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Speaker 1: And again, I keep saying this, solving those business problems

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Speaker 1: will win in the marketplace and we are winning in

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Speaker 1: the marketplace. And then as we grow and build out

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Speaker 1: tools like Luminate and the insights that you can get

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Speaker 1: from that, it’s just, it’s incredible what you can kind

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Speaker 1: of see from the data our suppliers are starting to

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Speaker 1: see from that. And then taking that and now we

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Speaker 1: are being able to activate that in an automated, easy

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Speaker 1: way against our whole network, whether again, that’s on-platform or off-platform.

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Speaker 2: Making it really easy for clients.

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Speaker 1: So great data, being able to activate it in an easy,

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Speaker 1: tangible way in a creative solutions and then making.

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Speaker 2: It measurable, that will win in the marketplace every time.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to today’s episode of Brave Commerce.

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Speaker 4: I’m Rachel Tippegraph, the founder and CEO of Micmac.

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Speaker 3: I’m Sarah Hofstetter, president of Profitero.

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Speaker 4: And this is a show that talks about what’s relevant

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Speaker 4: in e-commerce for the world’s biggest brands. Oh, man, Sarah,

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Speaker 4: I knew this wasn’t going to be a boring summer

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Speaker 4: between the election and the overall advertising industry.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you think we’d be focused on the

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Speaker 3: combination of the election or Olympics or like all the

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Speaker 3: other Middle East. Yeah, we’re not going there today.

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Speaker 4: No, we’re not going to go there.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, the ad industry does not exist. fail us

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Speaker 3: when it comes to bomb dropping, huh?

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Speaker 5: No.

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Speaker 4: If you were sitting by your work computers on July 22nd,

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Speaker 4: you probably saw this news headline come across, which is

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Speaker 4: Google said, actually, I’m going to go deprecate those cookies.

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Speaker 4: So I think we should wind back the clock a

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Speaker 4: little bit to 2019 to figure out how we reach

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Speaker 4: this moment in time and really what it means for

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Speaker 4: the advertising industry?

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I mean, what’s really fascinating is the whole idea of

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Speaker 3: getting rid of cookies was so that people could feel

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Speaker 3: a greater sense of agency over their data. So the

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Speaker 3: cookies wouldn’t be tracking you all over the internet. And

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Speaker 3: that was the whole idea behind the deprecation of the cookie.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 4: I would argue that’s one interpretation out of the market.

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Speaker 4: I personally think that there’s another narrative, which is that

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Speaker 4: Apple’s biggest competitor is actually Google and Meta. And Apple

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Speaker 4: woke up and realized that those companies were building billion

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Speaker 4: dollar advertising businesses in their hardware and they decided to

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Speaker 4: fight back. And that’s when the cookie wars started.

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Speaker 3: You know, I sure do love me a good cookie war.

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Speaker 3: But the irony of the whole thing is that what

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Speaker 3: got us to the point in 2019 of cookie deprecation

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Speaker 3: and conversations about that, you know, talk about losing the

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Speaker 3: forest and the trees. The issues around privacy and human

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Speaker 3: tolerance for that or the value exchange of privacy versus

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Speaker 3: personalization changed so drastically over the past five years that

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Speaker 3: I can’t decide if this is a nothing burger, a

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Speaker 3: we kind of knew this was going to fail or, oh,

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Speaker 3: my gosh, like the world just got me doing it.

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Speaker 3: But what is definitely front and center for me now

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Speaker 3: that wasn’t so much for me in 2019 is. What

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Speaker 3: does this mean for retail media, which was really building

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Speaker 3: a strong narrative around almost like being the combatant to

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Speaker 3: the cookie deprecation?

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So I think in the end, all of this

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Speaker 4: just created more chaos. But the outcome is still exactly

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Speaker 4: the same, which is cookies are going to be deprecated.

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Speaker 4: Google’s just removing accountability from themselves and essentially allowing consumers

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Speaker 4: to decide this is exactly what Apple did. And the

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Speaker 4: reality is 80% of users have now opted out from

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Speaker 4: their data to be monetized. So we could expect the

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Speaker 4: same thing to happen in Chrome. That being said, it’s

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Speaker 4: going to create all this noise in the ecosystem. And

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Speaker 4: instead of retail media holding onto the narrative that they’re

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Speaker 4: a replacement for the cookie crumbling, I believe now they’re

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Speaker 4: just going to lean in harder to the first party

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Speaker 4: data story and why first party data matters and how

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Speaker 4: it’s more durable and it allows for greater privacy and

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Speaker 4: just really lean into that narrative as opposed to using

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Speaker 4: the word cookie.

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Speaker 3: You’re onto something. I can tell you, I feel really

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Speaker 3: confident that our guest knows a thing or two about this.

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Speaker 3: Former MX marketing for 20 something years. and then ends

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Speaker 3: up going over to Walmart to be the GM and

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Speaker 3: SVP of Walmart Connect. So let’s hear what Rich Lerfeld

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Speaker 3: has to say, not just about that, but where retail

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Speaker 3: media plays in this ever-changing, ever-dynamic ecosystem. Today we have

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Speaker 3: numero uno and numero uno dude. We’ve got Rich Lerfeld.

