# S2 E30 T50 - DGMN - Austin Leonard

S2 E30 T50 - DGMN - Austin Leonard 

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[00:00:09] Todd: Hello, Tom, good to talk to you again. Another exciting episode of the Middlemen this week, 

[00:00:15] Tom: Hey Todd. 

[00:00:17] Todd: um, I, I'm glad we're getting finally to talk about something that is near and dear to your heart.  

[00:00:22] Introduction and Background 

[00:00:22] Todd: And, you know, we're gonna talk about a Dollar General and their retail media network. And I, and you should tell the reader, or not readers, our listeners, your own history here, because this is really your story as much as it's the Dollar General story. 

[00:00:37] Tom: All of our listeners, our watchers, our AI readers, um, the reason that I love Dollar General was that, we actually have been able to this summer and and fall basically to, uh, interview all three of the big customers that we had. We had Albertsons with Brian Monahan. We had, uh, we just had Bobby Watts from Ahold Delhaize, but Dollar General. 

[00:00:57] Tom: For me was the one customer I [00:01:00] learned the most. And the reason 

[00:01:01] Todd: knew our quotient. 

[00:01:02] Tom: yeah, so this was, I was at Quotient. This would've started in I think probably like 2019 was when I first started working on the Dollar General business. I learned what is, what it is like to move out of the grocery world that I was already working in and move into the dollar category. 

[00:01:20] Tom: Um, the value conscious shopper meant that you had a different disposition. You know, they were going to the store for paper towels rather than milk or, you know, like this was, this was a different shop. This was also a different loyalty level. Um, not everybody was swiping a loyalty card at the register. 

[00:01:40] Tom: Um, so the level of ID transactions was much lower. And so what had to be built over time, with companies like Cardlytics Bridge, um, and LiveRamp and others was a, an even stronger identity backbone to understand who the customers were. , And that has [00:02:00] really positioned DG and DGMN, the Dollar General. 

[00:02:04] Tom: Media network into something that is not only national 'cause they have 20,000 stores. Um, but it's also covering parts of the country that are very hard to reach. Um, parts of the socioeconomic, class of the, of, of the country that is underserved and underbanked. And so really for me it's, it's on many, many levels. 

[00:02:27] Tom: It is a really cool case study in how difficult retail media can be. Um, and I'm just excited to, listen to how Austin is working at it now that it is, you know, 2025 and they are at a place where they have all cylinders firing. 

[00:02:44] Todd: It. It's really an interesting story to your point where as we think about retail media and retail media expanding. It sort of, its origins go, you know, go back to Tesco and Dunhumby in, right. In the loads of programs led to retail media and [00:03:00] it started with grocery and it started with loyalty data and so many other retailers didn't have that. 

[00:03:05] Todd: That system, those, that, those relationships in place. And it's an interesting story to how do you build retail media to your point where you're not grocery and you're adjacent, like dollar is, has a category, is adjacent to retail media, convenience stores, or even another adjacent category. And you've obviously got hardware, you've got other retail categories. 

[00:03:22] Todd: And I think this is what's, what's fascinating about, um, as an outsider to retail is the diversity. Just like there's diversity in publishers, there's diversity in retailers and hearing their stories and how they're gonna have to build differently. To achieve that same core backbone around identity and, attribution consistent with the way that it was originally inspired and, and built around grocery is, I think, a fascinating story. 

[00:03:45] The Challenge of Building Retail Media Beyond Grocery 

[00:03:45] Todd: And, and I think we're gonna find, see more diversity in more of these types of stories across the retail landscape as, as retail media is, becomes universal across the retail 

[00:03:54] Tom: Yep. Just 'cause it's harder doesn't mean that not every, every type of retailer is gonna want to do retail media. So, [00:04:00] you know, you gotta roll up your sleeves and this is a great episode to listen to how that was done.  

[00:04:05] Tom: All right, well, welcome to The Middle Mind Podcast. We're here with Austin Leonard from Dollar General Media Network. . Tell us, tell us what it's been like. You've been there for how long? 

[00:04:13] Austin Leonard: So I'm just finishing up, uh, four months, so, which is in retailer land. That's basically like three years. 

[00:04:19] Tom: I think that, you know, for me this is, this is kind of like a series of three episodes that are like companies that I worked with when I was at Quotient. So we had Brian Monahan on from Albertson's Media Collective. Um, we just did a recording with Bobby Watts from Ahold, and now, uh, we're getting to do Dollar General with you. 

[00:04:38] Tom: And I'm excited because. Dollar General was kind of my favorite. It was the most complicated and the least understood of the retailers, but with so much potential and promise. So I wanted for you to just give us, like, give us the stats. Uh, most people are just, you know, even if you're a shopper of dg, you may not understand the 

[00:04:55] Todd: Well, and, and I don't think a lot of people even understand what it is as a business [00:05:00] and what people think. So don't assume everyone knows dg. Through and through. So kind of, you 

[00:05:05] Tom: even 

[00:05:05] Todd: the whole background. Tom's a retail guy. I'm a media guy, so all you retailers are like, whatever. I don't know what, what's, I know a grocery store when I see it, but, so it's good to give some context to DG as a, as a business and an entity and so forth beyond just even retail 

[00:05:20] Austin Leonard: Yeah. And, and we're evolving fast too. So that's, that's the fun part as I've been learning a lot more. 'cause I also have my own, you know, consumer perceptions. And then obviously I've been in the industry understanding what Dollar General is a store, how it fits in the competitive ecosystem. And then obviously as part of Dollar General Media Network, which we call DG Media Network or DGMN, depending on, you know, what the context is and how many times I've repeated the acronym. 

