavior changes brought on by the pandemic are well-documented elsewhere, but it is critical to note that, when people talk about “the new normal” or “new habits,” almost none of this is true.

As COVID-19 immunity becomes more commonplace, routines and time budgets will shift dramatically. Shopper marketers will lead the work to turn newly discovered attitudes into permanent preferences and new activities/behaviors into routines. But this is all work to be

done in 2021 and 2022 – not work that has been accomplished yet. The direction of travel/prevailing winds are clear, though: • The shopper’s time budget (work, kids, home, travel, entertainment) will be constantly recalibrating.

• E-commerce modality, reliability and profitability (home delivery/click-andcollect) is now a pillar of joint business plans.

• There are more digital touchpoints in the shopper journey, activated using tools from the “media ocean” (social and digital platforms) and converting segments into usable digital audiences.

• There is more commerce media and a massive overlap between media planning and retailer planning.

THE RIGHT CREW: PREPARE FOR THE ‘ON’ SWITCH The confluence of above and below-the-line marketing is symbolic of the “on” switch: moving from online marketing/selling to “no-line marketing/selling.” The no-line boat crew requires four attributes: • New “hire-archies” and skills: Digital/analytic talent must be hired and integrated, infusing every step of the work process with new skills.

• New tools: “Person to person” marketing often fails because it is literally that – people trying to build personalized campaigns. Until machines do this work, personalization will be frustrating and impossible to scale.

• New workflows: Restructure after you understand how the work should flow.

Rebuild processes based on new tools and skills, not org charts.

• Consistent measures: The greatest dissonance between media teams and

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1. Product Marketing: Packaging is content, and commerce content is packaging.

Great brands will marry the engagement mindset of content with the effectiveness doctrine used to evaluate packaging.

2. “Shop-ching”: Retailer site search is more shopping than search. Paid search and in-store display are the same process/ exercise. Interruption at the right moment is key to success for both, and winning retailer platform search as a result is very different work than general SEO. The budget/work battles over who owns retail search must be rooted in the desired outcome of site-specific retail search.

3. The Digital vs. Physical Shelf: Understanding the difference between “sought-out shelves” (going to a store or an e-commerce site) and “situational shelves” (a purchase opportunity in the course of other activity) will be more relevant than “in-store” vs. “e-commerce.”

4. Retailer “media” means building a “noline” plan: Great brand organizations will bridge the gap between media teams claiming retailer media as their purview and shopper/retailer teams who know that spend is part of a broader, integrated plan. Without a rigorous, aligned view from both legacy siloes on how to steer through this wave, the boat will take on excess water quickly! IQ

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bryan Gildenberg is SVP, Commerce, for the Omnicom Commerce Group (Integer Group, TPN, TracyLocke and Haygarth). Prior to joining Omnicom, he spent 23 years leading global retail insight at Kantar and is a worldrenowned retail/shopper thought leader.

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THE PATH TO PURCHASE INSTITUTE is the only community that connects commerce and marketing professionals to the intelligence, innovation, and influence needed to navigate the complexity of today’s consumer retail landscape and drive growth.

JOIN THE LEADERS WHO ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE!

THE INTELLIGENCE: Expert and editorial insights covering in-store, digital, retail marketing, actionable insights to drive shopper engagement and sales. Highly relevant and content-rich professional development and training courses designed to provide the know-how for tomorrow.

THE INNOVATION: Amplify your thought leadership, competitive edge, and be part of the elite consumer goods executive community.

THE INFLUENCE: A community that unites brand manufacturers, retailers, agencies, and solution providers through world-class events and peer-to-peer partnerships.

BECOM E A M E M BE R TO DAY !

To learn more about membership packages that align with your goals, please contact your sales representative or visit p2pi.org/membership.

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PATH TO PURCHASE EXPO OVERVIEW

LEARNING FROM THE INDUSTRY’S BEST MINDS (AND VOICES) Walmart’s new omnichannel ad strategy topped the P2PX 2020 agenda

BY PAT H T O P U R C H A S E I N S T I T U T E S TA F F

Walmart will introduce new in-store

Cooper’s role in the company is to connect these teams with the goal of creating and online advertising opportunities for integrated experiences that bring brands to brand marketers this year in an effort life across different channels and drive ROI to facilitate ads that shoppers “don’t for advertisers. hate,” revealed Whitney “Over the next year, you’re Cooper, the retailer’s going to see that we’re really director of omnichannel focused on streamlining and advertising transformation making it really easy for our and acceleration, during a supplier partners to build out keynote session at the Path plans across all of our teams … to Purchase Digital Expo last we’re really hyper-focused on November. driving this ‘One Walmart’ way “We’re not trying to add to talk to the Walmart customer,” in a bunch of noise and she said. “We’ll be able to move interruptions, we really want faster, and you’ll have more to add value that [shoppers] hardly even notice at times,” Walmart’s Whitney Cooper options in terms of what you can do as far as advertising in the Cooper said. store and across all of our channels.”

Historically, Walmart has had a bottomup approach to strategic planning within the organization but has been changing BURT’S BEES GETS CREATIVE to take an enterprise “One Walmart” Authentic influencer content is one way view that puts shoppers at the center Clorox Co.’s Burt’s Bees establishes trust of how it operates both internally and with beauty and self-care shoppers, and the externally. The biggest evidence of the brand’s multiyear relationship with celebrity transformation was when Walmart joined Jana Kramer provided the foundation its store and online supply chain and needed to continue reaching Walmart finance groups in 2019, and then brought shoppers during the COVID-19 pandemic. together its store and online product “The authentic content and the trust buying teams in early 2020. Merging its we’ve built with the shoppers over the years merchandising organization into one unit really speaks for itself,” said Mille Alderman, laid the groundwork for the retailer’s new Clorox’s omnichannel marketing lead for omnichannel advertising strategy.

Walmart, during a P2PX panel presentation.

“It became super evident that “We’ve proven a cohesive and compelling we needed to create a new way of story across the years that really drives working between the omni-merchant awareness and drives sales to launch new organization, marketing and Walmart Burt’s Bees items at Walmart.”

Media Group,” Cooper said. “In the While the pandemic disrupted an inpast, these have been very siloed person photo shoot planned for April 2020, conversations and we have to bring them the partnership lived on. Participants felt together to really have success.” comfortable moving forward with a virtual

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photo shoot thanks to the history the brand had built with Kramer as well as media partner ViacomCBS and shopper agency TPN. Burt’s Bees first identified Kramer as a trusted celebrity influencer whose voice would resonate with both its brand audience and Walmart shoppers in 2017.

That year, the country music artist and actress flew to Bentonville for a photo shoot supporting the brand’s new cosmetics launch at Walmart. The resulting social content laddered up to the product’s national “I’m not synthetic” launch messaging while targeting Walmart’s busy moms, especially Millennials.

“We thought shooting in a store was very critical to tell the story and it was so important to have the cosmetics buyer on location,” Alderman said. “We really needed that compelling reason for shoppers to seek out Burt’s Bees beauty and to drive that new product awareness and trial and repeat purchase.”

The following year, the brand brought Kramer back to promote an expanded offering of natural beauty products at Walmart. The partners shot in Bentonville

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PATH TO PURCHASE EXPO OVERVIEW again, but this time on a set, optimizing still and video content as well as its targeting to moms. The resulting effort overdelivered on impressions and engagement, according to Stephanie Lipsey, group director at TPN. “It’s so important for us to match the authenticity and quality of Burt’s Bees products with our content, and thanks to the dedication of everyone involved, we did,” Lipsey said, as an example noting how Kramer provided a genuine voice when teasing the content in an Instagram story.

TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS From image optimization to robotic process automation, panelists at the Path to Purchase Institute’s sixth “Community Gathering” shared their insights on emerging technologies, technological needs and key digital trends.

“I feel that there is a ... really big technological need to get better and more granular shopper insights,” said Jehan Hamedi, chief executive officer of visual content optimizer VIZIT. “It’s partly on the retailers to develop more open ecosystems and to share more of their e-commerce data with their manufacturers. But, a big part of that also lands on the brands and on tech vendors to develop new systems and platforms that can harness and really just make sense of data that they already have.”

Another technological need in the e-commerce space, according to Hamedi, relates to imagery and how brands present themselves on each step of the digital path to purchase. “What imagery is going to motivate behavior? What do consumers want to see from indulgence brands versus from (electric) motorcycles? Every product is really different and you have to craft your visual experiences today almost surgically to appeal to specific segments of shoppers,” said Hamedi, who participated alongside Neil Ackerman, Johnson & Johnson’s head of advanced technologies, global supply chain, Middle East and Africa, and Brendan Witcher, vice president, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Even small adjustments to how a product is angled or photographed can make a big

Forrester Research’s Brendan Witcher (left), VIZIT’s Jehan Hamedi (center) and Johnson & Johnson’s Neil Ackerman

difference online, Hamedi added. VIZIT found that on Amazon product pages, for example, simply changing the degree to which a Master Lock safe was ajar to show shoppers the interior contents drove conversion rates up 20%.

Ackerman echoed those sentiments about imagery, noting it’s a “one-screen world” and whatever gets in front of the consumer is what’s selling. However, he also emphasized the importance of understanding supply chain logistics. “I think the greatest need is for [retailers] to understand the details of their end-to-end system,” Ackerman said, stressing the importance of understanding the cost of actions such as putting product into stores and delivery. “Frankly, I don’t think they know. These details have always been behind the curtain. They like to talk about more sexy things like ... marketing.”

Witcher, meanwhile, offered a dire prediction: “What broke before is going to break more in Q4.” From crashing websites to problems with delivery partners, retailers need to address whatever issues they encountered earlier this year, he said.

“There’s just too many people that are ignoring the things that broke,” he warned.

THE FUTURE OF THE STORE Speakers at the fifth Community Gathering in October discussed ways the store has and will continue to change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Providing the retailer perspective were Jalal Hamad, senior director of in-store experience at The Home Depot, and Art Sebastian, Casey’s General Store’s vice president of digital experience, marketing, loyalty, e-commerce and customer insights

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and analytics.

Catalina Snacks president Joel Warady represented the brand side during the session. The solution provider view came from Nick Fearnley, senior vice president of merchandising technology at Integrated Merchandising Solutions.

Hamad and Sebastian both cited curbside pickup as one retailer-adapted service that will have staying power. “[Home Depot] had to stand up a curbside program from scratch nearly overnight and we fulfilled millions of orders in the last several months,” Hamad said. “At least one in four online orders now are picked up curbside.”

Home Depot also temporarily stopped all seasonal promotions, including the annual Spring Black Friday program, a decision Hamad said was not made lightly. Casey’s likewise had to adjust in the spring by halting fountain drink sales and limiting hot food items due to safety concerns, Sebastian said.

Customers are not as resistant to change as some would think, according to Warady. “Their expectations are that no matter what changes they as consumers have to adapt to, the retailers are going to adapt along as well,” Warady said.

Some consumers expect retailers to be able to almost read their minds and anticipate all their wants as they enter a store, Fearnley said.

“We’ve got less time to engage and influence in more situations – curbside being a great example,” Fearnley said. IQ P2PI members can experience every session from P2PX at p2pi.org.

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How does your company use its P2PI membership resources?

Member Spotlight

FIX: We use the membership to engage with other members who are interested in understanding consumer shopping behavior in real time. Retail Aware is interested in leading with the members to focus on using the latest technology and innovation to drive cuttingedge consumer intelligence.

Retail Aware A Q&A with CEO Keith Fix

What is your current view of the industry?

How do you help your clients?

FIX: Historically, brick-and-mortar retailers and brands have been capable of measuring consumer behavior from the time of purchase.

But there can be little visibility into the moment of truth, the moment when the consumer is at the shelf deciding whether or not to purchase the product. We provide the in-store shopper data to fill in the middle part of the customer journey that’s been missing.

Our business intelligence as a service sensor technology platform enables brands and retailers to monitor in-store program performance and analyze consumer buying decisions at the point of purchase. We capture real-time engagement metrics such as product interaction, impressions, dwell time and equipment operation to help clients achieve KPI growth and ROI.

Retail Aware has proved an excellent strategic partner for us as we seek to better understand consumer engagement and dwell time within large retail environments nationwide.

The service and support Tami (Catron, VP of business development) and her team provides is critical in delivering quality analytics that drive real insight into real-time consumer behavior. I would highly recommend Retail Aware.

They have really gone the extra mile for us.

— JAKE LEEMAN, SENIOR DIRECTOR, EXPERIENTIAL AT MERGE

January/February 2021

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FIX: In these uncertain times, Retail Aware believes retail is incubating to evolve with new social norms. We’ve seen a greater focus on making strategic data-driven decisions. We’re excited to help our shopper marketing colleagues in all in-store segments make those types of decisions around endcaps and other product displays.

While many brick-and-mortar stores are seeing changes in [shopper] volume, they are gaining more accurate shopping information from us to better target customers and grow. At the end of the day, the magic happens when you have the right analytics and insights to reference. IQ

MEMBER UPDATE Path to Purchase Institute is delighted to welcome new and returning members to our community: ACH Foods, Advantage Sales & Marketing, Barilla, Bar-S Foods, Catalina Marketing, Driscoll’s, E. & J. Gallo, Fandango Rewards, Frontline Marketing, GeorgiaPacific, Intel Corp., Jelmar, KIND LLC, Kao Brands, Mars Wrigley Confectionery, The Nature’s Bounty Co., Nestle Waters North America, Rust-Oleum, Saatchi & Saatchi X, Valvoline and Young & Rubicam.

Join the hundreds of companies that benefit from P2PI every day with strategies and best practices on succeeding in today’s chaotic omnicommerce environment. For more information, contact Katrina Lopez at klopez@ensembleiq.com.

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Consumer Engagement

Brown-Forman Gives ‘Cheers’ to Stay-at-Home Hosts

BY C H A R L I E M E N C H AC A

To leverage the increase in online purchase and home delivery of alcohol, Brown-Forman revamped one of its websites to provide information for novice hosts.

The “Cheers to the Host” site returned in November 2020 with a full slate of content to help consumers with guests and home entertaining. BrownForman acknowledges that the previous iteration of the site, which acted as a landing page for in-store and Pinterest inquiries, was merely focused on basic recipes and tips. The spirits and wine company will promote the site throughout

2021 in digital and physical channels.

“Consumers’ new discovery zone is at home online,” says Loren Catrambone, Brown-Forman’s group manager, customer marketing for national accounts. “We’ve counted on bartenders and servers to introduce people to new varieties and drink options, and on retail staff (off-premise) to inform brand decisions. Now we need to give people a more comprehensive, inviting source of ideas and resources. The new ‘Cheers to the Host’ positions us as a central resource as people shift why, how and where they look for hosting ideas and products.”

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The revamp coincides with a shift from in-store to virtual event promotion as more shoppers spend less time in stores. As part of a virtual happy hour campaign in 2020, Brown-Forman created a lot of food, drink and virtual hosting content that now resides on the website, Catrambone says.

After the website’s launch, BrownForman products in stores began carrying neck hangers with “Cheers to the Holidays” messaging and a QR code.

Shoppers can scan the code using the Pinterest app to access cocktail and food ideas. Occasion-based Pinterest boards, updates on the “Cheers to the Host” Facebook account, and various other digital media ads direct consumers to CheersToTheHost.com.

A “Where to Buy” section on the website provides a platform for expansion into omnichannel purchase and delivery. The site also provides a link to The Whiskey Whisperer, Brown-Forman’s interactive chatbot on Facebook that provides inspiration and informs consumers about the taste, properties and uses of different whiskeys.

“We’re addressing a bigger, deeper impulse – the mentality of the host – and treating ‘Cheers to the Host’ as a brand in itself,” says Erich Parker, vice president at BrownForman’s agency, Blue Chip, Chicago.

“The real opportunity is giving people fresh ideas when they can’t go to bars, restaurants, games or big events, so they can elevate the at-home experience.

That’s why food is prominent, and the hub connects to Facebook and Pinterest as the central point in a digital ecosystem for entertaining.”

The Cheers to the Host site is the hub for all portfolio-based communication supporting national accounts. True success of the programming will be measured by observing sales lift in those accounts, Parker says. However, he adds that engagement with the site and its related social channels will be viewed as a proxy for purchase intent. IQ

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021:

POSITIVE SPINS Our 25th annual survey finds plenty of industry optimism – if you don’t mind change

BY P E T E R B R E E N

“How to handle the future without fear.”

Those are the words one consumer product marketer used to express his greatest “businessrelated concern” for 2021 while responding to our annual Path to Purchase Trends Report survey.

We think it’s probably safe to say that this represents the first time in the survey’s 25-year history that someone has discussed the future in such stark terms.

Over the years, the Trends Report has regularly examined many pressing industry issues, the worries keeping executives up at night as they strive to better engage and convert shoppers. But they’ve always been more tangible concerns about effective marketing and merchandising strategies; about shifts in consumer demand and shopper behavior; about budgets, staffing and skill sets; about mutually beneficial retailer collaboration and activation. Never before have we heard a general fear about what the future might hold.

That’s what happens when a once-in-a-lifetime event like the COVID-19 pandemic not only disrupts an already-evolving retail industry but also upends the personal lives of everyone working within it. With everything that happened last year – including some other society-shaking events that profoundly affected the industry – a little fear of the future is certainly justifiable.

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021 On the other hand, a little optimism wouldn’t be out of place either, because the industry’s response to the events of 2020 was largely impressive and, in many ways, has paved the way to future success for organizations and individuals that embraced the necessary changes and now are better prepared for anything else that might come along.

It’s fitting, therefore, that our Trends Report’s silver anniversary coverage can focus on the “silver linings” produced by the pandemic, the positive outcomes that, although precipitated by negative circumstances, have ultimately created an industry better equipped to confront the future without fear.

This year’s Trends Report examines the key issues facing our industry across the five general themes outlined below.

both parties to respond quickly and efficiently to the pandemic’s impact made it even clearer than ever before that collaboration is essential to success.

And what’s driving effective retailer-manufacturer collaboration these days? Unique shopper data. With the pandemic’s circumstances leading many shoppers toward other retailers and brands, with the migration to digital commerce making personalized engagement increasingly critical, and with more and more retailers positioning themselves as bona fide media operators (see next section), accurate, actionable data has become vital.

And when it comes to shopper data, Kroger has emerged as the industry’s role model, according to our respondents.

THE INDUSTRY’S EVOLUTION (PAGE 16)

In a typical year, the awakening to retailers as legitimate media operators that occurred across the industry would have been, without question, the biggest story. But, of course, 2020 was no typical year.

In January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told an NRF Show audience that the trend has the power to “reshape retail business models.” By July, it had made shopper marketing “a bigger business than advertising,” according to marketing maven Scott Galloway. By December, CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens had joined the networking party alongside Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize (not forgetting Amazon, of course).

“It’s really, really important to leverage this customer media … and connect it to national media, so that shopper marketing isn’t a discrete function off somewhere [but] a strategic imperative,” Henkel NA’s Ken Krasnow told attendees of our own Path to Purchase Expo last November.

COVID-19’s arrival in early spring sparked panic-induced pantry loading that strained supply chains and, in conjunction with the store traffic restrictions that followed, made brand promotions an afterthought at best but often an obstacle to efficient operations as well. In many cases, it temporarily brought the practice of shopper marketing to a screeching halt.

