# S2 E15 Kroger _ Christine Foster _ Cannes S2 E15 Kroger / Christine Foster / Cannes [00:00:00] [00:00:00] ​ [00:00:08] ​ [00:00:20] Tom: Welcome to the Middlemen podcast. Todd and I are going to be talking with Christine Foster. Kroger is Starting to do a partnership with Barrows that just launched. , It sounds to me like the beginning of experiential marketing in store. [00:00:36] Tom: Todd, what do you, what do you think about that? [00:00:39] Todd: It's awesome to see a tier one retailer. Really invest and launch an in-store program. And, and honestly, it's really such a big build out. I was shocked at seeing the pictures which we'll be showing for those watching on video, you get a chance to see these huge in-store displays like just giant screens. [00:00:57] Todd: Really uniquely designed, natively designed to fit in the [00:01:00] store and almost Disney-esque in terms of, of how they embraced a real elegant design and implementation and making it seem as name as possible. Amusingly. Christine was, uh, calling in from Disney and we were having a chance to talk to her. [00:01:15] Todd: She's a Disney file. Turns out my family is as well. And we have to admit that Disney just does an amazing job innovating with experimental marketing and, and displays and so forth, and I think it's amazing to see what Kroger is doing here and really trying to do something bigger and different. It is so important for retailers to embrace their in-store experience. [00:01:34] Todd: It's something really unique. It's such an amazing canvas. It's really, , as we talk to marketers, something they really. Want, they want to touch and touch humans, and touch people in this rise of ai. I think this in-store canvas is such an opportunity for retailers and it's really exciting to see the, that them go whole hog in here. [00:01:52] Tom: Yeah, Kroger has a 20 year head start on anybody in terms of their loyalty program, we talked to the CPG guys [00:02:00] about the, the beginnings and the history of Kroger. I was expecting when they did their in-store to be sort of true to their lower-funnel roots having maybe like e-ink at the shelf where there would be very promotion heavy, shelf signage. [00:02:17] Tom: And I'm actually surprised, but delighted. To see that what they're putting in the store are, full shelf screens or, you know, screens that are very large at the entrance on the end caps. And they're ones [00:02:31] Todd: I mean, there's this giant one behind the, that's going behind the shopping [00:02:34] Tom: yeah, behind the shopping carts. But what I, what I see from that is to your point about the store as a canvas for experiential marketing. [00:02:43] Tom: It's higher funnel, and , in a way that mirrors what we've always seen online. Where higher impact display ads or ads that maybe don't even feature a product and have, , an understanding of the category and the brand. [00:02:57] Tom: Those types of experiences are coming to the [00:03:00] store. With Kroger. And then the other part of it that's super interesting that she talked about, I, I pushed a little bit about CTV because I've seen that as being kind of a bridge too far for retailers. I. And the response back was that they're gonna be creating ads, with Roku, they're gonna have their own studio. [00:03:17] Tom: I think for me, what's interesting about that, um, and I pushed her on this. I was like, so what are you gonna make? And she's like, we'll be making recipes. This has kind of been a crusade of mine, which is. Online recipes are really , in a tough spot where they've been over monetized and they're just a mess. [00:03:34] Tom: Was listening to Brian Morrissey talk about this with Neil Vogel at dot dash and you're saying, , AI is not going to, take away, the recipe market. [00:03:43] Tom: I think there's a real opportunity to. For retailers, to take the mantle here and actually have the onsite and their in-store experiences reflect this content, they could have more authority than the Food Network [00:03:58] Todd: I think it's [00:04:00] interesting as. Retailers really invest in platforms to showcase brands in interesting ways. And you know, they mentioned this is a native ad, effectively as an old native ad guy. This is awesome to see and, and see some of this technology live on in store and, and other things. And, you know, we're seeing the maturation of a lot of technologies, a lot of ad technologies are finally coming together in interesting ways and being presented in interesting ways. [00:04:25] Todd: And again, the store is a platform. The store is an ad platform. The store is an experiential platform, hats off to Kroger for, you know, doing this and investing in this and really building something unique and I think we're gonna see, we've talked to multiple retailers