[00:05:42] Austin Leonard: And it's been really fascinating to, to really see the growth of the business. So just to, just to level set, we've got, uh, over 20,000 stores across 48 states. We serve 90 plus million unique customer profiles. Um, we did $40 [00:06:00] billion in sales last year. We saw 2 billion transactions. So it's a lot of sales and it's a lot of trips, and we cover a whole bunch of markets that many retailers either can't or, or won't, uh, be able to reach. 

[00:06:11] Austin Leonard: You'll be able to cover, and the, the stat that you, you'll hear a lot is that 75% of Americans live within five miles of a DG store. And so that's a, a big suburban and urban footprint. 

[00:06:23] Tom: So you've been on, you've been doing the circuit, you've been on the CPG guys, you've been on with Kiri masters. And I think there was a lot of talk about rural, but I it's, it's good to hear you say suburban because it's kind of like. Like you have the, the DMAs that you might target media on, but there's so many other parts of the country that you guys cover. 

[00:06:42] Tom: Um, and for those of you watching video, we're gonna show a map of, of that coverage. Talk to us about that, that scale and what it does for you. And then talk about that it's a grocery store, you know, it's, it's also sort of a convenience store. Tell us how you characterize the footprint. 

[00:06:57] Austin Leonard: we, we cover a lot of different segments, a lot of different [00:07:00] types of, of trips. Uh, we like to bill ourselves as America's neighborhood general store. So in many of our communities we're the only, uh, general market or, or grocery store that's within that actual community. So that's part of why the rural story is, is really interesting. 

[00:07:15] Austin Leonard: As you think about. The places that we cover where there's no other options, uh, where we've been able to bring fresh food to different markets, uh, to over 7,000 stores. So when you think about that, we're actually the largest grocery store. Uh, so we have more than any other US mass retailer by location count. 

[00:07:31] Austin Leonard: And, and some of that's just. 

[00:07:32] Tom: Yeah, so 20,000 stores makes you bigger than McDonald's and Starbucks. Um, and then 7,000 makes you bigger than, what is it All grocers like. I mean, there is there a grocer with that many stores? 

[00:07:42] Austin Leonard: There there's not, yeah. So not in the us. Uh uh. Especially across mass retailers. Yeah. 

[00:07:47] Tom: I think the, the convenience angle, when I was working in quotient on this, , instead of, when you go into grocery, it's like, oh, you,  

[00:07:54] Dollar General's Scale and Market Position 

[00:08:03] Tom: you've gotta make sure that the milk is at the back so that people go and get that and then they see the rest of the store so that, you know, in-store entertainment loop of, discovering all the aisles. 

[00:08:04] Tom: That with Dollar General was paper towels originally, but now you've got a situation where you have grocery as well. So like there's, it's, I feel like the only constant with DG has been evolution. You just keep evolving and you know, you're initially just owning that convenience trip. Now you're owning, you know, events like Halloween, right? 

[00:08:23] Austin Leonard: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we've got the fill in trips, we've got your stock up trips. They, our, our customers use us for, for many different things. Like our core customers, they're, they're often, you know, lower income for, in a lot of those rural markets. Um, but there's also a lot different reasons that they use us from, from a convenience factor. 

[00:08:40] Austin Leonard: So we provide in our low cost. Model. We provide really deep discounted prices, great deals on all the same brands that you can get at a lot of other stores, but we also do in a very convenient fashion. So our stores are, are quick and easy to park at, to get in and get out. So you can do quick trips, especially if you know exactly the five to seven things that you need right [00:09:00] away. 

[00:09:00] Austin Leonard: It's easy to, to navigate and, and they're super convenient because again, they're, they're within five miles of pretty much everyone across the us, 75% for, for the, uh, official stats. But that makes it really interesting when you think about not just the, the basic, uh, retailing experience, but when you start to think about where we're going from an e-commerce standpoint, which I know we'll talk about in a little bit, but that's a, that's a big part of the journey. 

[00:09:22] Austin Leonard: I, I do think a lot of folks, they hear Dollar General, they think of dollar stores. Uh, so the everything's under a dollar. And so while we, that's part of our, our history in the past of, of really trying to focus on saving money that way. And we have thousands of items every single day under a dollar still. 

[00:09:38] Austin Leonard: We also have all of the, the brands that they, they trust and that they're, they're looking for. And, and many times it's a decision of like, Hey, do I go to the store that's five minutes away from me, or do I need to get the family in the car and go, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes or, or even longer in some of the communities that we serve. 

[00:09:55] Austin Leonard: And so there's a lot of different ways that, that people like to, our customers, like to, to use, [00:10:00] uh, the convenient options that we give them. 

[00:10:01] Tom: So that's sort of what you mean by the fill in trips, 

[00:10:03] Austin Leonard: Yeah. Field trips is like, Hey, you know, I did my big stock up and I do that big stock up every two weeks, but, you know, I, I need more cereal. I ran outta bread or, or eggs, which is, which is part of why the, the fresh food expansion is, has been such a great addition for the communities that we serve. 

[00:10:18] Todd: So I'm gonna jump in here as the media guy, you retailer guys talking about things like trips is not the language we use in media land. And so it's interesting to, to talk about that is a a, in terms of understanding. A how retailers think, right? In terms of how they model consumer behavior in the media world. 

[00:10:36] Todd: We talk about clicks and conversions and funnel and and consumption paths. And it, it'd be interesting to understand like, what, what does that mean to a non-media, right? To media people? What is a trip and what does that define? And is that how you're modeling and trying to sell retail media around like, oh, we're targeting trips and so if I'm a media buyer, is that something I better understand now if I'm gonna work with [00:11:00] DGMN ? 

[00:11:00] Austin Leonard: Yeah, I think as consumers we all naturally do this. Hey, what do we need? What are we searching for? You know, how urgent is it? And we, we go through that decision set in our heads. For those of us that are, are really, really e-commerce heavy shoppers that could be going to different websites. Uh, but it's also do you go to the website or do you just go into the store? 

