Steph So

Albertsons is leaning into influencer-led retail media, and they picked a pretty great partner to do it with if you ask me 😜 Here's the skinny... 🤝 Linqia and Albertsons Media Collective teamed up to build a custom creator solution 📲 This allows Albertsons and all of their brand partners to develop retail-specific content that integrates directly into AMC's retail media ecosystems 📈 We are already seeing pretty incredible results, with a recent campaign delivering engagement rates more than four times higher on Facebook and triple on Instagram I don't think anyone is surprised to hear that creator content showing faces and telling stories outperforms typical product focused retail media content And now every brand has a dedicated offering to unleash just that as part of their retail media buys. Here's exactly how it works... 👉 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫-𝐋𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭: Linqia taps an extensive network of creators, tailored by retailer and category such as food and beverage or household essentials, to create retail-specific content 👉 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Through the partnership with AMC, Linqia runs that creator content natively within Albertsons ad ecosystems 👉 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝-𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: AMC provides attribution and sales lift data, giving brands a clear picture of ROI Retail media and influencer marketing are possibly the two hottest areas of marketing, and now they are coming together #influencermarketing #socialmedia #creatoreconomy #retailmedia

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Just wrapped an incredible session with Google’s Retail Advisory Council, where CMOs from some of the world’s leading retailers - Target, Kohl’s, Sephora, Fanatics, and more - came together to discuss what’s next in retail. A few themes stood out loud and clear: - Quality > Quantity: Product feeds aren’t just plumbing—they’re brand. Images, descriptions, and video are now the front line of differentiation. - AI is the new workforce: We have a 24/7 team that never sleeps. The question isn’t if we’ll use AI agents across every function, but how fast we can build and scale them. - YouTube is the new prime time: Incremental TV reach still matters, but the next generation of brand building is happening on YouTube. - Personalization is non-negotiable: The industry is moving toward single-page, demand-led, fully personalized commerce experiences. My biggest takeaway? The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Those who lean into AI, brand, and creative excellence today will set the pace for tomorrow. Curious: how are you bringing AI agents into your marketing org? And which part of your funnel do you think will be disrupted first?

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Growth in #cpg feels harder today not because ambition is lacking, but because many of the old playbooks no longer travel well across markets. In "After the sugar rush: a new path to CPG #growth," we argue that the next surge of growth requires more than incremental tweaks - it calls for a clearer view of where growth really comes from, and how different market #archetypes demand different answers Global CPG priorities have stark implications in #AsiaPacific. Many APAC markets combine rapid #demand growth with fragmented channels, uneven data, and very local #execution realities. The opportunity isn't to import developed-market #RGM models wholesale, but rather to adapt them - pairing global discipline with local judgment, and #analytics with on-the-ground #commercial instincts. Grateful to have co-written this with my PwC US Consumer Markets colleagues Alison Furman, Carla DeSantis, Samrat Sharma, Shub Goswami and Sudhanshu Shekhar. Have a read: https://lnkd.in/gEbEmC5B 🙌 Curious to hear how others are seeing CPG growth #strategies evolve globally, and across Asia Pacific #pwc #consumermarkets #commercialexcellence #asiapacific

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There are the three most common paths I’m seeing for former CPG leaders after they exit corporate life. And no, they’re not always planned. Some have carefully navigated their exit with clear next chapters lined up: → A board seat at a fast-scaling DTC wellness brand → An advisory role with a private equity firm → A consulting portfolio built around revenue ops or retail transformation Others? They’re burned out; not from the work, but from years of navigating matrix politics, global restructure fatigue, and the sheer pressure of doing more with less. One leader told me, “After 20 years in CPG, I needed six months to remember what I actually liked doing.” Another joined a startup and said it was the first time in a decade they felt their impact. And then there’s the new wave I’m quietly watching: Execs monetizing their personal brands. Speaking gigs. Angel investing. Even product collaborations. It’s not the classic retirement playbook, it’s a reframing of value. Not: “What’s the next title?” But: “What can I build with the network, experience, and clarity I’ve earned?” If you’re still in your role and starting to feel the edges fray, it might be time to explore, not eject. Because the path isn’t always linear anymore, but it is full of opportunity if you know where to look. I’d love to hear from others: What’s the most surprising move you’ve seen a CPG leader make post-exit? #CPGLeadership #PostCorporateLife #ExecutiveSearch #FMCG #BoardSeats #BrandDeals #CareerTransitions #LaurenStiebing #LeadershipInsights

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The Problem: For emerging CPG brands, getting into major retail chains is often a guessing game. Buyers rely on legacy category data, while brands rely on gut instinct. The Solution: WeStock flips the model. They allow customers to "request" products at their local stores, capturing real-time, geo-located demand data. Brands take this data to buyers and say, "We don't just think it will sell; we have 500 customers waiting for it at this specific location." Why SRV Invested: WeStock isn't just a data tool; it's an actionable bridge between D2C enthusiasm and wholesale reality. They're turning inventory risk into guaranteed intelligence. ➡️ Check out how they are changing the shelf: https://lnkd.in/epV8HEhz And, if you want to see some other companies that are changing the retail game, check out our portfolio: https://lnkd.in/emAjHhdK #PortfolioSpotlight #RetailTech #CPG #DataAnalytics #WeStock

