September 13, 2025 • 42 mins
Welcome to the debut episode of Retail Media Vibes, where we're stepping back from the daily grind to swap ideas and pick up insights that you won't hear in boardroom discussions. This podcast was born from the recognition that retail media professionals are living in a constant state of pressure, with demands for growth and performance that never stop.
We welcome Tom Brydon from Accenture as the inaugural guest, diving straight into the fascinating world where retailers and brands intersect. Tom shares his unique perspective from working with major retailers to develop their media capabilities while simultaneously helping brands leverage these same platforms for growth.
The conversation explores several trending topics reshaping retail, starting with "Summerween" – the increasingly popular practice of selling Halloween merchandise as early as June. With Halloween sales reaching $11.6 billion annually and nearly half of shoppers starting their purchases before October, this extension of the season represents significant revenue opportunities for retailers and brands alike.
We tackle the emerging technology of agentic shopping, where AI assistants find and purchase products with minimal human input. While giants like Google, Walmart, and Amazon are all developing these capabilities, the technology and consumer behavior aren't quite aligned yet. BV predicts adoption will begin with routine purchases before consumers trust AI with higher-stakes decisions.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is their discussion about the tension between brand marketing and retail-focused media. If brands ultimately exist to sell products, and most products are sold through retail channels, shouldn't more brands build their identity through retail ecosystems? This segment offers valuable perspective for anyone struggling to bridge the gap between broad brand messaging and retail execution.
The episode wraps with an exploration of the booming "kidult" economy – adults purchasing toys for themselves – exemplified by the Labubu collectible craze. With adults accounting for 43% of toy self-purchases ($1.8 billion in a single quarter), this represents a massive opportunity for brands willing to tap into nostalgic experiences.
Whether you're a strategist, analyst, creative, media planner, or brand manager, this podcast delivers fresh insights into the evolving retail media landscape. Subscribe now and join the conversation about what's really happening in retail media today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up party people, bv here and welcome to
Retail Media Vibes a doingbusiness in Bentonville podcast.
I'm the guy who believes thatevery media plan needs a breeze.
The funnel isn't broken and AIis here to help, just like me.
So I'd like to welcome you toepisode one, which is being
(00:29):
recorded at Podcast VideoStudios here in Rogers, arkansas
.
So I'm really excited to getthis podcast going and it's been
a long time coming and I'mreally happy to have you along
for this journey.
So before we start the show, Iwant to give you guys a little
disclaimer.
I want to say that, first, allmy opinions expressed are not
(00:51):
necessarily reflective of any ofmy past employers, any of my
present employers or any of myfuture employers.
And this is an opinion-basedshow.
It's a subjective opinion basedupon my observations, and it's
definitely not going to beperfect by any stretch.
So before we actually get intothe show, I do want to talk
(01:13):
about a little bit why I startedRetail Media Vibes as a podcast
.
Because you know, retail mediafirst is something I know and
something I've lived, and it'sbeen a big part of my career.
Retail media first is somethingI know and something I've lived
and it's been a big part of mycareer and I know, like for so
many of you that are listening,whether you're on the brand side
, the agency side, with aretailer and you're working as a
strategist, an analyst, acreative, a media planner, a
(01:34):
producer, this industry is ahuge part of your life too and,
to be honest, it can be a grindat times.
We work in a space that demandsgrowth and performance every
single day and our time andattention is constantly being
pulled in different directions.
It's fast moving, it's highpressure and sometimes it feels
like you're just living it 24-7.
(01:56):
So that's why I created thispodcast.
It's a place where we can stepback from the grind just for a
minute, maybe 30 minutes, and wecan swap ideas, hear stuff that
people don't always say in theroom and pick up an idea and
maybe have a laugh along the way.
So you know, retail media keepsexpanding.
It's touching everything fromad tech to shopper trends to
(02:18):
commerce strategy, and you knowit's not just about the work.
So it's about the people, theperspectives, the energy, the
people, the perspectives, theenergy, the real conversations
that make this interesting andfun.
So that's the spirit of thispodcast good conversation, good
people and good vibes.
So with that, let's get into theshow.
All right, so I'm excited tohave my first guest on my first
(02:40):
episode, tom bryden fromaccenture.
Welcome, tom, thanks so much.
I'll need to be the first guest.
Tom and I go way back and we'veknown each other for quite some
time and I'd love to let theaudience get to know you just a
little bit and spend a littlebit of time about that.
So, tom, just to get to knowyou a little bit, what would you
say you do?
(03:01):
What is your job?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, so I work for Accenture, as you mentioned.
Really, I sit at theintersection between retailers
and brands.
I focus primarily on mediacapabilities, analytics, digital
shelf content.
For me, it's super interestingto get to work with some of the
biggest retailers in the world,helping them advance their
retail media capabilities, butthen also work with a multitude
(03:30):
of different brands to help themaccelerate their growth at
those same retailers.
So in some cases I'm in a veryfortunate position where I'm
working with the same retailerthat the brands also want to
work with and you know we canleverage some of the scale that
Essentia has.
So every day is different.
It's fast paced, as youmentioned at the start.
You live it for sure, but I'mvery fortunate to get to see a
(03:52):
lot of the retail world.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, and so why do you care about retail?
Like there's a lot of places, alot of ways to engage in media
and marketing, but why retail?
Why do you care about retail somuch?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know we live in Northwest
Arkansas, it's the home ofWalmart, and so I think you
almost have to be going out ofyour way to ignore retail in
this area.
But I think for me, like I'mpassionate about it, for a
couple of reasons.
One is because my background ispsychology and there's a very
like psychological component toretail in terms of how do you
(04:24):
connect with your shoppers, um,why do they pick and choose to
purchase their hard-earned moneyon one brand versus another?
Why did they walk into awalmart versus a target?
Um, that is very interesting tome.
The other reason is becausewhen I was a png about six years
ago that was really the startof some of the larger jbp
negotiations that were happeningWalmart just in-housed its
(04:47):
capabilities and when you've gotthe largest retailer in the
world having very seriousmulti-year conversations with
one of the biggest advertisersin the world, I realized I had
to pay attention, and so I did,and then from there it kind of
grew.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And that's before retail media really blew up,
right, and so, like, like thatwas one of the probably the
starting points of where retailmedia started to get bigger and
bigger and bigger, when Walmartreally started to get really
involved there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, they deserve a lot of credit, honestly, Um the
the growth and the investmentthey've put into building out
their, their retail mediaecosystem.
Um, ecosystem is kind ofincredible doing the majority of
it in-house as well.
So, like I said, we're lucky tolive here and, you know, coming
from a digital marketingbackground, it was a natural fit
(05:38):
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, I like to do a littleicebreaker with my guests, or I
will, since this is episode one,so you get to be the first
guest with the first icebreaker.
So what is one retailer that isout of business today that you
want to see come back?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I miss Blockbuster.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
I lived in the UK and movedhere when I was 28.
So I remember Saturday nights,friday nights, going with my
family making sure the DVD wasbehind the face of the title and
then sometimes it'd be out ifeverybody wanted to watch it.
(06:15):
But it was a nostalgia thing.
I actually worked there for ashort time, was rocking the blue
polo for a while and for me,like Blockbuster, is a nostalgic
piece, but also it's a missedopportunity piece.
Um, I strongly believe that,with the brand identity and the
physical footprint and scalethat blockbuster had maybe, you
know, 15, 20 years ago, ifthey'd embraced a more digital
(06:38):
first mindset, you'd be probablylogging on and instead of
clicking on Hulu or Netflix, youcould be clicking on a
blockbuster stream.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, that makes sense, yeah, yeah, I like it, I
like it, cool yeah.
For me I think it was like Iwas thinking about this a little
while and like servicemerchandise.
I don't know if many of you arefamiliar with service merchant
merchandise, but that used to bea store.
I mean kind of like a, a bestbuy in a way, but kind of like a
(07:08):
best buy in a way, but kind oflike a best buy type of store.
But why?
Why I, I miss it and wish itcame back was really from for
similar to you, like a nostalgicpoint of view, like I used to
go there with my grandparentsand we used to look at the
electronics and a lot of thecool, cool stuff there.
So service merchandise was onethat came to mind for me.
Yeah, so, uh, one othericebreaker question so what is
one reel or tikt, tiktok in yourfeed?
That right now, that makes youlaugh.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I do disclaimer I do not use TikTok, okay, but I do
like an Instagram reel.
I'm a big fan of YouTube, asyou know, so I like a YouTube
show.
Oh yeah, there you go.
Shorts, yeah, shorts.
In line with the kind offuturistic ai component of some
of the things we're going totalk about.
(07:51):
One that really tickled merecently was, uh, it was a
compilation of how you knoweverybody, some people are
scared of robots and the futureand what they could do.
People think it's going to belike a terminator situation.
And then they were like, yep,this is the future.
And then it cut to a number ofdifferent uh robotics concepts
and basically they all fell overor freaked out, um, and that,
(08:15):
to me, was like we've got a waysto go, but we're making good
progress.
But it was just funny that theway they set it up, so that one,
that one, got me yeah, that'syeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
What about you?