Those were short-term situations, however. For the most part, the more lasting impact of the crisis involved an acceleration of trends already taking place at a more gradual pace: consumer adoption of e-commerce across all product categories and retail channels, the shift toward digital marketing among brands and retailers, and the subsequent need to reinvent the role of brickand-mortar stores.

So the pandemic didn’t put the brakes on shopper engagement but rather forced many organizations to put the pedal to the metal on a host of strategic initiatives that previously were part of the five-year plan. And while the expectation is that shoppers and brand spending will both swing back to physical stores to some degree, omnicommerce is clearly now the name of the game.

RETAILER RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC (PAGE 18) Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Kroger, Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize that were building up their omnichannel infrastructures before the crisis hit sped up their timelines significantly. Companies that were further behind the curve (like Costco, Southeastern Grocers and 7-Eleven) started or expanded relationships with third-party vendors.

While there were plenty of bumps along the way (severe shortages of key products, weeklong waits for online order deliveries), most leading retailers earned praise from their brand partners for rising to the challenges they faced – although many still have work to do to become fully ready for omnicommerce.

RETAILER COLLABORATION (PAGE 20) The relationship between retailer and product vendor has never been contentious enough to be classified as “love-hate,” but it’s rarely been mistaken for “wedded bliss” either. Yet the need for

January/February 2021

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RETAIL MEDIA NETWORKS (PAGE 22)

WALMART VS. AMAZON (PAGE 24) In the decade-long battle for supremacy between Walmart and Amazon, it appears as if the reigning champion of the CPG marketplace held its ground in 2020, defying the logical assumption that its pure-play e-commerce competitor would exploit the massive channel shift taking place. It certainly did in the eyes of our survey respondents.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

In late October 2020, marketing executives at U.S.based consumer product manufacturers were emailed a questionnaire to be completed online. The names were drawn from Path to Purchase IQ magazine subscribers, Path to Purchase Institute members and others in the EnsembleIQ database, with an emphasis on people with manager, director or senior executive titles.

From those emails, 156 executives submitted surveys. Each respondent was entered into a drawing for one of four $100 Amazon gift cards. The survey was administered and the data compiled by EnsembleIQ Research Solutions.

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Tracking the Industry’s Evolution

By Tim Binder Our Trends survey provides a plethora of insight into how consumer packaged goods professionals see the industry evolving as it heads into the new year, with the pandemic being a significant driver of the change. Sixty-two percent of respondents said their shopper marketing programs were either altered or canceled due to the pandemic, and the more permanent effects are still being sorted out.

This year’s survey included a handful of openended questions related to the evolution of retail, which was forced to respond in 2020 to the changing needs of shoppers. Asked what one pandemic-related change in traditional retailer practices they most want to remain in place after the crisis ends, many respondents agreed that the omnichannel solutions of 2020 should continue.

“The pandemic has accelerated the digital agenda by three to five years, and it is here to stay,” one respondent said. “Retailers need to acknowledge this and work with manufacturers on new ways to engage, surprise and

Investment Changes Caused by the Pandemic Compared to 2019, how has your organization’s investment changed for the following areas?

How much of these shifts were directly caused by changes in shopping behavior related to the COVID-19 pandemic?

CHANGES COMPARED TO 2019 Increase

Flat

E-commerce content

INCREASE/DECREASE DRIVEN BY PANDEMIC ENTIRELY CAUSED

BY PANDEMIC

Decrease

85%

ACCELERATED

BY PANDEMIC

NOT AFFECTED

BY PANDEMIC

11% 4%

10%

73%

17%

Digital media on retailer platforms

77%

18%

5%

14%

72%

14%

Digital media beyond retailer platforms

77%

17%

6%

13%

69%

18%

7%

64%

29%

7%

57%

37%

18%

53%

29%

29%

43%

29%

34%

26%

40%

22%

40%

39%

41%

41%

18%

Mobile Insights & analytics

43%

Consumer promotion Trade promotion Traditional media In-store marketing

21%

35%

29%

43%

29%

32%

46%

23% 29%

21%

43%

13%

7%

40%

53%

Shopper marketing

4%

40%

56%

49% 43%

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021 delight shoppers who choose to use these pathways.”

Specifically, e-commerce and order fulfillment were on the minds of many respondents. “Making the process of shopping more seamless with getting the products,” was the desire of one. “I think buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) is the way of the future.”

“An increased focus on promoting online sales and activity with affordable sponsored search options – even for small brands,” said another.

While no one suggested that in-store shopping is dead, one respondent wondered whether an improved relationship with the retailer will continue post-pandemic. “Continued day-to-day partnership in mutually driving our business,” was the hope.

“Sometimes, when not in a pandemic, we tend to let business run as usual. In a pandemic, the retailers have been more open to creative discussions on how to mutually drive our business.”

When asked what their biggest business-related concern was heading

38%

Did Shopper Programs Run as Planned?

21%

Ran as originally scheduled

Were cancelled outright

16%

14%

Were delayed

Shifted to a greater online focus

11% Required shifts in brand messaging/ promotional offers

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

into 2021, respondents pointed to the ongoing pandemic, e-commerce, meeting demand and changing shopper needs/behaviors – all of which are, to be sure, interrelated. “The continued impact of the pandemic and uncertainty about whether we are now in a new normal or whether we are still in a transitory period,” answered one. “Understanding that – or at least making a call on what we expect to play out – will have a big impact on whether some of the temporary shifts in the way we operate become standard or not.”

Another respondent worried that her company’s “e-commerce investments are not enough, and there’s not enough resources internally.”

Where shoppers are concerned: “Will we see another shift in shopping trends as we continue with the ‘life from home’ lifestyle? And, will retailers respond quickly enough to ensure stock levels can meet demand?” pondered one respondent.

Strategic/Tactical Changes Caused by the Pandemic As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, what strategic/tactical changes has your organization made in the following areas, now and going forward?

Decreased Temporarily Decreased Permanently

Retailer media platforms

4% 2%

Digital media

4% 2%

(other than retailer platforms)

Traditional media

28%

Direct-to-consumer sales

7%

4%

6% 6% 6% 5%

48%

15%

19% 42%

2% 16%

56% 30% 15%

15%

26%

1%

26%

1% 17%

45%

2% 4%

65% 30%

35%

8%

42%

7% 5%

54%

1%

Alternate venue sampling/demos Online sampling/demos

7%

35%

11%

48%

8%

33%

28% 44%

22%

Increased Permanently

37%

27%

24%

In-store media/signage E-commerce/E-commerce content Mobile marketing In-store sampling/demos

Increased Temporarily

30%

20%

In-store display activity for brand-driven programs In-store display activity for retailer-driven programs

No Change

52%

19% 17%

2% 13% 24%

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Retail’s Response to the Pandemic

“Since the pandemic, shopper purchase behavior has grown unpredictable,” another answered. “Seasonality was always a reliable baseline to work off, but seasonality this year is a moot data point.”

When asked to discuss the strategic/tactical changes their organizations have made, respondents consistently brought up having to prioritize/reallocate spending to e-commerce. “We are placing our spend in places where our shoppers are shopping – i.e., more investment moving into growth areas such as e-commerce,” one respondent said.

“The pandemic has accelerated our increased commitment to, and activation with, the e-commerce space with our retail partners,” said another.

Growth in digital and social media marketing also received multiple mentions.

“Being digital-first is a must in driving engagement with a brand,” according to one respondent. “Retailers have cut back on merchandising space and are increasingly promoting their own brands online and instore. Bottom line: There is more opportunity online to promote a brand vs. in-store, even though it is costly and much more competitive.”

By Charlie Menchaca In general, most of the largest U.S. retailers earned praise from their brand partners for the collaborative ways in which they responded to the pandemic.

Target and Kroger were the retailers most often identified as best collaborative partner during the crisis, with each named by 11% of all respondents. Both were praised for the level of communication they conducted with brand marketers.

“Target is one of the retailer partners that share with the brand … a full report along the consumer path to purchase,” one respondent said. “We learn marketing ROI and get very specific results by program and placements. It helps the brand to understand what’s working and what’s not.”

“Kroger and [its] preferred vendors shared studies on the shift in shopper and consumer behavior, held webinars and revised promotional activity to align with this shift,” explained another respondent.

Multiple respondents complimented 84.51, Kroger’s data

Private Label: Change in Shopper Attitudes Due to the Pandemic 5%

Have a more positive attitude No change

49%

46%

More negative attitude

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021 analytics subsidiary, for being responsive and forthcoming with information about the pandemic’s impact on stores. Walmart, meanwhile, was recognized for its work in addressing out-of-stock and supply issues during the year. The world’s largest retailer was named “best” by 8% of respondents.

Target received several kudos on its fulfillment options and its efforts to deliver benefits for itself, brand partners and shoppers alike. The retailer also received the highest ratings in another survey question, with 68% of respondents viewing the company as rising to the challenge and successfully pivoting toward e-commerce.

Survey participants rated more than 20 retailers on their response to the surge in online shopping experienced in 2020. Amazon, Kroger and Walmart were also cited by more than 60% of respondents; for the most part, these four retailers had already built out their e-commerce capabilities more substantially than most of the other regional players that were rated.

Target has continually invested in its fulfillment services, specifically its Drive Up curbside offering. The retailer updated its mobile app to provide additional safety measures and more than doubled the number of designated Drive-Up parking spaces to add nearly

8,000 spots. It also added fresh and frozen items to the selection of products available through the service at more than 16,000 stores.

Officials at Kroger said that the ongoing Restock Kroger transformation program, which launched in 2017, helped to position the company for success during the pandemic. The retailer’s plan included accelerating its digital and e-commerce efforts, optimizing in-store space and applying its customer data and personalization expertise through 84.51 to even more aspects of the business.

Walmart similarly doubled down on e-commerce initiatives, launching Walmart+ (see page 24) and strengthening its online grocery pickup service. The retailer also revamped its experiential efforts with safety in mind by hosting drive-in and socially distanced events at store parking lots.

On the flip side, just over half of respondents cited Family Dollar and about one-third flagged 7-Eleven for lacking capabilities and lagging in comparison to other retailers. Family Dollar didn’t even begin offering online shopping (for items including household essentials and nonperishable foods) until late 2020; 7-Eleven’s efforts involved adding Uber Eats, Grubhub and Instacart to its delivery partner portfolio last fall.

Retailer Readiness for Online Shopping

Best Collaborative Partner

Rate the following retailers on their response to the surge of online shopping as a result of the pandemic.

Target Amazon Kroger Walmart Home Depot H-E-B Meijer Shop Rite Publix Sam's Club Whole Foods Ahold Delhaize Albertsons Costco Lowe's 7-Eleven Dollar General CVS Walgreens Family Dollar

68%

26%

6% 5%

32%

63% 63%

2%

35%

3%

36%

61% 40% 34%

46%

33%

60%

20%

57%

27% 26%

10%

58% 50%

23%

15% 24%

60% 72%

22% 21%

17% 6% 18% 12%

61% 67%

21% 20% 15% 14%

50%

13%

27%

53% 62%

36%

8% 8%

23% 21%

66%

PERCENT WHO SAID RETAILER WAS BEST COLLABORATIVE PARTNER DURING PANDEMIC

Target Kroger Walmart Amazon Meijer H-E-B CVS Publix Home Depot

AMONG TOTAL

11% 11% 8% 7% 6% 4% 3% 2% 2%

Ten other retailers received at least one vote.

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

30%

62% 68%

24% 52%

48%

Rose to the Challenge, Successfully Pivoted Made Some Changes, Still Have Work to Do Lacking Capabilities/Lagging in Comparison to Others Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Retailer Collaboration

By Jacqueline Barba While the pandemic shifted many brand marketer mindsets last year, one thing has remained constant: collaboration is still important, if not more critical than before. This year’s survey asked brand marketers to rate retailers on their ability to share actionable shopper data to drive more effective marketing.

Kroger and CVS Pharmacy rose to the top, with 93% and 82% of respondents, respectively, rating them as excellent or good.

Interestingly, those two retailers were also cited as using their data prowess as a revenue source rather than a collaborative effort by a higher proportion of respondents. (Amazon, Walgreens and Walmart also were tagged more often as opportunistic rather than altruistic.) While officially launching its new media network (see page 24) in August, CVS touted a closedloop metrics system and advanced reporting capabilities that allow brands to connect sales to ad placements.

Alternatively, twice as many (44% vs. 20%) marketers who work

Kroger CVS Meijer Target ShopRite Walgreens Albertsons Walmart Dollar General Sam's Club Amazon Ahold Delhaize Family Dollar 7-Eleven Home Depot Lowe's Costco H-E-B Publix Whole Foods

with Meijer said its data sharing is collaborative vs. a revenue source, making the Midwestern mass merchant far and away the most partnership-minded retailer on the list.

Not surprisingly, then, when asked to name one thing they’d most like retailers to change in regard to their collaborative practices, an overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to more sharing of data and easier, lower-cost access to Retailer Ratings: Sharing it. One respondent implored retailers to “trust that we are trying our best to DATA DATA ABILITY TO SHARE meet the needs of their shoppers with SHARING IS SHARING IS ACTIONABLE SHOPPER DATA COLLABORATIVE REVENUE SOURCE insights that drive everything that we Excellent Good Poor Don’t Share do. Without sharing data from their end, it inhibits us smaller companies to 54% 39% 6% 2% 19% 66% show our prowess when collaboration 28% 54% 13% 5% 23% 44% happens with the larger manufacturers.”

20% 55% 15% 11% 44% 20% In terms of segmenting online sales 16% 53% 19% 12% 35% 38% versus brick-and-mortar sales – an 10% 56% 20% 34% 15% 17% insight whose need skyrocketed in 5% 60% 23% 13% 23% 43% importance last year – Target, Kroger and Amazon received high marks, with 13% 51% 18% 18% 31% 29% the latter two rated “excellent” by 40% 13% 51% 17% 20% 27% 42% and 45% of respondents, respectively.

9% 53% 21% 18% 35% 15% Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart were 19% 4% 56% 10% 31% 29% also given high scores. Meanwhile, 28% 32% 22% 18% 30% 46% Whole Foods was knocked for doing 4% 49% 20% 27% 36% 18% a poor job at segmentation, while 7-Eleven was dinged for lacking the 3% 45% 31% 21% 7% 17% capability altogether.

47% 16% 37% 16% 5% In addition to topping the ranks 7% 40% 20% 27% 33% 13% for data sharing – or maybe in part 6% 39% 17% 39% 33% because of those practices – Kroger 6% 28% 26% 41% 19% 24% also topped the retailer rankings for 4% 28% 33% 22% 35% 17% having the loyalty program that delivers the best opportunity for engaging 6% 26% 40% 20% 28% 12% shoppers. All of Kroger’s banners offer 27% 35% 39% 19% 8%

Note: A significant number of responses responded “Don’t Know” when asked about the retailer’s data sharing practices.

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Retailer Ratings: Online vs. Brick & Mortar loyalty cards. Nearly 90% of Kroger’s sales come from loyalty cardholders and approximately half of U.S. households are members of one of the programs. The retailer prides itself on being an industry leader in using loyalty card data to provide individualized promotions. Members who create digital accounts receive personalized offers and exclusive promotions via email.

What’s more, likely as a result of its loyalty program prowess, Kroger also earned the highest honors among retailers for effectively personalizing offers for shoppers. Some respondents credited Kroger subsidiary 84.51 and its advanced targeting capabilities and measurement acumen for setting the retailer apart. “Kroger’s loyalty program is very well developed,” one respondent said. “We believe this success is due to the targeting capabilities offered in the various shopper marketing services.

We rely on these opportunities.” Amazon/Whole Foods and Target also perform well in this area, according to close to half of respondents (44% and 45%, respectively).

Additional responses regarding the loyalty program and personalization capabilities of specific retailers included: • “[Albertsons Cos.’] Just for U digital coupon offers have multiple touchpoints to reach consumers, such as instore circular ads, direct mail ads and digital banners.”

• Target does a good job facilitating “brand-specific deals and offers.”

• CVS offers a “very targeted ability to customize messages and creative,” one respondent said, while another called the retailer “the best and most established way for us to identify lapsed users.”

Retailer Ratings: Best Loyalty Program for Engaging Shoppers Kroger Kroger 15% Target Target 9% Walmart Walmart 9% 7% Amazon/Whole Foods 7% Amazon/Whole Foods CVS 7% CVS 7% Publix 4% Publix 4% Albertsons Albertsons 3% 3% Meijer 3% Meijer 3% Best Buy Best3%Buy 3% 7-Eleven 7-Eleven 1% 1% Walgreens Walgreens 1% 1% Petco 1%Petco 1% Ahold Delhaize Ahold0% Delhaize 0% ShopRite 0% ShopRite 0% PetSmart 0% PetSmart 0%

45%

Excellent

Target Kroger Amazon Home Depot Lowe's Walmart Sam's Club ShopRite Ahold Delhaize Meijer Costco H-E-B Albertsons Dollar General Publix Walgreens CVS Whole Foods 7-Eleven Family Dollar

Good

32%

Poor

They Can't

52%

11% 5%

40%

42%

45%

34%

15%

54%

13%

56%

26%

13% 5% 4% 17% 8% 13%

42%

18% 49%

8%

45%

17%

19%

22%

40%

5%

23% 10%

31%

11%

32%

33%

14%

28%

20%

35%

15%

6%

42%

5%

41%

29%

34%

6%

37%

37%

20%

39%

19%

39%

3%

40% 3%

18% 26%

42%

18%

37%

40%

23%

32%

44%

21%

13% 19%

22%

57%

25%

4% 12%

9% 56%

48%

36%

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

Retailer Ratings: Most Effective at Personalizing Offers* 45%

15%

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

Kroger Kroger 45% Target Target 44% Amazon/Whole Foods Amazon/Whole Foods 29% Walmart Walmart 29% 26% Albertsons Albertsons 26% 23% CVS 23% CVS 23% Meijer 23% Meijer 10% Publix 10% Publix Walgreens Walgreens 10% 10% *Respondents 9% Ahold Delhaize 9% Ahold Delhaize were asked to 7% ShopRite ShopRite select three 7% Best Buy Best4% 4% Buy 4% 7-Eleven 7-Eleven 4% 4% PetSmart PetSmart 4% Petco 1%Petco 1%

59%

59%

45% 44%

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

14-25-P2PIQ_Trends21.indd 21

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THEY AT SEGMENTING SALES?

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Retail Media Networks

By Cyndi Loza The steady growth of retail media networks as shopper engagement vehicles accelerated pretty dramatically in 2020 due to the pandemic, as shopper marketers had to lean far more on digital platforms to connect with consumers who were avoiding brickand-mortar stores and adopting new shopping habits.

“Our biggest customers are becoming … media companies themselves,” said Ken Krasnow, Henkel NA’s vice president of omnichannel marketing, during the Path to Purchase Digital Expo last November. “It’s really, really important to

Rating Retail Media Networks

For any retailer media networks you have worked with, please rate its performance in the following areas ...