[00:11:17] Austin Leonard: Uh, and so I think trips of essentially your opportunity to win that, that op we call the basket so that, that shopping trip. So it's your opportunity to win that specific shopping trip, which is obviously there's the share of the wallet that the retailer is going for. And so whether it's an e-commerce visit or it's an in-store visit, that's a trip. 

[00:11:35] Austin Leonard: Uh, so if you're just an e-commerce retailer, you're really focused on website traffic, the number of people, your conversion rate, and those are the same things that translate over to the physical store, which from a media standpoint is an opportunity for you to influence that consumer, to talk to that consumer, to share your brand story or just, 

[00:11:52] Understanding the Value-Conscious Customer 

[00:11:52] Austin Leonard: you know, make sure that they know that your product's available and in stock. 

[00:11:55] Todd: I imagine the primary way consumers interact [00:12:00] with DG is through the in-store visit and as they build out DGMN . How much of that is part of the plan and strategy? . And now to give some, some context to you is that Tom and I have been geeking out in the in-store opportunity for retailers, um, for a while now, and I think it's really fascinating to think about. 

[00:12:24] Todd: The convenience store experience, um, which, you know, I think to your point, like it to DG transitioning itself from the dollar store to the convenience store or the grocery convenience store as, as an opportunity. And one of the interesting things that comes from the convenience store model is the impulse purchase, the willingness to consider new items. 

[00:12:43] Todd: Which obviously if you're in retail media is a huge opportunity to get sampling behavior, to get trial behavior, to conquest new customers. And so it'd be curious to hear your perspective on Instore as and component of DGMN as, as it's probably core to its business historically, is the in-store [00:13:00] experience versus e-commerce, even as it's trying to grow. 

[00:13:02] Todd: E-commerce now is as a channel. 

[00:13:03] Austin Leonard: Yeah, so we have really savvy customers. So, uh, again, the, the core customer that we serve, um, is typically on a budget like most families are, especially these days. And they're, they're looking to make sure that they get the most out of their money and that they, they can put food on the table, they can keep their homes clean, and they're really looking to stretch those budgets. 

[00:13:22] Austin Leonard: So they're using a lot of those. Digital tools to do that, and the, the in-store experience may be where they check out, but we've got millions of people that are using our app, using our website, and so we've built a lot of digital tools in there so that they make it easy for them to see what the latest deals are, the latest new items, promotions, you mentioned Halloween earlier. 

[00:13:41] Austin Leonard: They're also, you know, they're trying to figure out how do they make the most of their dollars and, and celebrate some of the, the key moments throughout the year that matter to, to them and their family and, and their communities. So for, for example, we've got a shopping list feature and, and, we'll, we'll talk about e-commerce and, you know, I'm excited to talk about that. 

[00:13:57] Austin Leonard: But even just the, the core trip, [00:14:00] you know, from an e-commerce standpoint, our, our shoppers are searching the app, looking at the different items, comparing within the app digitally, just like any other e-commerce place. And they can then add it to their digital shopping list. And that tool allows 'em to, to pre-plan for those trips so they know exactly how much they're gonna spend. 

[00:14:16] Tom: So it seems like you have two different cohorts. You have the traditional, um, people who are, you know, the BFFs who are coming to the store and, you know, they're buying their items and then they, they don't come back for a week or they come back on the filling trip. 

[00:14:29] Tom: Um, but now you have this new cohort, um, particularly with your partnership with DoorDash, where they're not only looking on the app to discover, maybe they're, you know, figure out their shopping list. They're actually completing the whole transaction and getting it delivered to their home. 

[00:14:43] Tom: So it, to me, it's almost like a perfect experiment of seeing this sort of, you know, maybe the more traditional cohort and the newer cohort. What is that doing for your business? 

[00:14:52] Austin Leonard: So we started with DoorDash back in 2021, and that was when we first entered the DoorDash marketplace. And what we have been very vocal [00:15:00] about as we've shared, is that, that we've been. Really happy with the incrementality through that channel. 

[00:15:04] Austin Leonard: And we've expanded that out to, um, obviously, thousands of stores. Uh, and we also, uh, joined, uh, Uber Eats marketplace earlier this year as well. 'cause they have, they have a different audience. The way that that we're thinking about those partners is that it is definitely introducing Dollar General to folks that are especially the Dash Pass shoppers. 

[00:15:24] Austin Leonard: Those are. Folks that are very loyal to that community, that's how they, they like to shop. Uh, and that's been a new channel for us. But what it's also done is really shown, uh, that our customers are looking for those time-saving advantages as well. And so we actually launched DG delivery. It's, it's our, our first party delivery. 

[00:15:41] Austin Leonard: Uh, we launched that earlier this year and, and we, we've publicly said that we'll be in, in over 16,000 stores by the end of the year. And the way that I think about that, 'cause it is definitely a, a new option. Uh, a lot of the DoorDash and, and Uber Eats marketplace things. Those are great incremental new  

[00:15:58] Building Identity Infrastructure 

[00:15:58] Austin Leonard: customer drivers. 

[00:15:59] Austin Leonard: [00:16:00] DG delivery is also allowing us to serve our customers better, helping them to save time and, and money. And many of these customers have not been able to take advantage of the e-commerce wave for those that have lived in the, in the, in the urban markets. That typically, that's where you go first as an e-commerce provider because you can get a lot more orders quicker and it's, it's easier and they don't have the, the network out into, into suburban and rural areas. 

[00:16:24] Austin Leonard: So our communities that we serve have typically been underserved by the entire wave, and we're essentially building the last mile of e-commerce for the last mile of America. And that's, that's a, a very important thing because that last mile of e-commerce is where brands have been very focused on winning, especially, you know, since 2020. 