For me, like right now and Idon't know if it's just because
it's it's timely but there'sthis, uh, like dogs doing
podcasts okay, that are justcracking's, just cracking me up,
so it's two dogs and one's thehost and they're, you know,
saying some cliche thing likewho's a good boy?
And they're like, of course I'ma good boy and they start
(08:43):
cracking up, laughing and so,like I I've seen there's a whole
series of them and I've seen Ihope maybe I've seen them all at
this point, but yeah, reallylove that one, because obviously
here we are doing a podcast, sookay, well, just let me know
which breed of dog I am when weget them and it's usually like a
gold retriever and a frenchieis like that's the one that, oh,
nice, yeah, okay, yeah, I meaneasily found you.
I mean I'm sure you get on reels, you'll, you'll find it pretty
(09:05):
quickly, cool, well, great,great to get to know you.
Um, all, right, we going tomove on now to our topics, right
?
So call this segment TopicalBanter, and so I will introduce
a topic and then we'll banterabout that topic.
So we have a few great topicstoday.
So first topic we have isSummerween.
(09:28):
I know what did I just say,right, summerween.
So I mean, it's basicallyHalloween in the middle of the
summer.
So this has been like a trendthat was happening on social
where people were starting toget in the Halloween spirit in
(09:50):
the middle of July.
You know, june, june and July,right.
And so you know, retailers arereally leaning into it.
I was in Lowe's the other dayand they've got this, you know,
you know 30 foot zombie in thereor something like that, you
know hanging out, and so thisand this is August, right.
So you know, like, well, beforeOctober.
So it feels like the theretailers are getting into it.
(10:12):
Walmart's definitely gettinginto it, um, michael's, so
they're getting theJack-o'-lanterns, the skeletons,
candy decor there is pulling itout way in front of uh, way in
front of October and it's, it'sbooming like Halloween.
Sales last year were $11.6billion and nearly half of those
shoppers now start buyingbefore october.
(10:35):
So that's, that's a huge, youknow, huge, huge amount of money
.
Uh, well, well, before october,when you think people start
thinking about it, right?
So you know, summer wean.
So is this something just madeup to be a marketing stunt now,
or is this really becoming aretail strategy?
So you know, what do you think?
Do you think retailers,retailers are pushing shoppers
(10:55):
into Summerween or do you thinkyou know the shoppers in the
social media culture is pushingretailers into jump in a little
bit early?
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I mean, I do think there's a cultural
component to it.
There's also a US cultureversus other countries component
to it as well.
I think, like something Inoticed having lived here for 10
years, is that, you know, theus goes big on holidays in
general, which is just, which isgreat.
I think it's awesome that wecelebrate these big seasonal
(11:26):
temple things right.
Um, I personally feel it's abit early.
Uh, it's.
You know, october, where welive, is full foliage and cooler
mornings, and it's tough for meto get in the Halloween spirit.
But, that being said, it works.
Like you know, if you canextend out a big buying period,
(11:50):
there is an opportunity toincrease revenue, especially if
you're a brand that naturallyand organically plays in that
space.
So I can see the benefit of itfrom a brand and retailer
standpoint.
And if you know the averageconsumer is embracing it and
doesn't feel that it's kind ofoff topic or too early, then why
not?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean it feels like it also fits a certain
niche of people who are reallyinto Halloween, right, and so it
starts to get them into thespirit.
Also, to your point, if youstart to extend the season, you
know, incrementally there'sopportunity to, you know, grow
revenue, right, you know makemore sales during that period of
(12:31):
time.
So, you know, if, if you wereadvising a brand which you do
often right Would you tell themto lean into Summerween or just
kind of wait it out a little bitlonger to see, like cause, I
think it's, it's.
It's interesting to figure outhow, how certain brands could
play right, other than thepeople who are creating just
(12:51):
these products that you know aresold for Halloween, for decor
or candy or etc.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, I mean, I'm a media guy so I'm always going to
go with the data.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What's the data say?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It's not a sexy answer, but I think there is
data that you could draw upon interms of consumer trends and
you know social listening andthings that you could do to
inform that decision.
It's probably too late now thatyou could do to inform that
decision.
It's probably too late now ifyou're oh, yeah, but like if
that, if that does become atrend next year and that's
something that you want to planfor and your brands like.
The key thing here is thebrands that need to be thinking
(13:23):
about it.
They need to make sense in thatspace, right?
One of the worst decisionsbrands can make, in my opinion,
is forcing themselves into amovement or a conversation where
they just don't play yeah, andthen it feels false and it feels
unauthentic.
Yeah, for retailers absolutelywe.
I took my, my little girl she'ssix to walmart the other day
(13:44):
and they had the pumpkins outand you know the decor pumpkins
and she thought was the bestthing ever and wanted me to buy
one.
So it works.
There's a real life example ofhow it works?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, definitely.
So you bought that pumpkin andyou probably will buy more
things the next time you goright, Because every time you go
with your kid, they're going tohit you up for the next thing.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
What are those stores that pop up on Halloween?
Spirit Halloween, yeah, spiritHalloween, yeah, so that's our
house, that's basically it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Well, that's basically what you got Well, so
you're really leaning intoHalloween as a family.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, my wife loves Halloween.
That's good, that's good.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So like, when is like what is around the timing?
So when does this end, like, dowe start moving summerween into
June or, like you know, may?
And the other thing too is likethere's also back-to-school
time for a lot of families,right?
So now you've got this dualseasonality that retailers you
(14:36):
know like, let's say, like awalmart right, that are trying
to.
You know you got to have spacefor all the back to school stuff
.
Then you got to have space forall this halloween stuff, and so
, you know, assortment it's gotto be challenging.
I would assume you're trying tofigure that out.
So how, yeah you?
So how do we pull this?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I mean, you see it time and time again.
I mean I'm not advocating forValentine's Day in December,
right, but if you've gotchildren, which Halloween you
know?
primarily a children's,kids-based activity, I don't
know, man, we'll talk aboutkid'll talk about adults later,
(15:14):
so but, like you know, the lastas a parent or two, like the
last thing I want to be thinkingabout is preparing for
something that happens two and ahalf months away, when I'm
trying to figure out a newroutine and add life and back to
school.
So for me personally, no, butthere are some people that plan
way out.
Um, you know it, hobby lobby isanother one.
(15:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's all right.
Yeah, um, you know, joe passedthere the other day.
It was absolutely packed, um,and so I can only assume, like
the next big thing is harrowing.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So people are getting in there early and wanted to
plan and prep and make itspecial I wonder, if you combine
the two, have like back toschool with hall, with summer,
yeah and so, yeah, and you'vegot well, it can be a bit scary.
So yeah, yeah, I guess it wouldbe for kids.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know, going back to school is scary, right, so
it's a good, good combinationbut you say with like black
friday as well, like cyber, likeblack friday, cyber monday.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Now it's just weeks of saving friday yeah, I mean
it's, it's, it's, it's a month.
It's not like yeah, you know,start, yeah, start.
As soon as halloween is over,it's like boom, yeah, but
holiday season is now two months, so yeah, yeah, it's
interesting okay all right,great, uh, great conversation on
summer wean, but we're going tomove on now to our next topic.
(16:31):
So we're going to talk aboutagentic shopping, right?
So ai agents I I think overallthat's just a huge topic.
There are all kinds of agentsthat are being used or being
planned to be used in retail and, honestly, it's probably too
big for just this one podcast,right?
So we're not going to go intoall of them, but we're going to
talk about agentic shoppingspecifically.
(16:53):
You know, that's the idea of AIfinding and buying the stuff
you want automatically, withminimal intervention, right, or
practically zero intervention,and everybody's, everybody is
working on this, right?
So you've got open AIperplexity.
Google, walmart, amazonEverybody's experimenting,
(17:14):
everybody's trying to figure itout, and so I think shoppers are
kind of curious about it, but Idon't think adoption is,
honestly, I don't think the techis quite there yet, and,
honestly, the value propositionlike when is it the right time
to use agentic shopping?
When is it not?
Proposition like when is it theright time to use agentic
(17:34):
shopping?
When is it not?
Like are you gonna you're gonnause it for your everyday
essentials, like toilet paper,but maybe not for if you're
gonna buy a couch, right.
So it's like I think, findingthe right use cases for this and
having the right tech and rightright tools um does seem to be,
you know, kind of the thebalance that everybody's trying
to figure out and so so, andthen, plus, you know consumer
behavior needs to change rightand so there's an evolution.
(17:56):
It doesn't usually happen justovernight, so trying to figure
all that out, so you know, ifshoppers right now are I guess
they're getting more used tousing AI for discovery, like how
do I find something?
Hey, find me this, find me that, find me the other.
What do you think really needsto happen for them to kind of
take that next step and look atusing AI or agents or some
(18:19):
technology that buys things ontheir behalf?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I mean Accenture's hugely into the AI
space.
So we have a lot of discussionsaround this, and not just
what's available now, but wherewill it go in the next six
months, 12 months?
You know, right, as you know,this is such a rapidly evolving
space, right?
What you know now is going tobe outdated by the end of the
year.
So it I think, if I look at ifI, if I take your adoption
(18:46):
question first, like I, you know, I would look at something like
if I made a, an equivalent or acomparison that's what I like
to do when I'm thinking aboutadoption which is like if I look
at the iPhone, the way that youused to unlock the iPhone was
you had to put in a pin and thenit moved to fingerprint ID and
there was outcry about that.