and the people who run these programs and I think they all want to do in-store. [00:04:44] Todd: There's some challenges like Mark from Costco talked about, are they quite ready yet? As much as the technology might be ready, are they? From a store, are they ready? And I think what you're seeing from Kroger is a good examples of how to do this in an interesting and, and meaningful way. And it'll be fascinating to see the case studies that emerge out of [00:05:00] this really, can they drive the engagement awareness, the lift in sales that you'd hope from an RMN program. [00:05:06] Todd: And I would be shocked if they don't. I mean, others have talked about. That these types of units are the highest impact and the highest ROI units, and here is a canvas, a platform that could really deliver that in an interesting way and across a whole store, a thoughtful way. It, it's really a, a, a job well done to, to Kroger, you know, [00:05:23] Todd: as we start to see the case studies and the programs emerge out of it, the, the Roku tie in as a, as a partner is really cool. And I think, so this is the type of stuff we say that that retail media networks are the future of media. I think this is a great example of that. [00:05:36] Tom: Yeah, and I, and I think you know Christine Foster coming from The Good Way Group, she's running this retail media network in a way that has media savvy behind it. And I think that that's something that you've been talking about a lot is that you need to bring. Immediate people in [00:05:51] Todd: The agency people need to be here, and she's a good example of that. To [00:05:54] Tom: yeah. [00:05:55] Tom: So, so I think, I think this is a great conversation. We're gonna be in wild agreement with her on a [00:06:00] lot of this stuff, but I think there's a lot in here to unpack. And so I hope that you all enjoy it. [00:06:05] Todd: We can start talking about Disney and being Disney files. My kids have loved going to Disney. My wife loves to go to the same kind of place every year. And when we started going to Disney, she, I, she's like, I love the fact, I know how it works and, and my kids loved it and watching them grow up. [00:06:19] Todd: Um, and the best thing of course is getting all the pictures, you know, year over year at the same thing. And seeing the progression as they grow. That's another fun thing. Yes. [00:06:26] Christine: Yes, yes. Um, recording live from the Boardwalk at Disney, Walt Disney World. And we are definitely Disney files as well. So we come about once a year and the kids and just absolutely love it. And I think Disney has nailed nostalgia with logistics in a way that just makes everything hum. So once you kind of get the system down, you are, you are set, and it's great and you can have a great time and not be stressed out. [00:06:56] Todd: Well, what's great actually where you're staying at Boardwalk is the ability to walk [00:07:00] between two of the [00:07:00] Christine: Yes, yes, it is definitely such a, like a treat to not have to get onto buses every single time you want to go to a park. [00:07:10] Todd: Yes. [00:07:11] Tom: Disney may be the ultimate retailer, [00:07:13] Christine: Right? [00:07:14] Tom: but we're here with Christine Foster, who's the SVP of. What are you SVP of customers? [00:07:20] Christine: Uh, commercial strategy and operations for Kroger Precision Marketing. [00:07:24] Tom: Thank you. And you came from, so what was interesting, I want to hear a little more about your background before we really dig into it. You came from the Good Way Group, which my experience when I was a Quotient was Good Way Group was probably the only agency that got retail media and, and they sort of hit our pain points. [00:07:41] Tom: They, they knew that we were over evolved in measurement. We were really trying to sell retail media hard and that kind of meant that we over-indexed on Android and they were like. You're missing all these iPhone moms. So what, what was it like being at Grid Way and then coming to Kroger? What, what was sort of on your agenda about what to change [00:07:57] Christine: Yeah, good way is [00:08:00] such a great agency and really focused super well on programmatic and search and social. And so it was a really great kind of background on how to bring the. Performance lens, that good way has into the retail space, but not overindex in kind of this very specific and deterministic measurement in a way that left out such a big part of the picture of how brands are performing and where they could optimize differently and better. [00:08:30] Christine: And so in some ways, coming in. With that background and understanding , you saw just this wealth of advancement on the retailer side, and then you also saw this area of opportunity that we could just do