Matt Sutton

Announcing Aperiam's Latest Investment: Gigi! 🍒 Aperiam continues to make strategic bets in commerce media and CTV, the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising. With Amazon Ads being the largest commerce media channel AND the fastest-growing Streaming TV ad platform, we are excited to introduce our latest investment: Gigi. Why Gigi? 1) The product. Gigi’s unique ability to integrate a brand's first-party commerce data with Amazon's data for audience enrichment and deterministic omnichannel measurement sets it apart. This powerful combination enables brands and agencies to buy and measure Amazon Streaming TV ads more effectively. 2) The team. The founders behind Gigi consists of experienced commerce media executives - led by cofounder and CEO, Adam Epstein - who have a bold vision for the future of Streaming TV, commerce media, and data collaboration and a history of success in commerce media. Their expertise ensures that Gigi is at the forefront of innovation in this space. We believe Gigi’s capabilities and the vision of its team will drive significant advancements in how brands leverage data to enhance their advertising strategies on Amazon’s platform. Check out Gigi here: https://gigico.tv/ cc: James Borow Joe Zawadzki Danilo Tauro, PhD

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Folks, we have an exciting webinar TODAY on the hottest topic in the media industry right now: Retail Media or Commerce Media. We have an outstanding panelist lined up, and you definitely don't want to miss it. If you're a CPG marketer, this topic is a must for you. I assure you that you'll walk away with actionable insights to bring back to your organization. Click the link below to register. Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Great and provocative read on Liquid Deaths’s success story. So many insights and examples which are relevant for FMCG challenger brands as well. Mark Ritson claims that “… if you step back and look at the original ‘four Ps’, it is almost impossible not to acknowledge that while the promotional P has its place, the product P is invariably the most important tactical consideration. Shitty marketing can surely kill a great product, but without a successful, product even the best marketing does little other than speed its own demise.” And I fully agree (see my earlier post for details) - so if you’re not yet following Mark, do it asap. It’s worth it (and entertaining). #challengerbrands #productlaunches #offlineretail

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More than just media.

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There's a war looming between CPG and Private Label. And it's one I think CPG can win. Traditional CPG consisted of knockoffs of conventional brands. They were an annoyance, but mostly harmless to quality CPG brands. But there's a new higher quality 2nd Generation PL cresting the horizon. We see it clearly with Walmart's new Bettergoods. Which joins the ranks of Trader Joe's and Target's Good & Gather. Here's the nature of the very real problem for CPG: CPG Brand Value Prop -> Superior Benefits. Conventional PL Value Prop -> Low Cost. Next Generation PL Value Prop -> Low Cost + Superior Benefits. (Never mind that many 2nd Gen PL Brands rip off the CPG Brands they share the shelf with.) Of course, many PL Brands have backing that CPG just can't compete with. The challenge can certainly seem insurmountable, especially as the trend grows. But CPG Brands have their own centers of gravity that PL just can't touch. Here's how many smart CPG Brands are protecting their share of the Market, even in a tough Economy: 1. Serve Consumer 5.0, wherever they prefer to shop. (Consumer 5.0 shifts at will to channels where fulfillment is the most optimal.) 2. Provide a Unified Commerce Experience. (Bridge channel limits, and allow customers to flow seemlessly between them.) 3. Leverage advanced shopper Marketing. (PL Brands leverage very little shopper Marketing like Instacart and Aisle.) 4. Embrace agility. (PL is often years behind CPG innovation in product, packaging, and category creation.) 5. 10x Consumer Engagement. (People are starved for connection. Creatively and publicly reward consumers for supporting your brand.) In the end, the power of a Brand is directly correlated with the strength of the Economy. Again: The power of a Brand is directly correlated with the strength of the Economy. So those things consumers love about CPG? We might need to double down in 2024. There are things we CANNOT control, no matter how hard we try. It can often be best to focus on what we CAN control. ______ 🔷 DM me for help with Retail or Amazon growth 🔷 Growing Brands in Whole Foods, Walmart, Kroger, Target, CVS, Amazon, and More. #ecommerce #retailmedia #shoppermarketing #instacart #cpg #cpgbrands #retailgrowth #retailmarketing #Amazon #walmart