(19:07):
There was I don't want myfingerprint in a database and
PII.
It's true, it was things.
Yeah, very much yeah.
Apple kind of said tough luckand kept going and people
adopted it.
Then Face ID came in and peoplegot even more upset about Face
ID because they felt like it wasan infringement on their
personal space.
Well, now 50% of the worldunlocks their phone with their
(19:30):
face, probably more so if youcount all the other stuff, Now
you can get through security inthe airport right, which is with
your face, right.
So I know it's not, that's notexactly what you're asking me,
but if I think about, if I linkit to giving up control and
doing something that maybe feelsstrange now but won't in six
months, a year's time, I couldsee this topic and agentic
(19:54):
shopping going that way.
I think exactly what you said,though I think people will start
with the mundane, therepetitive, the low risk in
terms of cost elements of it.
But you don't go to a travelagent now to book your flights.
You go online and book them andyou hand over thousands of
dollars and you trust that whenyou do that airline or the hotel
(20:14):
company is is legit, true, um,and so you know I would be an
early adopter of that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
yeah for sure yeah, I think this coming holiday
season is going to be a key time, yeah, for this right.
So, you know, with everybodyworking on this and you know the
idea that you know consumer andshopper behavior may be
adjusting like, I think there'sgoing to be an opportunity to
really see what the appetite iswith the general general public,
(20:43):
um, with, with, uh, you know,using AI for shopping in a lot
of different ways.
You know, potentially even, uh,even a Gentic as well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, I mean it also.
It's what do you want AI to befor you?
So AI can do a lot of things,but it can only do them well if
it's infrastructure, it's dataset, all the things that go into
building it are concrete andaccurate.
If you're talking about drivingvalue through time savings,
(21:14):
totally see it Right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And there are categories, I think, that lean
towards that right.
So toilet paper and the thingsthat you buy on your everyday
essentials that are somewhat ona regular basis and that require
low involvement Right, lowinvolvement products or it could
be a niche product that you'restruggling to find, like you
know.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
say, if you're having to dig around and go and find
something extremely neat youknow we both like sneakers,
right, like you know if you'retrying to find a very specific
pair, that's maybe on the resalemarket, on the grain market,
and you can't find it in thespecific size you want, you've
tried all the regular places.
I mean, have have a go, find itfor you, and then you know,
(21:56):
maybe set it, maybe set it up,so that you know it doesn't go
spend 500 straight away but ittells you it's found it and then
you can make a decision yeah,and I've tested that out a
little bit um, with some mixedresults.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I will say um, but obviously you know what they say
with ai today's the worst it'llever be right, so it'll
continue to that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know, no right, yeah, it's yeah that
that's.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's pretty common right now.
Yeah, this today's the worstit'll ever be.
So, yeah, I mean, I canprobably have a whole nother
conversation about thedifference between an ai agent
buying sneakers and what a botdoes to buy sneakers and suck up
all the inventory.
But that's, that's probably atopic or an article for another
day.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well, you know, I have strong feelings on bots.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Great, all right, so let's flip the script.
Tom, I think you brought atopic to the podcast today, so
let's hear what you got.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, I want to put you in the hot seat.
Oh man, you're prepared, thoughI'm not going to ambush you
with something.
So, you know, we've worked inthis space now for quite a while
, and whilst we both ended up inthe similar places, we both had
quite different backgrounds toget here, sure, which is true of
most people.
I think one of the patterns ortrends that I've seen is the
(23:05):
ongoing tension between what youwould consider brand-level
marketing and media, and thenshopper retail focused marketing
and media.
Yep, and for me, you know, ifyou, if you're going to ask me
for a hot take on that, I thinkthere's a world in which they
(23:26):
both play together.
But at the end of the day, likeif I was to ask you, like, why
does a company want to build abrand?
What would your answer be tothat?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
To sell products, right, you know, to make money
right.
To generate revenue yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And the two primary ways you can do that are a D2C
solution or a retail location.
Yeah, so if your ultimate goalis to drive conversion and
loyalty because you believe inthe brand and loyalty is another
topic we could spend probablyhours talking about but if
that's your ultimate goal is todrive conversion, why are more
(24:05):
brands not focusing their brandbuilding activities around
highly scalable retailecosystems?
Walmart has 95% householdpenetration right, amazon is a
behemoth of e-commerceopportunities and Walmart is
very quickly catching up on that, along with the targets, the
(24:27):
Kroger's, et cetera, et cetera.
So I was just interested inyour take.
You know you've worked on some,some huge brands like have you
seen a shift in terms ofcompanies now being more willing
to try and build a brand,leveraging the scale and first
party data and the associatedattribution of of retail, or do
you?
Do you still see it as we havebrand level activity and we have
(24:49):
shopper and there's this grayarea in the middle?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I mean, I think it's, it's interesting.
So, you know, being where I waspreviously, you know I had
exposure to the, you know, thebiggest cpg company right in the
us, right and so, and seeinghow, how they operate, and
working with those iconic brands.
Now, in the role I'm at today,I'm getting more exposure to
(25:15):
marketplace and smaller brandsand I think, you know, for me, I
think it does depend on youknow what level of brand you are
, so to speak, and I think theones that are the smaller brands
are leveraging those ecosystems.
So marketplace sellers, let'ssay, let's call them, you know
they're selling their productsthrough these channels and
(25:37):
they're trying to leverage anyof those, the retailers channels
, in order to, you know, gain asmany sales and conversions as
they possibly can.
Now, there are limited budgets,right, so they can't do
everything, so they have toobviously make choices, as every
brand has to make choices onwhere they invest.
(25:57):
But I do see, like the smallerbrands, you know, really leaning
in a little bit more intoretail versus the big, you know,
the bigger brands.
I think it's tough, man, it'stough to find that balance right
, because, like For people tobuy your product, they have to
be aware of your product Right.
And so in the case with aretailer, if you're only being
(26:19):
sold at Amazon or only beingsold at Walmart, you know you've
got to figure out how do youdrive those eyeballs to those
locations, to those sites.
And they have to be aware enoughof what the value proposition,
your product, what are thefeatures and benefits and all
that stuff.
So you've got to find thatright balance between those, the
offsite and the onsite, to doit.
(26:42):
But yeah, I think sometimes youknow brands, bigger brands, may
not always think about theretailer specifically when
they're, you know, maybe workingon a larger campaign.
And so obviously that's wherecommerce, media and shopper
marketing teams and those typesof teams, customer teams, are
the ones that usually are tryingto figure out how do I take
(27:05):
this big message and this newproduct or this brand
positioning and trying to makeit work at retail.
And sometimes it doesn't alwayswork the same right, because
there's different goals atdifferent retailers and the
product is positioneddifferently at different
retailers and the product ispositioned differently in
different retailers as well yeah, I think you there's.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
As you know, there's the organic component of any of
any brands.
Business or retail is becomingmore and more important because
it's the fundamentals, as thefoundation.
So when I think about dtc I Ithink about the brands that do
well tell a very clear story,right?
They either have a very clearvalue proposition.
They solve a problem or theirethics and what they stand for
(27:47):
really resonates with people.
They're usually the three brandstores and ways to tell more of
a story within a retailerecosystem versus a standalone
DTC solution.
I could see that becoming moreof an opportunity moving forward
, as long as that content thatyou've got on the retailer site
(28:09):
is as good and best in class aswhat you would put on your own
right whatever.
So it's just.
I appreciate your insightbecause we go back and forth.
I think there's a ton of stuffaround measurement solutions and
one ID and making sure you cantrack all the media through the
funnel.
But I do agree we sometimes getstuck in a difficult position,
(28:32):
which is that if awareness is uphere and conversions are under,
it's that consideration layerwhere the two mostly overlap.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I think of like people don't know where to put a
tactic, but they it's not forawareness, it's not full
conversion, they put it in themiddle under consideration,
right.
So it's like it's kind of alittle bit of both.
Well, I mean, if me and you hada dollar for every time.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
We got a brief that said drive awareness,
consideration and conversion ofx product at x retailer for x
budget, I could probably retireby now.
That is not.
That is not a brief right.
Yeah, that is.
That is a catch-all solutionfor something, because we're not
thinking through what theactual kpis are, what we want to
(29:12):
achieve when we go to market.
So and it's that it's probablyfor that exact reason and I
guarantee you the budget isn'tenough, never enough.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It's not well.
If you're trying to do allthose things right and you're
trying to do well and you'retrying to, you know, depending
on what your cohort is and whoyou're trying to reach right
like you don't, there's notenough money in order to to
address all of this, and it'susually way too tactical way too
short time frames.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That's why you need to be planning the year in
advance and making sure thateverything ladders up to what
your overall objectives are forthe year and the associated KPI.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Cool, yeah, good stuff.
Thanks for indulging me on thatone.
Yeah, no, I mean we'll probablytalk about that one for just an
hour on its own, because Ithink there's some really
interesting areas to unpackspecifically into that area.
And, like I said in my open,like the funnel to me is not
dead, like it just has to be,it's super important to really
(30:25):
truly understand what value eachlevel of the funnel has within
a media plan or a marketingstrategy.