[00:16:43] Austin Leonard: And we believe that there's a whole subsection of the, of the, the country that they're missing out on. And, and we're, we're bringing that. 

[00:16:49] Todd: Does that. 

[00:16:50] Todd: speak to retail? To bring it back to retail media more specifically then, is that where you're trying to, to, from a, a targeting standpoint, a [00:17:00] campaign standpoint? Is that kind of the focus now then is how do I get Right, that's to the benefit to Tom's comment is, is it pure digital experience? 

[00:17:07] Todd: It's something you can obviously target with retail media and is that kind of now the focus point of what. Where you're trying to go, which is these digital first or digital exclusive experiences as a mechanism to go back to your vendors and brands and say, Hey, here's a new opportunity for you that didn't exist. 

[00:17:22] Todd: And so is that kind of the, the focal point at the moment? 

[00:17:26] Austin Leonard: It, it's a very big focal point for, for DG Media Network. So the, the core part is that as e-commerce has grown, that's become the, the primary source of growth for brands, for both points of distribution and actually overall sales. So they've been over allocating dollars to fund e-commerce, many of them, because that's, that's a big growth lever. 

[00:17:46] Austin Leonard: Also as a digital shopper, if you get in that basket on the first or second trip, you're gonna be much stickier because then you'll, the algorithm will recommend you more the, the, the, the repeat purchases that us as consumers like to do. A lot of times it's easier to just start [00:18:00] with what we already had in there. 

[00:18:01] Austin Leonard: And so for us, you've got a new opportunity now with a whole new subset of customers to be first in basket. And so we're helping our, our partners do that, uh, as, as we start with, with DG delivery. And, you know, we also have all the tools that drive sales across the in-store experience, but now we're truly an omni-channel retailer, so it gives us an opportunity to, to bring new value to the brands from an advertising standpoint, and also to our customers to, to bring them new experiences and help save them 

[00:18:27] Austin Leonard: money. 

[00:18:28] Tom: So, so I, I think this starts to open the door to the conversation of sort of like, what's your tech stack and who are the partners you work with. So obviously that new cohort. Super easy to close that loop and, and, you know, you're, it's all within one logged in system, but you've done a lot of work to make, um, the in-store experience also connect to your loyalty program. 

[00:18:50] Tom: So not just, uh, offering coupons, but, you know, doing things like credit card tokenization and, and all sorts of things that, you know, some of the other groceries or whatever haven't really [00:19:00] haven't gotten to. So I would love to hear you talk about sort of the partners that you've, you. Uh. have at DGMN 

[00:19:06] Austin Leonard: Oh. Yeah. And, and overall Dollar General has invested a lot into that backend. Just like you said, the, it's, it's part of our flywheel and the, the core program is, is my DG . So that is our loyalty program. That is how we help people organize, save money, but it also allows us to learn more about their shopping habits, to be able to deliver them consistent value and also to, from an insights and, and, uh, data perspective, allows us to help be able to serve them relevant messaging. 

[00:19:33] Austin Leonard: And so that, that we've been building on since 2018. And as they, they relaunched the, the media network a couple years ago, uh, very different from, from other partners. They did not have as much digital experience. There wasn't e-commerce and so it was a very much an offsite first business. The vast majority of, of what our tactics offered was offsite through the Trade Desk. 

[00:19:54] Austin Leonard: We can, uh, tap into meta, maybe some, some Google Shopping campaigns, and [00:20:00] we've really continued to evolve that. To be able to, to build on the strong foundation that we've had. Uh, we actually, uh, uh, launched Kevel earlier this year to help upgrade our, our onsite display experience. Uh, we've got Criteo that helps 

[00:20:12] The Convenience Store Shopping Model 

[00:20:12] Austin Leonard: power onsite sponsored product ads, and also some of our commerce display. 

[00:20:17] Austin Leonard: And so we've built this, this really strong foundation, uh, to, from a tactical perspective. Then the, the work that we've done since 2018 on our backend from a data and identity standpoint, allows us to also do very sophisticated measurement. So we've been following the, the IAB measurement standards, uh, throughout, uh, once they become official in 2024. 

[00:20:36] Austin Leonard: But we've, we've also been right there at the forefront in really making sure that we're. Bringing holistic measurement and, uh, we're following all of the IAB standards so that our brands can, can trust what they're seeing and we can help show them the incremental sales that 

[00:20:50] Austin Leonard: we're driving, as well as the standard media metrics that they  

[00:20:52] Austin Leonard: would come to expect.  

[00:20:53] Tom: So on the ID resolution part of it. 

[00:20:55] Tom: 'cause this is, this is interesting to our audience. So who do you work with? There. [00:21:00] What does that sort of do in terms of the, the measurement capabilities? 'cause it'd be interesting to hear sort of, you know, yes, you're using IAB standards. Does that go fully omni-channel? 

[00:21:10] Tom: What does that look like today? Where's that going? So. 

[00:21:13] Austin Leonard: Yeah, dollar General uses Bridg to help identify and then target in-store customers that aren't in the loyalty programs. Tying that, that have the digital profile. We also work with LiveRamp from a data collaboration and, and from a measurement standpoint and, and, and including, uh, our data clean room capabilities. 

[00:21:29] Austin Leonard: And so that that ecosystem, when you are able to pull it all together, allows us to, to do measurement in a, in a different way and, and obviously just do typical retail media, closed loop reporting. But also with the 21,000 stores that in footprint, it allows us to, to really get extremely targeted. We can cover a lot of different geos that they can't get in a, in a standard ad buy. 