different, that we were really truly integrating two different industries, retail and advertising into one, and that required. [00:08:54] Christine: You know, some of the strengths of like the programmatic and, and traditional digital advertising, which, I had a such a great [00:09:00] lens on from my experience at Good Way, but then in other ways, you know, really kind of making sure that we were maturing advertising and retailers perspectives on each other in the right way as well. [00:09:13] Tom: And just to try to figure out the, the context here. You joined during the pandemic. Was it at the time when Kroger had already launched their partnership with [00:09:23] Christine: Yes. So I came in in 2021. So the, the Roku partnership was already kind of stood up and, and going strong. And it was such a great model for what the industry could be. It was ahead of its time, I think in, in some ways. And, that has been such a great experience learning from the Roku team and, and what has worked well between KPM and where we still are wanting to evolve. [00:09:48] Tom: I was there at that time trying to sell, I was kind of copying the, the Kroger Roku model, seeing if I could sell it and it, and it sort of stalled and so I think you're right. It was early. But, you know, extrapolate, [00:09:59] Todd: the way. [00:09:59] Tom: [00:10:00] yeah. [00:10:00] Todd: all CTV and retail media is early. As much as the hype is there, like we, we, it is a long way before it's gonna be to, I think, retail media. [00:10:09] Christine: Yeah. [00:10:10] Tom: Yeah. And, and to that point, how do you see the evolution of messaging, whether it's, , on CTV in store? Like where do you see that, that capability coming in and where's it working? I. [00:10:21] Christine: Looking back at that partnership specifically, which launched again, ahead of me in 2020. You know, there's a, a proven track record there of, measurable results with Really high sales uplift for exposed audiences and three times higher spend across, consumers ex compared to unexposed consumers that were seeing those ads. [00:10:46] Christine: So it's, we knew that it was working, but I think to your point on, it's still early. We're, we're getting to a maturity stage. But. The, the long kind of held assumption on retail media has been [00:11:00] so focused on the lower funnel, so focused on those conversion moments that no one was really figuring out. [00:11:06] Christine: How do you tie, , these upper funnel kind of tactics to this lower funnel in a way that makes sense in a way that isn't just about layering on data, but that actually is about making sure that you are telling stories and building brands across the full funnel in the way that retail media can do, but has been kind of subjected to this expectation to kind of stay here at, at the bottom. [00:11:31] Christine: And so now. The, the responsibility is on the entire ecosystem to figure out what are those bridges across the funnel that, that allows us to, um, focus on the outcomes, which I think is part of where the entire industry is and should continue to focus, but making sure that it, it, it tethers all the way through so that you are telling brand stories across every single touch point in that consumer [00:12:00] journey of which, [00:12:01] Christine: ads on a platform, ads on a retailer site is one part. Um, and so the, the Roku kind of relationship has definitely evolved over the last couple of years. And we're excited about where we're going next. [00:12:15] Todd: I think the What's two, even if it is quote unquote early, I think it's CTV and overall is early. It's not a retail media specific issue. And I think even the idea of full funnel. Campaigns and full funnel selling is also not a specific retail media challenge. I think all of digital. Has been tasked with this last click attribution focus and, and bottom of the funnel conversion. [00:12:39] Todd: And I think we as an industry have been trying to push digital media and digital advertising to be a full funnel experience. And I think actually one of the interesting reasons why it hasn't moved in that direction has been the reliance on the walled [00:12:52] Christine: Mm-hmm. [00:12:53] Todd: Because they don't have full funnel attribution. [00:12:55] Todd: They can't do last click as easily. And so I think the [00:13:00] idea of. A retailer helping connect to different points along [00:13:04] Christine: Yeah. [00:13:05] Todd: journey, but with the entire ability to capture and have a long-term relationship with that consumer, like Kroger and its loyalty program has had access to data and profiles that go back almost generations at this point. [00:13:18] Christine: Yeah. [00:13:19] Todd: so it really isn't, that's what gets us excited about, you know, retail media at least as a, I'm a long time digital ad tech guy. [00:13:25] Christine: Mm-hmm. [00:13:26] Todd: And retail media to me is the natural next step for where we need to go with digital advertising. 