All right, so we're going tomove over to a fun one now.
So our next topic we're goingto talk about this craze that is
totally taking over the country.
Maybe I guess it's even theworld at this point, but let's
talk about a little boo boo.
Okay, all right, so have haveyou even.
(30:46):
Are you familiar?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
with a little boo boo I am.
My wife actually mentioned itto me two days ago.
Okay, it's the furry littleanimal.
Yes, yeah, they've got wideeyes.
They got this big grin.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Okay, it's the furry little animal craze, right, yeah
, they've got wide eyes, they'vegot this big grin, and it's
from a company called Pop Martand they have retail locations
as well, right, which theyactually just crushed their
earnings, I think they justreported.
They just totally crushed theirearnings.
So this is the latestcollectible obsession and
(31:17):
they're just absolutely crushingit right now in a lot of
different ways.
Um, but it's what's reallyinteresting to me as part of
this lububu craze is really the,the whole concept and the idea
that more adults are shoppingthe toy category for themselves,
right, and so the term that'sbeing used is called cadult.
(31:38):
Right, and so the, the cadultcohort, um, is a huge part of
the toy market, right, and so,um, they account for about 43
percent of self-purchases.
Is this cohort?
Yes, 43 percent and 1.8 billionbillion in Q1 of 2025 alone.
So that's not just a niche,right.
(32:00):
And just speaking about Laboo,I was actually on Walmartcom
yesterday and I mean they haveLaboo on its homepage and, you
know, being sold through StockX,which is, you know, a resale
marketplace for collectibleitems and that kind of stuff,
and so it's really becoming moreand more mainstream.
(32:21):
So I mean, if you just thinkabout the escalation of labubu
and just kind of this cadultautonomy.
Yeah, do you think, like, when Iget concerned about all these
things, is these hype cycles solike something's a trend and
something's hot and then it diesoff and then what's the next
thing?
Right?
But I mean, do you think likecadult overall?
(32:42):
Right?
So you know, people, adults arebuying lego sets, right, and
those are collectible.
Adults are buying pokemon cardsand those are like they're,
they're really getting into itand I'm sure some of it
psychologically is nostalgia, um, you know, kind of missing out
on what their, you know, theirchildhood, or missing their
childhood, um.
So I mean, do you think likethis cadult economy is going to
continue or do you think it willkind of stay with time and
(33:06):
something else will come in?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
no, I think it'll continue.
The two examples you just saidwere the exact ones that popped
into my head.
Yes, like pokemon, pokemon'shad a crazy resurgence over the
past few years.
You can't find it right and youknow there's a whole secondary
market and some cards are worththousands, tens of thousands of
dollars, so there's like it'sgot its own economy essentially
(33:29):
Right.
I think adult adulthood adult iskind of baked into us.
Honestly, like as you get older, you know millennials.
Just like as a millennial, youknow when I was, you know, in my
teens and even in my early 20s,I didn't have a ton of
responsibility.
(33:49):
I I got to spend a lot of timedoing the things that just I
enjoyed doing.
You can be kind of selfish,honestly, you don't realize it
at the time because you're justexploring your interests and
your passions.
And then you know you getmarried and you maybe have a
family and you're in a careerand you're doing great things
and you're getting satisfactionfrom that in other ways and you
(34:11):
know, I personally wouldn'tchange that for the world, but
you miss some of those thingsthat you got to do when you were
younger.
Gaming's another one, um, andso I think people will
continuously look for comfort intheir childhood experiences.
I don't think labubu is goingto be around for very long.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Personally, I think it's a bit of a flash in that
take.
Yeah, I take tom.
Oh, here we go um, I think it's.
I think it's a bit of a flashin the pan Hot take.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, hot, take Tom.
Oh, here we go.
I think it's a bit of a flashin the pan type of thing,
because this I think I read thatit was launched it's been
around for like six years, yeah,so you know if I'm thinking of
a belt, like of a graph, right,you've had this kind of like.
(34:59):
It's been enough to keep thebusiness going.
Then suddenly it takes off.
I mean, it will fall back, andthat's how people end up with
boxes full of things that wereonce really interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, beanie babies right and go.
Go back to beanie babies.
I mean you talked about this alittle, or mentioned this a
little earlier, about, you know,being into sneakers, right, and
so even the trends with thesneakers come and go.
Like you know, it's not a fewyears ago, jordan pair, jordan
ones were like the big thing.
Yeah, now, I mean, they prettymuch go on sale now when they're
(35:24):
really getting a retail.
Now you get a retail and youknow, even if you buy them on
secondary market they're belowretail in some cases.
So it's, it's like these thingstrend and now your jordan fours
are the big thing and so themore you, the more you're
interested in a certain productor category.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Like you get to kind of shape your experience as well
.
Yeah, I love reddit for thatreason.
There are so many communitieson reddit that just allow me to
dive in with other people thatare passionate about the areas
that I'm passionate about.
I really like watches too.
It's all the expensive stuffand, unfortunately, um, but so
(36:00):
much knowledge to be shared andlike conversations to be had and
like that's one in an areawhere I think social media like
really adds to society.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, you know yeah, yeah, no, it's good, it's good.
Are there any brands outside ofthe tour?
You know categories outside oftoys you think could potentially
lean into this adult cohort?
For me, what I think of a lotis like the collaborations Right
(36:34):
, so the opportunity to collabRight.
Collaborations right, so theopportunity to collab right.
Do you associate your productwith a trending brand to collab
on?
You know a different packagingor a different color or scent or
flavor, or you know, uh, style,like you know is.
You know, that's what comes tome when I think about that
that's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
I mean, I would argue that this, like cereal, have
been, has been doing it, so Ihad all the time like the toys
and the packages, or QSR withthe McDonald's Happy Meals and
things they're always bringingin the next Disney thing, or you
know Roblox, or you know things.
So I think there's ways tonaturally integrate for sure,
but I'm going to go back.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Then you have adults buying up all the stuff for that
or attended for kids.
I can't get my cereal becauseall the grown-ups can't even
yeah, bought all, bought it allfor themselves to get the toy
inside.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
So it achieves.
It achieves the goal, but thetoy needs to be relevant.
So you've got to make adecision as a brand right.
The toy needs to either appealto the kids now yeah, like a
roblox or it needs to have thatretro inspiration component to
it that makes the parent want tobuy it.
Yeah, yeah for sure, cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
All right, we'll wrap there on that one.
Um, so, all right.
So that wraps up for topicalbanter.
We're gonna go into game time.
Okay, are you ready to play agame?
Sure, do you want to?
This whole thing is pretty fun,so you know, yeah, keep going,
all right.
Well, all right.
Today's game is called vibecheck, okay.
So, um, this is how it works.
(38:00):
I'm gonna throw out a word or atrend or even something totally
random, okay, and then you'vegot to give me your first gut
reaction in one word nooverthinking, just vibes, just
like it's called vibe check.
Okay, did you, did you processall that?
Yeah, I'm gonna throw stuff outthere.
You're gonna give me a word.
Tell me what you think.
(38:20):
Okay, all right, pretty.
One word is tough, man, I knowthat's okay.
Though, all right, I know youcan handle it.
All right, do my best, allright.
So let's start off with theeasy one summerween.
What is your one word?
Early, early, okay.
Ai and marketing Future.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
The booboo craze Short-lived, wow, hyphenated but
give it to me.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, I'll give it to you.
So we didn't talk about thisone, but maybe it'll be on
another cast.
But Amazon's same-day grocerydelivery service that they just
launched, yeah, trend setting.
Uh, trend setting, trendsetting.
Okay, cool.
How about taylor swift ontravis and jason's podcast?
What year?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
smart, yeah, tiktok shops.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I want to.
No, no, you got one word manTikTok shops.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
See I'm overthinking it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
I'd say current, current, yeah All right, we're
up on pumpkin spice season.
So what do you think about PSL?
I'll just say not for me.
The new Cracker Barrel logo.
Divisive, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
All right, how about Americanfootball?
(39:45):
There's only one good answerthere.
I'm going to say friendship,okay, oh, interesting.
Coffee or tea, coffee,pineapple on pizza?
No, no, all right, cool, allright.
Well, thanks for playing.
Vibes.
Check, that was good, that wasfun, all right.
(40:06):
Well, I'm going to wrap this oneup for now, and so time to wrap
up the cast.
If you haven't got enough Tomand I in our banter and stuff,
if you haven't got enough enoughTom and I and our banter and
stuff, you can check out.
Check us out at the EmbarkInnovation Summit on September
16th.
(40:26):
I'm going to be hosting a paneland Tom and a couple others
will be discussing the future ofshopping and what brands and
startups must do to stay ahead.
If you want more informationabout the summit, visit
EmbarkSummitcom.
So I hope everyone's enjoyedthe vibes of today's show.
I want to say a huge thanks toTom for being guest number one.
(40:47):
Any last words, tom?
Anything you want to plug?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I would just say thank you for having me on.
As for transparently beingvulnerable, it's my first time
ever doing a podcast, solearning for both of us.
I would just say you know I'mvery passionate about this space
and I love talking tolike-minded people about it.
I don't think Accenture isknown for retail media
(41:13):
specifically.