Walmart

(Walmart Media Group) Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

Albertsons EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

21.6% 23.5% 15.7% 13.7% 19.6% 11.8%

51.0% 45.1% 47.1% 47.1% 54.9% 47.1%

27.5% 31.4% 37.3% 39.2% 25.5% 41.2%

17.6%

58.8%

23.5%

(Albertsons Performance Media) Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

Respondents: 51

Respondents: 25

Kroger

Dollar General

(Kroger Precision Marketing) Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

63.6% 56.8% 29.5% 43.2% 40.9% 22.7%

27.3% 31.8% 38.6% 40.9% 40.9% 45.5%

9.1% 11.4% 31.8% 15.9% 18.2% 31.8%

31.8%

43.2%

25.0%

Respondents: 44

Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

8.0% 8.0% 4.0% 8.0% 12.0% 12.0%

56.0% 48.0% 32.0% 44.0% 32.0% 52.0%

36.0% 44.0% 64.0% 48.0% 56.0% 36.0%

8.0%

40.0%

52.0%

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

22.2% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 16.7% 16.7%

38.9% 55.6% 50.0% 44.4% 55.6% 38.9%

38.9% 33.3% 38.9% 44.4% 27.8% 44.4%

16.7%

38.9%

44.4%

Respondents: 18

January/February 2021

14-25-P2PIQ_Trends21.indd 22

(DG Media Network)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Media Spending Practices

Attitudes Toward Networks

Your retailer digital media spend is most often from which budget?

ALLOCATIONallocated OF RETAILER DIGITAL MEDIA SPEND

7%

In your opinion, retail media networks are ...

Shopper Marketing

24%

National Media

20% 50%

Determined Campaign

by Campaign

14%

Other*

24%

*Among the responses were a combinations of sources, and a specific e-commerce media budget Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

Target

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

33.3% 40.5% 26.2% 21.4% 47.6% 31.0% 19.0% 40.5% 40.5% 21.4% 42.9% 35.7% 28.6% 35.7% 35.7% 16.7% 47.6% 35.7% 35.7% 40.5% 23.8%

Respondents: 42

Amazon

(Amazon Advertising*)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement) Respondents: 39

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

48.7% 38.5% 12.8% 43.6% 38.5% 17.9% 35.9% 38.5% 25.6% 30.8% 30.8% 38.5% 41.0% 41.0% 17.9% 25.6% 41.0% 33.3% 35.9% 46.2% 17.9% *Respondents specifically rated Amazon DSP

January/February 2021

14-25-P2PIQ_Trends21.indd 23

Effective, but no more so than other digital media More effective than other digital media

39%

Still too early to tell

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

leverage this customer media, which is so valuable.”

Of course, not all networks are created equally – at least in their early stages of development. Kroger’s media platform, Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), leads the way in many key performance metrics compared to other platforms from retailers, according to Trends survey respondents. Similar to last year,

(Roundel)

23%

A simple money grab for the retailer

respondents were asked to rate the retail media platforms with which they work based on their relative strengths in targeting effectiveness, measurement capabilities, ROI, data sharing, sales growth, creative freedom and traffic-driving capabilities (see charts, pages 22-24).

A majority of survey participants who have worked with KPM gave the platform an “excellent/very good” score for targeting effectiveness and measurement capabilities. KPM also received mostly “excellent/very good” and “good” scores for data sharing and sales growth. Amazon Advertising fell a bit behind KPM on targeting effectiveness and measurement capabilities this year, but overall scored generally well (especially within the ROI category) compared to other platforms.

“The richness of Kroger data has always been a huge enabler for us to better understand our customers and provide relevant and personalized experiences,” Lindsey McGowan, shopper marketing manager at General Mills, said during a P2PX session hosted and sponsored by KPM. “However, in a time like today, when dramatic shifts are happening [in] real time, it’s been an invaluable asset for us just to keep up with patterns that are shifting quickly to meet the customers’ needs.”

Among other survey results: • Not surprisingly, brands are working with Walmart Media Group, Target’s Roundel, KPM and Amazon DSP the most.

• Roundel generally earned “excellent/very good” and “good” scores for targeting effectiveness and traffic-driving capabilities.

• Although the CVS Media Exchange network is relatively new, respondents gave the platform a “good” score for creative freedom and targeting effectiveness.

| 23 | pathtopurchaseiq.com 1/11/21 3:15 PM

PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021 And the concept of these networks representing legitimate “media” opportunities might be taking hold as well: Almost onefourth (24%) of respondents said network buys are being funded by national media budgets, up from 18.2% last year. A fair number of skeptics remain, however: almost one in four survey takers said the networks are more a “money grab for the retailer” than an effective tool.

“Retail media is a huge pain point for us. It works, but the cost structure is not transparent, the measurement is self-done and the media is not that cool,” said a director of shopper marketing during a late-2020 virtual forum.

Consider this trend a work in progress.

Ahold Delhaize (Peapod Digital Labs)

Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

-----11.8%

52.9% 52.9% 52.9% 47.1% 52.9% 52.9%

47.1% 47.1% 47.1% 52.9% 47.1% 35.3%

11.8%

35.3%

52.9%

Respondents: 17

CVS

(CVS Media Exchange) Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

10.0% 10.0% -10.0% ---

60.0% 50.0% 50.0% 40.0% 50.0% 70.0%

30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 50.0% 50.0% 30.0%

--

50.0%

50.0%

Respondents: 10

Giant Eagle (Advantage Media)

Targeting effectiveness Measurement capabilities ROI Data sharing Sales growth Creative freedom Traffic-driving capabilities (off-site media placement)

EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD

GOOD

POOR/FAIR

----10.0% 20.0%

50.0% 60.0% 50.0% 50.0% 50.0% 40.0%

50.0% 40.0% 50.0% 50.0% 40.0% 40.0%

10.0%

30.0%

60.0%

Respondents: 10

By Patrycja Malinowska Walmart has made several recent changes that have the potential to affect brand sales at the retailer. Nearly half (45%) of our Trends survey respondents identified “combining buying teams for the stores and e-commerce businesses into one team” as the most impactful of the changes.

Most of those respondents view the integration as a positive move, crediting it with driving alignment of strategies across physical and digital channels. And brands whose products sell well online but currently have limited in-store penetration believe it will help expand total distribution and increase the number of consumers they reach. “Our products have great online success at Walmart and we believe this will help sell-in for [the] in-store shelf,” one respondent said.

Walmart’s more holistic view provides the ability to correlate overall business management and link more directly to performance, respondents said. “We will now get credit for the money we spend with Walmart Media Group – and hopefully more impactful in-store opportunities,” one respondent specified.

Not having to sell through multiple teams also makes it more likely that 360-degree plans will be executed, respondents believe, allowing brands to develop one unified plan for bigger lifts across physical and digital channels.

Whitney Cooper, Walmart’s director of omnichannel advertising transformation and acceleration, says merging the buying teams, along with combining store and online supply chain and finance groups, laid the groundwork for the retailer’s new omnichannel advertising strategy. “Over the next year, you’re going to see that we’re really focused on streamlining and making it really easy for our supplier partners to build out plans across all of our teams,”

Walmart’s Changes: Greatest Impact?

45% 33%

Combining the buying functions for the stores and e-commerce businesses into one team

6%

Launching Walmart Fulfillment Services to allow third-party sellers to hire the retailer to store, pack, and ship items

9%

Merging the grocery experience with the main online shopping experience

Increasing the “on-time, in-full” shipping mandate

6%

1%

Launching the Walmart Advertising Partners program and related performance dashboards

Strengthening sustainable sourcing requirements for certain categories

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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Walmart vs. Amazon

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PATH TO PURCHASE TRENDS 2021

Dueling Loyalty Programs HOW WELL CAN WALMART+ COMPETE AGAINST AMAZON PRIME?

0%

Is/Can be very competitive with Amazon Prime

16% 42%

Has potential to compete with Amazon Prime but will never be on par Doesn't stand a chance against Amazon Prime

42%

Has the potential to beat Amazon Prime Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

Cooper says. “We’ll be able to move faster, and you’ll have more options in terms of what you can do as far as advertising in the store and across all of our channels.”

Another one-third (33%) of respondents identified the merger of Walmart’s online grocery experience with the retailer’s main e-commerce platform – the more shopper-facing result of the same “One Walmart” philosophy that drove the merger of the merchandising organization – as their best bet for business impact. The primary reason cited here was an improved, seamless shopper experience.

Although in the minority in terms of overall impact (selected by only 1% of survey respondents), Walmart’s focus on sustainability is proving favorable for players in the natural space as they continue to gain new placements. Examples from the field of products recently earning broader distribution include HealthAde kombucha, Hello Products oral care items, Soylent meal replacement shakes and Eco Lips organic lip balms.

Although Walmart+ has earned a lot of attention (thanks partly to its massive ad campaign), no respondents believe the fledgling Walmart+ loyalty program has what it takes to completely overtake

key competitor Amazon Prime. Skeptics cited lack of capabilities and less breadth of products and services. “Amazon [Prime offers a] fully integrated experience where shopping and entertainment is combined. Walmart, by contrast, is asking the same annual fee from consumers for less than half the service,” one respondent said.

Amazon’s first-mover advantage and well-entrenched member base are mentioned by the 42% of respondents who said Walmart+ will never be on par with Prime. However, those who think Walmart+ can be competitive with Prime (another 42%) identify Walmart’s pricing and brick-and-mortar footprint as advantages. “Amazon’s established base and wide range of products give them a huge advantage. But, Walmart’s location base allows for much faster delivery/pickup, which appears to be valuable for some categories,” one respondent said.

With the accelerated spike of e-commerce spending brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, brands have had to invest more in their online presence. Almost one-third (32%) of survey respondents said they have become more dependent on Amazon sales due to the pandemic, though half (51%) saw no change in their degree of dependence. IQ

Pandemic’s Impact on Amazon’s Importance Somewhat more dependent

7%

No change

51%

25%

Much more dependent on

(7% don’t sell on Amazon)

Much less dependent

7% 3% Somewhat less dependent

Source: P2PI Trends Report 2021

January/February 2021

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

THE ADVANTAGE OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP Executive of the Year finalists say women provide empathy, resilience and other intrinsic qualities

BY PAT RYC J A M A L I N O W S K A

E

xecutive of the Year finalists discussed the advantages of having women in leadership positions and shared advice for their peers during the Path to Purchase Institute’s 2020 Women of Excellence awards ceremony last November.

The five finalists agreed that not only do women bring diversity of thought and perspective to the table, they also infuse leadership with intrinsic qualities ranging from empathy and clarity to strength and resilience.

“When I started in this industry, almost all the c-level leaders on both the agency and client sides were men,” said finalist Soche Picard, CEO, North America, Arc Worldwide. “Interestingly though, most of their number two’s were women … and my takeaway was

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that these leaders were drawn to and really relied on the qualities that these women delivered.”

During a year that made it challenging to keep teams together while working long-distance via virtual meetings, an empathetic leadership style has been especially crucial for connecting with teams and clients as well as shoppers. The finalists credited women’s unique problem-solving approach to helping foster a more humanized view of shopper needs and challenges.

“When you dig down to the actual shopper marketing role that a lot of us support, we probably think even further along the sales path of what [shoppers are] thinking when they’re making the [purchase] decision,” said finalist Meredith Madden, VP, category & consumer development, Chobani.

Resilience is another trait of women in leadership that the finalists recognized as exceptionally vital this year.

“We pivoted a lot of things that we had to do for the good of our communities and our customers. And we still introduced an integrated campaign that really leverages our iconic brand, visual identity and strength,” said finalist Marissa Jarratt, SVP and CMO for 7-Eleven, crediting the powerful women on her team for modeling resilience and helping inspire it throughout the organization.

“When we see someone like ourselves in a position of power or prestige, it allows and empowers us to see ourselves in the same way, which can be truly inspiring,” Picard said.

“This is actually also something that we reckon with as marketers. The brand storytelling expressions and work we put out in the world should always strive to be inclusive of audiences we are trying to reach.”

Several finalists referenced the confidence gap and “imposter syndrome” as hurdles particular to women in business, and shared

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE advice for overcoming them.

“Have a vision, develop and plan, and be clear on what that is and what you’re going to need to do, skills that you’re going to need to develop, networking that you need to establish, support systems that you need to put in place in order to help you get there,” Jarratt advised.

“Be a lifetime learner,” said finalist Kate Garner, SVP, Demand Accelerator NA at PepsiCo. “You need to challenge yourself day in and day out … constantly be looking forward and not necessarily be looking to follow someone else’s career path.”

“Fall in love with what you are doing,” advised the winner of the Executive of the Year award, Guadalupe Cano, CEO of Visual Latina, who credited her dad’s love for his work for inspiring her leadership style. “I think the passion really shows and it helps you with any challenge you might have.”

Profiles on the following pages by Erika Flynn

Women of Excellence Finalists (Winners in bold) WOMEN OF THE YEAR Executive of the Year Guadalupe Cano: Chief Executive Officer, Visual Latina Kate Garner: SVP, Demand Accelerator NA, PepsiCo Marissa Jarratt: SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, 7-Eleven Meredith Madden: VP, Category & Consumer Development, Chobani Soche Picard: Chief Executive Officer, North America, Arc Worldwide

Rising Star Renee Fuller: Shopper Marketing Director, Method Products Paige Dunn: Trade Marketing Manager, Fiji Water Jenny Fish: Connections Manager, Performance Content Writer, VMLY&R Felicity Green: Senior Digital Media Strategist, Electrolux

THE INNOVATORS Innovation Under Pressure Miao Song: Global CIO, Mars Petcare, Mars Inc. Bonnie Garrison: VP of Business Intelligence and Systems Analytics, Catalina Jenna Reed: Director of Marketing and Customer Development, Voyant Beauty (formerly KIK Personal Care)

Disruptor Stacy Jackson: AVP, Shopper Marketing, Coca-Cola Co. Sherry Courtney: VP of Shopper Marketing, Molson Coors Kelly Kachnowski: VP, Commercial Development, Marilyn Platform & Mars Technology Group, The Mars Agency Sinead Norenius-Raniere: VP of Influencer Marketing & Paid Social, Valassis

THE GROWTH DRIVERS Business Builder Kirsten Barner: Senior Director of Marketing and Future Forward, Alliance Sales & Marketing Risa Crandall: VP Strategy + Sales, CPG, Aki Technologies Catie Hoover: Senior Account Executive, Business Development, IN Connected Marketing Lauren Wright: Customer Director, Shopper Marketing, Mondelez International

Idea Builder Brooke Bright: Director of Retail Product Management, Label Insight Rachel Bateast: Director, Strategic Planning, The Mars Agency Nicole Bilella: Shopper Marketing Manager - New Transactions/Amazon, Mars Wrigley

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Brea Keating: Digital Transformation and Brand Communications Lead, Solo Cup/Dart Container Corp.

Cara Pratt: SVP, Kroger Precision Marketing, 84.51

Relationship Builder Kandi Arrington: SVP, Client Leadership, Customer Development, The Mars Agency Allison Eads: Shopper Marketing Manager, Pep Promotions Amy Lanzi: EVP, Commerce Lead, North America, Publicis Commerce/Publicis Groupe Zesha Skop: Senior Account Director - Grocery Lead, IN Connected Marketing

THE ANNUAL ACHIEVERS Excellence In Execution Jaime Martin: Creative Activation Manager, Coca-Cola Co. Cassie Burzynski: Director, Client Leadership, The Mars Agency Alma Klein: VP, Creative Director, Arc Worldwide Jennifer Robinson: Senior Shopper Marketing Manager, GE Appliances

Most Valuable Player Megan Mahan: Senior Customer Marketing Manager, GE Appliances Jessica Fair: Director, Omnichannel Customer Marketing, J.M. Smucker Co. Jeannette Murphy: Account Director, HMT Associates Rebecca Troutman: Director of E-Commerce, 7-Eleven

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATEGORY:

Executive of the Year (Winner) Titan7 as an in-house digital and tech production company that would drive engagement and conversion in the digital environment,” she says.

Believing it was all possible was the key to making it happen, Cano says. “My dad was an excellent role model, reflecting that effort, dedication, trust and passion are the winning combination,” she says. She’s always believed in “walking the streets” to gain a depth of understanding of the marketplace – it’s how the agency gained the trust of its first client, Coca-Cola, in Mexico.

She also values every partnership, fostering meaningful relationships with clients as well as her own team to make strides together within the industry.

Cano concedes that 2020 was a difficult year to be an independent agency leader. “I promised myself I would do everything in my power to maintain everyone’s Chief Executive Guadalupe Cano jobs, and to date I have kept Officer always wanted to that promise,” she says. “We’ve Visual Latina have her own agency strategized to help maximize someday. She was 17 client’s budgets, and quickly pivoted when she began working as we produced digital solutions like at her father’s agency, and her chatbots that can help small store owners sights were set on making a difference – on be able to sell in their communities during the an international stage. pandemic.”

While studying sociology at the University Cano was recognized as a Woman to of Buenos Aires and then advertising at Watch by Ad Age and Ad Latina in 2019. In the Universidad del Salvador, she worked 2020, the Association of National Advertisers at global agencies JWT and McCann included Visual Latina in its first list of Worldgroup. In 2003, she co-founded Visual Certified Diverse Suppliers for Marketing Latina and quickly became a trusted and and Advertising in the U.S. Cano is an active passionate leader in shopper marketing, advocate of women’s leadership through paving the way for many others to challenge organizations such as the Path to Purchase the status quo and make a positive impact Institute and the Association of Hispanic through their actions and leadership.

Advertising Agencies, participating as a Cano takes pride in her role in building a speaker across various advertising groups minority-owned and independent company and mentorship programs. from scratch, leading overseas expansion She also supports the Voy con Vos and supporting 80 employees across six program in her native Argentina, helping offices worldwide. She also recognized children in need gain access to school, as early on the need to evolve with the global, well as Wheels of Happiness in the U.S., digitized shopper transformation. “I opened helping with its content and social media.

Guadalupe Cano

January/February 2021

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KATE GARNER Senior Vice President, Demand Accelerator NA PepsiCo Category: Executive of the Year (Finalist)

Kate Garner has a history of delivering transformational growth for PepsiCo, having spent nearly 18 years rising through the ranks from where she started in 2003 as an assistant product manager. She’s a classically trained accountant, having worked for Ernst & Young out of college and then at Sprint as a finance manager. But she says early on it became clear that her passion for learning and development would lead to several pivots in her career.

After earning an MBA in marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, she landed at PepsiCo/Frito-Lay and began building her now strong track record in marketing, sales, strategic insights and advanced analytics.

Mentorship, being a visionary, cultivating strong internal and external partnerships, and servant leadership are keys to success, Garner says. “[Servant leadership] is the single most important thing I can do to help PepsiCo achieve its long-term goals.”

She recently was the company’s senior vice president of sales at Frito-Lay, but then was tapped to assume her current position as senior vice president of Demand Accelerator at the onset of the pandemic, with responsibility for leading growth across PepsiCo’s North America food and beverages businesses – including shopper analytics and insights, shopper marketing, category leadership and space transformation.

Her team of 250-plus demonstrated agility with its 2020 plans and adjusted the traditional planning process with retailer partners for 2021. One notable achievement is a data science predictive model to map all households according to viral and economic impact to provide deeper retail insights specifically across cleanliness and e-commerce expansion. She was named to Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery in 2014.

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CELEBRATING PATH TO PURCHASE IQ 2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

WINNER EXCELLENCE IN EXECUTION Jaime Martin

WINNER INNOVATOR/DISRUPTOR Stacy Jackson

The Coca-Cola Co.

The Coca-Cola Co.