'cause we all wanna move upper funnel. But the challenge has always been how do you and, and march that customer journey and, and prove it led to something in a, in where if it's deterministic at the bottom, you can understand that full journey. [00:13:45] Todd: So I think what , Kroger was doing, was incredibly smart with Roku. [00:13:48] Christine: Yeah. [00:13:48] Todd: In terms of beginning those steps and now,, we're, we'll talk about in store as well of, of you start with Roku and then you start seeing in store and then you start seeing purchases that come out of there, or even multiple visit[00:14:00] [00:14:00] Christine: Yeah. [00:14:00] Todd: to a purchase. [00:14:01] Todd: That's another [00:14:01] Christine: Yes. [00:14:02] Todd: about retail media. It's like I can do multiple [00:14:04] Christine: Great. Well, it's such, I mean, you as a human are such a dynamic person, right? So it's not, it isn't a linear kind of look at what consumer, what's driving consumer behavior. And that's the exciting thing. Uh, let maybe taking a step back too, just to talk about Kroger a little bit for, for those in the audience that may not have a full grasp or a Kroger in, in your region. [00:14:26] Christine: Kroger has been America's grocer, so to speak, for over a hundred years. So one in every two. US households are Kroger family of brand shoppers, and that makes us America's largest grocer. And and you mentioned the, the loyalty program, which is really the most robust of, of its kind and, and goes back decades, which then really informs what we're talking about here and how to make the full funnel more performant over time. [00:14:54] Christine: Now it is still early to your point, and there is a lot of work to do across the ecosystem. And, and [00:15:00] two kind of, areas that I see holding us back is one, not treating every piece of the funnel or every channel or every placement. [00:15:09] Christine: With the same expectation. Right. And you, you called it out like. Treating like the top of the funnel with the exact same kind of metrics and KPI, it as the lower is, is problematic. They can work together, they should work together, but they're not the same. And that is one way of moving the kind of industry forward. [00:15:29] Christine: The other space is that. We are complex, right? There are so many different teams across the entire industry with different focus and different goals that we're not taking the time to kind of step back and say, how do these work together? And I think when those two things, um, happen, when you start bringing the different teams together to talk about. [00:15:52] Christine: Here's what we're doing as a brand here is like the, the kind of brand focus that we have with how do we take that all the way [00:16:00] down to selling this specific product at this specific moment. And that's com that's hard to do. That's a lot of complexity in and of itself, and kind of organizational design. [00:16:11] Christine: That's still changing. But I think two things we, we need to focus on as an industry is not treating every, , placement the same. And making sure that we're connecting it as best we can as humans and with the right ad technology in order to do so. [00:16:27] Todd: I mean, I think your focus on operations, uh, is interesting because I think that's a it and we're, and I'm, your perspective on this will be interesting. We're seeing the ultimate, right? The vendors, the buyers of the ads. Finally sort of realize I can't silo these conversations anymore and I need to have a more holistic approach. [00:16:45] Todd: And if you do, you can really execute some cool campaigns in a way you couldn't in the past. And that's like your point about the ability of Kroger and how it's connected at one end to Roku and it's got in store and onsite and other partners and this other publishing relationships outside of Roku emerge [00:17:00] your ability to help a very complex campaign, but in the way that I think we always imagine digital marketing to work. [00:17:08] Christine: yes. [00:17:08] Todd: really cool and that's what gets, you know, again, as an ad tech guy and Thomas Retail Media, this is sort of like the peanut butter and chocolate moment of your ability to work with a brand and connect dots and, and really map out a buyer journey in the way that marketers have always dreamed of [00:17:21] Christine: Yes. [00:17:22] Todd: Is really exciting to me in all the touchpoints and, and all the different ad placements and formats, and if you help them map out a complex campaign, they can do cool things. Now with partners