[00:21:52] Austin Leonard: Uh, over 50% of of the audiences that we have within the trade desk are incremental to any other third party data provider [00:22:00] that that's in the trade desk. And so that allows us to bring a lot of unique, uh, audiences to unique audiences and 

[00:22:06] Austin Leonard: reach to, to the brands. 

[00:22:07] Todd: It's interesting you talk about marketing your audiences and trade desk. A lot of retail media, uh, networks are not promoting their audiences that way. They're using Trade Desk for offsite targeting. They're not necessarily explicitly sort of promoting themselves through, which is these, these segments and, and these, these data profiles, which is typical in publisher media land. 

[00:22:29] Todd: Like this is the way most publishers get people to sample their media to use a retailer type of phrase. Um, there's sort of the sampling experience from media buying that that's often typical. So it's interesting you're taking, using that tactic, a very traditional publisher tactic to attract interest in your network as. 

[00:22:49] Todd: As a place to go spend dollars. 

[00:22:51] Austin Leonard: Yeah, and, and I think that's where the expectations of brands have really changed. So when, when you, you know, a couple years ago if you started Retail Media Network, it was really easy to [00:23:00] focus on the shopper teams. Managed services is really key and a big part of our business too. There's a lot of our, our teams that need us to run those campaigns, but brands have have gotten to a place both organizationally and with their agencies where they want to have hands on keyboard for the vast majority of what they're doing, and they want to be able to access it in the platforms where they're doing their national media buying. 

[00:23:20] Austin Leonard: So that they can be more sophisticated, they can actually tie those strategies together. So as a fast follower to retail media and being able to build those tools, we really lean into that and, and especially what I've done as I've, I've come here and talked to our brand partners and asked them what they need from us. 

[00:23:35] Austin Leonard: They've, they've been very vocal on, Hey, you guys have really leaned into what you built with the Trade Desk and with LiveRamp to make your audiences available. And we're trying to make it easier for them to include us in their plans because we're such a big part of their, their business from a sales side, but also from a media standpoint. 

[00:23:50] Austin Leonard: We're a core part of, uh, any buy that covers the entire us. If, if you don't have dg you're missing out on large portions of, of 

[00:23:58] Austin Leonard: the US in both customer [00:24:00] count and, and 

[00:24:00] Austin Leonard: also 

[00:24:01] Todd: Well that's fascinating. You sort of, it's interesting 'cause one of the questions that has emerged across retail media land. Is, how do I track more of those national dollars? How do I track more of those traditional media budgets that aren't sort of shopper budgets or trade budgets? And it's funny, you're talking about being a fast follower, actually, if you're leveraging and promoting your  

[00:24:21] Omnichannel Evolution and Digital Expansion 

[00:24:21] Todd: audiences in Trade Desk and via LiveRamp. 

[00:24:23] Todd: That actually isn't fast follower. That's, that's actually a bit of a leading, uh, you're, you're a leader in that regard. Um, I think if I were to interview a number of other retail media folks and ask that question, are you making your audiences available in Trade Desk for just general targeting? Nine outta 10 wouldn't be, so pat yourself on the back a little bit more in that regard of, of being more of a leader in that, because I think that's an interesting tactic. 

[00:24:46] Todd: That we can promote to other retail media platforms to saying, Hey, if you're trying to get more visibility on national dollars against these national brand campaigns and these budgets, a way to surface yourself is through these [00:25:00] audience, uh, segments and, and is through these data programs inside, um, a platform like Trade Desk where you can say, Hey, again, as the media guy, as these planners and, and. 

[00:25:09] Todd: Programmatic campaign managers are in trade desk. They're trying to figure out what audiences are available, where, where they can be targeting and they do queries and say, oh, they can see it. Look at Dollar General. This is a great, I didn't know that they had their data available. Oh, look where they're giving me market coverage, where I didn't necessarily have that before in different, you know, DMAs and, and et cetera. 

[00:25:28] Todd: And so I think that's an interesting thing to promote. Across the landscape of, of others can be doing this too, as a way to how do I get in front of these national buyers? Well, they're logged into a trade desk and here's a way to do that. 

[00:25:40] Austin Leonard: Yeah. And it is one of the things that attracted me here. You know, when you think about the, the growing omnichannel story and, and when, uh, Tony Rogers, uh, my CMO, when he called and asked if I was interested in talking about the opportunity, and he started telling me the story, and, and as I've explored more. 

[00:25:55] Austin Leonard: Again, there's a really strong foundation here. There's a really unique story to tell. It's a very [00:26:00] national footprint. So there was a lot of things from a, just a, a media standpoint that, uh, helps build a, a lot of credibility for retail media network at Dollar General and for us to, to be part of those plans. 

[00:26:12] Austin Leonard: And then as I learned more about the tech stack and the tools, they, they're not like. We're not getting enough credit for a lot of the work that we've done. And it's, it's a fun story to tell. So you mentioned earlier that's Tom, that's why I've been, you know, getting the opportunity to do a lot of these different podcasts and, and, uh, press opportunities. 

[00:26:28] Austin Leonard: 'cause I think it's an awesome story to tell and most people haven't heard it yet. So my job as, as the GM is to help make sure that people understand that, that they're missing out if 

[00:26:36] Austin Leonard: they're not really leaning into, to Dollar General  

[00:26:39] Tom: So let's, let's keep going with that. 'cause when you were talking to me at grocery shop, um, I was obviously excited to, to talk to you about this, but you mentioned something, uh, about. Getting to investment grade. And so I want Todd to hear this, um, in get investment grade media with brands. So what, what's the challenge there? 

[00:26:56] Tom: What's still left to do to make that, uh, a reality? And [00:27:00] then can we laugh a little bit about what is, what is investment grade and what ist so. 

[00:27:04] Austin Leonard: Yeah. And, and I do not get any credit for, for that term that comes from the, our supplier, our brand community, and I think very basic. Uh. What they want to do is they want to be able to take media and compare it against their other media options and media spends if you don't have the ability to, to give them the third party tracking. 

