Latest / Retail Media Breakfast Club / In what ways are using AI today that you weren't a year ago? [Panel]
Transcript
- In what ways are using AI today that you weren't a year ago? === [00:00:00] Kiri Masters: A year ago, most retail media teams were still figuring out if AI was hype or help. But today it's become embedded in daily workflows from rewriting thousands of product listings to [00:00:15] managing email overload, to surfacing keyword opportunities that drive new customer acquisition. I recently asked several brand side leaders a simple question. [00:00:25] In what ways are you using AI today that you weren't [00:00:30] a year ago? Their responses reveal that AI adoption has moved far beyond experimentation into practical applications that solve real business problems. Let's jump in. [00:00:41] [00:00:42] Kiri: Now let's hear from Neha [00:00:45] Malik, head of Connected Commerce at Mizkan America, the parent company of CPG brands, including Ragu, Bati, and Holland House. [00:00:54] Neha Malik: I think the biggest one for us, we had talked about as a company going back to basics. Um, [00:01:00] because a lot of our content on digital shelf, uh, the PDPs. We're, uh, pretty basic. Uh, so going back to utilizing AI to rewrite our content and ensuring that there are different keywords that, you know, [00:01:15] obviously we all know keywords change, whether it's broad or, uh, narrow or, uh, specific to the category. [00:01:21] So we are going back to Reha. Um, all of our PDPs for the top x, um, SKUs for different [00:01:30] retailers based on how a consumer might search within their platform and utilizing the data that we have through our partner agency and enhancing it. [00:01:38] Kiri Masters: Can you give us a sense of this, the scale of that? Like how many. How many use across how [00:01:45] many retailers? . [00:01:45] Neha Malik: Um, , I mean, I would, from the retailer perspective, I'd say it's all your usual suspects, which is probably same for everyone from Walmart, Kroger, target, um, Albertsons apps. [00:01:55] Go, I mean, we can go down the list. , uh, So all of the retailers that are big for our [00:02:00] business. And then we'll obviously go to tier two as well once the phase one is complete. Um, and we're, we're trying to target our top. You know, always the 80 20 rule, right? That, you know, 20% of the items that drive, um, 80% of the business. [00:02:14] [00:02:15] Uh, so I would say top 30 to 50, ranging from retailer to retailer, but a minimum of 30. [00:02:21] [00:02:22] Kiri: Now let's hear from Kelsey Knight, chief Commercial Officer at the Toy Brand Slumberkins. [00:02:29] Kelsey Knight: We we're really not [00:02:30] using AI in the way that we are. We, we are now a year ago. So everything from our team is using an AI tool to help manage our personal inboxes. [00:02:39] Uh, so this AI tool really categorizes based on all of the context of an email thread [00:02:45] and whether you need to respond or if it's more of an FYI or if it's a marketing and promotional categorizes your inbox and even starts to draft responses that are aligned with your personal. Communication style and brand and your context of your business. [00:02:57] So that's an internal use. Uh, [00:03:00] we are also, we also wanna know [00:03:01] Kiri Masters: what's the name of this tool? [00:03:02] Kelsey Knight: Fixer ai, I feel like it's everywhere. Um, we were targeted very hard with the ads and so we, we tested it out and we were married to it, so, uh, could not live without it right now. And then, uh, we are [00:03:15] also using chat GPT extensively, but what's really been. [00:03:18] Game changer for us there is, we created our own instance in GPT, uh, emotional Growth Guide, which we lovingly refer to as the egg. And we've completely trained it on our brand, [00:03:30] our values, our voice, our tone, our founder's voices and tone. And we use it behind the scenes to help gain efficiencies in things like copywriting, brainstorming angles, uh, even product brainstorming. [00:03:42] Anything like that. Everything we do always does [00:03:45] have the human touch before it goes consumer facing, but it has really helped us internally and it's really nice that it is aligned with the values that we hold in our creative as well. And then, um, I personally use chat GPT to create my own [00:04:00] newsletters, so every week. [00:04:01] Um, I have a, an earnings report newsletter sent to me as well as search trends specific to the parent demo and what's rising in AI searches. So that's helpful as we're looking at content and adjusting content across all [00:04:15] channels to help marry social with search. And of course we're using it for, analyzing, sentiment analysis and customer reviews and comments on popular social posts and different things like that. [00:04:26] So we are using it in a lot of ways that we were not using it a year [00:04:30] ago. When your time, budget and team are already maxed out. Keeping up with retailer platforms and media requirements can feel like a never ending [00:04:45] labyrinth. That's why even the best brands bring in an execution partner. [00:04:50] Kiri Masters: Acosta Group makes retail media execution simpler. They stay ahead of every platform. Update tech shift. And media spec, [00:05:00] so your campaigns actually show up and perform without draining your team. [00:05:04] Let Acosta group handle the chaos behind the scenes so you can keep building the brand. Check out Acosta Group and tell them Retail Media Breakfast Club sent [00:05:15] you. That's A-C-O-S-T group. [00:05:20] Kiri: Now let's hear from Chris Lowry, the brand director at our Home, which is the parent of CPG brands, including pop secret, good health and [00:05:30] pop chips. [00:05:30] Chris Lowrey: , You know, I, a, a year ago, uh, candidly, I was, I was barely using ai. Uh, Whereas now it's become a part of, of how I think about retail media strategy. And so, you know, Way that I'm using it a lot is, is honestly to drive new to brand [00:05:45] sales. Um, I've been using AI to analyze our current performance across retailers, competitors, and category terms, and then surface new keyword opportunities. [00:05:53] And, um, And it also helps me to figure out how I can, like rebalance, spend, you know, where I can [00:06:00] dial up and where to pull back to, to maximize growth. And so it's, It's honestly like having this second set of eyes that can crunch way more variables than I could on my own. And It's made. My campaign's a lot more sharper and more efficient. [00:06:12] But again, I feel like in [00:06:15] the, kind of the deep dive into like, you know, supporting new to brand performance, it's maybe been a little bit more of like a level up versus like some of those other, um, metrics where AI can still be important, but for whatever reason on that one, it's, it's been particularly helpful. [00:06:29] Kiri Masters: [00:06:30] What tool are you using to run that analysis? [00:06:32] Chris Lowrey: Oh, I mean, I'm, I'm honestly just using like a, like a chat GPT basically and just kind of have some different prompts. [00:06:38] [00:06:39] Kiri Masters: Now let's hear from Jody Malick, senior Director, e-Commerce at Belkin. [00:06:44] Jyoti Malik: So [00:06:45] one way we are using AI that we were really not a year ago is as part of content creation and optimization really. And the big difference is that it's no longer like an add-on to the more traditional model of [00:07:00] content creation, how the teams used to work. [00:07:02] It's very much part of our normal process and conversation, very much integrated into it. And the teams are getting more and more comfortable using these AI platforms for ideation, brainstorming, [00:07:15] creating imagery, text, ongoing optimization. And that extends to not just the creative team members, but also teams, uh, like, um. [00:07:25] members in the broader team. And so it's made the content efforts [00:07:30] very, much less niche and creative function dependent and a lot more accessible and faster to execute across the whole team, which is really wonderful because the volume of content that we need has really accelerated. [00:07:45] And having this AI and these tools to leverage, has been really, really helpful. [00:07:51] [00:07:52] What emerges from these conversations is that AI has moved from experimental to essential in retail media [00:08:00] operations. And the common thread here is that these leaders aren't using AI to replace human judgment, but to augment capabilities, handle scale, and free up teams to focus on strategic work that requires a human [00:08:15] touch. [00:08:15]