Creative Activation Manager

AVP, Shopper Marketing

CHEERS TO YOU And a special thank you to our Coca-Cola winners for refreshing the world and making a difference through your remarkable contributions. You are an indispensable ingredient in our secret formula. Congratulations!

©2020 The Coca-Cola Company

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1/11/21 3:17 PM

2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

MARISSA JARRATT

MEREDITH MADDEN

SOCHE PICARD

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer 7-Eleven Category: Executive of the Year (Finalist)

Vice President, Category & Consumer Development Chobani Category: Executive of the Year (Finalist)

Chief Executive Officer, North America Arc Worldwide Category: Executive of the Year (Finalist)

Marissa Jarratt has been transforming and inspiring

Meredith Madden has built her career by surrounding

throughout her career, and even with the challenges 2020 brought to lead and strive for excellence, she continued to make her mark. She joined 7-Eleven in October 2019 as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. She believes the retailer’s new brand positioning, “Activate Awesome,” can be universally applicable. “Those two words cover a lot of territory: when talking about how we present our brand to customers, how to lead/motivate a team, or (aspirationally) to make a difference in the world,” she says.

Jarratt, a Spanish and finance major who also holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, was a finance analyst before entering the world of brand management and marketing at PepsiCo. She stayed there for 14 years, ultimately serving as its vice president of global marketing. She was also on the board of directors for both MilkPEP and Good Karma Foods before joining Dean Foods, where she held two senior vice president of marketing roles.

“Activate Awesome,” she says, positions the retailer as an “ingenious accomplice” ready to solve customers’ problems while giving them a reason to smile. “When COVID-19 struck and 7-Eleven remained open as an essential business, our brand’s purpose became even more apparent.”

One of its biggest pivots during the height of the pandemic was canceling 7-Eleven Day on July 11. Instead of the typical celebration, the retailer extended its free Slurpee drink offer throughout July to its 35 million 7Rewards loyalty members.

“As we all navigate the future, we’ll continue to serve as that unwavering partner,” says Jarratt, who has been recognized as a Top Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer (2018), a Rising Star by the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame, and a “40 Under 40” by Brand Innovators (2014).

herself with great people. She doesn’t act too seriously but understands how to get things accomplished. As a leader, she fosters an inclusive environment. “My expectations are high,” she says, “and I’m rarely disappointed because the teams have autonomy to perform at their best level, in their own way.”

After obtaining a degree in marketing, transportation and logistics, Madden started her career in management at a distribution centerwhile earning her MBA. In 2009, she entered the CPG world with a deep desire to be a category manager.

“I’m a numbers person through and through, and I wanted a role where I could incorporate my analytic nature with the sales and marketing side of the business,” she says.

“By learning all aspects of the business across clients and channels, I was able to grow quickly in the industry.”

She joined Chobani in 2012 to build the category management team from the ground up, and then led category development and insights.

In October 2018, Madden was promoted to vice president, category & consumer development to lead shopper marketing and develop the company’s insights, analytics and research team. “Looking at the shopper marketing functions and programs with a sales and category perspective has allowed the team to really focus on ROI and efficiencies within their strategy and planning,” she says. “I helped them start thinking about the impact their roles had across the organization, and stretch them out of their comfort zone.”

Likely the biggest lesson she’s learned throughout her career, though, is that relationships matter. “Being an honest, fun and humble leader will bring much more productivity from your team than leading with an iron fist,” she says. “Understanding the business and teaching your teams how to think more broadly will ultimately help the company grow.”

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Soche Picard stepped to the helm of the North American operations of Arc Worldwide just less than three years ago with the same confidence and pride in her abilities that her single mother instilled in her at a very young age. Under Picard’s leadership as CEO, the agency has undergone what she says has been endless transformation – creating a powerful and unifying operating system around its differentiated brand positioning, “Irresistible Commerce.”

The evolution has resulted in galvanizing teams by organizing and evolving work flows and resource management to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

“We’ve doubled our business and helped our clients exponentially increase theirs,” she says. “Our people are happy. Clients are happy. And that makes me so very happy and proud.”

Picard began her career in New York City at McCann Erickson in 1995. Her first real new business pitch resulted in the iconic “Priceless” campaign for MasterCard – and gave her the professional confidence to start sharing her voice. Her next stop was TracyLocke in mid-2003, working with Pepsi on its early approaches to shopper marketing.

In 2010, she moved again to build an end-to-end agency model at Acosta Sales and Marketing, and in early 2014 at Geometry Global, she embarked on one of the “crowning jewels of my career,” creating and leading a never-been-done-before agency model for Unilever: Team Unilever Shopper, which became a 200plus, eight-agency, multi-discipline team of innovative shopper marketers driving best-in-class growth for Unilever’s entire portfolio.

“I’ve always tried to lead with honesty, transparency, empathy, clarity and humor,” Picard says. She believes any great leader is on a constant quest for evolution and improvement – of herself, her teams and her work – and never accepts the status quo, but exists in a healthy state of restless discontent that enables her to strive for new and better outcomes. This, in turn, inspires those around great leaders to strive for greatness, she says.

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Welcome to the New Reality INTRODUCING THE PATH TO PURCHASE IQ SHOPPER ENGAGEMENT PARTNER SHOWCASE

Explore our all-new, highly-interactive digital experience of product marketing solutions and agencies in an environment unlike anything experienced before on PathtoPurchaseIQ.com.

The Shopper Engagement Partner Showcase provides 24/7, year-round access to insights, trends, and valuable tools and services. Not virtual reality, this is the new reality, engaging marketers directly with solution providers and agencies when you can’t meet face-to-face.

THE SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN Participants can spotlight new products, portfolios, and unique capabilities.

Information is seamlessly displayed in a digital environment where visitors can easily click-to-connect.

G E T YO UR TOUR TO DAY !

Contact Joe Territo, Brand Leader (jterrito@ensembleiq.com, 973.727.7338), or your sales representative for a tour of the Shopper Engagement Partner Showcase.

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATEGORY:

Rising Star (Winner) held a senior account manager role before realizing she wanted to break into marketing.

While earning her MBA in executive management, she was a customer marketing manager on the Kashi/Bear Naked brand, leading key multifunctional projects including customer/retail promotions and national display strategies that drove sales and business unit objectives, before becoming the manager of trade strategy. While working on Kashi/Bear Naked, Fuller helped develop the brands’ trade architecture and manage a $90 million trade budget while creating effective models to supplement the Trade-GSV yearly budgeting process for the entire North American sales team.

She also held a national chair position for the company’s largest employee resource group, Women of Kellogg.

After six years, Fuller moved to The Hershey Co. and the then newly acquired (and since sold) Krave brand, leading the development and delivery of breakthrough brand activation, retail programming and integrated marketing campaigns. She also managed the commercialization and stage-gate process for strategic product launches, overseeing the brand P&L and helping to launch a master brand campaign.

Two years later, she made another move to REBBL. “The company was still in its growth startup phase and although we didn’t have a vast brand budget, we were tasked with driving household penetration and awareness,” she says. “I leaned on the founder’s mindset and found innovative and scrappy ways to drive growth on the brand within the refrigerated functional beverage category.”

With SCJ, Fuller has not only established a foundation for the company’s shopper marketing initiatives but has elevated them. Of note is an integrated marketing campaign with TeacherLists, an online solution to help schools efficiently manage and share school supplies and teacher wish lists all over the country. As the category captain for hand wash, she knew the company would meet its revenue goal for the program. “I chose not to focus on product proposition but looked to drive brand affinity and awareness around the importance of hygiene … during the pandemic,” she notes. The effort included campaign activation with Target as well as an opportunity to partner with Meijer to thank the retailer’s frontline employees during the crisis.

She has also partnered with her HR team to co-create a committee focused on discussing, engaging and advising leadership on how the company can take meaningful action in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the overall impact of systemic racism and inequality in the U.S.

Renee Fuller

Shopper Marketing Director Method Products

Renee Fuller strongly believes in promoting change and making it happen. And in her short tenure at SC Johnson’s lifestyle business unit, she has done just that.

As the shopper marketing director of the still young discipline within the company, she is charged with leading the strategy and curating a vision for omnichannel shopper marketing across all of SCJ’s U.S. and Canadian retailers and channels. “I’ve always sought ways to drive impact and be a change agent,” she says.

She models her career after the Booker T. Washington quote that “Success is not measured so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles [one] overcomes while trying to succeed,” and she leans on the principles of conscious leadership.

Fuller strives to be a marketing innovator, a passionate leader of teams, and a strong strategic partner for her peers and customers.

The broadcast journalism major and theater minor joined the Kellogg Co. as a retail sales representative out of college, and then

January/February 2021

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

PAIGE DUNN

JENNY FISH

FELICITY GREEN

Trade Marketing Manager Fiji Water Category: Rising Star (Finalist)

Connections Manager, Performance Content Writer VMLY&R Category: Rising Star (Finalist)

Senior Digital Media Strategist Electrolux Category: Rising Star (Finalist)

Since joining Fiji Water, Paige Dunn has overseen many business-forward decisions, including the repositioning of the brand’s entire trade marketing strategy in the U.S. But her mission goes beyond that: She’s focused on continuing to build the business while developing its people. “Strong cross-functional relationships come to life when each member is fully empowered to ‘use their voice,’” she says.

Dunn helps drive this culture throughout the organization by leading by example.

Dunn spent more than eight years at Red Bull, with her final post in trade activation, before moving into trade marketing at The Wonderful Co. in September 2017, first on the sales side and then for Fiji Water after one year.

She built the department and strategy during a time of significant change to the brand’s distribution model. “This pushed me to think both creatively and pragmatically,” she says. “I challenged the team to uncover unique, innovative merchandising solutions and to maintain our category leadership by ensuring we consistently delivered connected touchpoints along the consumer path to purchase.”

Through close collaboration with internal and external partners, Dunn and her team created premium point-of-sale materials, including a display that yielded 40% gross margin ROI, she recalls, and regained key points of distribution in Fiji Water’s largest accounts.

Nationwide, the brand’s POS portfolio generated a 128% sales lift while ensuring product was easily accessible to shoppers. “These partnerships also extended digitally, enabling us to meet shoppers both online and offline, driving strong consumer loyalty,” she says.

In April 2020, Dunn assumed her current position as trade marketing manager for Fiji Water, Justin Wines, Landmark Wines and JNSQ Wines. The role’s expanded scope and responsibility is a challenge she embraces wholeheartedly. “I continue to expand my knowledge of shopper marketing while still trying to bring a fresh perspective to an exciting category,” she says.

Jenny Fish has learned to take advantage of every growth opportunity that comes her way. Always knowing she wanted to land at an award-winning agency someday, the journalism major began her career in an entry-level position at a nonprofit organization. She made a few stops, working in marketing and communications and social media management, before joining VMLY&R nearly three years ago.

Today, as a performance content writer/connections manager, Fish leads content audits, developing e-commerce content and crafting discoverable long-form content that has helped her team grow, expand existing scopes and bring in new clients. During the pandemic, she led an e-commerce content project for a well-known CPG client that requested the timeline be shortened from nine months to only one.

“I quickly trained and managed a team of global writers to successfully write and optimize content for more than 1,000 product detail pages on Kroger and Walmart within that timeline,” she says. Not only was the client happy in the end, but her team earned significant incremental revenue for the agency.

Fish credits some of her early success to managers who pushed her to own her strengths, find her voice and share her unique perspective. But she also actively seeks feedback on anything from client presentations to department processes to be a better employee, teammate and client partner. She compiles monthly newsletters and creates presentations to share during team meetings.

While her accolades are many, most recently Fish was recognized in 2020 by the American Advertising Federation of Kansas City for publishing an industry article titled, “What is Performance Content and Why Does Your Client Need It,” to promote the VMLY&R Discoverability team.

January/February 2021

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Electrolux brought media buying in-house in 2018, and Felicity Green was its first hire. With a background in communications, she had spent the majority of her career to that point on the agency side, with Mindshare, Neo@Ogilvy and, most recently, Mower Agency, holding the same title she does today.

Now as senior digital media strategist for Electrolux, Green strives to be someone others can count on, is trustworthy and who also inspires those around her to be the best they can be. She is most proud of her pivot from agency life to working on the brand side. “Building an in-house media team from scratch is no easy task, but with a lot of hard work and patience, we did it in one year,” she says. There are now four in her group within the company’s digital marketing team.

And then came 2020 with new and different challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our in-house media team was put to the test once again with only a year’s experience under its belt, but we have risen to the challenge again this year – helping run campaigns where there is need, and constantly pivoting our strategy based on inventory constraints and customer demands.”

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATEGORY:

Innovation Under Pressure (Winner)

moving in January 2018 to Mars as global chief information officer for the Petcare division based in Belgium – the role she holds today.

Perhaps her work was never more crucial than this year. The transformation efforts to accelerate digital capabilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic focused on getting the products that people and their pets rely on delivered to their homes while keeping 3,000 veterinary hospitals open.

The company launched direct-to-consumer online sales and home-delivery capability in only 15 days at the start of the pandemic and gained significant sales revenue in the first few weeks. Additionally, tele-medicine solutions helped pet owners connect with doctors remotely. “This ensured our continuous connection with pets and pet owners anytime and everywhere,” Song says. Within two months, the team had conducted more than 1,600 virtual consultation sessions and enjoyed resulting revenue growth.

Song also spearheaded an acceleration in the use of data and analytics to help gain visibility into supply chain, inventory and operations and predict short-term demand in select markets. “We’re now using artificial intelligence across more than 100 projects,” she notes. “We’re also tracking associate data in connection with COVID-19 to accurately collect, analyze and learn from associate health data globally.”

The digital channels and customer experiences she and her team developed emphasize design-thinking principles and track consumer trends by using social listening and other user-centric methods, so the more than 15,000 Mars employees can understand unmet consumer needs and pinpoint effective solutions.

“Companies that do this quickly, by leveraging new channels and new capabilities, will build the agile culture needed to best serve consumers, customers and communities today and tomorrow,” Song says. “We want to ensure we challenge each other by keeping our end-user at the heart of decision-making.”

New automation is allowing machines to complete repetitive tasks so the company’s associates can “put their hearts and minds into delivering on our innovation ambitions,” she adds.

Miao Song Miao Song has always had a passion

Global CIO of Mars Petcare Mars Inc.

for optimizing technology, challenging the status quo and driving innovation in her work. For the past two years, those passions have been aligned during a global digital transformation across Mars Inc.’s entire pet care business. Under her leadership, the organization has embraced new ways of thinking in the ecosystem to drive culture change, deployed new digital platforms and furthered digital skills across the globe.

Song, a graduate of Peking University with both a bachelor of science degree in information management and an MBA in business, began her career in information technology at Nestle China. After five years, she became the head of IT for Shell China before taking on regional and global IT roles for the gas company. In 2014, she joined Johnson & Johnson as CIO and vice president of IT in the Asia Pacific region, before

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

BONNIE GARRISON

JENNA REED

SHERRY COURTNEY

Vice President of Business Intelligence and Systems Analytics Catalina Category: Innovation Under Pressure (Finalist)

Director of Marketing and Customer Development Voyant Beauty (formerly KIK Personal Care) Category: Innovation Under Pressure (Finalist)

Vice President of Shopper Marketing Molson Coors Category: Disruptor (Finalist)

Bonnie Garrison started as a junior analyst at Catalina in 2006 but worked her way up to executive director of analytical consulting by 2013. She has earned distinction as a “go-to person” because of her seasoned business mind when it comes to Catalina’s processes, systems, technology and analytics.

As vice president of business intelligence and systems analytics, today she leads by inspiring others to think about what’s possible rather than just expected, and to anticipate and then break down any roadblocks.

Garrison, who studied statistics in college before earning her MBA, is proof that pursuing a career in analytics and the science of math has no boundaries.

“You can go wherever the data takes you,” she says.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., she was in the thick of determining how Catalina could respond with innovative solutions for its CPG customers and retailers. Her team quickly created a dynamic COVID-19 interactive map from Catalina’s Buyer Intelligence Database, providing some of the industry’s earliest insights into the dramatic changes the pandemic triggered.

“The map visualized how buying trends and shopper behavior changed in near-real time nationally and by state across 78 major grocery and drug categories,” Garrison notes. “With it, we were able to advise our customers and retail partners on how they can best manage their marketing and supply chain decisions during this crisis and better prepare for when we emerge from it.”

Jenna Reed was brought into KIK in 2019 to turn around an unprofitable sun care business unit. True to her belief that a good leader can find the bigger opportunity within a challenge, she not only led the charge to make the business profitable for the first time since its acquisition, but also launched a successful new brand when the pandemic threatened sun care profits.

With both a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology, as well as an MBA, Reed has spent the majority of her career in marketing and brand management for food and toys.

As senior brand manager for a small team within the personal care division, she leveraged resources from across the organization to find a new product to launch quickly when the pandemic hit. She worked with R&D to find current established formulas in other divisions and then with procurement and production teams. The keys to success were finding a product consumers needed and speed to market.

PAYA hand sanitizers launched in just eight weeks.

“At every point there were COVID-related obstacles,” says Reed, who was recently promoted to director of marketing and customer development, “so creativity was needed to find workarounds.” Through July 2020, the company achieved bottom line profit dollars (EBITDA level) of 1,017% over its 2020 budget (from the new brand as well as rationalization and pricing across the existing private brand portfolio). “Our profitability improvements have been substantial enough to offset COVID-related declines on other teams in our division.”

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Sherry Courtney believes in pushing herself and those around her to always think differently, especially, she says, in an industry as challenging as alcoholic beverages. She’s a 20-year veteran of Molson Coors (formerly MillerCoors), and early on in her career made it a goal to leave each role better than when she started.

With a degree in marketing, Courtney joined the company as a sales analyst. Four years later, she moved into field marketing, followed by posts in digital marketing, business affairs (agency operations) and channel marketing for large-format. In January 2020, she was named vice president of shopper marketing, a position she considers to be her most transformational disruption.

“I’ve always set out to be very intentional in the way I approach transformative new ideas and ways of working,” she says. “Disruption is finding better ways of doing things, making it easier for stakeholders to execute, or so shoppers see us in a way they hadn’t considered before, or removing barriers for my people so they can do things that matter. Quite frankly, adding value in that way brings me a ton of energy and it’s the best part of my job.”

Shopper marketing is still a new function within the company, and Courtney says the team implemented a “shopper pulse” platform and is changing the way it operates, from being brand-led at retail to being shopper-first. “Our delivery of 1H solutions was, by far, the best-received bundle of solutions from both the distributor-facing and chain-facing parts of our organization – and we did it in the middle of a pandemic. I’m incredibly proud of what my teams and I have accomplished to make our organization stronger.”

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Disruptor (Winner) for the challenge but recalls needing to convince executives at Kroger to choose Coca-Cola as their partner instead of a food or snacks CPG. “With an ‘out-of-the-box’ approach and a simple framework, I was able to secure a seat at the table for this critically important work,” she says. Using Coca-Cola’s heritage in food – and knowledge of food pairings – along with a broad portfolio of offerings to cover any occasion, Jackson and her team effectively made their case. “Ultimately, we’re a marketing company,” she says. “We know how to build brands.”

This effort, she says, led to partnerships on several “fooding” reinventions, including the creation of an exclusive “Taste of the Tournament” event during the highly competitive timeframe of March Madness; a “Summertime Burger” program in partnership with the meat and seafood department leveraging Coca-Cola’s NASCAR assets; and being an advisor on Kroger’s QSR reinvention.