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Speaker 3: SVP and GM of Walmart Connect joining us today. Rich,

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Speaker 3: thanks so much for bracing us with your presence.

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Speaker 2: Come on. Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: I don’t know the numeral uno, but I appreciate being here.

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Speaker 2: Big fan of your podcast. I’m excited to be here. Awesome.

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Speaker 3: Well, we are big fans of you. So the love

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Speaker 3: fest will just continue.

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Speaker 5: Okay.

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Speaker 3: Believe it or not, we’re recording about a month after Cannes.

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Speaker 3: And now that the tans are gone, you’ve had the

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Speaker 3: benefit to reflect. What did you see as the key

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Speaker 3: themes in conversations that you were having with suppliers, brands,

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Speaker 3: et cetera?

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Speaker 1: You guys know the main topics that came up in CAM.

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Speaker 1: AI was always the key. Creativity was core to what

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Speaker 1: was happening in CAM. But we had some really interesting

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Speaker 1: conversations with suppliers or advertisers or our partners. I always

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Speaker 1: use so many different adjectives or explanations to talk about

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Speaker 1: our partners because in a retail media setting, it could

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Speaker 1: be a supplier or a seller. It’s also an advertiser,

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Speaker 1: a partner, but they’re also our clients. So many interesting things.

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Speaker 1: And I love the fact that it is a creative festival.

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Speaker 1: We talked a lot about creativity, but what was really

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Speaker 1: key this year was the notion of really data, AI, information,

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Speaker 1: insights that are infusing creativity. and ultimately solving client problems.

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Speaker 2: That was the key.

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Speaker 1: And the more robust the conversations were this year, I

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Speaker 1: think the more we can get, we got in deep

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Speaker 1: into that. And what I found this year more than

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Speaker 1: maybe in past years were multiple different types of clients

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Speaker 1: were actually in CAN. The chief commercial officers and the

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Speaker 1: business side, along with our brand partners, agencies. So the

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Speaker 1: conversations became a little more robust in how do we

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Speaker 1: actually think through If we want to talk about traditional

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Speaker 1: full funnel or other types of funnels that come about

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Speaker 1: that people talked about. But we were talking about from

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Speaker 1: both performance side, from the bottom of the funnel, all

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Speaker 1: the way up to the top brand side, more than

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Speaker 1: we have ever talked because we had multiple people there,

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Speaker 1: different clients there that were kind of coming together. And

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Speaker 1: for Walmart Connect, for us, it was really about solving

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Speaker 1: those business challenges and solving those problems in different ways.

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Speaker 1: Because as we grow and as we expand with Walmart

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Speaker 1: Connect and our ability to solve different problems, from lower

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Speaker 1: funnel or really transactional or whether maybe that is search,

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Speaker 1: all the way up to upper funnel or more creative

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Speaker 1: solutions that solved more of the brand problems, dealing with

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Speaker 1: brand or reach frequency or broader sort of creative challenges,

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Speaker 1: we were able to kind of talk more about that.

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Speaker 1: And that’s what I felt happened more at Cannes this

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Speaker 1: year than more than I’ve ever seen. And we were excited.

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Speaker 1: Because we are trying to solve those business problems. We’re

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Speaker 1: trying to solve these new types of ways to approach advertisers, again,

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Speaker 1: or clients to solve those problems.

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Speaker 2: So that’s what I saw this year.

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Speaker 4: It’s interesting. You talked about the different stakeholders. And we

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Speaker 4: have to imagine that for a good portion of the

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Speaker 4: early days of Walmart Connect’s business, you were often just

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Speaker 4: dealing with the sales organization. Now that retail media is

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Speaker 4: moving more upper funnel, is starting to lean into creative,

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Speaker 4: your teams are probably also exposed to the marketing organizations

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Speaker 4: as well. How do you go about educating the sales

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Speaker 4: and marketing teams? And where do you feel that the

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Speaker 4: positioning changes and the problems that Walmart Connect can solve

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Speaker 4: can change in those conversations?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it’s a great question.

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Speaker 1: When I came into Walmart Connect or we started running

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Speaker 1: the retail media, our traditional where we started really was

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Speaker 1: with the sales organizations or the commercial organization. Traditionally, that

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Speaker 1: has been where Walmart, our merchant organization has really dealt

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Speaker 1: with our partners or our skin, our suppliers or sellers.

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Speaker 1: So really on the commercial side, they would negotiate price,

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Speaker 1: they would negotiate trade. So it was more lower funnel

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Speaker 1: is really about sales. Our measurement for Walmart connect was

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Speaker 1: really row as it was really dealing with the performance side.