I think you know it's a hugecompany with a lot of skills set
and technology powering it, butwe're very bullish on where
this could go, especiallyleveraging the scale that
Accenture has.
So I would just urge peopledrop me a LinkedIn message,
(41:35):
schedule a coffee.
I'm still convinced morebusiness gets done over coffee
in Northwest Arkansas than itdoes in office buildings.
So hit me up and let's have achat yeah Awesome, will you come
back?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
And if you say no, I'll just edit that out.
But will you come back?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Absolutely, I'll come back.
Yes, all right.
I mean, hopefully this getssome views and that people
actually want you back.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, no, I'm sure people want I want you back.
How about that?
All right?
Well, if you have any thoughtsor comments about the show, feel
free to email me atretailmediavibes at gmailcom.
Don't forget to like andsubscribe, maybe leave a comment
or a review.
I want to thank you all.
So much for listening and Iwill try to do better next time.
Bv out.
What's up party people, bv here and welcome to
Retail Media Vibes a doingbusiness in Bentonville podcast.
I'm the guy who believes thatevery media plan needs a breeze.
The funnel isn't broken and AIis here to help, just like me.
So I'd like to welcome you toepisode one, which is being
(00:29):
recorded at Podcast VideoStudios here in Rogers, arkansas
.
So I'm really excited to getthis podcast going and it's been
a long time coming and I'mreally happy to have you along
for this journey.
So before we start the show, Iwant to give you guys a little
disclaimer.
I want to say that, first, allmy opinions expressed are not
(00:51):
necessarily reflective of any ofmy past employers, any of my
present employers or any of myfuture employers.
And this is an opinion-basedshow.
It's a subjective opinion basedupon my observations, and it's
definitely not going to beperfect by any stretch.
So before we actually get intothe show, I do want to talk
(01:13):
about a little bit why I startedRetail Media Vibes as a podcast
.
Because you know, retail mediafirst is something I know and
something I've lived, and it'sbeen a big part of my career.
Retail media first is somethingI know and something I've lived
and it's been a big part of mycareer and I know, like for so
many of you that are listening,whether you're on the brand side
, the agency side, with aretailer and you're working as a
strategist, an analyst, acreative, a media planner, a
(01:34):
producer, this industry is ahuge part of your life too and,
to be honest, it can be a grindat times.
We work in a space that demandsgrowth and performance every
single day and our time andattention is constantly being
pulled in different directions.
It's fast moving, it's highpressure and sometimes it feels
like you're just living it 24-7.
(01:56):
So that's why I created thispodcast.
It's a place where we can stepback from the grind just for a
minute, maybe 30 minutes, and wecan swap ideas, hear stuff that
people don't always say in theroom and pick up an idea and
maybe have a laugh along the way.
So you know, retail media keepsexpanding.
It's touching everything fromad tech to shopper trends to
(02:18):
commerce strategy, and you knowit's not just about the work.
So it's about the people, theperspectives, the energy, the
people, the perspectives, theenergy, the real conversations
that make this interesting andfun.
So that's the spirit of thispodcast good conversation, good
people and good vibes.
So with that, let's get into theshow.
All right, so I'm excited tohave my first guest on my first
(02:40):
episode, tom bryden fromaccenture.
Welcome, tom, thanks so much.
I'll need to be the first guest.
Tom and I go way back and we'veknown each other for quite some
time and I'd love to let theaudience get to know you just a
little bit and spend a littlebit of time about that.
So, tom, just to get to knowyou a little bit, what would you
say you do?
(03:01):
What is your job?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, so I work for Accenture, as you mentioned.
Really, I sit at theintersection between retailers
and brands.
I focus primarily on mediacapabilities, analytics, digital
shelf content.
For me, it's super interestingto get to work with some of the
biggest retailers in the world,helping them advance their
retail media capabilities, butthen also work with a multitude
(03:30):
of different brands to help themaccelerate their growth at
those same retailers.
So in some cases I'm in a veryfortunate position where I'm
working with the same retailerthat the brands also want to
work with and you know we canleverage some of the scale that
Essentia has.
So every day is different.
It's fast paced, as youmentioned at the start.
You live it for sure, but I'mvery fortunate to get to see a
(03:52):
lot of the retail world.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, and so why do you care about retail?
Like there's a lot of places, alot of ways to engage in media
and marketing, but why retail?
Why do you care about retail somuch?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, I mean, you know we live in Northwest
Arkansas, it's the home ofWalmart, and so I think you
almost have to be going out ofyour way to ignore retail in
this area.
But I think for me, like I'mpassionate about it, for a
couple of reasons.
One is because my background ispsychology and there's a very
like psychological component toretail in terms of how do you
(04:24):
connect with your shoppers, um,why do they pick and choose to
purchase their hard-earned moneyon one brand versus another?
Why did they walk into awalmart versus a target?
Um, that is very interesting tome.
The other reason is becausewhen I was a png about six years
ago that was really the startof some of the larger jbp
negotiations that were happeningWalmart just in-housed its
(04:47):
capabilities and when you've gotthe largest retailer in the
world having very seriousmulti-year conversations with
one of the biggest advertisersin the world, I realized I had
to pay attention, and so I did,and then from there it kind of
grew.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And that's before retail media really blew up,
right, and so, like, like thatwas one of the probably the
starting points of where retailmedia started to get bigger and
bigger and bigger, when Walmartreally started to get really
involved there.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, they deserve a lot of credit, honestly, Um the
the growth and the investmentthey've put into building out
their, their retail mediaecosystem.
Um, ecosystem is kind ofincredible doing the majority of
it in-house as well.
So, like I said, we're lucky tolive here and, you know, coming
from a digital marketingbackground, it was a natural fit
(05:38):
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, I like to do a littleicebreaker with my guests, or I
will, since this is episode one,so you get to be the first
guest with the first icebreaker.
So what is one retailer that isout of business today that you
want to see come back?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I miss Blockbuster.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
I lived in the UK and movedhere when I was 28.
So I remember Saturday nights,friday nights, going with my
family making sure the DVD wasbehind the face of the title and
then sometimes it'd be out ifeverybody wanted to watch it.
(06:15):
But it was a nostalgia thing.
I actually worked there for ashort time, was rocking the blue
polo for a while and for me,like Blockbuster, is a nostalgic
piece, but also it's a missedopportunity piece.
Um, I strongly believe that,with the brand identity and the
physical footprint and scalethat blockbuster had maybe, you
know, 15, 20 years ago, ifthey'd embraced a more digital
(06:38):
first mindset, you'd be probablylogging on and instead of
clicking on Hulu or Netflix, youcould be clicking on a
blockbuster stream.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, that makes sense, yeah, yeah, I like it, I
like it, cool yeah.
For me I think it was like Iwas thinking about this a little
while and like servicemerchandise.
I don't know if many of you arefamiliar with service merchant
merchandise, but that used to bea store.
I mean kind of like a, a bestbuy in a way, but kind of like a
(07:08):
best buy in a way, but kind oflike a best buy type of store.
But why?
Why I, I miss it and wish itcame back was really from for
similar to you, like a nostalgicpoint of view, like I used to
go there with my grandparentsand we used to look at the
electronics and a lot of thecool, cool stuff there.
So service merchandise was onethat came to mind for me.
Yeah, so, uh, one othericebreaker question so what is
one reel or tikt, tiktok in yourfeed?
That right now, that makes youlaugh.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I do disclaimer I do not use TikTok, okay, but I do
like an Instagram reel.
I'm a big fan of YouTube, asyou know, so I like a YouTube
show.
Oh yeah, there you go.
Shorts, yeah, shorts.
In line with the kind offuturistic ai component of some
of the things we're going totalk about.
(07:51):
One that really tickled merecently was, uh, it was a
compilation of how you knoweverybody, some people are
scared of robots and the futureand what they could do.
People think it's going to belike a terminator situation.
And then they were like, yep,this is the future.
And then it cut to a number ofdifferent uh robotics concepts
and basically they all fell overor freaked out, um, and that,
(08:15):
to me, was like we've got a waysto go, but we're making good
progress.
But it was just funny that theway they set it up, so that one,
that one, got me yeah, that'syeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
What about you?
For me, like right now and Idon't know if it's just because
it's it's timely but there'sthis, uh, like dogs doing
podcasts okay, that are justcracking's, just cracking me up,
so it's two dogs and one's thehost and they're, you know,
saying some cliche thing likewho's a good boy?
And they're like, of course I'ma good boy and they start
(08:43):
cracking up, laughing and so,like I I've seen there's a whole
series of them and I've seen Ihope maybe I've seen them all at
this point, but yeah, reallylove that one, because obviously
here we are doing a podcast, sookay, well, just let me know
which breed of dog I am when weget them and it's usually like a
gold retriever and a frenchieis like that's the one that, oh,
nice, yeah, okay, yeah, I meaneasily found you.
I mean I'm sure you get on reels, you'll, you'll find it pretty
(09:05):
quickly, cool, well, great,great to get to know you.
Um, all, right, we going tomove on now to our topics, right
?
So call this segment TopicalBanter, and so I will introduce
a topic and then we'll banterabout that topic.
So we have a few great topicstoday.
So first topic we have isSummerween.