As an “executive on loan to Kroger,” she led the architecture and visual identity redesign of the retailer’s newly launched “Chicken Co.,” an in-store dining experience. Additionally, she oversaw the presentation of concepts, executional elements and a marketing plan to Kroger executives for rollout across divisions.

Jackson also implemented an OGSM (objectives, goals, strategies, metrics) format with 84.51 and Kroger Precision Marketing in an effort to improve operational efficiency, ensure a focus Assistant on key projects and align the Coca-Cola system Vice President, on strategic priorities.

Stacy Jackson doesn’t believe in doing “Not only did we align on work plans, but it things the way they’ve always been done.

Shopper Marketing became a way for us to anticipate strategic work Finding solutions to problems or figuring and get in front of issues with the customer and out how to “make the engine run more Coca-Cola Co. the consumer in order to anticipate business issues, smoothly” is something that’s always on her ultimately improving our thought leadership internally radar. “I’m not afraid to try something new,” and externally,” she says. she says. “Pushing people out of their comfort The reinvention of the “Coke with Meals Occasion” from zones is OK – it’s how we grow.” one in-store location to multiple locations with full path-toJackson, a leader who is passionate about continually purchase support increased shopper engagement and household reinventing how shoppers experience the retail environment, penetration and enabled a true omnichannel experience, Jackson started as a trade marketing coordinator at PUR before embarking says. By creating a joint business plan with Kroger Precision on a 16-year tenure at Procter & Gamble in marketing and brand Marketing and 84.51, Coca-Cola enabled a 173% increase in management. In July 2015, she made the move to Coca-Cola Co. marketing funding and returned an $8-to-$1 payout. “This to assume the position she holds today as assistant vice president, approach has also improved our relationship with 84.51/KPM and shopper marketing, for the beverage giant’s second-largest has secured a seat at the table on strategic projects, like front-end customer, Kroger. reinvention,” which she says is critically important to both Kroger The retailer wanted to reinvent its meals strategy to become an and Coca-Cola.

“Anytime, Anywhere, Anyway” food solution. Jackson was ready

Stacy Jackson

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

KELLY KACHNOWSKI

SINEAD NORENIUS-RANIERE

RISA CRANDALL

Vice President, Commercial Development, Marilyn Platform & Mars Technology Group The Mars Agency Category: Disruptor (Finalist)

Vice President of Influencer Marketing & Paid Social Valassis Category: Disruptor (Finalist)

Vice President, Strategy + Sales, CPG Aki Technologies Category: Business Builder (Finalist)

Kelly Kachnowski likes to challenge the status quo and find new ways to not only think about problems but develop solutions. It’s about finding new paths, and asking a lot of questions, she says. “Life is short, and work is a big percentage of every week, so I make the most of it by enjoying the challenge of learning and trying new ways to solve problems.”

With a background in media studies/broadcasting and sociology, Kachnowski started her career as a music director, morning show host and promotions director.

After three years, she became the marketing manager for Palace Sports & Entertainment, responsible for marketing events at The Palace of Auburn Hills and other venues as well as for the WNBA’s Detroit Shock and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. In August 2010, she joined The Mars Agency as a senior account executive and held a variety of roles before being named to the post of vice president, commercial development, for the Marilyn analytics platform and the Mars Technology Group last October.

Kachnowski has spent the last 18 months launching and selling the agency’s Marilyn Commerce Intelligence Platform, now in use across more than a dozen companies. When she joined the team in early 2019, she knew this innovation was special. “Putting data and technology into the hands of marketers in order to drive effectiveness and efficiency in shopper marketing planning is now something I wake up every day thinking about,” she says. Her team is revolutionizing how companies market to shoppers. “From building technology and providing simple organization and data collection for complex shopper marketing teams to developing best-in-class measurement tools, Marilyn is shaping the future of the industry,” she says.

Sinead Norenius-Raniere has been a pioneer in social and influencer marketing for much of her career, encouraging her teams to take the path less traveled and leading from the front line. She’s always been passionate about the social space and never feared challenging the status quo. “I revel in finding ways around things, being more efficient and driving results that make a difference – not only for our clients but also for our teams who serve those clients,” she says.

Norenius-Raniere spent the majority of her early career in the beauty industry, in sales and then as co-founder of The Beauty Firm in 2006. In early 2009, she co-founded Beautisol and acted as its spokesperson and early influencer.

Just one year later, she also founded IFABBO, an influencer marketing company, and later became its head of business development. In 2016, she founded the Bay Area Beauty Association and served as a board member for the next two years while also acting as a senior advisor and partner for product marketing, social media and influencer strategy at The Pienza Collective.

In 2018, Norenius-Raniere joined Valassis as its executive director, influencer marketing and paid social, to build and direct influencer marketing product offerings and, soon after, a paid social marketing offering. She was tasked with channeling Valassis’ consumer data and insight into a powerful, differentiated offering.

“Since launching our influencer marketing product, we’ve become one of the few agencies that maximizes influencer media using proprietary data and extending content into multi-channel marketing,” says NoreniusRaniere, who now serves as vice president of the same space. “Our strategy, technology and scale have allowed us to shatter and set new industry benchmarks. … The results speak for themselves both in terms of client ROI and in client retention and growth.”

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When Risa Crandall joined Aki Technologies in January 2020, the company had a solid foundation of solutions that align to commerce. But since that time, she’s helped expand the solutions set, aligning Aki’s “moment” marketing to how consumers shop with list making and adding to calendar, and leveraging the company’s technology to ensure that the consumer experience is positive and the action is delivering ROI. Crandall began her career as a media planner and then moved into publishing, working at The New York Times, Meredith, Time Warner, Conde Nast and Scholastic before joining Crisp Mobile in late 2010 as a managing director, eventually overseeing mobile commerce. In 2017, she became a senior director at Quotient Technology, then led the digital content to commerce practice at Meredith Digital. Her most recent position before landing at Aki was as the vice president of sales at Eyeview.

In her current role, Crandall has built Aki’s omnishop capabilities by understanding the CPG and tech marketplace to ensure that the company’s momentsto-cart solutions have the depth and breadth to address marketer needs, she says. “By listening to our marketers and retailers and watching consumer behavior daily, we’ve been able to build our platform to drive business for brands with a 3-to-1 ROI and 40% growth.”

Crandall’s commitment to partnership has helped her find success – especially during the past year. “I‘ve guided clients and my company to embrace the changes around us and have the Aki solutions be real-time,” she says. “It’s so important to collaborate both internally and with clients and the industry to learn, grow, build and develop partnerships across the board.”

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Business Builder (Winner)

digital solutions are becoming increasingly important in order to provide content and messaging that is of value to consumers and to meet consumers on platforms that are becoming widely accepted and adopted.”

Under her direction, the Alliance marketing team has been able to drive a new type of client support. “We’ve had many clients who feel confident in using us as their broker, not only because of the company’s proven success and years of experience in the industry, but also because of both its commitment and the marketing team’s drive to remain future-forward and solution-oriented,” says Barner, who was promoted to her current post in early 2019.

She’s most proud of a project in which she and her team were able to partner with Harris Teeter to develop several creative and cross-promotional opportunities for brands Fage, Kodiak Cakes, Organic Valley, Red’s and A2. The marketing team brought them together in a meaningful way for the consumer, the retailer and the brands by creating a protein-rich campaign, she says.

“Using data – establishing benchmarks and KPIs – the team created a successful social media commercial (storyboarding, shooting, editing), a shoppable Pinterest video Senior Director of directing to the retailer’s e-commerce page, Marketing and Future and an electronic flysheet emailed to the most engaged shoppers [and] also directing Forward to the retailer’s e-commerce page,” she says.

Whether building a department, bringing With co-branding and negotiating, the Alliance Sales on new brands and retailers for marketing company was able to help each brand save & Marketing campaigns, or spearheading a new initiative, marketing dollars and participate in more marketing vehicles than their budgets would Kirsten Barner is an innovator and always fosters a potentially allow had they worked individually, Barner progressive environment for herself and those around her. notes. Additionally, all items in the promotion saw a positive lift She has built and developed a successful marketing team in her during the week, with three brands generating triple-digital growth time as senior director of marketing and future forward at Alliance and one registering the largest promotional increase it had seen in Sales & Marketing. the last 52 weeks.

Barner holds a degree in business administration, marketing and Barner also proposed and spearheaded the creation of a operations management from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She started her career in 2007 in sales and marketing at subscription service that partners with retailers and food brands to ship customized boxes to retailer dietitians every Press Pass, a trading card company. In 2014, she moved to Daymon quarter; helped develop an internal effort called “Alliance Worldwide, working as a marketing manager for Harris Teeter. In Cares,” a cultural initiative that highlights employees who have September 2018, she joined Alliance, also as a marketing manager.

“We tell client stories, grow brands and build success nationwide volunteered in their communities; and serves as a co-chair for the Network of Executive Women. using an omnichannel approach,” she says. “True creativity and

Kirsten Barner

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATIE HOOVER

LAUREN WRIGHT

RACHEL BATEAST

Senior Account Executive, Business Development IN Connected Marketing Category: Business Builder (Finalist)

Customer Director, Shopper Marketing Mondelez International Category: Business Builder (Finalist)

Director, Strategic Planning The Mars Agency Category: Idea Builder (Finalist)

Responsible for all shopper marketing efforts across the Mondelez portfolio for the Walmart and Sam’s Club business, Lauren Wright not only saved the largest program of 2020 (originally centered on the Olympics) by creating a new “Americana” theme and being able to quickly pivot the full 360-degree program to be more in line with Walmart’s strategic objectives and positioning with its shoppers.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Wright began her career in marketing at Cott Beverages in 2003. Four years later, she joined NBC Universal to work as a customer marketing manager.

She then spent four and a half years at ConAgra Foods, first in sales and then in shopper marketing before joining Mondelez in June 2013 as a customer marketing manager. She has been a customer director in shopper marketing for nearly seven years.

Wright strives to excel daily, always working to ensure that objectives are achieved and others benefit from those objectives. And she’s willing to partner to overcome any obstacle while focusing on the end goal.

She has directly impacted the success of Mondelez by developing multiple programs that drive significant returns and by being a partner to Walmart – “one that is sought after for input on future programs,” she says, remembering when the Mondelez team was approached by the retailer a few years ago to develop a Walmart-branded commercial that focused on Oreo cookies.

“Co-developing a national advertisement that was compelling to both Walmart and Mondelez while driving a significant sales lift is no small feat,” she says. “We even produced the music for the ad. It was a learning experience that I will never forget.”

In the end, the program drove an eight-figure lift in incremental sales.

Rachel Bateast has a knack for interpreting data – and for identifying the parameters that will help her find the most compelling shopper understandings. As the director of strategic planning at The Mars Agency, she’s known for facing client challenges head on by deploying various approaches, data sets and technology to bring unique solutions to light.

Bateast has held strategic roles her entire career, having started at GlobalHue in 2007 as a cultural strategist after graduating with degrees in business and marketing from Michigan State University. She was a communication strategist at Universal McCann, a senior brand experience strategist at Jack Morton Worldwide, and a senior strategic planner at Doner. She joined The Mars Agency in May 2014.

Bateast believes the use of insights to drive strategy and growth starts with tenacious curiosity. She points to a portfolio program her team developed for a client this holiday season. After determining the best audience for incremental revenue using sales and panel data, the team looked at what the holiday season might look like, at shopping and at the ways to engage with shoppers during the uncertain time.

“Instead of focusing on the big holiday occasion, we centered our idea on all the micro-moments that happen throughout the season and how our client’s products can help make those moments more special, no matter how big or small the gathering may be,” she explains. Metrics of the program’s effectiveness are still to come, she adds, “but we were able to expand our retail activation opportunities as a result of our ability to demonstrate the revenue potential and be culturally connected to the realities of our shopper and retail needs.”

Catie Hoover is known for embracing any challenge.

Since joining IN Connected Marketing’s enterprise consumer and shopper business development team just under four years ago, she’s helped streamline the inner workings of the agency and introduced new technology into the process to help its large, cross-functional teams collaborate more efficiently and share game-changing information quickly. “I believe efficient internal processes are directly linked to setting the foundation for business success,” she says.

A 2015 graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in marketing, Hoover spent one year at Advantage Solutions as a leadership development associate in retail/sales before joining IN Connected Marketing as a junior account executive in custom publications. In April 2017, she became an account executive on the business development team, and in March 2018, she assumed her current post as a senior account executive of business development.

Hoover is responsible for managing cross-functional RFI/RFP opportunities, supporting client educational and daily prospecting efforts, and onboarding clients of all sizes and verticals with the hope of broadening their scope in the future. Additionally, she has recently taken on a leadership role to develop and lead the agency’s social media marketing and PR initiatives to help drive new business within the shopper marketing industry.

“Every key stakeholder we reach can potentially lead to a new opportunity and drive incremental revenue,” she says. “And, of course, hitting financial thresholds and client development are critical products of driving growth. But I believe hard work, a positive attitude and a teamwork mentality are what truly drive success from the ground up.”

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Idea Builder (Winner) their changing needs. “In a world where large populations of consumers want to shop online and are more health-conscious than ever before, we had retailers wanting to invest to address the need, but struggling to gain organizational alignment due to the fear of the unknown,” she says. “Letting opportunities slip into future quarters and putting a pause on the developmental roadmap was going to cause retailers to miss a pivotal opportunity for innovation when shoppers truly needed it most.”

Bright’s team started with an audit of its largest retail customer.

“We would audit their sites department by department and identify the advanced search filters that enabled consumers to shop by need states such as gluten-free, organic and non-GMO, recording the application rate of each,” she says. They’d then analyze those same attributes internally in the company database and compare the outputs.

The first analysis showed that this customer was failing to return 95% of qualifying products for filters they’d already integrated into their site, she says. A secondary analysis of these filters against consumer panel data led Bright to project these limited filters represented 2 million annual missed search opportunities.

This information was presented to the retailer’s executive committee for 2021 roadmap planning.

Bright then expanded the audit to 30 retailers, and found they fail to return 92.4% of qualifying products when attributes are filtered and searched online. And even across the top 25 most prevalent attributes, retailers fail to return 53% of qualifying products, which accounts for more than 51 million free-text searches on Amazon alone in the past 52 weeks. “Retailers must shift their mindset from considering these as nice-to-have data points and instead view them as critical to maintaining a competitive edge in today’s shopper landscape with e-tailers creating a new standard of competition,” she recommends.

The team found that, of the top 25 most-searched-for attributes, a filter only exists 23% of the time. That means, “as shoppers turn to e-commerce sites for grocery and other CPG products, the filters retailers have invested so heavily in aren’t answering the most critical questions consumers have,” Bright says. The team also learned that the more filters a retailer has, the less complete its product results are. The large-scale study led to several activations for the team and its retailer partners, including a health-based program for one customer that is estimated to grow annual gross merchandise volume by more than $100 million.

Brooke Bright

Director of Retail Product Management Label Insight

Brooke Bright likes to push traditional boundaries by asking questions, analyzing data and using insights to drive strategic decisions. She has a mindset of company before team before self, and sees success when she influences others around her and helps drive the industry forward.

Bright’s first job was as a microbiology analyst at Nestle Purina North America in 2013. She was a biology major at Maryville University of Saint Louis and was familiar with the laboratory setting. But in 2015 she pivoted her career, joined Label Insight as a customer insight analyst, and has been working in data strategy and solutions ever since. She stepped into her newest role as director of retail product management in April 2020, her fifth position in the company to date.

Looking at the growth of e-commerce, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic drove quick shifts across the industry, Bright and her team needed to work with clients and retailers to address

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

NICOLE BILELLA

BREA KEATING

CARA PRATT

Shopper Marketing Manager – New Transactions/Amazon Mars Wrigley Category: Idea Builder (Finalist)

Digital Transformation and Brand Communications Lead Solo Cup/Dart Container Corp.

Category: Idea Builder (Finalist)

Senior Vice President, Kroger Precision Marketing 84.51 Category: Idea Builder (Finalist)

Nicole Bilella has made an impact in her short time at Mars Wrigley, helping to drive innovation and fresh thinking with her account teams to influence the shopper at every stage of the path to purchase. And that fuels her going forward. “[It] inspires me to think of the incredible opportunities that lie ahead,” says Bilella.

With degrees in business administration and marketing and more recently an MBA, Bilella did media communications planning at MediaCom and Carat USA before joining Mars Wrigley in early 2019. She points to the second year of the company’s “M&M’s Movie Night” program on Amazon in 2020 as a defining project. Her team worked closely with Amazon’s analytics team to develop a methodology for measuring annualized value, using data on purchase behaviors and other factors.

“Moving into Q4, we leveraged these learnings along with COVID-19 trends that showed the increased number of grocery shoppers and Prime Video/OTT streamers on Amazon to influence the organization to bring [Movie Night] back during the seasons,” says Bilella. “We’re also using these learnings to influence our shopper strategy across all brands, by targeting a portion of our shopper media to reach grocery shoppers on Amazon who have not yet purchased confectionery or our brands, and thus increasing our retargeting audience pool for future campaigns.”

Bilella expects her team to continue to work with Amazon to improve its penetration and annualized value reporting by diving deeper into segments and product groups. “From a broader shopper marketing perspective, our strategy on Amazon is something we’re working to replicate and customize across other accounts and retail media groups.”

Brea Keating was the right person to tap for building a corporate social responsibility program for the SOLO cup brand, as she consistently challenges her teams, her brands and her corporate culture to “add a greater societal purpose to our products and processes,” she says. “Orchestrating positive organization and operational changes within a company, while maintaining profit, is the most strategically challenging task a marketer could possibly take on.” But Keating lives for these challenges as the company’s digital transformation and brand communications lead.

Keating spent much of her early career in media roles, at Starcom MediaVest, Scripps Networks, GroupM and GSD&M Advertising before returning to GroupM to bring new life to Kimberly-Clark brands through content creation and social relevance. She also had stints at AudienceScience, Datalogix and Robert Bosch before landing at Dart Container in June 2016, working on the SOLO brand in consumer marketing and online engagement.

Keating led the development of the “SOLO Supports” platform, a broader brand initiative with its own direct-toconsumer website. “SOLOSupports.com serves many roles, each of which were specifically designed as the first step in a longer roadmap for brand and portfolio evolution,” she says. Those include fueling funds for the company’s Feeding America donation, equating to 1.5 million meals; highlighting SOLO products made from paper; adding lifestyle products; and enabling continuous feedback for product, portfolio and brand benefit.

“While the program just launched, the team is already experiencing positive results, particularly in consumer insights,” Keating says. “Public perception of the platform is exactly what we intend it to be: a humble step toward raising the bar for our brand, our category and our participation in people’s lives.”

Cara Pratt led the development and launch of Kroger Precision Marketing in October 2017, at a time, she says, “when customers were engaging in our digital assets, we were investing in alternate shopping modalities, and advertisers recognized the power of blending first-party intelligence into their advertising strategy to increase its effectiveness.”

She and her team used data to influence their portfolio and go-to-market strategy and have continued to unlock new experiences that drive the right customer and advertiser value. “It all started with unleashing the power of our data and proving its worth with marketers,” says Pratt, who serves as senior vice president for KPM. Pratt’s early career path led her first to ACNielsen and then to a 12-year tenure at dunnhumby. In 2017, she joined IRI for a short stint as a retail client solutions executive before landing at 84.51 that same year as vice president of customer communications, product strategy and innovation.