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Speaker 1: And we really didn’t talk to the brand marketers as

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Speaker 1: much or the agencies as much. And as time has

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Speaker 1: evolved and as retail media has really evolved to solve

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Speaker 1: different types of problems and solutions, We’ve had to kind

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Speaker 1: of bridge the gap between both parts of organizations to

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Speaker 1: support them, to help them think about advertising or communications

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Speaker 1: or marketing in kind of different ways. And that has

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Speaker 1: been actually very, very exciting and very different in the

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Speaker 1: marketplace because Traditionally, my background is 30 years as a

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Speaker 1: media buyer, as probably more product and upper funnel. I’m

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Speaker 1: used to more brand metrics or product metrics. Of course,

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Speaker 1: I always looked at performance. I always looked at lower

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Speaker 1: funnel and driving sales. But I traditionally have more focus

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Speaker 1: on the upper funnel. With this role, I came in

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Speaker 1: on the lower funnel. We were able to kind of

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Speaker 1: think holistically about how we can actually think about clients

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Speaker 1: in different ways. how we can use different parts of

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Speaker 1: the funnel. And as we’re building out our value propositions,

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Speaker 1: moving from that lower funnel to the mid funnel to

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Speaker 1: upper funnel is where I think the future is because

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Speaker 1: media to me is media and communications and marketing and

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Speaker 1: engagement and solving those problems is going to probably be,

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Speaker 1: it is the future of where retail media networks or

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Speaker 1: any media itself needs to solve. That’s been pretty exciting. Again,

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Speaker 1: clients are starting to evolve. We are evolving and we’re

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Speaker 1: helping bridge those gap between both. And that’s where I

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Speaker 1: think the future is of retail media and media overall.

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Speaker 4: Rich, now that Walmart Connect is engaging with the marketing teams,

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Speaker 4: is not just talking to the chief commercial officer, but

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Speaker 4: is also talking to the CMO. The CMO is also

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Speaker 4: talking to Meta. They’re talking to Disney. They’re talking to Paramount.

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Speaker 4: When Walmart Connect finds themselves in these situations where very

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Speaker 4: large players in the advertising and brand ecosystem are coming

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Speaker 4: into the conversation, how does Walmart Connect go about navigating

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Speaker 4: if a brand is choosing between giving a dollar to

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Speaker 4: Disney or giving a dollar to Walmart Connect, who do

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Speaker 4: they turn to?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, another great question.

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Speaker 1: I always start with the customer centricity of solving business

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Speaker 1: problems and customer problems first. And I think if we

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Speaker 1: can solve how we engage with the end customer and

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Speaker 1: deliver value to them, how we solve the supplier or

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Speaker 1: the client or the partner first, Challenges and whether that

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Speaker 1: is more lower funnel, mid funnel, upper funnel, or it’s

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Speaker 1: all the funnel, because ultimately it is driving sales. If

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Speaker 1: we solve those business challenges, whether they are looking to

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Speaker 1: reach new customers, they are looking to double down on

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Speaker 1: their existing customers, whether they’re looking to grow share, introduce

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Speaker 1: a new product, depending on what those business challenges are,

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Speaker 1: that’s how we solve. That’s how we start the problem.

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Speaker 1: And then we try to find the right solution. So

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Speaker 1: our ability to solve those problems will help us get

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Speaker 1: into those conversations. And then from that, we are building

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Speaker 1: value propositions that can attack, again, lower funnel to mid

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Speaker 1: to upper funnel through partnerships, whether that’s through our DSP

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Speaker 1: or whether that’s direct partnerships with CTV. We’ve been building

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Speaker 1: out our partnerships at Disney or NBC or Paramount, building

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Speaker 1: out creative solutions for in-store to launch new products, to

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Speaker 1: have customers discover new products, or it’s onsite and we’re

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Speaker 1: building out brand shops, creative seasonal programs. Again, we have

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Speaker 1: to find solutions that can meet the needs of the

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Speaker 1: clients based on what their business challenges are. So the

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Speaker 1: more we can do that, the more we will get

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Speaker 1: in the conversation and the more in the conversation, more

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Speaker 1: opportunities to solve them. And we can bring in different

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Speaker 1: partners and partners can bring us in. And we were

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Speaker 1: having conversations and we’re able to get into more and

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Speaker 1: more of these conversations because we’re delivering that value. We’re

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Speaker 1: delivering the value through better targeting, better activation, better creativity.

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Speaker 1: And ultimately what retail media can do really well is

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Speaker 1: show great results, right? Through ROAS or iROAS or other

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Speaker 1: metrics consideration or brand metrics that we can now show

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Speaker 1: the impact of what we’re doing. So that’s how you

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Speaker 1: get in is to solve these big meaty business challenges

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Speaker 1: for suppliers or clients or advertisers. And it’s relatively new.

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Speaker 1: The full funnel for retail media is relatively new. But

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Speaker 1: you’re seeing more and more of retailers and media companies

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Speaker 1: and definitely with Walmart Connect that we’re growing in those spaces.

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Speaker 1: We’re growing faster in those spaces than even some of

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Speaker 1: the basic performance media have because we can add tremendous

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Speaker 1: value and we’re solving those problems.

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Speaker 3: That kind of begs the question. Actually, now it’s a

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Speaker 3: two-part question originally.