like [00:17:33] Christine: Right. [00:17:33] Todd: that's what I think is people, I don't know if people really understand all the cool operational things that are emerging, different [00:17:39] Christine: Yeah. [00:17:39] Todd: and technologies, and the ability to tell a multifaceted story in a way that we always talked about, but never really able to [00:17:44] Christine: Right. And now we can, and to your point, like the, the retail media networks are in a position to help bridge that gap. Take some of the complexity down, hopefully over time for brands and, and agencies or the buy [00:18:00] side in order to connect those dots more fully. We're super excited about. [00:18:06] Christine: Something that we're, moving into with Roku, which is around a creative services element and taking kind of those brand stories, building out custom video content and then delivering it to kind of the relevant households on the Roku. And, and eventually on the, the, the Kroger website as well. [00:18:23] Christine: 'cause we're adding video to our portfolio in a way that is going to drive all of those inspirational moments to the moment of purchase, which I think is to your point, such an incredible opportunity to continue to push on. [00:18:38] Tom: so let's unpack that a little bit because I could go in a bunch of different directions as to what, what does it mean to have video and video creative solutions. Are you talking about. Rich media ads that maybe are more than just a product ad. Are you talking about recipe cooking [00:18:56] Christine: Yeah. [00:18:56] Tom: of stuff? [00:18:56] Tom: Like what? What's [00:18:57] Christine: So with Roku specifically, we're [00:19:00] launching our fresh content studio, which is an opportunity for brands to engage on content development. And so what that will initially look like , is recipe content. And so what they can do is put shorts on in a space for Roku across the platform that will, um. [00:19:21] Christine: Basically be broken into different kind of segments that they can tease out different products, strategies, different, parts of their overall brand portfolio in in, in a new and kind of inspirational way, uh, across the different elements that Roku has. And then bring those same kind of products and focus in the content. [00:19:43] Christine: Into the space where a consumer will see it as they're searching on the Kroger website. So really taking, you know kind of a fun new content play within the Roku space that they've built out, and then tethering it all the way into. The [00:20:00] site where they can, where the customer can actually add it to basket, and oh, by the way, they can do that from their Roku remote or with a QR code, whichever way they prefer. [00:20:09] Christine: And even if they don't, even if, let's say they see this recipe content on Roku. It's cute, it's cool, they like it, but they don't engage right away. We can connect that dot from a branding perspective in, in a way where all of a sudden it connects. It's like, yeah, I did see that over on Roku a couple days ago and now I'm being served an ad with that specific product, and it did look good. [00:20:34] Christine: So I'm just gonna add that to cart now. [00:20:36] Tom: But yeah, I mean, you're suggesting, you're not suggesting just a pro, you're suggesting a whole [00:20:40] Christine: Totally you. Yes, exactly. You can. What will happen is you can have a carousel that connects to whatever that recipe was. Somebody can click everything in that carousel and add it to their basket at that point, which is again, just such an opportunity for us to, pull together these great. [00:20:57] Christine: Parts of our marketing funnel in a way [00:21:00] that really does lead to higher conversion. Which is an exciting kind of time to be in this industry, in, in ways that, we've talked about for a long time that, that haven't actually been we haven't been ready to, to do yet. [00:21:14] Tom: So, yeah, it sounds like you guys are now getting to a place where there's of creative that can work everywhere. You know, it sounds like you're gonna have some sort of like vertical video on the site, or you're gonna have, you know, CTV Ready video. But it sounds like it can sort of be in any environment that the consumer is in, whether that's in store or out of the store. [00:21:34] Tom: So. Tell us what does that look like in the store? I, you had a, an announcement of working with a company called Barrows. So tell, tell us what's going on there. [00:21:43] Christine: We see the physical store as one of the most underutilized platforms for brand storytelling right now. And that is specifically true in the us. We're just not utilizing this space in the way that we can and will in the future. [00:22:00] Kroger is partnering with Barrow's