[00:27:23] Austin Leonard: Uh, if you're not following the IAB, if you're not MRC accredited, those are all things that make it harder for you to compete with the, the national options that are out there, the, the Googles and the Metas of the world. Uh, and they're not able to invest their dollars from a, purely marketing media standpoint. 

[00:27:37] Austin Leonard: And then it becomes more of a, of a trader shopper conversation. And I think that most retailers are going through the same journey and they're all at different stages. But what I've come in and seen is that we've, we need to address those things, especially as we've got this great growing pool of, of onsite inventory that we know that the brands want to be able to tap into, to talk to our customers and help drive sales [00:28:00] and, and brand awareness. 

[00:28:01] Austin Leonard: But they also need to make sure that it's media that stacks up against their other media options. And that's when it becomes investment grade. If you can invest your national media dollars, 'cause it's media, it's not just a trade or a shopper investment, that's where you can actually grow a real business. 

[00:28:16] Austin Leonard: And it becomes a partnership with them because we can do  

[00:28:18] Media Network Capabilities and Partnerships 

[00:28:18] Austin Leonard: things that the other media platforms can't, but we can also do the media things that they need in order to show that it's actually a media investment and, and not a, a trader 

[00:28:27] Austin Leonard: shopper 

[00:28:27] Todd: Well, I think the key thing there, and we've, we've been telling this story a lot over the last, you know, year plus that we've been, we've been, uh, having these discussions on the middlemen, which is. How do retailers attract those national dollars? What's necessary to do that? And we've, we've talked a lot about retailers as publishers, you have to look and talk like a publisher. 

[00:28:45] Todd: You have to act more like this. And the language and things you're describing are effectively that. Like, look, hey, if you're selling to the people who normally buy from publishers, you better walk, talk, and act and look like what they're used to buying. And I think you're, you're, you know, what's, what's nice about your story [00:29:00] here with DGMN is this. 

[00:29:02] Todd: You know, hey, if you act and talk and look like a publisher and you plug into the places where they normally buy national media from publishers, you too can get bought. And so I think that's, that's kind of, I think, good confirmation of what we've been saying, which is if you do that, success can follow. 

[00:29:20] Austin Leonard: And well, well said, well said, Todd. I think it's, it's really important that you have a unique story to tell, and, and as a retailer, you tell your story and I think we've got a, a great story to tell. Then you have to make it easy to buy, and I'm, I'm really focused on how do I make it easier for the brands that we partner with to buy however they wanna buy. 

[00:29:37] Austin Leonard: And hands on keyboard. We've got great teams that run campaigns for them, new tools that, that we've been focused on. Um, and, and you know, just really, uh, as I like to say, what we're leveling up. So 

[00:29:47] Austin Leonard: it's Dollar General Media Network level up 

[00:29:49] Austin Leonard: season. 

[00:29:50] Todd: I think a lot of times to my comment about patting yourself on the back, which is , you feel like you're a fast follower. You feel like you're catching up, and maybe with regards to Amazon, Walmart, everyone [00:30:00] is in that bucket. But in the world of that non-Amazon, Walmart community of retail media networks, I would argue you're much more leading edge in your willingness to adapt yourself to the norms of media buying, to the norms of media selling and, you know, credits to, to DG for, for. 

[00:30:19] Todd: Pursuing that and having success. And just to my earlier comment of, hey retailers, if you wanna capture more dollars and if you wanna capture brand dollars, we've been saying this as the playbook, and here's proof, right? DG has come in and, and they're willing to embrace traditional media selling and traditional media buying. 

[00:30:37] Todd: And if you do that, look, buyers will show up. And I think that's an important lesson here. Yes, you have the advantage of, you have a national footprint. That definitely helps, on the national media buyer scale does matter, right? That is, it's a hard truth. Or you need to have super specific inventory that is incredibly valuable and therefore they're gonna go outta their way to find you and buy it. 

[00:30:57] Todd: But so your your, you know, your ability to say, Hey, we've got this [00:31:00] unique audience, we've got these unique touch points, and yet we do it at scale, is a compelling story. Having myself sold media in the past, I think, you know, you guys are selling in the way that. Media buyers are used to, to hearing and wanting to buy. 

[00:31:12] Todd: So kudos to you and, and what you're doing and how you're helping them transition and be successful and grow that 15%, that's not Amazon, Walmart. And so it becomes 15, 30, 50%, which we fully expect it to become over time. 

[00:31:24] Austin Leonard: And, and that's before we even talk about the in-store media  

[00:31:26] Todd: Right? Like, and we're super excited. Like I, I 

[00:31:28] Todd: can't wait for you guys to have 20,000 stores and have 20 to 40,000 screens, and I think it's gonna be a huge home run. For, you know, DG given the scale of stores, like your footprint of stores, and we've talked about in-store traffic as, as this gold mine of opportunity for retail media because it's truly unique that the right, the walled gardens aren't gonna be able to compete well with that, um, in, in my opinion. 

[00:31:52] Todd: And so it's an opportunity to do really well. So, you know, I'd love to hear, as you think, because I, you know, I think this transitions to is where does DGMN [00:32:00] go in the future and what's on the horizon and in store, I gotta imagine in screens or whatever it is, audio screens. It's gotta be on the roadmap. 

[00:32:07] Austin Leonard: Well, so, so our ecosystem today is, uh, we partner with Neptune and Vestcom. There's, uh, a number of different in-store signage, whether it's a category sign, a shelf talker, a shelf tag. We've got a lot of those tools. It's a very robust and mature ecosystem in our world. And  

[00:32:22] Trip-Based Targeting Strategy 

[00:32:22] Austin Leonard: it's a, a very key tool that our, our, both our brands, our merchants and our shoppers use to help find products. 