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Speaker 2: All right, you go.

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Speaker 3: Is it possible to separate out retail media and media

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Speaker 3: and just as a part B, if you will, Is

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Speaker 3: it possible to even separate out what should be considered

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Speaker 3: a specific part of the funnel if it serves multiple

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Speaker 3: needs at once? Can or how do you break this down?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so traditionally retail media has been on platform, on

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Speaker 1: a retailer. You’re using data and information and understanding of

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Speaker 1: the customer. You’re getting to that point of sale where

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Speaker 1: they’re connecting with a customer or impacting the customer. And

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Speaker 1: then you’re measuring it. Traditionally it’s been like on walmart.com

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Speaker 1: or the Walmart app. But I think as you start

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Speaker 1: to think about retail media itself and it gets infused,

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Speaker 1: the information and the data and the targeting gets infused into,

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Speaker 1: I guess, traditional upper funnel brand programs or whether that’s

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Speaker 1: DSPs or partnerships or other media platforms or, as I said,

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Speaker 1: CTV and more traditional media. And as we move into

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Speaker 1: more linear and figuring out ways to infuse targeting and

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Speaker 1: data and then ultimately measurement into more traditional media platforms,

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Speaker 1: I’m not sure it changes. And maybe it’s just like

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Speaker 1: retail media and retail media infused because it becomes data

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Speaker 1: and information and better targeting. So I don’t know if

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Speaker 1: I can answer that and maybe time and maybe you

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Speaker 1: guys as experts will coin the phrases that we all

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Speaker 1: kind of be attracted to or we go to.

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Speaker 2: But I do think it will be media.

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Speaker 1: It will be better, better targeted and better data infused

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Speaker 1: media and better measurement. Measurement’s a little all over the

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Speaker 1: place right now. The promise of retail media is we

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Speaker 1: can actually show you what the sales are, the true

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Speaker 1: sales are by the impact of what someone sees. Now,

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Speaker 1: maybe the onsite stuff I can see, someone clicks, someone

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Speaker 1: buys something. I can do lots of different testing or

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Speaker 1: information to show the incrementality of that. So what you

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Speaker 1: would have traditionally got from a sales perspective and then

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Speaker 1: what the incremental is. As you move to offsite, you

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Speaker 1: see the media. Sure, you can click on, go buy

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Speaker 1: something online. But more like Walmart, most of the sales

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Speaker 1: come through the store, right? So you’re influencing people through, again,

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Speaker 1: better targeting. I know Sarah or Rachel. I don’t know

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Speaker 1: you specifically, but I know information as a broad. I

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Speaker 1: can target you. You will see the ad and then

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Speaker 1: probably come into a store to impact, whether that’s three

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Speaker 1: days or seven days or 14 days. We can look

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Speaker 1: at the attribution window. And that is more like retail

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Speaker 1: media infused. And great data will lead to great.

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Speaker 2: Results, right?

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Speaker 1: We can measure that. We know the store impact. We

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Speaker 1: know pickup and delivery, if that’s your mode of new

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Speaker 1: need or the online piece. So I would say more

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Speaker 1: infused data to show that. So to answer your question,

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Speaker 1: I’m not really sure if you will be able to

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Speaker 1: tell the difference. It just will be better performing media.

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Speaker 3: That does make sense. So I think if I had

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Speaker 3: to sum up your answer in two words, it’s complicated.

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Speaker 2: I would say complicated, but it’s exciting. It’s complicated, but

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Speaker 2: exciting because.

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Speaker 1: The promise of retail media, again, is exciting because we

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Speaker 1: haven’t had these tools in the past. Again, as a

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Speaker 1: media buyer for so long, I had to use so

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Speaker 1: many different third parties to put things together to say,

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Speaker 1: how did my performance? And even that, it’s like the

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Speaker 1: Wanamaker quote, I know 50% of my advertising work, I

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Speaker 1: just don’t know what 50% it is.

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Speaker 2: Now we know.

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Speaker 1: We know someone saw an ad or clicked on an

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Speaker 1: ad or had some kind of interaction with the communication

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Speaker 1: or ad or the engagement vehicle, and ultimately they bought something,

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Speaker 1: that’s pretty exciting.

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Speaker 3: Rachel’s prior question about the media buyer is getting so

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Speaker 3: bombarded with opportunities. So, you know, the money to reach

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Speaker 3: the right consumer, get them throughout that funnel, if you will,

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Speaker 3: is coming from everywhere. The pressure is coming from everywhere.

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Speaker 3: But also, this whole retail media world didn’t really exist

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Speaker 3: in earnest until a few years ago. Like, where does

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Speaker 3: this money come from? Is it share-sealing from the Metas

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Speaker 3: and the Googles of the world because of this influx

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Speaker 3: of data? Is it coming from shopper and trade? Like,

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Speaker 3: where did this industry get all of its funding from?