KPM’s portfolio has expanded as the team continues looking ahead on customer behavior, advertiser investment trends and regulation changes that have influenced its position. “COVID-19 has accelerated grocery digital shopping by years,” she says.

Advertisers are interested in holding media more accountable and leaning in where they can pinpoint content to drive relevance and return, she notes.

And as regulations evolve, advertising technology needs to deliver on a customer promise of privacy – which the teams at Kroger are 100% supportive of – while balancing how to best provide meaningful experiences, she says.

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CATEGORY:

Relationship Builder (Winner)

Rogers, Arkansas, she went back to Saatchi & Saatchi X for more than four years. In August 2016, she moved to The Mars Agency as vice president, client leadership and Bentonville team lead.

Arrington points to three key areas that have helped her build collaborative, business-fueling relationships with clients, peers and partners: active leadership, business acumen and being a connector. “With my active leadership mindset, I consistently practice active listening, empathy and stewardship,” she says.

Listening to understand the needs, goals and motivating factors of her clients, peers and partners to help build a vision and action steps for the team is critical. Additionally, she puts herself in their positions and figures out ways to drive mutually beneficial solutions for opportunities in business, internally and externally; basically, the idea is to treat both The Mars Agency and clients’ businesses as if they were her own.

Arrington strives to know her clients’ businesses inside and out, including their competition and retail environments, which leads her team to be proactive in bringing solutions that solve problems and identify opportunities.

Weekly learning sessions with her team and brainstorming sessions with partners keep everyone updated on what’s new, why it’s important, and implications or opportunities for the business. “Our clients have raved about how we help them speak the retailer’s language and keep them up-to-date on what’s Senior Vice President, new, what’s out and what’s coming,” she says.

Navigating this environment can be difficult, Client Leadership, but Arrington takes pride in helping others Kandi Arrington has a knack for internally and externally connect for mutually bringing different stakeholder groups Customer Development beneficial partnerships.

“I’ve developed tenacity together around a common goal. And The Mars Agency and determination to drive action beyond what while the growth-driving concepts and seems impossible to discover new ideas, solutions marketing plans that result are what get and partnerships, and enjoy bringing this to the table reviewed and documented, her first goal for our agency, our clients and our partners,” she says. has always been to be the leader of a team that “I truly believe nothing is impossible and … always consider everyone wants to be a part of – “a team that a ‘no’ as an opportunity to find a different way, discover a new is known for encouraging others, accomplishing the impossible approach and develop a game-changing idea.” and being rewarded personally and professionally,” she says.

Serving as the senior vice president of client leadership and After earning a marketing degree from Southern Arkansas customer development since February 2019, Arrington has University in 2000, Arrington went to work as a marketing successfully increased existing client revenue across multiple director at the Medical Center of South Arkansas for nearly four years. In January 2007, she started down the agency path, joining businesses and was the key developer and presenter in a new business pitch that resulted in winning business of the largest Saatchi & Saatchi X as an account executive and working her way client in The Mars Agency’s history. up to senior account manager. After a brief stint at JWT Action in

Kandi Arrington

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

ALLISON EADS

AMY LANZI

ZESHA SKOP

Shopper Marketing Manager Pep Promotions Category: Relationship Builder (Finalist)

Executive Vice President, Commerce Lead, North America Publicis Commerce/Publicis Groupe Category: Relationship Builder (Finalist)

Senior Account Director, Grocery Lead IN Connected Marketing Category: Relationship Builder (Finalist)

Allison Eads is the shopper marketing manager at Pep Promotions and also serves on the agency’s new business team. She’s viewed as a valuable contributor to new retainers through her ability to easily connect with potential clients and quickly form relationships.

Eads doesn’t hesitate when asked her favorite part of the job. “I always reply ‘the people,’ referring to my clients, teammates and suppliers,” she says. Building strong and meaningful relationships with the people she works with every day is rewarding, and she knows that carving out time for regular one-on-one’s and small team meetings (or team-building activities in a nonCOVID year) helps drive success.

She encourages those around her to grow by helping others grow and to constantly look for ways to collaborate and learn. Eads, a graduate of Ohio University with a degree in journalism and public relations, joined the Pep team in May 2013 as an account coordinator, fresh out of college. She’s held roles with increasing responsibility throughout her time, always working on the agency’s Procter & Gamble account and leading the growth of the account’s U.S. shopper marketing business by an average 20% annually from 2015-2019.

Today, she serves as client manager for P&G and also is the leader of pepShopper, focused on growing Pep’s shopper marketing business and enhancing its capabilities.

Eads prides herself on being responsive, available and understanding with clients. “I’m extremely proud of the times I’ve been ‘shouted out’ for excellent customer service on P&G’s customer satisfaction survey.” She also knows that supplier partners are a key part of the team’s success. “I encourage my team to remember that our supplier’s expertise is what allows us to deliver excellence,” she says. “We always need to value their expertise and ensure they feel supported in terms of our systems and processes.”

Amy Lanzi has used her expertise, mindset and connections to elevate the capability known as Publicis Commerce into a global service. Since its launch in 2018, she has actively contributed to the practice’s double-digit growth and expansion into all Publicis Media markets worldwide, securing more than 50 clients globally and broadening scope with key clients. As executive vice president and North American lead for Publicis Commerce, she’s tasked with product and talent development and works to refine the commerce product, accelerate growth and deliver optimum staffing, engagement and pricing models.

Lanzi formed and trained a 500-person commerce collective within the Publicis Groupe network in North America to align core capabilities and facilitate “Power of One” client-centric solutions. “We’ve built new ways of working and developed team structures that enable clients to capitalize on e-commerce behaviors, ensuring smarter commerce creative experiences and media investments,” says Lanzi, a finance and business school graduate from Southern Methodist University who spent her entire career with TPN before joining Publicis Media in 2018.

Earlier this year, Lanzi spearheaded the launch of a Commerce Advisory Board, bringing key marketers and internal Publicis Commerce leads together to form a connected community rooted in testing, learning and sharing. “There are nearly 20 client members across 17 brands,” she says.

Her team also developed a first-of-its-kind media-toshelf holiday program for a major retailer showcasing ways to incorporate a 150-year-old CPG brand into holiday moments. “It was a total commerce, omnichannel strategy with activations across brand and e-commerce drivers [that increased] performance up and down the funnel,” she says.

Using multiple activations and touchpoints, the campaign increased purchase intent by 25% and drove a lift in retail partner sales by more than 4% year-over-year while the category saw only 2% growth.

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Zesha Skop understands very well the immense potential that is unlocked by leveraging your strengths to deliver change. Her ability to build a relationship based on mutual trust and a common goal is said to be one of her greatest strengths, and she’s earned the respect of her clients and peers by always pushing for the best results instead of settling for the path of least resistance.

Building relationships wasn’t always a strength, though.

Skop, who was a valedictorian (in both anthropology and geography) at Syracuse University and a Fulbright scholarship nominee, had to overcome deep insecurities about her speech impediment before she could build relationships on any level. During her schooling, she transitioned into GIS (geographic information systems) and programming, which led her to a career in advertising.

“My fundamental approach to business-fueling relationships is borne from this,” she says. “I approach every challenge and partnership with a very basic form of ethnography.”

Throughout her career in advertising (at Marsh Brand Partners, Saatchi & Saatchi X and Zaptivity), she has consistently inherited many of the most challenging clients or channels, with whom she’s applied her own “advertising form” of ecology, etiology and epidemiology to assess opportunities, develop plans, lead execution and leverage measurement. “This approach has [helped] my partners and clients to realize potential or opportunities in a way that resonates with them while producing results for the business.”

Skop joined Advantage Solutions in May 2016 as an account/marketing director and was promoted to her current post of senior account director last September.

Pre-pandemic, she created an innovation activation for Schick Hydro razor at Kroger that helped Edgewell Personal Care exceed its sales objective by 15% and its display objective by 20%.

Another new item launch program she developed with Edgewell for Albertsons netted an 800% lift in sales and gained incremental volume distribution.

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATEGORY:

Excellence in Execution (Winner) in the unplanned positive impacts these changes bring. “The team cloud sharing space had the greatest positive impact on the way we organize and share out information with our bottling community,” she notes.

With a degree in graphic design from the University of Dayton and an MBA in marketing from Northern Kentucky University, Martin started her career at LPK as a project coordinator. She moved to Northlich five years later and, after a short stint there, joined Geometry Global as a senior account executive on the Kimberly-Clark/Kroger team. She was there for three and a half years before moving to the CPG side of the industry at Coca-Cola.

Martin takes pride in proactively managing programs, from planning out timing before kickoff through sending reminders for execution. “Being proactive enables me to manage the work instead of letting it manage me,” she says. “I like to use the approach that 80% of my week should be planned needs while only 20% or less should be unplanned, affording me the adaptability to shift quickly when last-minute challenges do arise.”

She points to a display called “Boomeracks” for the company’s immediate consumption business as a recent highlight. This semipermanent sustainable concept proposed by the commercial team for use in 2020 was out of the norm in terms of the types of merchandising tools the bottler typically executes at Kroger.

Martin saw the Boomerack as a solution for immediate-consumption merchandising and a way to bridge long gaps between launch and shelf resets, she notes, adding that typical corrugate shippers only last for four weeks while bridge gaps sometimes span more than 10 weeks. “Not only was the Boomerack sustainable but it was also more cost-efficient on our total POS budget.”

The Boomerack project evolved into an always-on, yearlong display, marking the first time Coke gained 52 weeks of continuous off-shelf display for its immediate-consumption business. Martin spearheaded the execution and was “the person continuously looking forward, mapping out the next wave needs and proactively managing these executions.”

From this program, she says, Coke Energy delivered $1.3 million in retail sales through its first eight weeks in market with the offshelf display only, while the 20-ounce immediate-consumption cherry vanilla product became the No. 1 flavored single-serve item in its first four weeks and immediate-consumption display orders increased by 1.8 times over the prior year.

Jaime Martin

Jaime Martin knows she’s at her best when

Creative Activation Manager Coca-Cola Co.

she’s learning and pushing to better herself.

So when she sees an opportunity for her team to be more efficient and effective in the way they work, she’s “all in” for the challenge of making the change possible.

Martin is Coca-Cola’s creative activation manager for Kroger, a position she has held since 2016. During her tenure, she feels she’s helped evolve the way both the shopper marketing team and the Kroger national retail sales team collaborate with this key retailer.

“Some of the changes I’ve spearheaded have varying degrees of impact, but in totality have propelled our team forward,” she says. The efforts have included implementing a cloud-based team space that automatically overlays planning stages and gates and accommodates iCloud photo sharing as well. She sees reward

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CASSIE BURZYNSKI

ALMA KLEIN

JENNIFER ROBINSON

Director, Client Leadership The Mars Agency Category: Excellence in Execution (Finalist)

Vice President, Creative Director Arc Worldwide Category: Excellence in Execution (Finalist)

Senior Shopper Marketing Manager GE Appliances Category: Excellence in Execution (Finalist)

Alma Klein always wanted to have a leadership position in which she could nurture the talents of a team of creatives from diverse backgrounds and deliver the kind of work that earns clients and accolades – all in an inclusive environment that respects work-life balance, she says.

She’s succeeded. As vice president, creative director, at Arc Worldwide, Klein is pushing the practice of shopper marketing forward in creative ways. “And I’m doing so in a way that also builds careers and fosters collaboration across my diverse team,” she says.

The University of Chicago graduate in humanities/ humanistic studies started at Newcity as a promotions coordinator, then moved to 141 Worldwide as a copywriter before landing at OgilvyAction in mid-2005. Three years later, she joined Arc Worldwide as a creative director in concepting. She assumed her current post in June 2017, and now leads all creative facets of the Molson Coors business.

Klein created and implemented a weekly time-tracker spreadsheet to help manage workflow with the Molson Coors creative team and runs monthly copywriting staff meetings to share best-in-class shopper marketing work in beer and beverages. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she learned Microsoft Teams and built a new system for briefing, collaborating, reviewing and sharing work on the platform.

She also implemented Miro, a digital whiteboard tool that her team is using to gather inspiration and review work mid-stream.

Since then, her team has created a user-friendly catalog of images, headlines and social media captions that any distributor or bar staff can use. “We got creative,” she says, “using a social media influencer network to contract with an up-and-coming photographer who took a variety of images of draft beers on-premise, with cues to every kind of occasion. We continue to receive great feedback from the field on this work.”

As the founding member of the customer marketing team at GE Appliances, Jennifer Robinson knows a good leader’s positive impact goes beyond a single project, campaign or metric. “It’s about truly embracing responsibility and accountability on any given execution,” she says, “and sharing the project knowledge, creating an understanding of the business goals and what’s at stake, and leaning on those with the capability to help in bringing it to life.”

Her team mentality has helped Robinson execute largescale projects and product launches with “a talented team of industry experts here at GE Appliances and [key retail partner Lowe’s,” she says. “By leaning on that knowledgebase and empowering others to become project owners as well, the sum has been greater than the parts.”

Robinson, who joined GE Appliances in November 2014 and today is a senior customer marketing manager, earned an advertising degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She started her career at Zimmerman Advertising in 2009, moved to Smith Advertising in 2010 and then joined the Geometry Global team in 2012.

A recent bright spot has been the positive feedback received for the proactive forms of crossfunctional communication packets she shared with all key partners and leadership. “Utilizing a monthly cadence, team members are kept informed on the key accomplishments and next steps to get a project over the goal line,” she explains. “Not only does this keep everyone in the loop, but … it mitigates any anxiety for those not in the day-to-day details; individuals can remain focused on projects … and we all win.”

Robinson led several integrated campaigns in partnership with Lowe’s in 2020, including the launch of GE’s new front-load laundry program, the UltraFresh Vent System with OdorBlock, and marketing efforts that led to consistent month-over-month growth, generating awareness and creating sales momentum, she says.

Cassie Burzynski has had many opportunities during her career to master her craft, and she has learned to quickly gain the trust of her clients and colleagues.

A graduate of Grand Valley State University with a degree in business administration, marketing, advertising and public relations, Burzynski joined The Mars Agency in June 2012 as an account executive in shopper marketing.

She also held positions in operations management and client leadership before being named the director of client leadership in 2018.

Burzynski trained herself to think like a client, which she believes is an essential tool in her work. “This mindset has anticipated countless client needs and helped separate me from being a ‘doer’ to being recognized as a reliable partner with my client’s best interest in mind,” she says, adding that her “positive persistence” to keep herself and others focused and accountable has been the key to many effective programs.

When Campbell’s SpaghettiOs was removed from the canned pasta aisle at a key retailer to give exclusive placement to a competitor, Burzynski was called upon.

She led the development and execution of an integrated shopper marketing and consumer promotions plan that had a conservative budget, a small scope of work and quick speed to market.

Through strategic thinking, shopper-behavior analysis and a hyper-targeted focus, Burzynski and her team developed a “defense plan” with the goal of increasing SpaghettiOs sales and growing the category at surrounding retailers. The plan’s success, she reports, contributed to the retailer’s decision to put SpaghettiOs back on shelf starting in July 2020. The client then extended the program’s scope into a second drive period, but this time on a national level.

“As a result, we could retarget our newly converted purchasers and recruit new ones to further grow household penetration for the brand and secure a larger share of the market,” she says.

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

CATEGORY:

Most Valuable Player (Winner)

Silver’s. In mid-2014, she joined Thorntons as its senior brand category manager of dispensed beverages and stayed with the gasoline and convenience store chain until she moved to GE Appliances in July 2016.

“When we developed our joint marketing plan with Best Buy in late 2019, there was no way to know the pivots we would have to make in order to deliver on the business in 2020,” Mahan says. GE was exploring the idea of reentering the countertop appliances category, which Mahan saw as an opportunity to launch a new micro-enterprise in a way that could build long-lasting value for the company.

With the challenge of launching more than 20 products across three different brands at the same time in a new category, GE’s product and commercial teams were knee-deep in logistics, production and transportation – “the ‘behind-thescenes magic’ that brings good things to life and possible,” she explains. “There was a real need for leadership in crafting our story, setting a go-to-market strategy and forcing some of the hard questions we needed answers on going into that conversation.”

Through research, data and talking with the cross-functional teams, she was armed with the necessary information to craft a concise and compelling story. “I drafted an annual marketing plan, ripe with tools and tactics that would best bring our new offering to life,” she says. “I even mocked up web pages and social posts to demonstrate how this new line would fit into our larger portfolio of brands and tap into our existing consumer segments.”

In February 2020, Best Buy officially became GE’s small appliances launch partner, displacing competitive floor spots and securing the presence needed for a successful launch in the fall. Tests were slated for a couple of hundred stores to feature GE’s new coffee makers and toasters. Due to the pandemic, the endcaps were successfully developed, tested and approved through the first-ever virtual coordination between Best Buy, GE and their supplier partner, Rapid Displays.

The full lineup of small appliances became available online for the holiday selling season and was introduced to consumers through three major campaign pushes in collaboration with the Best Buy team and GE’s customer marketing agency, Scoppechio.

Megan Mahan

Senior Customer Marketing Manager GE Appliances

It was never clearer to Megan Mahan than during the pandemic that the ability to generate well-crafted plans in response to the changing forces around you is no small feat. Yet, making those shifts while balancing the needs of the core business is a demonstration of what’s possible when you have the right cross-functional teams moving in the same direction, says Mahan, senior customer marketing manager for GE Appliances on the Best Buy account.

She is a graduate of the University of Illinois in advertising, and also holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut. She began her career on the agency side, with Hachette Filipacchi Media, Campbell Ewald and Colangelo, before moving into brand management at Subway in early 2009. Nearly four years later, she added innovation to her brand duties at Long John

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2020 WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE

JESSICA FAIR

JEANNETTE MURPHY

REBECCA TROUTMAN

Director, Omnichannel Customer Marketing J.M. Smucker Category: Most Valuable Player (Finalist)

Account Director HMT Associates Category: Most Valuable Player (Finalist)

Director of E-Commerce 7-Eleven Category: Most Valuable Player (Finalist)

Jeannette Murphy is valued as a person who forges deep relationships with clients, not only securing new business but cultivating and growing business from the portfolio she oversees and manages on a daily basis.

Internally, she works closely with teams across the agency to identify evolving marketplace trends, uncover key consumer insights and bring strategic implications and solutions to the agency’s clients, driving incremental programming, revenue and growth.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Murphy went to work as an account executive at M Booth in early 2002 while also serving as a marketing sales associate at Calvin Klein. In 2003, she began a nearly 14year tenure at Epsilon/Ryan Partnership, where she was a senior digital account manager. Murphy joined HMT Associates in October 2017 as an account director, the position she holds today.

Murphy strives to create team unity and strength through positivity, ethics and leadership. A recent win came from a shopper-focused activation plan she developed for a prospective client. The team was charged with redesigning an existing plan to meet changing market conditions, which required quickly bringing together key internal experts to meet a tight deadline, and leveraging their input while also tapping into her own insights and knowledge.

“The plan solved the client’s challenge in a smart, creative way that positioned them to reach their goals on time and within budget,” she says, adding that it was a significant win for HMT because it played a key role in adding a new category and client to its roster.