to bring digital screens, and, and that goes beyond just kind of adding a, a screen into the store. [00:22:07] Christine: We've really partnered with them on making sure that this is an additive experience for the customer, not just a Times square moment that it. Feels seamless to the interaction that they're having, across the different products in different aisles and spaces. They're integrated. [00:22:27] Christine: These, these screens are integrated into, um, kind of different parts of the store, not just kind of like, again, just stacked on, on shelves or, or anything like that. [00:22:37] Tom: I mean this is reimagining the end [00:22:39] Christine: It's really re-imagining what [00:22:41] Todd: Disney comment, it's almost Disney-esque. In, in the [00:22:43] Christine: yes. [00:22:45] Todd: and you've shared with us. That a really nicely designed experiential, like they, it looked like they belong in the store. I. [00:22:51] Christine: Yeah. [00:22:52] Todd: They're appropriate and they're impactful and it doesn't, your eyes isn't gonna go like, what the hell [00:22:57] Christine: Yes. [00:22:58] Todd: versus a Oh, it's just part of [00:23:00] the, the general experiential build out of what you would expect in the store. [00:23:03] Todd: To your point, it's not obnoxious and I think it will really. Offer some interesting experiential exposure and we, and, and Tom and I are the biggest in-store proponents [00:23:13] Christine: Yeah, [00:23:14] Todd: and Well, it's just that a, it, the retailers, it truly is a unique experience. This IRL aspect of, [00:23:20] Christine: totally. [00:23:21] Todd: There's, there's there no publisher can offer, no walled garden can offer [00:23:26] Christine: Right. [00:23:27] Todd: The idea of this last mile exposure is incredibly valuable and I, we a hundred percent agree underutilized and these touch points and just if you capture someone's attention in the store, that has gotta be worth 10x 100x [00:23:40] Christine: Totally. [00:23:41] Todd: online exposure would be. And I can't wait to see what's retailers and, and vendors realize the pricing power behind these opportunities for you as a retailer. [00:23:49] Todd: It's just, , fundamentally going to change. The digital advertising experience and I think what you guys are doing with Barrows and what we've seen looks really, you guys have done a great job. It's exactly what we'd hope, which is you're not just throwing up a [00:23:59] Christine: Yeah.[00:24:00] [00:24:00] Todd: you're doing a very thoughtfully, it's well designed, and to all those who've seen signs that like Disney World, it looks like that type of well-designed, incorporated [00:24:08] Christine: Right, and, and to your call out, like, yes, that experience where you, you're not being sold anything specifically in, in a way that feels very. Seamless to your experience in the story. You're not, it's not annoying to you, to your, to your Disney comment. It is part of just the overall experience. You know, these are custom made digital points that really feel native to, to the environment that they're in. [00:24:34] Christine: And they're very well made. This is going to be part of the new customer experience, and especially as we move you know, into kind of new generations of shoppers, this will be the expectation of these shoppers who are used to engaging digitally. [00:24:50] Christine: And I, and I'm super excited, with this launch and how they're turning out today, over 80% of shopping still occurs in a [00:25:00] store, and that's an important. Kind of metric as we think about, okay, how do you start making sure that from an omni-channel perspective, all of this great content that we're developing with Roku all the way through, how these things can kind of come to life and show up in a store directly at that last mile moment. [00:25:19] Christine: It's, it's important to be thinking about that in a very seamless way. And, and for us, this isn't, this wasn't just a, uh. Let's just throw up screens. Anyone can do that with the right capital, of course. We wanna make sure that those screens are actually additive to the shopper experience. [00:25:38] Tom: Well, I think, I think the first generation, which we had somebody on the pod who was doing really bespoke custom in, you know, installments with front facing [00:25:46] Christine: Mm-hmm. [00:25:46] Tom: kind of stuff. What I see from what you guys are developing is that you have that ability to have a great looking end cap. You can switch it and it, it becomes less boring. It doesn't have to stay there for [00:26:00] weeks on end. Um, you could potentially, all right, let's, let's put some different product up there and have a different ad. [00:26:06] Tom: It's not custom to it. [00:26:07] Todd: Tom to a huge