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Speaker 1: Overall media, you guys know media is growing. The impact

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Speaker 1: of media is growing. I don’t think it’s one place

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Speaker 1: and depending on the brand or the partner or the client,

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Speaker 1: it’s coming from different places. I think traditional, the traditional

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Speaker 1: trade or promotional buckets, I think is coming over to

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Speaker 1: retail media mainly because it’s way more, it can be

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Speaker 1: very measurable and that’s a lot of value for the

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Speaker 1: sales organizations. They can see where the sales, they can

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Speaker 1: see the lift. You know, we have, we have great

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Speaker 1: insights and data. through our Lumini product that clients are

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Speaker 1: investing in and looking at, and we can activate against that.

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Speaker 1: So the money from the traditional trade or promotional is

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Speaker 1: definitely coming into retail media. But I also think, as

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Speaker 1: I said, the infused notion of retail media in the

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Speaker 1: brand side or the mid funnel traditional consideration, that is

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Speaker 1: moving into this retail media infused because, again, it becomes

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Speaker 1: more measurable. Traditional ways of thinking about brand or product

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Speaker 1: media have been again, to reach frequency or brand metrics

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Speaker 1: or a compilation of different sort of third-party metrics. And

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Speaker 1: now we’re bringing the two together. So you can have

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Speaker 1: both that, are we moving the brand, the long-term ways

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Speaker 1: of thinking about a brand? And you can do that

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Speaker 1: through many third parties, or we can do that through

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Speaker 1: MMM modeling or other brand measures that we want to

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Speaker 1: infuse into this.

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Speaker 2: And then the sales piece.

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Speaker 1: So introducing real true sales, whether that’s ROAS or iROAS,

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Speaker 1: or other sales metrics into the brand and vice versa.

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Speaker 1: And partners, you guys are at the point of where

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Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff is coming together with a

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Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that you do and through your companies.

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Speaker 2: And it really is exciting.

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Speaker 1: Again, I keep saying exciting time, but it is kind

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Speaker 1: of bringing those two things together. And that’s the future.

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Speaker 1: And that’s why I believe this industry is going to

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Speaker 1: move to the next frontier of way more understanding and

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Speaker 1: impact of what marketing is doing. And again, I say

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Speaker 1: the Wanamaker quote, but I think we’ll move to 60%

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Speaker 1: to 70% of knowing where, or 80% or more of

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Speaker 1: where the impact is actually happening. That’s why I think

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Speaker 1: this notion of retail media and this notion of measurement

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Speaker 1: and this notion of dollars are going to flow throughout.

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Speaker 1: And I think the smart company are bringing it together now.

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Speaker 1: And they’re kind of like pooling the dollars together to

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Speaker 1: not say this is brand dollars or this is retail

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Speaker 1: media or commerce dollars. It’s really one bucket. And how

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Speaker 1: are we solving the problems of what we’re trying to do? Again,

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Speaker 1: are we trying to launch a new product? And then

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Speaker 1: we need to think differently. Do we have an existing

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Speaker 1: product and we need to grow share? Are we thinking

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Speaker 1: about it differently?

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Speaker 4: We agree that the companies that are moving forward are

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Speaker 4: absolutely pulling those budgets together. We’ve interviewed many of them

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Speaker 4: on the show. You keep using the word, it’s an

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Speaker 4: exciting time. And I couldn’t agree with you more, especially

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Speaker 4: because of news that broke yesterday, where Google decided, actually,

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Speaker 4: we’re going to keep those cookies around. And if you

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Speaker 4: read a lot of the analyst positioning around the rise

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Speaker 4: of retail media, Essentially, every analyst cites that one of

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Speaker 4: the key reasons why retail media has taken off is

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Speaker 4: because of the deprecation of cookies. This notion that platforms

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Speaker 4: like Google and Meta can no longer provide reporting that

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Speaker 4: really justifies the effectiveness of their ads. Who had the

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Speaker 4: effectiveness data?

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Speaker 2: The retailers.

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Speaker 4: And it created this perfect storm for the rise of

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Speaker 4: retail media. Now that Google is deciding to keep cookies around,

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Speaker 4: Do you think that’s going to impact retail media’s growth

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Speaker 4: in any way?

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Speaker 2: Again, another great question. And obviously, it’s somewhat fresh.

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Speaker 1: I don’t know if I can comment on the future

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Speaker 1: of cookies and Google and what’s happening. What I do

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Speaker 1: know is the power of the first party is going

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Speaker 1: to be critical to success for any media business. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: doing it in a safe, privacy-compliant way is critical.

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Speaker 2: And companies like Walmart can do that. I don’t know that.

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Speaker 1: Again, we’re the future of the cookie where I know

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Speaker 1: is the first party data and the power of impact

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Speaker 1: and influence and driving results is going to continue to succeed.

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Speaker 1: It has to succeed, right? If you think about Walmart,

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Speaker 1: you think about the size of our first party data,

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Speaker 1: you think about our ability to utilize the data in safe, compliant,

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Speaker 1: impactful ways at the point of sale. Think about adding

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Speaker 1: in the creativity lens to that. making it measurable, that

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Speaker 1: has to win in the marketplace because that’s what clients want.