Rebecca Troutman has been a highly valued member of the 7-Eleven team for more than 16 years. She has brought online and offline retail experiences together for the international chain of convenience stores, spearheading its 7NOW delivery platform in 2017 and designing and implementing 7-Elevenshop.com, which launched in 2019.

Troutman, a graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in psychology and political sciences who is now working toward a master’s in industrial and organizational psychology, was with Mervyn’s for five years before joining the 7-Eleven team in 2005 as a field training specialist. She was a district manager, field merchandiser, category manager and project manager of business development before becoming the director of e-commerce in early 2017.

In early 2020, Troutman was busy leading, developing and building out the convenience store chain’s e-commerce initiative, helping drive year-overyear growth of 2x over the first quarter of 2019. She also worked on a COVID-19 task force as the merchandising/ logistics liaison with 7-Eleven’s senior leadership.

“I was also part of a future planning task force that was designed to look at how we can and should go to business in the future, including with e-commerce,” she says.

Troutman measures success in sales, and the timely execution of task force items, along with her own ability to manage up as well as down and the development of an out-of-the-box plan to grow and evolve the business.

She was named Woman of the Year for 2019 in Top Women in Convenience by the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Jessica Fair is known within J.M. Smucker for her keen ability to drive transformational change and process, both from her work helping the organization grow within the e-commerce landscape and for revolutionizing the way the CPG measures campaign success.

A graduate of Robert Morris University with a degree in marketing, Fair joined Acosta Marketing Group in August 2006 as an account coordinator and spent the next six years in account management, ultimately responsible for the McCormick & Co. business. She moved to The Integer Group in 2012 as an account supervisor for MillerCoors, and in 2014 joined J.M. Smucker as a shopper marketing manager.

Today, as director of omnichannel customer marketing, she is a champion for cross-functional collaboration, leveraging experts across various Centers of Excellence to provide the most holistic perspective on the company’s shopper marketing efforts.

Fair led the visioning, scope development, process and implementation of the company’s commerce marketing performance reporting capabilities.

“We’re driving visibility of omnichannel investment performance in the context of our holistic consumer engagement strategies,” she says, adding that recent efforts have increased average ROI based on the integrated analytics supporting her team and agency partners in planning.

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ActivationGallery

Holiday 2020 Complementary in-store displays and online brand showcases from Walmart and its brand partners stood out among the seasonal activity at retail in November and December 2020. And while the pandemic may have limited the number of people in stores during the season, holiday displays were plentiful (and often picked over), as Path to Purchase Institute editors found. Here is a sampling of activity. Institute members can see many more examples of holiday activations in the image vault at P2PI.org.

McCormick & Co. SKUs got the spotlight in stores again this holiday season (this one at Schnucks) via pallet displays shaped like a home and touting the brand as providing “over 130 years of holiday flavor.”

Unilever in November launched an exclusive bath and body collection at Walmart inspired by consumer stories about reclaiming one’s “happy place” in the uncertain times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial Find Your Happy Place lineup launched with four scents, including a nutmeg and sweet cream combination dubbed “Home for the Holidays.” The products are merchandised on a unique, color-coded gondola – or, in some stores, a more typical pallet display – identifying the emotions each fragrance is intended to evoke, such as “joy” for the holiday-themed aroma.

A Walmart.com brand showcase and social media activity supported the launch.

Target incentivized purchases of personal care products from Procter & Gamble’s Native by dangling a free travel bag with purchase of three of the brand’s limitededition holiday body wash or deodorant SKUs. In stores, the items were stocked on a holiday-themed endcap display.

Campbell Soup Co. brought the national “Joy Night In” platform introduced last holiday season in partnership with Crown Media’s Hallmark Channel back to Walmart, updating the “joy of missing out” insight the effort was based on to a more pandemic-appropriate “making the most of time in together” theme. On Walmart.com, an “Eat. Watch. Be Merry” home page carousel ad spotted on Dec. 16 linked to the manufacturer’s seasonal showcase. The destination’s “Eat” tab shared recipes for holiday dishes and offered “shop ingredients” links for necessary items from such brands as Campbell’s and sister brand Swanson. The “Watch” tab offered exclusive “first look” video trailers and an airing schedule for Hallmark’s new holiday films, while the “Be Merry” tab presented downloadable family activities for a night in. The effort again included a recipe booklet that this time was delivered to shoppers’ homes instead of distributed in stores.

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Mars Inc.’s M&M’s ran a “Spark the spirit” display ad on Walmart’s website inviting shoppers to “Bake, gift, & host with festive flair.” The ad’s “Get inspired” button linked to a holiday showcase for M&M’s and sister brand Dove delivering a video of You Tube chef Rosanna Pansino creating M&M’s blondies, Dove hot cocoa jars and M&M’s ornaments. The destination offered recipes for the aforementioned ideas and other holiday creations as well as “add to cart” links for the brands’ products.

It also highlighted Lifesavers festive packs and Snickers yard bars as stocking stuffers. In stores, brands including M&M’s and Dove received prime merchandising space on a pallet near store entrances as well as on a four-way near checkout that was outfitted with seasonal side panels and shelf strips.

Kraft Heinz’s Planters deployed shelf trays at Walmart presenting a variety of mixed nut SKUs as “the perfect gift for the nuttiest season.”

A “Things just got nutty” display ad spotted on Walmart.com on Dec. 15 supported, inviting shoppers to “Mix things up with festive favorites” such as a winter spiced mix. The ad linked to a seasonal brand showcase carrying “add to cart” buttons for various nut canisters as well as a promotional video. Elsewhere in stores, Planters earned secondary merchandising space with a “Pair nuts. Share nuts” pallet display containing a QR code that linked to a Kraft Heinz web page offering snack pairing suggestions.

The Coca-Cola Co. teamed up with Speedway for a pair of holiday sweepstakes that tie product purchases to donations to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. A “Fuel Holiday Miracles” campaign encouraged shoppers to buy qualifying Coca-Cola beverages at Speedway locations and submit special product codes found on packaging via the manufacturer’s website or mobile app.

Additionally, a sign affixed to Speedway’s “Thirst Quenchers” fountain machine invited Speedy Rewards members to purchase a Coca-Cola fountain beverage to receive one game play per purchase for a “Sip & Share Giveaway” collect-and-win game.

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Spotted at multiple retailers including Ahold Delhaize and Albertsons Cos., a holiday-themed pallet display from Mondelez International’s Oreo invited shoppers to “Taste the Season’s Favorite Cookie” and directed shoppers to Pinterest.com/ Oreo for an “Oreo cookie ball holiday presents” recipe. Tearpads from the manufacturer additionally dangled a coupon.

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BJ’s Wholesale Club elevated Nestle’s Starbucks products in stores with an eyecatching destination endcap. The display invited shoppers to “discover a coffee made for you” while merchandising packages of seasonal SKUs, including holiday gift packs of Nestle’s Nespresso cups and regular bags of Starbucks “holiday blend” ground coffee in branded shelf trays. Two adjacent illuminated signs – one branded with the Starbucks logo and the other with the logo of BJ’s private label Wellesley Farms — create a coffee-shop vibe.

A cling in the center of the display invites shoppers to “discover flavorful fall recipes” and “explore [the] Starbucks Coffee at Home site” by scanning an accompanying QR code that directs to a holiday web page within AtHome.Starbucks.com.

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Lego Group employed a seafoam green color for multiple custom pallet displays at Walmart. At the start of the season, a four-sided pallet display inviting shoppers to “Create your holiday countdown” stocked SKUs such as a Lego “Harry Potter” advent calendar. Later, the manufacturer deployed half-pallet displays in Action Alley bearing a “Gift a really cool world” message, including extra tall versions positioned back-to-back on a pallet merchandising classic, city and friends sets exclusive to the retailer. Lego also commanded a trend pod in the toy department, on one side swapping the green color for a black display stocking Star Wars SKUs.

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Holiday-themed cans of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup from Campbell Soup Co. enjoyed secondary merchandising space at Niemann Foods’ Harvest Market via a floorstand shaped like a snowman.

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Technology Innovation

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A roundup of technology-driven tools that drive consumer understanding, engagement and conversion on every step of the path to purchase.

In mid-December, Walmart tested TikTok’s new “shoppable product experience” feature, enabling TikTok users to shop fashion items during a one-hour livestream. Walmart was hopping onto a trend that seems to have as many names and variations (social shopping, shoppable livestreaming, social consumer sales, social commerce, etc.) as practitioners, but it is huge in China and most hope the West is ready to hop on board in 2021. Proponents believe that, as 5G cellular network service gets established in the U.S., livestreaming will grow as augmented- and virtual-reality features become more easily accessible.

In November, Bellevue, Washingtonbased Coinstar introduced adPlanet, a digital advertising platform featuring a 32inch diagonal high-definition screen that sits atop its coin-counting kiosks in grocery stores.

Coinstar says the adPlanet network has 4,000 grocery retail locations in 35 of the top 50 U.S. designated market areas, with initial retail participants including Albertsons/Safeway, Ahold Delhaize and Tops.

The screens are said to have 178-degree viewability atop the 6.5-foot-high kiosks and can be seen from distances of up to 50 feet.

Messaging can be tailored by geography, demographics, brand behavior and interests.

Jersey City, New Jersey-based Neptune Retail Solutions (formerly News America Marketing) will exclusively sell adPlanet media to CPG advertisers in the grocery channel.

In mid-December, 2-year-old online retailer Verishop unveiled Shop Party, an iOS app that lets users “hang out” in groups of up to five people over video chat, explore shoppable content, watch what others are browsing, and then check out. The Santa Monica, California-based retailer will also allow brand partners, industry experts and stylists to host a Shop Party for individual or small group shopping and education sessions.

Users can also create a profile to upload photos and videos, tag products, share curated collections, and follow favorite brands. The company offers more than 1,000 vetted brands across women’s and men’s clothing and accessories, makeup, skin care and home decor.

Bill Schober is Editor Emeritus of Path to Purchase IQ. He’s been associated with the Institute since 1994, covering all aspects of consumer marketing with a special emphasis on the shopping experience. He welcomes any questions, comments, requests or pitches about P2P Toolkit, and can be reached at bschober@ensembleiq.com.

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In September, a popular Chinese web app named ShopShops began servicing U.S. brands and retailers. This livestream, interactive global shopping marketplace connects brick-and-mortar fashion retailers with consumers on their mobile devices.

ShopShops, founded in 2016 with headquarters in New York City and Beijing, lets viewers interact both with presenters and each other to chat about whether to buy products and how to use or wear them. The service features brands like Marni, Maison Margiela, ETRO, Phillip Lim, Ganni, The Webster, MaxMara, Laura Mercier and Kate Somerville.

“LIT Live,” a social media-powered shopping app and web platform, launched in mid-October. The app, which is offered on the App Store and on Google Play, lets expert influencers present brands via live streaming, where shoppers can ask questions, participate in product unboxings and see product demos. The company boasts that its “seamless native check-out” has multiple touchpoints that boost sales conversion.

In November, San Franciscobased Darkstore Inc. launched a premium-delivery iOS app irreverently named “FastAF” in New York City. (If you’re still fuzzy about the name, ask a kid or look up “AF” on UrbanDictionary. com.) The goal is to facilitate the discovery of new products from directto-consumer companies or local brands and have them delivered to doorsteps in two hours.

FastAF will use “dark stores” (AKA micro-fulfillment centers) that are strategically located in New York City and Los Angeles. The product assortment will range from essentials and last-minute gifts to “must-have self-care treats” for consumers and pets. More than 350 brands are said to be offered, including national names (Nike, Aesop and Sonos) and premium DTC lines such as Glossier, Public Goods and Byredo. FastAF employs a team of curators who are tasked with discovering interesting items such as celebrityfavorite haircare products and the latest hand sanitizers “before anyone else.”

The company says its ambition is to offer its two-hour delivery services in every neighborhood in the country.

In late October, LG Electronics USA launched its new Shop Time app on LG Smart TVs. Working with Qurate Retail Group, a leader in the video commerce industry, the app enables owners to make purchases directly from multiplatform video retailers such as QVC and HSN, along with several other at-home shopping channels.

The LG Magic Remote lets users navigate from their TVs to receive curated recommendations, save items and complete purchases with retailer partners. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey-based LG is making the app available via free download for all of its LG Smart TVs manufactured since 2016.

January/February 2021

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P2P Toolkit

SPOTLIGHT: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In November, Palo Alto, California-based Resonai launched “Vera Concierge,” a mobile application that uses both AI and augmented reality (AR) to provide “digital concierge services” at retail stores. The app provides contactless indoor navigation and context-aware information through a personalized AR interface. For example, the Vera Concierge app can aid shoppers in product discovery, deliver an AR-based brand experience, or simply point out where facilities like specialized services, returns desks or restrooms are located.

The app also collects real-time data analytics on traffic flows, user behaviors and product interaction as shoppers move through a store, enabling managers to integrate brickand-mortar data with e-commerce data to map the complete buyer journey. The system is also designed to aid in the testing of merchandising strategies by gauging the effectiveness of various product placements, displays and signage.

In October, Boston-based iAdvize, a conversational platform used by major e-commerce brands including Lowe’s and Samsung, launched an “Augmented Intelligence” solution designed to analyze millions of client website conversations and interactions, determine intent and maximize conversions. By combining human and artificial intelligence into its messaging system, iAdvize can now identify and sort out online visitors who are just browsing from those deemed “serious shoppers,” enabling retailers to, for example, immediately offer an option to talk to a brand expert via live chat.

The company says its conversational platform (chatbots, live chat, customer support, etc.) handles the exchange of millions of messages every month between brands and customers. It also reported an 82% increase in online conversations since the start of the pandemic.

In mid-December, Los Angelesbased Centerfield announced the addition of AI-powered chat to its customer acquisition platform, Dugout. Centerfield, which claims it “optimizes millions of shopping experiences” for leading brands, says Dugout can now engage with customers via an automated chat experience that understands shopping intent and then hands it off to purchase via e-commerce, sales center or other channels.

In 2020, Centerfield executed more than 100 AI-powered chat and web experiments that prove shifting to a self-serve experience through AI chatbot or e-commerce reduces nonsales interactions. During Black Friday and Cyber Week, AIpowered chat was able to replace human qualification entirely during high consumer demand.

In December, Conway, Arkansas-based Acxiom announced a partnership with diwo and its patented analytic-insights and decision-making platform. “Acxiom Optimization Solutions, powered by diwo” aims to combine customer-level data with AI technology. The initial focus will be on larger retailers in the area of inventory management.

Traditionally, inventory planning uses historical aggregated data and spreadsheets, while marketing decision-making is done independently using campaign-based customer-level data, creating insight gaps and inefficiencies. This “first of its kind,” AI-powered platform is said to enable cross-functional teams, from supply chain to marketing, to automatically leverage customer data to improve operations. The platform has already been deployed by one large chain, achieving $35 million-$45 million in annual savings and a 50% improvement in inventory allocation.

January/February 2021

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Solving Big Problems, Inspiring Bold Ideas EnsembleIQ is a premier business intelligence resource that believes in Solving Big Problems and Inspiring Bold Ideas. Our brands work in harmony to inform, connect, and provide predictive analysis for retailers, consumer goods manufacturers, technology vendors, marketing agencies and service providers.

EnsembleIQ’s integrated suite of solutionsbased, total-market resources give you all the tools you need to achieve a strategic market advantage, giving you the insights, positioning, focus, and access, along with a team of dedicated strategic consultants to help you bring it all to life.

Magazines

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Events

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Research

Custom Content

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StoreSpotlight

Rite Aid’s

‘Store of the Future’

BY J AC Q U E L I N E B A R B A

Rite Aid got busy in 2020 bringing new and trending ideas to the forefront across purchase channels. The “Store of the Future” redesign the retailer introduced in October, in tandem with an integrated brand refresh and the “RxEvolution” go-to-market strategy unveiled in March, reflects the retailer’s aims to offer a whole health destination for the mind, body and spirit while particularly targeting health-conscious Millennial and Gen X shoppers. The retailer’s new focus is evident on the sales floor of the redesigned stores.

The Store of the Future delivers an enhanced product assortment, modern merchandising tactics and vibrant signage. At these updated locations, Rite Aid pharmacists and front-end employees have been retrained to take on more consultative roles. The resulting shopping experience resembles a combination of Ulta Beauty, a medical spa and, perhaps, a miniWhole Foods Market.

The Path to Purchase Institute recently visited two of Rite Aid’s first three redesigned stores in Moscow and Etters, Pennsylvania. The format’s spacious interiors, light colors and illuminated aisles all brighten up the stores. The beauty department is located close to the entrance doors, identified by a commanding “Beauty” ceiling fixture outfitted with lights and hanging green plants that give the area a natural feel.

Lobby and gondola displays similar to those in use at Ulta Beauty are positioned on the floor, some serving more as product showcases than primary merchandising units. The display assortment even includes an upfront gondola stocking a slew of miniature personal care and cosmetic SKUs such as facial cleaners, makeup setting spray and dry shampoo while reminding shoppers to “Bring home your favorite beauty Minis.”

Signage in the department calls out “Natural Beauty Products” and identifies particular “free-from” ingredients. Rite Aid also has beauty ambassadors in select stores to offer guidance on its updated, on-trend product mix.

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Beyond the beauty department, the entire store (particularly the health and well-being sections) offers alternative remedies and products elevating better-for-you ingredients. Rite Aid used lean methodology to assess what inventory wasn’t selling well and where to invest in terms of establishing on-trend supplier relationships to bring its whole-health vision to life. Products that help with better sleep, stress relief and immunity support as well as pain relief are merchandised with signage aligned with Rite Aid’s updated creative.

The grocery (“Market”) and household departments offer a warm, wooden atmosphere and highlight better-for-you options that consumers increasingly demand, such as organic, non-GMO, cruelty-free and clean products free of harmful chemicals, which gives the merchandising spotlight to brands such as Babyganics.

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StoreSpotlight

Another interesting addition to the updated stores is an eco-friendly “Hydrate for Health” water dispensing machine that stocks reusable water bottles and lets shoppers fill them up. The dispenser is positioned near checkout next to Amazon lockers for pickup orders.

Near store entrances and checkout, a refrigerated “Grab & Go” display offers better-for-you impulse-buy options, stocking beverages such as KeVita kombucha as well as healthy snacks.

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As more wellness-oriented products hit shelves, part of Rite Aid’s Store of the Future vision is to free up pharmacists’ time so they are able to offer advice and answer shopper questions.

In fact, the pharmacy counter was reimagined with a more open format and includes separate, private rooms for virtual care visits and consultations.

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With the industry moving faster than ever, the Path to Purchase Institute understands the critical need to fully and consistently measure the impact that Shopper Marketing has on sustainable sales growth.

In collaboration with leading industry stakeholders, our goal is to develop a foundational playbook and a standard method of measurement that will allow Shopper Marketing to be accurately evaluated—and thereby better appreciated—within the overall marketing mix.

“We will work to foster an objective, industry-wide understanding of the true value of shopper marketing across the entire path to purchase and a standard approach to measurement that can be adopted across the industry.”

— P ET E R BRE E N, Editor-in-Chief, Path to Purchase Institute

S P E C I A L T H A N K S T O O U R I N A U G U R A L PA R T N E R S

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1/11/21 3:19 PM

NEW Horizons

The Shecession, and Where We Must Go

BY S A R A H A LT E R Sarah Alter is president and CEO of the Network of Executive Women, a learning and leadership community representing 12,400 members in 22 regional groups in the United States and Canada. Learn more at newonline.org.