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A new report from Placer.ai revealed that the three grocers, each with a focus on selling private label products, outpaced the broader grocery segment’s first-half store visits. ALDI saw year-over-year visits increase 7.1%, Trader Joe’s was up 11.9% and Lidl grew 4.9%. The grocery segment as a whole grew 1.5%. “The grocery segment has never been more competitive, and ALDI, Trader Joe’s and Lidl have consistently emerged as top players,” Placer.ai wrote in its report. “The three chains share similarities: all offer a limited assortment of groceries and tend to operate at lower price points. However, each one is carving out its own distinct path to growth.” The continued growth in store visits at ALDI comes as the Batavia, Ill.-based grocer moves forward toward its target of 800 new stores by 2028. As year-over-year visits grow, so too do average visits per location. Average visits per store were 1.6% higher than 2024, 17.4% higher than 2023 and 26.7% higher than 2022. Placer.ai said these figures show that ALDI’s new stores are being met by sustained and growing shopper interest and are not cannibalizing foot traffic from existing stores. Facing competition from the likes of Safeway, Ralphs, Vons and Smart & Final, among others, Trader Joe’s continues to attract shoppers. Placer.ai figures show Trader Joe’s visit share growth has grown from 13.2% in the first half of 2019 to 15.7% in the first half of 2025. The four aforementioned grocers have seen their respective visit share hold steady or decline slightly over the same period. Lidl’s store expansion efforts are far more conservative than ALDI and Trader Joe’s, with the Arlington, Va.-based grocer focused on new store growth in the eastern portion of the United States. In recent years, the company has seen a shift in who shops their stores on a weekly basis. Between 2019 and 2025, the chain grew its share of suburban, wealthy and older segments, while the share of visitors falling into the “Singles and Starters” demographic segment shrunk.

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When a retail buyer feels that you deeply understand them and their unique needs, you gain their trust. And you get that from asking the right questions and LISTENING WITH INTENT. This clip was part of an interview with Emily Anne Page Page, CPG Growth Strategist at START to SOLD, and George Argires, CEO of Argires Snacks, recorded on location at ECRM's Snack Session in Dallas last month. To watch the full video on YouTube or listen to it on our podcast, click the links in the comments!

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The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans was released last week, and I’d love to see more commentary from CPG folks on it, especially those in baby and childhood categories. From an industry perspective, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the rollout clearly succeeded in one way -- people are talking about it for the first time in years. The consumer-facing experience is polished, accessible, and very “DTC-ified.” And the “eat real food” tagline aligns both with nutrition science and where I believe consumer preferences are ultimately headed (hot take: savvy consumers will eventually trade supplements and protein-spiked junk back in for actual real food, please don’t hate me). But if you work on this side of the industry, you don’t just look at the upside-down triangle graphic and call it a day. You read the appendices. You look at recommended serving sizes. You convert cups to ounces to calories and back again because these details have real consequences. They inform FDA guidance, labeling rules, and what we can and cannot say on packaging. I’ve spent hundreds of professional hours doing exactly this over my career, including the last several years working in one of the most sensitive subcategories of CPG: baby food. So I was a bit surprised (and honestly disappointed) to see that this edition appears to remove calorie-based dietary pattern examples for children that were included in 2020. Parents want that specificity even if most never read the DGAs themselves. Overall, my take is that the guidelines are… fine? There’s some conflicting messaging (please keep your saturated fats in check people), but the spirit is consistent: eat real food, diversify nutrient sources. Food policy is always political, but it’s worth noting that the 2020 DGAs were also released under a Trump administration, so more continuity exists here than headlines suggest. I wrote more about this from the lens of someone who lives both sides of it, professionally and at home, on my Substack. I’ll drop the link in the comments.

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Thoughtful piece on tariffs as a tailwind for marketplaces BUT... perhaps a concern as brands/retailers get serious about the opportunity mitigate sourcing uncertainty and take back control of their products on the in the growing secondary market. Lei Takanashi Trove Terry Boyle Brook Porter Molly Breiner Boston Consulting Group (BCG) https://lnkd.in/gbjrAqwe

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Every supplement subcategory I have looked at has the same five claims on the first page. Immune support. Energy boost. Gut health. Clean label. Third-party tested. Operators launching into this space spend weeks on review velocity, influencer seeding, and Vine enrollment. The gap they are not looking at: in categories like protein and collagen, the top-10 ASINs are sitting on thousands of reviews. A new launch with 50 reviews is not close. It is not even in the same conversation. Here is the positioning problem most operators skip: A product with a genuine formulation difference and a tighter use case will outconvert a commodity product with more reviews on the same keyword. I have seen this in catalog work — a well-scoped single-ingredient SKU converting above category average against established listings with broader claims and stronger review counts. The difference was not the review count. One product fit the search intent precisely. The other was just present. Earlier this year I was looking at a stalled launch. The team had executed correctly. The mechanics were fine. Conversion data told the real story — the click-through was there, the add-to-cart was not. We pulled the listing, looked at the claim structure, and compared it against what buyers were actually searching for in that subcategory. The product was positioned for everyone. That meant it was positioned for no one. The operators asking how to get 50 reviews fast are asking the wrong question at the wrong stage. The question worth asking before launch: if a buyer sees this product next to four others with more reviews and lower prices, what makes them stop? If there is no clean answer to that, the launch plan is just spend against a positioning problem. Fix the product spec before you build the launch plan.

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