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How important is content in CPG? Right now, I could argue it's one of the most crucial areas a business should focus on. It's as important as the CEO, COO, and CFO roles. PepsiCo recently hired a CCO, a Chief Creative Officer. This newly created role oversees creative but, more importantly, CONTENT. The CCO said on stage yesterday at Collision that Pepsi will be a media empire in the coming months and years. What does this mean for SMBs, and how should you be thinking about content? 1. Be the CCO. Put that hat on, and if you don't have the skill set, outsource it early on. Act as the leader, not the content producer, unless that's your skill set. 2. Partner with a team. If content creation isn't your strength, collaborate with a team that can produce content at scale across different platforms/retailers. Allow that team to operate as if they are an internal team. This is the model we encourage and execute at GreenFresh . 3. Lead with video. Our entire strategy at GreenFresh moving forward is to lead with video and work backward. Listening to this panel, what struck me was Pepsi's team setup. They have a brand team, a content team in-house, and an outsourced content and ad team. Even with all these resources, they still outsource and value an agency model.

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Movie tie-ins -- Builds brand recognition? Keeps the brand fresh? Or just for fun? Kraft Heinz, amongst many others, is jumping on the Marvel Entertainment Deadpool and Wolverine hype wagon as they try to show they can still generate $1B+ in movie ticket sales. Will it affect sales of ketchup and mustard in any significant way? What happens to all the promotional tie-in packaging once the summer movie season ends? Or will it just get people like me to write about it? #ecommerce #movietieins #customerexperience #zeitgeist

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eCommerce & CPG Strategy: $1T Global advertising & Retail Media Great visual by the EMARKETER team. Thought starters: (3) 1. Do you have a balanced media strategy? 2. Is it aligned to your priority consumer segments and path to purchase? 3. Do you have systems and capabilities to capture and measure value? Key stats: (2) 💰 +9% — Global ad spend will grow this year. 💰 +12% — Growth is driven by digital ad spend. Key Themes: (3) 🔑 Digital will account for 70% of overall media ad spend worldwide. 🔑 Nearly every country (ex. Argentina) will see its digital ad spend grow this year. 🔑 Global ad spend will pass the $1 trillion milestone next year. Ways to reach us: Pattern® The CPG View The Retail eCommerce Club #ecommerce #digital #omnichannel #strategy #cmo #cdo #ceo #cro #leadership #retailecommerceclub #cpg #privateequity #playtowin

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We are spending 31% less on #RetailMedia to get the exact same sales. How? Both #Target and #BestBuy (and others) have a Retail Media solution where the search bidding is a first price auction vs. second price. #Amazon and #Walmart are second price. What is the difference? In it's simplest form... 🖋 First price auction is where what you bid is what you pay 🖋 Second price auction is you only pay ~$0.01 more than the next "best" bid (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) ("Best" is in air quotes because it's not that simple) Without strong bid strategies, intelligence and frankly a lot of attention to the data, a set it and forget it strategy for non-Amazon/Walmart search spend strategies can lead to overpaying. For the last 4 weeks, we are currently working with a client that by finding the right (lower) bids on their current non-branded targets, with 31% less spend we reaching the same: ➡ Total Ad Sales ➡ Total Reach ➡ Total Engagement (CTR + Absolute Clicks) ➡ Same Share of Voice The hope is that these dollars can now be redeployed to test new strategies and invest in other opportunities from the same retailer. Note - I'm not saying it's just that easy. It's all about understanding the retailer platform and not assuming #WalmartConnect is the same as #AmazonAds, #AmazonAds are not the same as #Roundel, #BestBuyAds, etc. I remain bullish that finding a real expert is important vs. someone's side job. The Bluebird Group has a broad set of experts across all #RetailMedia channels. For those traditional first price auction experts, I'd love to hear what strategies you find to be the most impactful!