It’s officially been christened – 2020 is the year of the “Shecession.”

COVID-19 has upended lives around the world, but the evidence continues to show the economic downturn has disproportionately affected women. As children are forced to stay home from school and loved ones are in need of care, women are leaving or considering leaving the workforce at an alarming rate. According to McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn’s “Women in the Workplace” study, one in four women are thinking about reducing their job responsibilities or quitting work altogether.

What does that look like in numbers?

In September, as the second wave of the pandemic intensified, 1.1 million workers left the workforce, and a shocking 865,000 (79%) of those were women.

WOMEN OF COLOR The numbers grow bleaker when looking at the impact of the recession on women of color. In October, the unemployment rate for Black women older than 20 was 9.3%. Compared to the unemployment rate of white women that month (5.4%), which was actually lower than that of white men (6.2%), the Shecession is clearly hitting women of color hardest.

According to a National Women’s Law Center report released in October, “more than half of Latinas (57.1%) and Black, nonHispanic women (53.6%) reported a loss of income since March, compared to 41% of white, non-Hispanic men and 40.4% of white, non-Hispanic women.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

SYSTEMWIDE CHANGE

Some aspects of the current situation feel out of our control, but we can push for key changes that will better support women during this incredibly difficult time. We must do better for women in 2021 to help them stay in the workforce, and to help women who have left it come back.

Employers must support their employees with work policies that allow them to keep their careers while caring for their children.

That doesn’t just mean more flexibility in setting work hours, or kindness and compassion when the kids show up on Zoom, though those changes are important.

It means concrete policy change for the long haul.

According to the “Women in the Workplace” study, “less than a third

The answer is systemic, too. We need to ensure this kind of disproportionate disenfranchising of women never happens again. That means, at the most basic level, working toward a more equitable society where men and women share equal responsibilities and expectations for housework and childcare.

But that also means more opportunities for women in fields where remote work is not an impossibility. The lower the pay for a job, the more overrepresented women are as employees. Closing this gap is key to closing the wage gap for all women, and that work must continue against the setbacks that will surely come out of this tragic time.

Investing in diversity and inclusion within organizations is one step in the right direction. Supporting women-led businesses, supporting the leadership development of women throughout their career journeys, and ensuring your organization is following D&I best practices will all help move the needle.

If the Shecession is to be combated and we are not to lose years of hardfought, precious progress for women’s equality, we must be intentional. We must look very carefully at the decisions we make over the next year, and we must commit to supporting women or risk losing them. IQ

Expecting employees to turn optimal productivity in this impossible year is a losing game for both employers and employees.

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of companies have adjusted their performance review criteria to account for the challenges created by the pandemic, and only about half have updated employees on their plans for performance reviews or their productivity expectations during COVID-19.”

Expecting employees to turn optimal productivity in this impossible year is a losing game for both employers and employees. Whether they are caring for children, caring for loved ones, or simply caring for themselves, an undue burden has shifted to women during the pandemic.

More pressure and more stress forces women out of the workforce, leaving businesses short on skilled workers – and working women out of a job.

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ntry and mid-level women are leaving our industry at nearly twice the rate of men — senior-level women are leaving at nearly four times the rate of men.* NEW provides solutions that retain and develop great women leaders. Our learning programs, career development, conferences and local events help tens of thousands of women advance each year. Our insights, best practices and advocacy help transform organizations and create a better industry workplace for all. Join our movement today at newonline.org. * Download our report

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Advancing all women. It’s just good business.

1/11/21 3:19 PM

Solution Provider News

Ahold Delhaize Expands Partnership with Flashfood Following a successful pilot program at select Lancaster, PA, stores earlier this year, Ahold Delhaize’s Giant Co. expanded its partnership with the Flashfood mobile app to an additional 33 stores in Pennsylvania and Maryland this month.

The Flashfood app allows shoppers to purchase fresh food, including produce, meat, deli and bakery products, that is nearing its best by date at significantly reduced prices. Orders are made directly through the app and shoppers pick them up the same day from a special Flashfood zone inside participating stores.

Vibenomics Teams with IRI to Measure Audio OOH Ad Sales Lift Vibenomics is collaborating with IRI to measure the direct sales impact of exposure to audio out-of-home ads while offering advertisers exclusive access to SKU-level granularity for both precampaign feasibility and post-campaign analysis. IRI plans to scale Vibenomics’ measurement capabilities and relay insights back to media buyers in a

meaningful and timely manner. Showing accurate ROI from the audio OOH solution will be key for advertisers and marketers to feel confident in their media spend.

IRI utilized market lift studies to understand the impact that an audio OOH campaign had on the sales of a new shampoo and conditioner line, skin cleansing product, dry packaged dinner mix and new adult beverage offering. After looking at the level of spend across a number of stores in a short period of time, the results showed a 34% sales lift in at least one of the categories.

RangeMe Assists Product Sourcing Event at Staples Online ECRM platform RangeMe partnered with office supply chain Staples on a virtual product sourcing event dubbed the “Staples Connect Breakthrough Project” to recruit suppliers for Staples Connect, the retailer’s new community-focused store format. The project focuses on accelerating the path to market for small businesses with innovative working and learning products and services by providing an opportunity for brands to compete for shelf space and visibility at the store. By leveraging the RangeMe platform, Staples Connect buyers will have access to more than 200,000 suppliers, which will help facilitate the project and help curate new and existing small business vendors in an effort to bring forward innovative products spanning 12 product categories. Selected suppliers will be invited to virtual, face-to-face meetings with Staples Connect buyers on Feb. 8. Staples Connect will then choose winning products and services to be carried in select stores nationwide.

January/February 2021

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TPN Launches Initiative to Elevate the Black Community Creative commerce agency TPN unveiled OmniBlack, an effort to double down on the company’s commitment to the Black community both inside and outside its walls. OmniBlack, which is being led by the agency’s Black employees, aims to further enrich the client work, culture, soul and success of the agency and industry at large. The goal is to implement meaningful and real change that will be put into action across all TPN touchpoints, including employees, partners and vendors. The initiative has been created around seven key areas of focus: partnerships and community, allyship, recruitment, mentorship and sponsorship, product and process, capabilities, and new business for economic development and social impact. Among the first OmniBlack-inspired events and actions was the creation of the “TPN lunch table,” which serves as a safe space for support, affirmation and community.

Crisp Starts Programmatic Commerce Solution New York-based Crisp developed what it’s calling the first programmatic commerce platform. The goal is to help food brands and retailers stay ahead of rapidly evolving consumer behavior, identify potential supply

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chain disruptions, predict store and online traffic, track inventory and product performance, understand store conditions and replenish both virtual and in-store shelves at speed and scale.

Pre-built integrations with retail portals and business intelligence tools include connectors for 80% of the top grocery retailers and distributors in the U.S., covering $500 billion in sales. With unified access to this data, the platform enables food supply chain partners to easily and securely connect data sources to reduce out-of-stocks, minimize waste, evaluate promotions, analyze inventory issues and maximize profitability across the entire supply chain. Built to work on top of, rather than instead of, existing data and technology infrastructure, Crisp’s solution is designed for quick implementation.

This allows the solution to work as effectively for emerging specialty and artisan food brands as it does for multibillion-dollar food brands.

also a renewed focus on understanding the connection between audience motivations and cultural movements to unlock opportunities that matter most to brands.

Public Label describes this approach as “using intelligence and creativity to hack cultures.”

Match Retail is a sales, merchandising and branded retail agency for major brands across North America. Its expanded capabilities include an increased investment in upfront associate training and data and analytical assessments to further differentiate its offerings in the marketplace. Match Retail’s leadership team will be co-led by managing directors Vanessa Schnekenburger and Greg Quick. Match Marketing Group remains the organizational unit that will oversee the two new agencies, which will operate independently.

Price Chopper Taps Manthan-RichRelevance

Match Marketing Group Debuts Two New Agencies Consumer engagement agency Match Marketing Group launched two agencies – Public Label and Match Retail – in a reimagination of how the group will offer high-impact creative solutions for clients in today’s evolving marketplace. Public Label is an independent creative marketing agency built upon Match Marketing’s legacy in integrated, experiential, shopper and digital marketing. The shop’s enhanced offering combines creative and strategy with data and technology to solve complex business challenges. There is

Experience personalization and customer engagement platform ManthanRichRelevance is now helping Price Chopper Supermarkets drive personalized shopper engagement. The retailer will leverage the solution provider’s integrated SaaS suite, which covers customer data, advanced customer analytics and omnichannel lifecycle marketing for achieving insights-driven personalization. Manthan-RichRelevance’s platform and its specialized recommendation engine for grocers aims to help Price Chopper develop a single view of its shoppers to help customize every interaction across its direct mail program, weekly circular and digital/ email program. The solution also claims to provide the retailer’s marketing team with key capabilities to run automated on-demand

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and journey-based campaigns, personalize offer recommendations, test and optimize campaigns, and improve engagement, conversion rate and overall marketing ROI.

Shopify Turns to New Digital Operations Platform Shopify launched its latest point-of-sale hardware collection, which includes a redesigned tap and chip reader as well as a dock and retail stand, to offer a more comprehensive solution for brick-andmortar retailers. Shopify now employs UK-based Brightpearl’s retailer-first digital operations platform to automate and support the fulfillment and distribution of new hardware to merchants that are starting or expanding to physical retail.

This partnership will enable businesses to buy Shopify’s POS hardware products online.

Brightpearl provides digital operations solutions for retail brands that include financial management, inventory and sales order management, fulfillment, warehouse and logistics. The company has seen the number of online firms using its platform grow by 80% since spring 2020, with Shopify Hardware being the latest addition.

Brightpearl’s platform will enable Shopify to keep up with the growing demand for multichannel selling across the online hardware stores. IQ

Send your solution provider news – new products, projects, programs and technologies – to Charlie Menchaca at cmenchaca@ensembleiq.com.

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Personnel Appointments BRAND MARKETERS PepsiCo, Purchase, New York Heather Campain was named senior director, strategy and transformation for the beverage company’s Walmart business. She previously served as customer leader, omnichannel strategy and activation at Johnson & Johnson.

RETAILERS CVS Health, Woonsocket, Rhode Island Former Crate & Barrel CEO Neela Montgomery was appointed EVP and president of CVS Pharmacy/Retail. She’ll oversee CVS’ nearly 10,000 pharmacies across the U.S. At Crate & Barrel, Montgomery worked to expand the retailer’s e-commerce business to account for more than 50% of total revenue.

SOLUTION PROVIDERS Acosta, Jacksonville, Florida Derek Bowen, former SVP of brand management at Cartograph, was named president of marketing services for North America. He’ll work with the agency’s leadership team to continue building the integrated suite of services and solutions needed to help clients and customers grow their businesses and win in the marketplace.

Aki Technologies, San Francisco David Sanderson, former SVP of creative

HEATHER CAMPAIN

JULIE CURRIE

B

MARGARET HERNDON NEELA MONTGOMERY

strategy and operations at Brand Networks, was appointed head of creative solutions.

He’ll manage Aki’s motion graphics and digital media design departments, fuel the company’s innovation roadmap by responding to macro trends, and scale the success of Eyeview and personalization offerings.

The Mars Agency, Southfield, Michigan Former Rockwell Medical human resources manager Nichole Hoskins was named director, people and culture. She’ll lead and further evolve the work of the agency’s diversity and inclusion committee, in addition to leading performance and talent development.

Quad, Sussex, Wisconsin Julie Currie was named EVP and chief revenue officer to succeed Renee Badura, who retired after 34 years with the company. Currie spent 25 years at Nielsen, where she ultimately served as SVP of global retail product leadership.

Trans World Marketing, East Rutherford, New Jersey Rick Sherwood was appointed VP of business development. He brings more than 30 years’ experience in P-O-P, encompassing CPG, retail, manufacturing, logistics, technology, and research and development. His focus is assisting companies with developing their brands and creating unique and powerful customer experiences at retail.

WestRock, Atlanta Former Ericsson North America CMO Margaret Herndon was named to the same position at WestRock. In this newly created role, she leads the companywide marketing organization and is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the overall enterprise marketing strategy. She reports to Jeff Chalovich, the company’s chief commercial officer and president of corrugated packaging. IQ

Editorial Index 7-Eleven .................. 19, 20, 26, 30, 47 Acxiom ................................................ 54 Ahold Delhaize ................... 24, 49, 62 Aki Technologies .............................. 37 Albertsons Cos.................... 21, 22, 49 Alliance Sales & Marketing .......... 38 Amazon ................... 19, 20, 23, 25, 58 Arc Worldwide .................... 26, 30, 45 Babyganics ......................................... 57 BJ’s Wholesale Club......................... 50 Blue Chip ............................................ 13 Brightpearl ......................................... 63 Brown-Forman.................................. 13 Campbell Soup Co. .................. 48, 50 Casey’s General Store ..................... 11 Catalina ............................................... 35 Catalina Snacks................................. 11 Centerfield ......................................... 54 Chobani........................................ 26, 30

Clorox Co., The .................................. 10 Coca-Cola Co., The............. 36, 44, 49 Coinstar ............................................... 52 Crisp ..................................................... 62 Crown Media ..................................... 48 CVS Pharmacy.............. 20, 21, 23, 24 Darkstore Inc. .................................... 53 Diwo ..................................................... 54 Dollar General ................................... 22 Electrolux............................................ 33 Family Dollar ..................................... 19 Fiji Water ............................................. 33 Forrester Research........................... 11 G.E. Appliances .......................... 45, 46 General Mills............................... 23, 66 Giant Eagle ......................................... 24 Harvest Market ................................. 50 Henkel ................................................. 22 HMT Associates ................................ 47

Home Depot, The ............................ 11 iAdvize ................................................. 54 IN Connected Marketing ...... 39, 43 Integrated Merchandising Solutions.......................................... 11 IRI........................................................... 62 J.M. Smucker Co., The ..................... 47 Johnson & Johnson ........................ 11 KeVita ................................................... 58 Kraft Heinz ......................................... 49 Kroger ............... 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 41 Label Insight ...................................... 40 Lego Group ........................................ 50 LG Electronics USA .......................... 53 LIT Live................................................. 53 Manthan-RichRelevance ............... 63 Mars Agency, The ....... 37, 39, 42, 45 Mars ........................................ 34, 41, 49 Match Marketing Group................ 63

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McCormick & Co............................... 48 Meijer ................................................... 20 Method Products ............................. 32 Molson Coors Beverage Co. ......... 35 Mondelez International... 20, 39, 49 Nestle ................................................... 50 Omnicom Commerce Group ..........8 Pep Promotions................................ 43 PepsiCo......................................... 27, 28 Pinterest .............................................. 13 Price Chopper ................................... 63 Procter & Gamble ............................ 48 Publicis Groupe ................................ 43 Qurate Retail Group........................ 53 RangeMe ............................................ 62 Resonal ................................................ 54 Retail Aware....................................... 12 Rite Aid ................................................ 56 Schnucks............................................. 48

Shopify ................................................ 63 ShopShops ......................................... 53 Solo Cup.............................................. 41 Speedway ........................................... 49 Staples ................................................. 62 Target ....................... 18, 20, 21, 23, 48 TikTok ................................................... 52 TPN ................................................ 11, 62 Unilever ............................................... 48 Valassis ................................................ 37 Verishop .............................................. 52 Vibenomics ........................................ 62 Visual Latina ............................... 27, 28 VIZIT ..................................................... 11 VMLY&R ............................................... 33 Voyant Beauty (KIK Personal Care) ....................... 35 Walmart.................................................... .......10, 19, 22, 24, 25, 48, 49, 50, 52, 66 Whole Foods ..................................... 20

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Retail Intel

Cheerios Rallies Walmart Shoppers

BY PAT RYC J A M A L I N O W S K A

General Mills’ Cheerios partnered with Walmart last spring to run a cause campaign benefitting military families and veterans within the retailer’s communities by raising funds for nonprofit Operation Homefront.

The “Brighten the Lives of Vets” campaign was intended to create “an opportunity for Walmart consumers to emotionally connect with the goodness of Cheerios beyond the cereal bowl.” The effort provided a simple solution to give back by purchasing Cheerios products at the retailer, says Kelli Lott, General Mills’ shopper marketing senior planner.

From May 7-28, 2020 – a time period that included both the observance of Armed Forces Day (May 18) and Memorial Day (May 25) – shoppers at Walmart were driven to purchase a variety of SKUs in custom packaging to trigger up to $250,000 in total donations. The packaging stood out on Walmart shelves, backed by incremental display support, through July 17.

“Our Walmart merchandising team was very supportive of this campaign, placing the six participating Cheerios

products on the seasonal aisle at Walmart,” Lott says. The effort included classic Cheerios as well as honey nut, multi-grain, frosted, apple cinnamon and oat crunch cinnamon varieties, with the front of pack prominently depicting the effort’s logo and touting a donation of $1 with each purchase.

“The back of pack featured a gold-foil ribbon that could be cut out and displayed in consumer homes to show support for returning veterans, and clearly stated the call to action,” Lott says. It also provided detailed instructions on how to submit in-pack codes to a promotional website (CheeriosGives.com) through Nov. 1 to trigger each donation.

Offering add-to-cart functionality, the site let participants designate a preference about how funding should be allocated in their communities. It also hosted a top-ofpage promotional video as well as individual videos of veterans sharing stories about how Operation Homefront helped them through the struggles they faced while transitioning to civilian lives. A Walmart.com promotional showcase and display ads supported.

“We activated across the consumer journey with a strong call to action for buying the

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specially marked ‘Brighten the Lives of Vets’ custom packaging. Our media followed this nonlinear shopper experience, landing either on a specially created Walmart OPD [Online, Pickup & Delivery] shelf page or our microsite with add-to-cart functionality,” Lott says.

Specific digital support included user engagement marketing with store locator and add-to-cart functionality, off-site media utilizing high-impact and native banners, social platform placements with in-stream video and in-feed static messaging, in-app mobile banners leveraging geo-location, and digital audio with static banners, Lott says.

“We had intended for this to be a community-building campaign activated within Walmart stores and parking lots.

However, due to COVID-19, experiential plans were shifted to make a strong digital campaign,” she adds. “Our cause-related offer leveraged throughout the campaign was easily transitioned thanks to our simple steps for shoppers.”

The campaign succeeded because its strategy took into account seasonal and emotional relevance while also considering the shopper mindset during the promotional timeframe, and was built on the partners’ foundational, long-shared value of supporting military families, Lott said.

The effort has historical precedence, as several years ago General Mills was one of a few brands participating in a Walmart-led “Saluting Heroes Together” cause marketing campaign that also took place in May. The retailer itself has a long history of supporting veterans and military families, investing more than $40 million in the cause since 2011. In 2020, Walmart reached the goal it had set in 2013 to hire 250,000 new veteran employees as part of a “Veterans Welcome Home Commitment” guaranteeing a job offer to any eligible, honorably discharged U.S. veteran. In 2018, Walmart also introduced a “Military Spouses Career Connection” program offering any military spouse hiring preference.

Walmart plans to continue to offer veterans debt-free education and community support in 2021, while encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing health care access and launching a “Finda-Future” platform to guide militaryrelated prospects on how to build a road map to achieve their goals. IQ

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