[00:32:29] Austin Leonard: Again, save money, look at like comparison shop and look at those deals. And then we've been running a pilot this year, and by the way, 

[00:32:35] Austin Leonard: pilot in our terms is, is 6,000 stores. So 

[00:32:38] Todd: Wow. That's, you know, by the way, for, for the non retails 

[00:32:41] Todd: of the world, 6,000 is a crap ton. 

[00:32:45] Austin Leonard: Yeah. So, um, we have, uh, uh, not told the story while in market. I think, because it is a, it's a, a, a big untapped opportunity, even right now, today that's live. And so we're, we're gonna be continuing to lean into things that we think help [00:33:00] differentiate us, the ability to, to measure our entire ecosystem, both in store and online. 

[00:33:05] Austin Leonard: And how those in-store media tactics, 

[00:33:07] Austin Leonard: uh, work together is, is a big focus of, of my team 

[00:33:10] Austin Leonard: and 

[00:33:10] Todd: I mean, as we dive into more in-store opportunities, Tom, I think we're gonna need to do a field trip. Do a walk and talk around the store to really talk about this because the, you know, Sarah Marzano for eMarketer, her biggest complaint is like people announced they're doing, they're rolling out  

[00:33:24] Todd: in store and they got two stores out of, out of  

[00:33:27] Todd: 4,000  

[00:33:28] Todd: And if you're saying no, Todd, I've. Hundreds, thousands of, of stores and avails like this is, it'll be great to do a follow up, you know, as kind of to this discussion and sort of, you know,  

[00:33:37] Todd: in detail. So I'm setting you up,  

[00:33:39] Todd: Tom for a field trip.  

[00:33:41] Tom: I was gonna say, don't, you don't have to accept yet, but anytime you want me in Goodlettsville be down there. I don't know, when do you get down there? I don't even know if you live there yet, but, um. 

[00:33:49] Austin Leonard: Out there all the time. Yeah. So, you know, couple times a month, uh, spend time with my team there. Uh, but you know. We're right now, especially as, uh, in the season that we're in of both planning for next [00:34:00] year working with our partners and also like helping the brands figure out their annual plan for next year. 

[00:34:05] Austin Leonard: Uh, a lot, a lot of time on the road, you know, was at grocery shop and obviously, uh, at the Ascendant 

[00:34:11] Austin Leonard: network. And, uh, we've got  

[00:34:12] Austin Leonard: CES coming up, so  

[00:34:14] Tom: see you there.  

[00:34:15] Todd: are you guys one, one of the 

[00:34:16] Todd: things that, and actually I was gonna get to, right, we got CES coming up NRF. You've got Shop Talk in March next year, which is one of the things that we, last year at CES is a couple of the retailers, um, built a showcase like retail media store to walk. Their, their vendors through, and I mean, Las Vegas has dgs and it might make sense to do something like that, whether they're on NRF, whether about shop talk or around, um, CES is, is to do that. 

[00:34:44] Todd: That, because I think it would be great to showcase, and I think we're gonna see more of this, like just putting in front of media buyers to realize, look at these cool things that are coming. Like I'm so geeked out about in store as a bit a digital guy because the connection, like the targeting to be able to do targeting [00:35:00] as someone's walking down the aisle. 

[00:35:01] Todd: And, and, you know, conquest ads and promotion ads and, and in terms of this is really what programmatic was meant for, is like these real time unique opportunities that can't be really managed any other way. This has been the promise of digital media for 25 years, and we're gonna finally see it in the retailer store. 

[00:35:20] Todd: It's gonna be so cool to see it. 

[00:35:22] Austin Leonard: Yeah, and, and I started my career in radio, so you. Think about how much fun that is for me now to, to have that audio back in, in my life, in my portfolio, but also with now the power of that first party data to measure it. Because in, in radio back when I was selling it, you measured based on whether or not 

[00:35:37] Austin Leonard: they ad ran and by these tiny panels of whether or not  

[00:35:40] Todd: The Arbitron panels 

[00:35:41] Todd: and things, the in car stuff. Yeah. No, it's, it's super cool of what we're gonna be able to do with audio and video in store and promotions. And Tom likes to talk about the, the e tags, you know, in terms of the aisles. Like there's so much cool stuff that's gonna be happening, you know, realtime promotions, realtime coupons,  

[00:35:56] Todd: realtime audio based on on foot traffic. 

[00:35:58] Todd: It's  

[00:35:59] Todd: gonna be [00:36:00] amazing to see what  

[00:36:00] Austin Leonard: said.  

[00:36:00] Todd: this stuff. 

[00:36:01] Tom: I would, yeah.  

[00:36:05] Todd: Well, no, in terms of, like, my example is as right, I'm a media guy and, you know, thinking about targeting and how is this stuff, and, and the one I like to talk about is if you've ever been in, you know, some of the rides at Disney, the rock and roll rollercoaster is a great example. 

[00:36:18] Todd: When you come through the queue, the signs will mention people in line You'll see your name as you walk by an electronic, messaging board. And imagine your ability to go down the store and say, Hey, Todd, would you like 15% off today on this item? 

[00:36:35] Todd: As you're  

[00:36:35] Future of Dollar General Media Network 

[00:36:35] Todd: doing that, like, that's where this gets real. You know, the first time you see it's maybe a little bit of a creepy factor, but once you get, once you're used to it, it's be like, oh yeah, thanks. Right? Hey, you bought this, you know, we saw you bought Tide last week. Would you like a, you know, if you wanna try. 

[00:36:47] Todd: Today and get 25% off, like, holy cow. Or , if you'd like this other brand that we've got in, you know, to especially 'cause of the rotating, inventory that you guys have. Some amazingly cool stuff that's gonna, I think emerge, um, in these [00:37:00] environments. 