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What really excites me about this campaign is that it validates what we, as consumers, intuitively feel about advertising. Whether we’re alone scrolling late at night or curled up on the couch with family ready to binge our favorite show, mindset matters. Signal loss is real, but the one signal that won’t deprecate is our love of stories. If you know what interests your customers, then reach then when they are watching the shows and movies they love. As a viewer, I’m excited that advertising is going to be a whole lot better. As a member of IRIS.TV, I’m excited that we can make game-changing AI solutions like Captify®, GumGum, KERV Interactive, Pixability, and Silverpush accessible to brand pioneers like CKE Restaurants, Inc. and their CMO Jennifer Tate and marketing innovators like PMG and their visionaries Sam Bloom, Michael Treon, Doug Paladino, and Stephen Governale who are showing us all how to bring the art and science back to marketing. #innovation #marketing #advertising #digitalmarketing #streamingmedia #streaming #ai #adtech #programmatic #FAST #ctv #connectedtv #contextualadvertising

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Of course it works for Prime Day, but the real story is how well radio works for less-Amazonian e-tailers. A 15:1 sales/spend ROI is pretty damn good no matter what size you are. #RadioAdvertising #Advertising #ecommerce

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Brunello Cucinelli’s new AI-powered website (link in comments) is an interesting—but immature—example of how genAI could reshape brand experiences. I was pretty excited when I read the announcement: Cucinelli just launched their new corporate website (which, mind you, is separate from their commerce property), powered by an in-house AI suite called Solomei AI. If you visit Solomei’s website (link in comments), it paints a compelling picture of what the product can do. But then I visited Cucinelli’s new website, and it is… a bit underwhelming? I mean—yes, it has beautiful illustrations and a cool way of presenting them. It’s nice to look at, but nothing I have not seen in a few designer portfolios before. Yes, it has a chatbot that can point you to the content you’re looking for. Interesting, but again—I’m getting quite used to having a ChatGPT prompt everywhere. And that’s… pretty much it. Some content, some illustrations, and a prompt input. There is no personalization whatsoever. As far as I can see, everyone gets the same exact experience. The website and chatbot do not know anything about Cucinelli’s products. There’s no way to buy them, let alone learn about them. (Although they mentioned this is planned.) The whole thing screams MVP—by Cucinelli’s team’s own admission. And while I can certainly appreciate a team that ships early and iterates, I’d say the PR push behind this was a little too much compared to the actual product. In thought no. 30 (link in comments), I wrote: “Far from being a collective artifact, the brand of the future will be remixed and reshaped to appease you and you only. It will be dynamic, 1:1, and real-time—all the time.” As always, however, there’s a disconnect between what we wish AI did and what it does today. We want deep, always-on personalization; instead, we’re getting chatbots (which are almost always a subpar UI) and AI-generated blog posts. I’m still bullish that we’ll get there, but I don’t think it’s happening just yet. #ecommerce #ai #brand #marketing #retail

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I really enjoyed this Marketecture Pod by Harry Kargman. He said what we all know to be true: "If you even look at Trade Desk today...are they even a DSP or an ad network or a data company, or all the rest, you can't put anything in a box." But what I do know is what a black box looks like. So if you don't know where your ads are running (ie: domain level reporting with log files to back them up) or how much you are paying for them now, (beyond the platform fee, or the variable/blended margin), then I can tell you with a large degree of certainty that you are you are probably lighting 50-60% of your media dollars on fire once it actually gets to the end human, which you aren't also tracking to be true. Keep in mind, your screenshots are also made up. AI can do that for me now too. If you don't believe me, hit me up via DM and I'll tell you where you money is being wasted. https://lnkd.in/gHxmHeZ7 CC: Lizzie Black Brittany Smartt Batchelor

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Instacart not having negative keywords as an option is the best example of what "machine learning" actually costs brands to support. The best solution I've found? Take their auto applied keywords and make their bid the lowest possible (30 cents). I built a really solid ads structure supporting each of our Target sku's and woke up to us bidding on "Ben and Jerry's" as a "optimized auto applied suggesition" for our Vanilla Ice Cream Whey. Gee, I wonder what sophisticated dev team decided "auto bid on product title". Yeah, in the world of CPG there could neeevvverrr be issues with that. Who leads this team and how much do you make. (Hint: too much). Happy Friday to everyone except overpaid leadership that don't actually understand what they're building and get paid boat loads of money for it.