(09:28):
I know what did I just say,right, summerween.
So I mean, it's basicallyHalloween in the middle of the
summer.
So this has been like a trendthat was happening on social
where people were starting toget in the Halloween spirit in
(09:50):
the middle of July.
You know, june, june and July,right.
And so you know, retailers arereally leaning into it.
I was in Lowe's the other dayand they've got this, you know,
you know 30 foot zombie in thereor something like that, you
know hanging out, and so thisand this is August, right.
So you know, like, well, beforeOctober.
So it feels like the theretailers are getting into it.
(10:12):
Walmart's definitely gettinginto it, um, michael's, so
they're getting theJack-o'-lanterns, the skeletons,
candy decor there is pulling itout way in front of uh, way in
front of October and it's, it'sbooming like Halloween.
Sales last year were $11.6billion and nearly half of those
shoppers now start buyingbefore october.
(10:35):
So that's, that's a huge, youknow, huge, huge amount of money
.
Uh, well, well, before october,when you think people start
thinking about it, right?
So you know, summer wean.
So is this something just madeup to be a marketing stunt now,
or is this really becoming aretail strategy?
So you know, what do you think?
Do you think retailers,retailers are pushing shoppers
(10:55):
into Summerween or do you thinkyou know the shoppers in the
social media culture is pushingretailers into jump in a little
bit early?
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I mean, I do think there's a cultural
component to it.
There's also a US cultureversus other countries component
to it as well.
I think, like something Inoticed having lived here for 10
years, is that, you know, theus goes big on holidays in
general, which is just, which isgreat.
I think it's awesome that wecelebrate these big seasonal
(11:26):
temple things right.
Um, I personally feel it's abit early.
Uh, it's.
You know, october, where welive, is full foliage and cooler
mornings, and it's tough for meto get in the Halloween spirit.
But, that being said, it works.
Like you know, if you canextend out a big buying period,
(11:50):
there is an opportunity toincrease revenue, especially if
you're a brand that naturallyand organically plays in that
space.
So I can see the benefit of itfrom a brand and retailer
standpoint.
And if you know the averageconsumer is embracing it and
doesn't feel that it's kind ofoff topic or too early, then why
not?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean it feels like it also fits a certain
niche of people who are reallyinto Halloween, right, and so it
starts to get them into thespirit.
Also, to your point, if youstart to extend the season, you
know, incrementally there'sopportunity to, you know, grow
revenue, right, you know makemore sales during that period of
(12:31):
time.
So, you know, if, if you wereadvising a brand which you do
often right Would you tell themto lean into Summerween or just
kind of wait it out a little bitlonger to see, like cause, I
think it's, it's.
It's interesting to figure outhow, how certain brands could
play right, other than thepeople who are creating just
(12:51):
these products that you know aresold for Halloween, for decor
or candy or etc.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, I mean, I'm a media guy so I'm always going to
go with the data.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What's the data say?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It's not a sexy answer, but I think there is
data that you could draw upon interms of consumer trends and
you know social listening andthings that you could do to
inform that decision.
It's probably too late now thatyou could do to inform that
decision.
It's probably too late now ifyou're oh, yeah, but like if
that, if that does become atrend next year and that's
something that you want to planfor and your brands like.
The key thing here is thebrands that need to be thinking
(13:23):
about it.
They need to make sense in thatspace, right?
One of the worst decisionsbrands can make, in my opinion,
is forcing themselves into amovement or a conversation where
they just don't play yeah, andthen it feels false and it feels
unauthentic.
Yeah, for retailers absolutelywe.
I took my, my little girl she'ssix to walmart the other day
(13:44):
and they had the pumpkins outand you know the decor pumpkins
and she thought was the bestthing ever and wanted me to buy
one.
So it works.
There's a real life example ofhow it works?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, definitely.
So you bought that pumpkin andyou probably will buy more
things the next time you goright, Because every time you go
with your kid, they're going tohit you up for the next thing.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
What are those stores that pop up on Halloween?
Spirit Halloween, yeah, spiritHalloween, yeah, so that's our
house, that's basically it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Well, that's basically what you got Well, so
you're really leaning intoHalloween as a family.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, my wife loves Halloween.
That's good, that's good.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So like, when is like what is around the timing?
So when does this end, like, dowe start moving summerween into
June or, like you know, may?
And the other thing too is likethere's also back-to-school
time for a lot of families,right?
So now you've got this dualseasonality that retailers you
(14:36):
know like, let's say, like awalmart right, that are trying
to.
You know you got to have spacefor all the back to school stuff
.
Then you got to have space forall this halloween stuff, and so
, you know, assortment it's gotto be challenging.
I would assume you're trying tofigure that out.
So how, yeah you?
So how do we pull this?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I mean, you see it time and time again.
I mean I'm not advocating forValentine's Day in December,
right, but if you've gotchildren, which Halloween you
know?
primarily a children's,kids-based activity, I don't
know, man, we'll talk aboutkid'll talk about adults later,
(15:14):
so but, like you know, the lastas a parent or two, like the
last thing I want to be thinkingabout is preparing for
something that happens two and ahalf months away, when I'm
trying to figure out a newroutine and add life and back to
school.
So for me personally, no, butthere are some people that plan
way out.
Um, you know it, hobby lobby isanother one.
(15:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's all right.
Yeah, um, you know, joe passedthere the other day.
It was absolutely packed, um,and so I can only assume, like
the next big thing is harrowing.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So people are getting in there early and wanted to
plan and prep and make itspecial I wonder, if you combine
the two, have like back toschool with hall, with summer,
yeah and so, yeah, and you'vegot well, it can be a bit scary.
So yeah, yeah, I guess it wouldbe for kids.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know, going back to school is scary, right, so
it's a good, good combinationbut you say with like black
friday as well, like cyber, likeblack friday, cyber monday.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Now it's just weeks of saving friday yeah, I mean
it's, it's, it's, it's a month.
It's not like yeah, you know,start, yeah, start.
As soon as halloween is over,it's like boom, yeah, but
holiday season is now two months, so yeah, yeah, it's
interesting okay all right,great, uh, great conversation on
summer wean, but we're going tomove on now to our next topic.
(16:31):
So we're going to talk aboutagentic shopping, right?
So ai agents I I think overallthat's just a huge topic.
There are all kinds of agentsthat are being used or being
planned to be used in retail and, honestly, it's probably too
big for just this one podcast,right?
So we're not going to go intoall of them, but we're going to
talk about agentic shoppingspecifically.
(16:53):
You know, that's the idea of AIfinding and buying the stuff
you want automatically, withminimal intervention, right, or
practically zero intervention,and everybody's, everybody is
working on this, right?
So you've got open AIperplexity.
Google, walmart, amazonEverybody's experimenting,
(17:14):
everybody's trying to figure itout, and so I think shoppers are
kind of curious about it, but Idon't think adoption is,
honestly, I don't think the techis quite there yet, and,
honestly, the value propositionlike when is it the right time
to use agentic shopping?
When is it not?
Proposition like when is it theright time to use agentic
(17:34):
shopping?
When is it not?
Like are you gonna you're gonnause it for your everyday
essentials, like toilet paper,but maybe not for if you're
gonna buy a couch, right.
So it's like I think, findingthe right use cases for this and
having the right tech and rightright tools um does seem to be,
you know, kind of the thebalance that everybody's trying
to figure out and so so, andthen, plus, you know consumer
behavior needs to change rightand so there's an evolution.
(17:56):
It doesn't usually happen justovernight, so trying to figure
all that out, so you know, ifshoppers right now are I guess
they're getting more used tousing AI for discovery, like how
do I find something?
Hey, find me this, find me that, find me the other.
What do you think really needsto happen for them to kind of
take that next step and look atusing AI or agents or some
(18:19):
technology that buys things ontheir behalf?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I mean Accenture's hugely into the AI
space.
So we have a lot of discussionsaround this, and not just
what's available now, but wherewill it go in the next six
months, 12 months?
You know, right, as you know,this is such a rapidly evolving
space, right?
What you know now is going tobe outdated by the end of the
year.
So it I think, if I look at ifI, if I take your adoption
(18:46):
question first, like I, you know, I would look at something like
if I made a, an equivalent or acomparison that's what I like
to do when I'm thinking aboutadoption which is like if I look
at the iPhone, the way that youused to unlock the iPhone was
you had to put in a pin and thenit moved to fingerprint ID and
there was outcry about that.
(19:07):
There was I don't want myfingerprint in a database and
PII.
It's true, it was things.
Yeah, very much yeah.
Apple kind of said tough luckand kept going and people
adopted it.
Then Face ID came in and peoplegot even more upset about Face
ID because they felt like it wasan infringement on their
personal space.
Well, now 50% of the worldunlocks their phone with their
(19:30):
face, probably more so if youcount all the other stuff, Now
you can get through security inthe airport right, which is with
your face, right.
So I know it's not, that's notexactly what you're asking me,
but if I think about, if I linkit to giving up control and
doing something that maybe feelsstrange now but won't in six
months, a year's time, I couldsee this topic and agentic
(19:54):
shopping going that way.
I think exactly what you said,though I think people will start
with the mundane, therepetitive, the low risk in
terms of cost elements of it.