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Speaker 1: The smart clients are doing exactly what we said, which

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Speaker 1: is taking the lower funnel, mid funnel and upper funnel

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Speaker 1: challenges and working them together and then going to partners

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Speaker 1: to help solve those problems. Google does a great job

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Speaker 1: and Meta and everybody, they do great jobs for what

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Speaker 1: they’re meant to do. But I can tell you for

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Speaker 1: us and for retail media, We solve so many parts

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Speaker 1: of the puzzle for so many business challenges that I

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Speaker 1: have to believe it’s going to be, it is successful because.

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Speaker 3: I see it.

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Speaker 2: I see us growing.

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Speaker 1: I see what the clients are throwing at us and

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Speaker 1: what we’re able to solve. And again, I keep saying this,

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Speaker 1: solving those business problems will win in the marketplace and

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Speaker 1: we are winning in the marketplace. And then as we

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Speaker 1: grow and build out tools like Luminate and the insights

425
00:22:53,470 –> 00:22:55,790
Speaker 1: that you can get from that, it’s just, it’s incredible

426
00:22:55,830 –> 00:22:57,649
Speaker 1: what you can kind of see from the data. Our

427
00:22:57,670 –> 00:23:00,920
Speaker 1: suppliers are starting to see from that And then taking that,

428
00:23:01,000 –> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 1: and now we are being able to activate that in

429
00:23:03,520 –> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 1: an automated, easy way against our full network, whether again,

430
00:23:07,770 –> 00:23:11,230
Speaker 1: that’s on platform or off platform, making it really easy

431
00:23:11,250 –> 00:23:14,350
Speaker 1: for clients. So great data being able to activate it

432
00:23:14,369 –> 00:23:17,869
Speaker 1: in an easy, tangible way in a creative solutions, and

433
00:23:17,890 –> 00:23:19,310
Speaker 1: then making it measurable.

434
00:23:19,109 –> 00:23:20,950
Speaker 2: That will win it in the marketplace every time.

435
00:23:21,540 –> 00:23:23,020
Speaker 1: I don’t know if I fully answered, but I would

436
00:23:23,060 –> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: just say, I truly believe in what we’re doing and

437
00:23:25,200 –> 00:23:28,310
Speaker 1: I know it’s successful. So I have faith that it’ll

438
00:23:28,390 –> 00:23:32,369
Speaker 1: continue to grow and we will succeed in the marketplace.

439
00:23:32,390 –> 00:23:36,690
Speaker 4: I appreciate you answering our very timely question. I know

440
00:23:36,730 –> 00:23:39,210
Speaker 4: it was a hot one and one. But we have

441
00:23:39,230 –> 00:23:42,060
Speaker 4: to ask you our famous last question, which is what’s

442
00:23:42,100 –> 00:23:43,260
Speaker 4: the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

443
00:23:43,580 –> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I’ve listened to a bunch of your shows

444
00:23:45,619 –> 00:23:49,480
Speaker 1: and there’s so many people have such incredible personal and

445
00:23:49,540 –> 00:23:52,940
Speaker 1: business brave things. And I was thinking about this. I

446
00:23:53,000 –> 00:23:56,129
Speaker 1: thought I would kind of give you more of a

447
00:23:56,170 –> 00:23:58,770
Speaker 1: broader theme. Hopefully you think it’s brave.

448
00:23:58,869 –> 00:23:59,189
Speaker 2: I don’t know.

449
00:23:59,230 –> 00:24:00,909
Speaker 1: You guys can kind of tell me. So I’ve been

450
00:24:00,930 –> 00:24:05,300
Speaker 1: at Walmart for five years. I came into Walmart, you know,

451
00:24:05,440 –> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: as part of one of the leaders in the marketing organization.

452
00:24:08,080 –> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 1: And then a couple of years after they asked me

453
00:24:10,880 –> 00:24:13,459
Speaker 1: to come over to help build out the retail media network.

454
00:24:14,000 –> 00:24:15,490
Speaker 2: I’ve spent a couple of years kind of doing it.

455
00:24:15,510 –> 00:24:16,350
Speaker 2: So it’s been exciting.

456
00:24:16,400 –> 00:24:20,750
Speaker 1: Walmart is an incredible company, great people, really smart, solving

457
00:24:21,070 –> 00:24:25,770
Speaker 1: real big business challenges, always customer centric. And retail itself

458
00:24:26,190 –> 00:24:29,070
Speaker 1: is just an exciting field and it’s just so dynamic.