degree. [00:26:09] Tom: Yeah. And like. [00:26:10] Todd: store [00:26:11] Christine: Staff. [00:26:11] Todd: way [00:26:11] Tom: Yeah, but, but just a, just the example would be normally you set up an MCAP and it has to be there for weeks [00:26:17] Christine: Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. [00:26:20] Tom: you have the ability to say, make your store not [00:26:24] Christine: Yeah. Yeah. And, and the complexities of that are, are real, right? Like we're talking about different, different areas of the country with different focus and different store operations and making sure all of those are seamless. So again, we needed a partner that could work with us on those things too. And, and we're super excited about how those are coming together or how those things are coming together. [00:26:46] Christine: And to your point, it's not just about the endcaps, it's about, it's about e every. Kind of point of the store has a different, uh, area where you're gonna see some of these, and, and yet you won't necessarily even notice, [00:27:00] uh, that you're seeing these right away. They're very seamless and kind of baked into that space of the store and what needs to be promoted within that kind of region of the country. [00:27:11] Christine: And I, I think that they are coming together in a way that's going to make it, um, gonna be part of kinda the future of shopping, if you will. And I think that's an exciting kind of area for us to continue to push into. [00:27:25] Todd: Well, we think we've been calling retail media the future of, of online publishing and advertising, and you're really almost extending it into the, the, the future of retail period. it's, it's interesting to sort of see this, and I hadn't necessarily thought through the whole store experience once you put these digital screens. [00:27:41] Todd: And again, natively integrated screens into the store. It's from a store operations standpoint, is gonna allow personalization, customization beyond just retail media in a way that will keep driving the in-store experience in ways that'll be really beneficial to the retailer. And so it's sort of a net win-win. [00:27:58] Todd: You're, you're moving your vendor relationships and ability to [00:28:00] support and help them tell better brand stories, in addition to creating a better end store experience. So people want to continue to be in store. [00:28:07] Christine: Right. No, I totally, yes. You know, the purchase data and the signals that were. We're able to get and, and provide brands, really help all of us understand consumers better. And we're using it in a way that it is relevant for the customer. I. [00:28:24] Christine: And that's, the exciting place that, that we've been in. And this is just another iteration of that, we know for a fact that our first party purchase signals, delivers the same business impact, uh, with just 51% of the impressions as, , third party data. And, and I know that you guys are, have focused on that in this podcast before, which is. [00:28:45] Christine: Not all data is created equal. So this is the opportunity for us to not just make sure we have and, and we know that we do have super high fidelity data, but also have the [00:29:00] inventory that brands need and customers. Want from a relevancy perspective and combine all of those things that we are really able to build brands in a way that enable kind of storytelling and conversion connection in ways that we haven't in the past. [00:29:17] Todd: I am astounded at how undersold retail media is to brands who are freaked out about the decline of linear TV and how they're gonna tell stories in a world where that opportunity has gone away. And, hearing your story and, and Kroger's story. It's funny you call it Kroger Precision Marketing. I think that completely, you can drop the precision, it's just Kroger marketing, whatever big. Kick over the world term. You wanna use what e Exactly, but just it. It's this. The complexities of, of operations and campaigns that you can deliver. My brain's spinning in lots of ways as you follow journeys from Roku to onsite to in-store and the native displays that you're rolling out with Barrows and the ability for brands to tell stories and now obviously the creative services and mechanism to help that and deliver that and smooth that out makes a ton of [00:30:00] sense. [00:30:00] Todd: You're gonna build up data, the rise of gen ai and the ability to, to help power creative solutions built off your data. The cool things that can be happening. I just think people are underselling retail media. Your ability to go to a CMO and say, look, I'm gonna be able to, to let you tell the most amazing complete customer journey, story and marketing campaign that you've ever imagined [00:30:18] Christine: Yeah. [00:30:19] Todd: a way that's true and holistic and built on data and tracking results and, and exactly what CMOs are being asked for. [00:30:24] Todd: How do you deliver results? [00:30:25] Christine: Right. [00:30:26] Todd: to, to show and map that and deliver different KPIs along the different touch points. track to an attributable sale. And Lyft is really fricking cool. And, and it's funny 'cause linear TV could never do that, and yet it grabbed. Tens of billions of dollars a year of revenue. And I think, and, and maybe it's part of the maturation of the retail media teams and operations, like your [00:30:48] Christine: Yeah. [00:30:48] Todd: from the agent side and the understanding of how to talk to these CMOs. That's [00:30:51] Christine: Yes, [00:30:51] Todd: about is how retail media needs to bring in media people [00:30:54] Christine: yes. [00:30:54] Todd: business. [00:30:55] Todd: Right. Your background is a great example of that, of you know, what these, these ultimate [00:31:00] marketers [00:31:00] Todd: want. And I think, yeah. Seeing the story of, of Kroger evolve, is it, it's cool to see and I'm imagine we're gonna see, I can't wait to see the case studies and like the cans awards that are gonna come out of this, [00:31:11] Christine: Yeah. [00:31:11] Todd: types of programs in ways we, again, we've only dreamed about but are finally able to deliver on. [00:31:16] Christine: I think you're absolutely hitting the nail on the head with just the, it does feel like a shock sometimes. It's like, wait, wait. Why aren't we taking more advantage of this? This is such, this is [00:31:25] Todd: that's, I'm sitting here going, holy [00:31:27] Christine: right. Yeah. [00:31:29] Todd: what you could do with the CO of Koch [00:31:31] Christine: It feels like such an underutilized. Yeah. And it's like this really should be the spine A across the industry and you know, just retail media in general, or commerce media in general. [00:31:44] Christine: And I, I think that what I chalk it up to is, is the complexity. And while I work in this space, day to day, where you guys are exposed to this space day to day not everyone is, and so there is this still like education that is [00:32:00] happening on like, wait, you can do what you know, and, and kind of. [00:32:03] Christine: Focusing on that. [00:32:05] Tom: We're that, you know, like, oh, we don't want to try to get new customers. We just [00:32:11] Christine: Great. [00:32:11] Tom: the ones that we already [00:32:12] Christine: Right. [00:32:13] Tom: And I think that you point [00:32:15] Christine: It. [00:32:16] Tom: just call it Kroger marketing, it's [00:32:18] Christine: Yeah, you could do all of those things. And I, I, I was at a, um, conference recently and speaking and, and it was the session before mine and somebody asked, um, how many of you are using behavioral data to target? And no one in the room raised their hand. And first I was like, oh gosh, I'm at the wrong conference. [00:32:40] Christine: This is gonna be done. [00:32:41] Todd: Or they don't know they're [00:32:42] Christine: But that [00:32:43] Todd: how to do [00:32:44] Tom: Yeah. [00:32:44] Todd: Yeah. [00:32:45] Christine: is. This is still a maturing conversation and kind of data-driven is such a buzzword, but the reality is that these organizations and, and the ecosystem is complex and [00:33:00] we are still kind of making sure that we're taking down that complexity and things that we're adding because at a certain point those, the addition just becomes more. [00:33:11] Christine: And really what we need to be doing as an industry is really figuring out what are the pieces that we can leave behind. You called out, like with linear TV v kind of signals dying and like, how are you gonna replace some of that? Like actually it's not just even replacing it, it's like doing different and better. [00:33:26] Christine: And I think that's the, that's the curve that we're in right now. And to that kind of conversation, which I'm sure there were people that are using behavioral data and that just. Did not raise their hand in that session, but I think that's the, that's the kind of maturation scale that that exists and that we have an opportunity to continue educating marketers on you. [00:33:47] Christine: No, you, you can have it all and you, you can do it and, and we're gonna partner with you on, on making it happen. [00:33:53] Tom: Great. , I'm excited to see what happens at can. And, let's keep in touch on this because you know, it'll be interesting to see the [00:34:00] results when all this rolls out across [00:34:02] Christine: Yeah. [00:34:02] Tom: large network of 60 million [00:34:04] Tom: customers. [00:34:05] Christine: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. [00:34:07] ​ [00:34:07] ​