But you don't go to a travelagent now to book your flights.
You go online and book them andyou hand over thousands of
dollars and you trust that whenyou do that airline or the hotel
(20:14):
company is is legit, true, um,and so you know I would be an
early adopter of that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
yeah for sure yeah, I think this coming holiday
season is going to be a key time, yeah, for this right.
So, you know, with everybodyworking on this and you know the
idea that you know consumer andshopper behavior may be
adjusting like, I think there'sgoing to be an opportunity to
really see what the appetite iswith the general general public,
(20:43):
um, with, with, uh, you know,using AI for shopping in a lot
of different ways.
You know, potentially even, uh,even a Gentic as well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, I mean it also.
It's what do you want AI to befor you?
So AI can do a lot of things,but it can only do them well if
it's infrastructure, it's dataset, all the things that go into
building it are concrete andaccurate.
If you're talking about drivingvalue through time savings,
(21:14):
totally see it Right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And there are categories, I think, that lean
towards that right.
So toilet paper and the thingsthat you buy on your everyday
essentials that are somewhat ona regular basis and that require
low involvement Right, lowinvolvement products or it could
be a niche product that you'restruggling to find, like you
know.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
say, if you're having to dig around and go and find
something extremely neat youknow we both like sneakers,
right, like you know if you'retrying to find a very specific
pair, that's maybe on the resalemarket, on the grain market,
and you can't find it in thespecific size you want, you've
tried all the regular places.
I mean, have have a go, find itfor you, and then you know,
(21:56):
maybe set it, maybe set it up,so that you know it doesn't go
spend 500 straight away but ittells you it's found it and then
you can make a decision yeah,and I've tested that out a
little bit um, with some mixedresults.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I will say um, but obviously you know what they say
with ai today's the worst it'llever be right, so it'll
continue to that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know, no right, yeah, it's yeah that
that's.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's pretty common right now.
Yeah, this today's the worstit'll ever be.
So, yeah, I mean, I canprobably have a whole nother
conversation about thedifference between an ai agent
buying sneakers and what a botdoes to buy sneakers and suck up
all the inventory.
But that's, that's probably atopic or an article for another
day.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well, you know, I have strong feelings on bots.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Great, all right, so let's flip the script.
Tom, I think you brought atopic to the podcast today, so
let's hear what you got.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, I want to put you in the hot seat.
Oh man, you're prepared, thoughI'm not going to ambush you
with something.
So, you know, we've worked inthis space now for quite a while
, and whilst we both ended up inthe similar places, we both had
quite different backgrounds toget here, sure, which is true of
most people.
I think one of the patterns ortrends that I've seen is the
(23:05):
ongoing tension between what youwould consider brand-level
marketing and media, and thenshopper retail focused marketing
and media.
Yep, and for me, you know, ifyou, if you're going to ask me
for a hot take on that, I thinkthere's a world in which they
(23:26):
both play together.
But at the end of the day, likeif I was to ask you, like, why
does a company want to build abrand?
What would your answer be tothat?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
To sell products, right, you know, to make money
right.
To generate revenue yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And the two primary ways you can do that are a D2C
solution or a retail location.
Yeah, so if your ultimate goalis to drive conversion and
loyalty because you believe inthe brand and loyalty is another
topic we could spend probablyhours talking about but if
that's your ultimate goal is todrive conversion, why are more
(24:05):
brands not focusing their brandbuilding activities around
highly scalable retailecosystems?
Walmart has 95% householdpenetration right, amazon is a
behemoth of e-commerceopportunities and Walmart is
very quickly catching up on that, along with the targets, the
(24:27):
Kroger's, et cetera, et cetera.
So I was just interested inyour take.
You know you've worked on some,some huge brands like have you
seen a shift in terms ofcompanies now being more willing
to try and build a brand,leveraging the scale and first
party data and the associatedattribution of of retail, or do
you?
Do you still see it as we havebrand level activity and we have
(24:49):
shopper and there's this grayarea in the middle?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I mean, I think it's, it's interesting.
So, you know, being where I waspreviously, you know I had
exposure to the, you know, thebiggest cpg company right in the
us, right and so, and seeinghow, how they operate, and
working with those iconic brands.
Now, in the role I'm at today,I'm getting more exposure to
(25:15):
marketplace and smaller brandsand I think, you know, for me, I
think it does depend on youknow what level of brand you are
, so to speak, and I think theones that are the smaller brands
are leveraging those ecosystems.
So marketplace sellers, let'ssay, let's call them, you know
they're selling their productsthrough these channels and
(25:37):
they're trying to leverage anyof those, the retailers channels
, in order to, you know, gain asmany sales and conversions as
they possibly can.
Now, there are limited budgets,right, so they can't do
everything, so they have toobviously make choices, as every
brand has to make choices onwhere they invest.
(25:57):
But I do see, like the smallerbrands, you know, really leaning
in a little bit more intoretail versus the big, you know,
the bigger brands.
I think it's tough, man, it'stough to find that balance right
, because, like For people tobuy your product, they have to
be aware of your product Right.
And so in the case with aretailer, if you're only being
(26:19):
sold at Amazon or only beingsold at Walmart, you know you've
got to figure out how do youdrive those eyeballs to those
locations, to those sites.
And they have to be aware enoughof what the value proposition,
your product, what are thefeatures and benefits and all
that stuff.
So you've got to find thatright balance between those, the
offsite and the onsite, to doit.
(26:42):
But yeah, I think sometimes youknow brands, bigger brands, may
not always think about theretailer specifically when
they're, you know, maybe workingon a larger campaign.
And so obviously that's wherecommerce, media and shopper
marketing teams and those typesof teams, customer teams, are
the ones that usually are tryingto figure out how do I take
(27:05):
this big message and this newproduct or this brand
positioning and trying to makeit work at retail.
And sometimes it doesn't alwayswork the same right, because
there's different goals atdifferent retailers and the
product is positioneddifferently at different
retailers and the product ispositioned differently in
different retailers as well yeah, I think you there's.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
As you know, there's the organic component of any of
any brands.
Business or retail is becomingmore and more important because
it's the fundamentals, as thefoundation.
So when I think about dtc I Ithink about the brands that do
well tell a very clear story,right?
They either have a very clearvalue proposition.
They solve a problem or theirethics and what they stand for
(27:47):
really resonates with people.
They're usually the three brandstores and ways to tell more of
a story within a retailerecosystem versus a standalone
DTC solution.
I could see that becoming moreof an opportunity moving forward
, as long as that content thatyou've got on the retailer site
(28:09):
is as good and best in class aswhat you would put on your own
right whatever.
So it's just.
I appreciate your insightbecause we go back and forth.
I think there's a ton of stuffaround measurement solutions and
one ID and making sure you cantrack all the media through the
funnel.
But I do agree we sometimes getstuck in a difficult position,
(28:32):
which is that if awareness is uphere and conversions are under,
it's that consideration layerwhere the two mostly overlap.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I think of like people don't know where to put a
tactic, but they it's not forawareness, it's not full
conversion, they put it in themiddle under consideration,
right.
So it's like it's kind of alittle bit of both.
Well, I mean, if me and you hada dollar for every time.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
We got a brief that said drive awareness,
consideration and conversion ofx product at x retailer for x
budget, I could probably retireby now.
That is not.
That is not a brief right.
Yeah, that is.
That is a catch-all solutionfor something, because we're not
thinking through what theactual kpis are, what we want to
(29:12):
achieve when we go to market.
So and it's that it's probablyfor that exact reason and I
guarantee you the budget isn'tenough, never enough.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It's not well.
If you're trying to do allthose things right and you're
trying to do well and you'retrying to, you know, depending
on what your cohort is and whoyou're trying to reach right
like you don't, there's notenough money in order to to
address all of this, and it'susually way too tactical way too
short time frames.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That's why you need to be planning the year in
advance and making sure thateverything ladders up to what
your overall objectives are forthe year and the associated KPI.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Cool, yeah, good stuff.
Thanks for indulging me on thatone.
Yeah, no, I mean we'll probablytalk about that one for just an
hour on its own, because Ithink there's some really
interesting areas to unpackspecifically into that area.
And, like I said in my open,like the funnel to me is not
dead, like it just has to be,it's super important to really
(30:25):
truly understand what value eachlevel of the funnel has within
a media plan or a marketingstrategy.
All right, so we're going tomove over to a fun one now.
So our next topic we're goingto talk about this craze that is
totally taking over the country.
Maybe I guess it's even theworld at this point, but let's
talk about a little boo boo.
Okay, all right, so have haveyou even.
(30:46):
Are you familiar?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
with a little boo boo I am.
My wife actually mentioned itto me two days ago.
Okay, it's the furry littleanimal.
Yes, yeah, they've got wideeyes.
They got this big grin.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Okay, it's the furry little animal craze, right, yeah
, they've got wide eyes, they'vegot this big grin, and it's
from a company called Pop Martand they have retail locations
as well, right, which theyactually just crushed their
earnings, I think they justreported.
They just totally crushed theirearnings.
So this is the latestcollectible obsession and
(31:17):
they're just absolutely crushingit right now in a lot of
different ways.