459
00:24:29,210 –> 00:24:32,050
Speaker 1: But before I was at Walmart, I was at American

460
00:24:32,070 –> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: Express for 23 years. American Express, another incredible company, dynamic,

461
00:24:37,700 –> 00:24:42,180
Speaker 1: changing an industry, great brand, great smart people. I loved

462
00:24:42,260 –> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: my time at American Express. And at American Express, I

463
00:24:44,800 –> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: ran advertising and media and experiential and sponsorship marketing. I

464
00:24:51,619 –> 00:24:55,380
Speaker 1: had probably like one of the best jobs in the industry,

465
00:24:55,400 –> 00:24:59,100
Speaker 1: just exciting and fun. But I was there for 23

466
00:24:59,100 –> 00:25:01,700
Speaker 1: years and I sort of felt like I had done

467
00:25:02,340 –> 00:25:06,340
Speaker 1: everything I set out to do. Incredible work, working again

468
00:25:06,380 –> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 1: with great people. But I had the best job in

469
00:25:08,700 –> 00:25:10,690
Speaker 1: the world, but I had kind of done everything I

470
00:25:10,730 –> 00:25:12,750
Speaker 1: wanted to do. And I’m not sure I was fully

471
00:25:13,250 –> 00:25:15,490
Speaker 1: learning as much as I wanted to be learning. And

472
00:25:15,530 –> 00:25:17,790
Speaker 1: I’m a type of person that really loves to learn.

473
00:25:17,850 –> 00:25:20,890
Speaker 1: I love to move forward. I love to try new things.

474
00:25:21,859 –> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: And I just wasn’t there. So I had the best job,

475
00:25:23,619 –> 00:25:25,700
Speaker 1: but I wasn’t learning. And I came to a point

476
00:25:25,740 –> 00:25:27,369
Speaker 1: in my life, and I won’t say how old I am,

477
00:25:27,400 –> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 1: but I came to a point in my life where

478
00:25:28,940 –> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 1: I started to say, I don’t do something else. I

479
00:25:33,160 –> 00:25:34,940
Speaker 1: may never do it. I have the best job in

480
00:25:34,960 –> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 1: the world, but I’m comfortable. And I started to think about, okay,

481
00:25:40,400 –> 00:25:42,780
Speaker 1: what is next for me? And do I stay here

482
00:25:42,800 –> 00:25:44,680
Speaker 1: or do I go? And I came to the point

483
00:25:44,720 –> 00:25:47,439
Speaker 1: where it was time to go. And I came to

484
00:25:47,480 –> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 1: that conclusion because I knew I had to move forward.

485
00:25:50,830 –> 00:25:52,450
Speaker 1: But for all of us, we have to start to

486
00:25:52,490 –> 00:25:55,410
Speaker 1: think about our risk tolerance. Are we risk takers? Are

487
00:25:55,430 –> 00:25:57,910
Speaker 1: we not as much risk takers? And what was next

488
00:25:57,930 –> 00:25:59,470
Speaker 1: for us? And I knew I wanted to do something

489
00:25:59,550 –> 00:26:05,169
Speaker 1: different in a dynamic industry. I started thinking about retail serendipitously.

490
00:26:05,650 –> 00:26:09,380
Speaker 1: Walmart came calling to me, and I took a leap.

491
00:26:09,920 –> 00:26:12,500
Speaker 1: But I left something that was so safe and so incredible.

492
00:26:13,020 –> 00:26:15,260
Speaker 1: to go to something new. And the bigger theme here

493
00:26:15,320 –> 00:26:17,290
Speaker 1: is I try to say to people, and a few

494
00:26:17,310 –> 00:26:18,850
Speaker 1: people have come to me in the last couple of

495
00:26:18,890 –> 00:26:20,750
Speaker 1: months to say like, well, why did you leave? What

496
00:26:20,770 –> 00:26:23,330
Speaker 1: are you leaving? I’m thinking about leaving. And I say

497
00:26:23,350 –> 00:26:26,970
Speaker 1: to people, know who you are, obviously your risk tolerance.

498
00:26:27,750 –> 00:26:30,260
Speaker 1: For me, I believe you have to keep moving forward.

499
00:26:30,280 –> 00:26:33,440
Speaker 1: You have to keep learning. You have to keep trying

500
00:26:33,500 –> 00:26:36,940
Speaker 1: new things. Our industry is so dynamic. There’s so much

501
00:26:36,980 –> 00:26:38,740
Speaker 1: to learn. We just talked about a bunch of things.

502
00:26:39,350 –> 00:26:42,540
Speaker 1: So you have to, I believe, and I try to

503
00:26:42,820 –> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 1: coach people to say, if you’re not learning, if you’re

504
00:26:47,200 –> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: not engaged, if you’re not excited to come to work

505
00:26:49,520 –> 00:26:51,300
Speaker 1: every day, then maybe it’s time to go. And that

506
00:26:51,340 –> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 1: for me was what I did. And I went to Walmart,

507
00:26:54,720 –> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: not knowing really people there, not knowing retail. I went

508
00:26:58,320 –> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: from financial service to retail, not a safe place. I

509
00:27:01,680 –> 00:27:05,730
Speaker 1: knew they were going through a transformation. Walmart had ingested

510
00:27:06,450 –> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: new digital companies. They were changing and evolving. So it

511
00:27:11,560 –> 00:27:13,450
Speaker 1: wasn’t the safest place. And not to mention once I

512
00:27:13,490 –> 00:27:16,649
Speaker 1: started COVID hit, so it was working through that, but

513
00:27:16,730 –> 00:27:18,909
Speaker 1: I was excited and I was learning something new. So

514
00:27:18,950 –> 00:27:21,150
Speaker 1: I say to everybody, try to keep moving forward, try

515
00:27:21,170 –> 00:27:23,670
Speaker 1: to learn new things, stay engaged. And if you’re not,

516
00:27:24,130 –> 00:27:27,460
Speaker 1: then move on to the next thing, know your risk tolerance, obviously,

517
00:27:27,820 –> 00:27:29,360
Speaker 1: but move on to the next thing. So for me,

518
00:27:29,420 –> 00:27:32,440
Speaker 1: that’s what my journey was. And it really has worked

519
00:27:32,520 –> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: out for me coming to Walmart for an incredible company.