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We're running a webinar for Brands in a couple of weeks' time on Retail Media from an Advertiser's perspective (all of the information can be found below). If you're a CPG Brand Manager, Shopper Marketer, Ecommerce Owner, or you're in Digital Marketing, this could be a helpful session for you. A lot of the content out there right now is based on the theory - our intention for this session is to make it super practical & based on real-life case studies of those who we think are getting it right. We have a great panel line up, so you'll be hearing contributions from brands on how they're working in their organisations to set up for success in this 'new world' of advertising and I'm hoping they'll also be brave enough to tell you what they've gotten wrong too!

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This is a must-read for CMOs! Mars United Commerce spoke with CMOs at leading retailers to hear what business challenges they are currently facing. Michele Roney outlines three key capabilities retailer CMOs must build within their marketing organizations to help tackle these challenges. Link to read it in the comments 👇

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The odds of raising venture capital as a CPG in 2024? Less than 1%. Brutal, but true. Of the tens of thousands of brands currently operating in the US market, just 51 closed venture deals in Q2-24. This number is down from 54 in Q1-24. Here's a quick look at the descending trajectory of CPG venture $s over the past 3 years: Q2-22 --> $562m (99 deals) Q2-23 --> $466m (81 deals) Q2-24 --> $295m (51 deals) In an economic environment prioritizing profitability > all else, the criteria brands need to clear in order to close this type of financial support is staggering. A few key requirements for brands attempting to pull this off: ✅ Outstanding products ✅ Best in class unit economics ✅ Mass market growth potential ✅ Operational excellence (production, GTM) ✅ Ownership drive to exit in reasonable timeframe If the box isn't checked on all of the above venture funding is likely not in the cards. And that may not be such a bad thing. Venture tends to be an odd fit for the vast majority of CPGs and should typically be reserved for the outliers. The best path forward as a founder? Raise as little outside $ as possible. Control your own destiny. MUCH easier said than done. But in 2024 and beyond, optionality > everything. Stay nimble, my friends. h/t FABID BevNET.com Ryan Williams for the report. Link in comments. #cpg #funding #venturecapital #venture

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Last week, two important Q1 reports on retail were released: CNBC & National Retail Federation and Adobe Analytics Media Alert.  MoM CNBC and National Retail Federation data showed a 0.26% increase from March to April; however, YoY sales are slightly down by 0.5% overall. The movement in the overall retail space remains stagnant without statistically significant momentum in either direction. In contrast, ecommerce continues to accelerate, rising 7% YoY in the face of macroeconomic global headwinds and diminished Venture Capital investment in the space. When you compare the data, ecommerce directly captures the decline in physical retail sales to keep the overall retail landscape stable. The biggest surprise likely to big box superstores (e.g., Walmart) is the type of spending that continues to move online—"stable spend in discretionary categories," including electronics, apparel, and grocery shopping. The eight Walmart store closure announcements last week are less surprising given this robust ecommerce Q1 sales update. While some say ecommerce is slowing down, the data tells a different story. We, at Swap, see this as a year of recalibration where ecommerce continues to steal market share from retail at a more sustainable pace than markets predicted during COVID. What are your predictions? CNBC National Retail Federation report: https://lnkd.in/e9_2siDX Adobe Analytics report: https://lnkd.in/eYmyArJ9 #TheEcommerceOS #EcommerceEvolved #ecommerce

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Digital advertising through major connected platforms such as Prime Video continues to show success for brands, and in this case, Hasbro, which was able to utilize previous searches and purchases to target the right consumers. This shows that the more convenient and accessible you can make the purchasing process, the more consumers will engage, and that CTV advertising is inching toward a full-funnel video strategy -- awareness to conversion. This is the kind of conversation we're having today at IAB's Video Leadership Summit. #DigitalAdvertising #ConsumerEngagement #IABVLS #CTVadvertising

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