Um, but it's what's reallyinteresting to me as part of
this lububu craze is really the,the whole concept and the idea
that more adults are shoppingthe toy category for themselves,
right, and so the term that'sbeing used is called cadult.
(31:38):
Right, and so the, the cadultcohort, um, is a huge part of
the toy market, right, and so,um, they account for about 43
percent of self-purchases.
Is this cohort?
Yes, 43 percent and 1.8 billionbillion in Q1 of 2025 alone.
So that's not just a niche,right.
(32:00):
And just speaking about Laboo,I was actually on Walmartcom
yesterday and I mean they haveLaboo on its homepage and, you
know, being sold through StockX,which is, you know, a resale
marketplace for collectibleitems and that kind of stuff,
and so it's really becoming moreand more mainstream.
(32:21):
So I mean, if you just thinkabout the escalation of labubu
and just kind of this cadultautonomy.
Yeah, do you think, like, when Iget concerned about all these
things, is these hype cycles solike something's a trend and
something's hot and then it diesoff and then what's the next
thing?
Right?
But I mean, do you think likecadult overall?
(32:42):
Right?
So you know, people, adults arebuying lego sets, right, and
those are collectible.
Adults are buying pokemon cardsand those are like they're,
they're really getting into itand I'm sure some of it
psychologically is nostalgia, um, you know, kind of missing out
on what their, you know, theirchildhood, or missing their
childhood, um.
So I mean, do you think likethis cadult economy is going to
continue or do you think it willkind of stay with time and
(33:06):
something else will come in?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
no, I think it'll continue.
The two examples you just saidwere the exact ones that popped
into my head.
Yes, like pokemon, pokemon'shad a crazy resurgence over the
past few years.
You can't find it right and youknow there's a whole secondary
market and some cards are worththousands, tens of thousands of
dollars, so there's like it'sgot its own economy essentially
(33:29):
Right.
I think adult adulthood adult iskind of baked into us.
Honestly, like as you get older, you know millennials.
Just like as a millennial, youknow when I was, you know, in my
teens and even in my early 20s,I didn't have a ton of
responsibility.
(33:49):
I I got to spend a lot of timedoing the things that just I
enjoyed doing.
You can be kind of selfish,honestly, you don't realize it
at the time because you're justexploring your interests and
your passions.
And then you know you getmarried and you maybe have a
family and you're in a careerand you're doing great things
and you're getting satisfactionfrom that in other ways and you
(34:11):
know, I personally wouldn'tchange that for the world, but
you miss some of those thingsthat you got to do when you were
younger.
Gaming's another one, um, andso I think people will
continuously look for comfort intheir childhood experiences.
I don't think labubu is goingto be around for very long.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Personally, I think it's a bit of a flash in that
take.
Yeah, I take tom.
Oh, here we go um, I think it's.
I think it's a bit of a flashin the pan Hot take.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, hot, take Tom.
Oh, here we go.
I think it's a bit of a flashin the pan type of thing,
because this I think I read thatit was launched it's been
around for like six years, yeah,so you know if I'm thinking of
a belt, like of a graph, right,you've had this kind of like.
(34:59):
It's been enough to keep thebusiness going.
Then suddenly it takes off.
I mean, it will fall back, andthat's how people end up with
boxes full of things that wereonce really interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, beanie babies right and go.
Go back to beanie babies.
I mean you talked about this alittle, or mentioned this a
little earlier, about, you know,being into sneakers, right, and
so even the trends with thesneakers come and go.
Like you know, it's not a fewyears ago, jordan pair, jordan
ones were like the big thing.
Yeah, now, I mean, they prettymuch go on sale now when they're
(35:24):
really getting a retail.
Now you get a retail and youknow, even if you buy them on
secondary market they're belowretail in some cases.
So it's, it's like these thingstrend and now your jordan fours
are the big thing and so themore you, the more you're
interested in a certain productor category.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Like you get to kind of shape your experience as well
.
Yeah, I love reddit for thatreason.
There are so many communitieson reddit that just allow me to
dive in with other people thatare passionate about the areas
that I'm passionate about.
I really like watches too.
It's all the expensive stuffand, unfortunately, um, but so
(36:00):
much knowledge to be shared andlike conversations to be had and
like that's one in an areawhere I think social media like
really adds to society.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, you know yeah, yeah, no, it's good, it's good.
Are there any brands outside ofthe tour?
You know categories outside oftoys you think could potentially
lean into this adult cohort?
For me, what I think of a lotis like the collaborations Right
(36:34):
, so the opportunity to collabRight.
Collaborations right, so theopportunity to collab right.
Do you associate your productwith a trending brand to collab
on?
You know a different packagingor a different color or scent or
flavor, or you know, uh, style,like you know is.
You know, that's what comes tome when I think about that
that's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
I mean, I would argue that this, like cereal, have
been, has been doing it, so Ihad all the time like the toys
and the packages, or QSR withthe McDonald's Happy Meals and
things they're always bringingin the next Disney thing, or you
know Roblox, or you know things.
So I think there's ways tonaturally integrate for sure,
but I'm going to go back.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Then you have adults buying up all the stuff for that
or attended for kids.
I can't get my cereal becauseall the grown-ups can't even
yeah, bought all, bought it allfor themselves to get the toy
inside.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
So it achieves.
It achieves the goal, but thetoy needs to be relevant.
So you've got to make adecision as a brand right.
The toy needs to either appealto the kids now yeah, like a
roblox or it needs to have thatretro inspiration component to
it that makes the parent want tobuy it.
Yeah, yeah for sure, cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
All right, we'll wrap there on that one.
Um, so, all right.
So that wraps up for topicalbanter.
We're gonna go into game time.
Okay, are you ready to play agame?
Sure, do you want to?
This whole thing is pretty fun,so you know, yeah, keep going,
all right.
Well, all right.
Today's game is called vibecheck, okay.
So, um, this is how it works.
(38:00):
I'm gonna throw out a word or atrend or even something totally
random, okay, and then you'vegot to give me your first gut
reaction in one word nooverthinking, just vibes, just
like it's called vibe check.
Okay, did you, did you processall that?
Yeah, I'm gonna throw stuff outthere.
You're gonna give me a word.
Tell me what you think.
(38:20):
Okay, all right, pretty.
One word is tough, man, I knowthat's okay.
Though, all right, I know youcan handle it.
All right, do my best, allright.
So let's start off with theeasy one summerween.
What is your one word?
Early, early, okay.
Ai and marketing Future.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
The booboo craze Short-lived, wow, hyphenated but
give it to me.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, I'll give it to you.
So we didn't talk about thisone, but maybe it'll be on
another cast.
But Amazon's same-day grocerydelivery service that they just
launched, yeah, trend setting.
Uh, trend setting, trendsetting.
Okay, cool.
How about taylor swift ontravis and jason's podcast?
What year?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
smart, yeah, tiktok shops.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I want to.
No, no, you got one word manTikTok shops.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
See I'm overthinking it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
I'd say current, current, yeah All right, we're
up on pumpkin spice season.
So what do you think about PSL?
I'll just say not for me.
The new Cracker Barrel logo.
Divisive, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
All right, how about Americanfootball?
(39:45):
There's only one good answerthere.
I'm going to say friendship,okay, oh, interesting.
Coffee or tea, coffee,pineapple on pizza?
No, no, all right, cool, allright.
Well, thanks for playing.
Vibes.
Check, that was good, that wasfun, all right.
(40:06):
Well, I'm going to wrap this oneup for now, and so time to wrap
up the cast.
If you haven't got enough Tomand I in our banter and stuff,
if you haven't got enough enoughTom and I and our banter and
stuff, you can check out.
Check us out at the EmbarkInnovation Summit on September
16th.
(40:26):
I'm going to be hosting a paneland Tom and a couple others
will be discussing the future ofshopping and what brands and
startups must do to stay ahead.
If you want more informationabout the summit, visit
EmbarkSummitcom.
So I hope everyone's enjoyedthe vibes of today's show.
I want to say a huge thanks toTom for being guest number one.
(40:47):
Any last words, tom?
Anything you want to plug?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I would just say thank you for having me on.
As for transparently beingvulnerable, it's my first time
ever doing a podcast, solearning for both of us.
I would just say you know I'mvery passionate about this space
and I love talking tolike-minded people about it.
I don't think Accenture isknown for retail media
(41:13):
specifically.
I think you know it's a hugecompany with a lot of skills set
and technology powering it, butwe're very bullish on where
this could go, especiallyleveraging the scale that
Accenture has.
So I would just urge peopledrop me a LinkedIn message,
(41:35):
schedule a coffee.
I'm still convinced morebusiness gets done over coffee
in Northwest Arkansas than itdoes in office buildings.
So hit me up and let's have achat yeah Awesome, will you come
back?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
And if you say no, I'll just edit that out.
But will you come back?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Absolutely, I'll come back.
Yes, all right.
I mean, hopefully this getssome views and that people
actually want you back.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, no, I'm sure people want I want you back.
How about that?
All right?
Well, if you have any thoughtsor comments about the show, feel
free to email me atretailmediavibes at gmailcom.
Don't forget to like andsubscribe, maybe leave a comment
or a review.
I want to thank you all.
So much for listening and Iwill try to do better next time.
Bv out.
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