It's a Customer's World Ep. 30 | Exploring an Evolving Retail Landscape with Bryan Gildenberg

In this episode of It's a Customer's World, Andy is joined by long-time industry leader, Bryan Gildenberg. Bryan has decades of experience in CPG and e-commerce and currently is the SVP of Commerce at Omnicom Commerce Group. Their conversation focuses on the ever-changing retail landscape and explores the promise and reality of retail media networks.

Topics and Questions:
00:00 Welcome to the show
00:50 Guest Introduction
03:32 How retail media networks have blurred the lines in retail
04:48 How would you describe the promise of retail media networks?
07:08 How would you describe the current reality of retail media networks?
09:22 How the industry is underestimating the tech investment Amazon made to get to this point
11:33 Connecting paid search results to traditional retail strategy
13:00 The importance of inventory forecasting in an evolving retail space
14:20 Understanding how RMNs vary across different retailers
15:30 How can traditional retailers leverage their physical presence?
18:30 Can the industry support the rapid emergence of countless RMNs?
21:20 How will the evolution of retail impact aggregation amongst CPG companies and retailers?
23:10 How will the evolution of retail impact agencies participating in this space?
25:54 What challenges are media teams facing?
30:45 The fundamental difference between performance marketing and shopper marketing
33:47 What new challenges will young brands face in terms of discovery?
37:13 How social media platforms are serving as a source of discovery
39:12 How Amazon’s removal of friction has set them apart
42:37 The positive impact of relevance engineering teams
44:10 How will retailers adapt as consumers grow weary of heavy ad loads
46:50 What will the future of RMNs look like in 2-3 years?
49:07 Will there be more or less RMNs in 2-3 years?
52:41 Wrapping up