520
00:27:35,520 –> 00:27:38,690
Speaker 1: And then the retail media, I wasn’t expecting this. And

521
00:27:39,030 –> 00:27:42,330
Speaker 1: this has just been some of the most fun, engaging

522
00:27:42,369 –> 00:27:44,780
Speaker 1: and exciting years of my career.

523
00:27:45,140 –> 00:27:46,160
Speaker 2: So that’s what I tell the people.

524
00:27:47,060 –> 00:27:49,700
Speaker 4: Well, Rich, you know how to pick them because you

525
00:27:49,859 –> 00:27:52,100
Speaker 4: couldn’t have picked a better, honestly, a better place.

526
00:27:51,920 –> 00:27:53,820
Speaker 2: Than Walmart Connect. Thank you.

527
00:27:54,119 –> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 4: And we love watching your leadership there. And it goes

528
00:27:57,480 –> 00:28:01,510
Speaker 4: without saying, Walmart Connect is making massive changes, not just

529
00:28:01,570 –> 00:28:03,850
Speaker 4: in retail media, but the overall advertising landscape.

530
00:28:04,050 –> 00:28:06,050
Speaker 1: So thank you for your No, thank you for the

531
00:28:06,090 –> 00:28:08,270
Speaker 1: kind words. Thank you for having me. This is, I

532
00:28:08,890 –> 00:28:12,710
Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoy your podcast. You guys are great. Again, I

533
00:28:12,750 –> 00:28:14,410
Speaker 1: think I said, I’m excited to be in retail media.

534
00:28:14,430 –> 00:28:15,229
Speaker 1: I’m excited to be here.

535
00:28:15,410 –> 00:28:16,730
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you guys.

536
00:28:18,280 –> 00:28:21,120
Speaker 4: If you like what you heard from Rich at Walmart Connect,

537
00:28:21,300 –> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 4: you know we’ve had many episodes talking about retail media.

538
00:28:26,320 –> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 4: You can go check out a few of the latest.

539
00:28:28,810 –> 00:28:31,830
Speaker 4: Go a few months back and hear the president of Roundel,

540
00:28:31,910 –> 00:28:35,630
Speaker 4: Sarah Travis, on the show. Go check out an episode

541
00:28:35,690 –> 00:28:40,130
Speaker 4: that we released in January with Andrew Lipsman, who’s a

542
00:28:40,270 –> 00:28:44,330
Speaker 4: big analyst in our industry. We’re He predicts retail media

543
00:28:44,390 –> 00:28:46,910
Speaker 4: in the light of cookie deprecation. So it’s good to

544
00:28:46,930 –> 00:28:50,820
Speaker 4: go revisit that episode or go check out the founder

545
00:28:50,890 –> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 4: and CEO of Ibotta. Talk about his value proposition in

546
00:28:55,220 –> 00:28:58,060
Speaker 4: the retail media space. If you like what you heard,

547
00:28:58,560 –> 00:29:00,980
Speaker 4: share on LinkedIn, tell a friend. Thanks for listening.

548
00:29:21,320 –> 00:29:25,300
Speaker 5: Hi, I’m Jackie Cooper, Global Chief Brand Officer at Edelman

549
00:29:25,320 –> 00:29:28,110
Speaker 5: and the host of Touch of Truth, a new podcast

550
00:29:28,140 –> 00:29:31,610
Speaker 5: launching on the Adweek Podcast Network. My dad gave me

551
00:29:31,630 –> 00:29:35,310
Speaker 5: this incredibly smart piece of advice. Meet everyone once. As

552
00:29:35,350 –> 00:29:37,670
Speaker 5: a result, I’ve met some of the most fascinating and

553
00:29:37,750 –> 00:29:39,710
Speaker 5: inspiring people on the planet. Now, I’m going to tell

554
00:29:39,730 –> 00:29:42,050
Speaker 5: you a story. on touch of truth we’re coming center

555
00:29:42,090 –> 00:29:45,210
Speaker 5: stage and sharing the mic to experience stories of truth

556
00:29:45,380 –> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 5: insights and visions for the future that will challenge your

557
00:29:48,080 –> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 5: way of thinking touch of truth is available wherever you

558
00:29:50,840 –> 00:29:54,530
Speaker 5: listen to podcasts new episodes come out every tuesday i

559
00:29:54,570 –> 00:29:55,570
Speaker 5: do hope to see you there