[00:37:00] Austin Leonard: I totally agree. I totally agree. You can tell why I was excited and, and, uh, why, even though I've only been here four months, uh, we're we're deep in the 

[00:37:06] Austin Leonard: weeds and, uh, really excited about 2026 and the  

[00:37:10] Todd: Well, I think the other follow on there is that going back to the 

[00:37:12] Todd: tech, tech stack is um, and to DGS credit, DG is investing in real tech platforms, right? These are the, the leaders of the industry, the kes, the Criteo's, the whatever. And I think that's another thing which is credit to dg, which is, I think we think of them as like, oh, the discount. 

[00:37:29] Todd: But behind the scenes is a, is a clearly a company that's willing to invest in the platforms and tools necessary to do something well. And so I think that's an interesting perception, which is, you know what they're, they're a real considerate company willing to invest in real platforms to deliver value to their customers. 

[00:37:47] Todd: And so I think that's another thing here is the takeaway, which is they're not the discount provider.  

[00:37:51] Todd: Right in the way that they're  

[00:37:53] Todd: running  

[00:37:54] Tom: Well, I think the  

[00:37:55] Todd: They're a legitimate company running a very  

[00:37:57] Todd: sophisticated business and offering sophisticated tools to  

[00:37:59] Todd: their [00:38:00] customers.  

[00:38:00] Tom: so I think the way they thread the needle there, and this is potentially a theme for this, is doing more with less, and I think the customers of dg, the BFFs. Have to do more with less. 'cause they may be on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Um, DG has always, you know, bought places like the old blockbusters and then renovated them and, you know, they've, they've taken in these capabilities. 

[00:38:23] Tom: You talked about neptune and vestcom, so it's starting with the cardboard or starting with the stickers, but you're gonna get there. And so I think my, my last question for you is sort of when you look at the future of this as you get to investment grade with brands. Is it like multi-touch attribution? Is that sort of like, like how do you, how do you get it to a place where you're not overspending, you're using good partners like Todd said, but you're, you're making this work in an economical way. 

[00:38:51] Tom: 'cause it seems like DG is very good at doing that. 

[00:38:54] Austin Leonard: Yeah. Yeah. And, and my mission really is, is how do we help serve others? That's what we do as a company. [00:39:00] Specifically my role, my job is to serve our advertisers and make sure that they've got the right tools that can, then they can better serve our customers. And as you're looking at all the different levers in the ecosystem, I think it's really important to be able to look at all those tools and figure out, based on your marketing need, what are you trying to accomplish? 

[00:39:15] Austin Leonard: What is the right tool? Because sometimes you have to be right there at the shelf because that is a very price conscious trip. That's a very price conscious consumer. And that's the, the moment of, of truth there. The, the zero moment of truth as we, we like to talk about, but working backwards and up from there. 

[00:39:31] Austin Leonard: If they don't know your product is in the store, if they don't know that product is available or that you have a new offer or, or an exclusive flavor, then you have to tell that story digitally. But how that all comes together so that we can maximize the investments are a key part of what we're trying to do because we, it, it helps us together as we partner with our brands to, to grow our business together and again, better serve our customers. 

[00:39:52] Austin Leonard: So, you know, those, those are the core things that, that we're focused on. And, you know, I'm excited. We, we even just, uh, I didn't even talk about this earlier, but [00:40:00] we, we, 

[00:40:00] Austin Leonard: even just announced we're part of IAB, so not only are we trying  

[00:40:03] Todd: That's a big deal.  

[00:40:04] Austin Leonard: partner. We're, we're a member of the IAB for the first time ever. 

[00:40:08] Austin Leonard: And that's, uh, an investment into our industry because we know that they're helping us by having the standards out there that we're contributing to and 

[00:40:16] Austin Leonard: following to help deliver those results to our advertisers. 

[00:40:19] Todd: It's acting like a 

[00:40:19] Todd: publisher because Right. The whole point of, of, and again, that's my point, it's a big deal is not all retailers are doing that yet. And so it speaks to DGS willingness to, again, tell them to the advertising community. No, we're looking to be a, a valued player and follow the, the rules and standards that everyone else does to, to your point, to make it easy to work with us. 

[00:40:38] Todd: And I think that's a big lesson to other retailers, which is if you wanna be successful. To, you know, deliver a good platform, but also make it easy to work with in the way that you already buy media. And I think that's you, you guys clearly seem to be doing a lot in that regard and you know it, it's a good roadmap to others 

[00:40:53] Austin Leonard: Well speed roadmaps that, you know, as you said at the beginning, Tom, you know, I'm glad we got a chance to catch up, Todd. I think you can see now why, why we get excited about [00:41:00] talking about this stuff and specifically DGMN and I think you said it's 

[00:41:03] Austin Leonard: the first of a, a multi-part series here, so,  

[00:41:06] Todd: We're dying 

[00:41:06] Todd: to see it. Like the walk and talk is absolutely needs to get done and look forward to, to, you know, seeing the video of you, you know, walking around the store with Tom to sort of showcase this because that whole next part of the journey of retail media is gonna be so cool and so different and really an extension of where, you know, digital advertising is going and a really interesting way where  

[00:41:25] Todd: digital meets physical. 

[00:41:26] Todd: And IRL super  

[00:41:27] Todd: excited about that.  

[00:41:29] Tom: Yeah, middlemen are, we're investing in more, uh, more gear. We're gonna be doing more in-person stuff. Uh, yeah, so, so stay tuned for that. Audience in 2026, but thank you Austin for joining us on the middleman. 

[00:41:42] Austin Leonard: Thanks for having me on, guys. Great talking with you. 

[00:41:44]  

[00:41:44] ​