Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
Brian Monahan Podcast
===
[00:00:00] Kiri Masters: A few weeks ago, I interviewed Brian Monaghan for a profile. In the drum just a couple of months into his new role as SVP of Albertson's Media Collective, and I was delighted to [00:00:15] speak with someone so unfiltered and so entrepreneurial because you don't usually find that kind of energy at the top of a.
[00:00:24] 175 million customer grocery operation, but [00:00:30] Brian didn't give me the usual sanitized, PR approved talking points. He gave me the unfiltered take of someone who's built businesses and isn't afraid to say what everyone else is thinking. And last week I listened to [00:00:45] his appearance on the Snaring podcast where he expanded on several themes from our conversation, and once again, his energy and conviction delivered.
[00:00:56] So today I'm going to share some highlights from that [00:01:00] podcast conversation along with some key insights from my full profile piece of Brian on the drum.com, which you should still definitely read for the complete story. Let's jump in.
[00:01:11]
[00:01:12] Kiri Masters: On the Snaring podcast, [00:01:15] Brian made his boldest claim about where retail media actually stands.
[00:01:20] Brian: Okay. Retail media is the only, it's, it's the only media transaction where the objective of the buyer and the seller is the same.
[00:01:27] We're not, it's like, I'm not trying to keep [00:01:30] you on my website or on my platform with clickbait and rage inducing, like all the stuff that's created, this information ecosystem that has all these unintended negative consequences. Like, I, I am not playing that game. [00:01:45] Right. Like it's, we have alignment for our set of, of advertisers and our shared customers.
[00:01:52] And if that alignment only means that we can do sponsored product ads and programmatic display, like shame on us. Shame. Like there's [00:02:00] so much more we can do. And I think we're just starting to scratch the surface of ways to drive collective growth. Like, you know, like, uh. Gamified scavenger hunts in the store with, uh, loyalty points as sort of a currency to move people around [00:02:15] the store to get to know things.
[00:02:16] Um, the way we do shoppable recipes or we take a shopping list and turn it into a map so it gets you in and around the store. Um, when you, when you place a e-commerce order with us, we call it drive up and go. So we promise we'll bring you the, [00:02:30] the, um, your order in five minutes or less. And so you drive up and you check in.
[00:02:35] There's like a five minute window there. Like, we should do something with that. Like we should do something with a partner.
[00:02:39]
[00:02:40] Kiri Masters: Newsflash. Most retail media leaders aren't [00:02:45] pitching gide scavenger hunts in their first 60 days, but Brian isn't most leaders, and that phrase bloody obvious, shows up repeatedly in his career. It's the same instinct that led [00:03:00] him to quit his agency job in 1996 to launch left field with Amazon as a first client.
[00:03:07] And then to pitch Walmart's board on building a retail media network when most executives saw it as a major [00:03:15] distraction. But Brian's vision comes with a strategic reality that most retailers are ignoring. Most retail media networks are still living off trade and shopper budgets.
[00:03:26] That's the safe money that brands allocate [00:03:30] specifically to individual retail partnerships.
[00:03:32] The big bucks are in national brand budgets, and that is the larger pool of money that retail media networks are chasing.
[00:03:41] Here's what Brian told the host of the Snaring podcast.
[00:03:44] Brian: [00:03:45] again, I think we're early days in this retail media revolution because.
[00:03:49] Most of us are still just living off of our trade and shopper allocation, and we haven't really figured out how to meaningfully plug into the national brand building [00:04:00] efforts that advertisers have. Mm-hmm. And the, the, the Rub is a national brand, campaign is national, and they care about sales through every retailer, not just a in, I mean, not just the whatever, 8% of u [00:04:15] of grocery sales that I represent.
[00:04:17] Um, we have to figure out how to work with agencies 'cause that agencies are the ones controlling those brand dollars to, to, to plug into the media planning process.
[00:04:29]
[00:04:30] Kiri Masters: This is the do or die moment for retail media networks, not named Amazon or Walmart. Brian's solution focuses on workflow integration, providing conversion data into clean rooms, building self-service [00:04:45] interfaces, and potentially even piping into buyers' own tools to prove real growth, not just shifting share from one retailer to another.
[00:04:54] Now the proof is gonna be in the pudding. Can they convince CMOs to shift real brand [00:05:00] dollars or will they stay stuck as trade budget redistribution machines? Did you know that 60% of shoppers abandoned [00:05:15] carts when product info is wrong? Before you ramp up your ad spend, fix the shelf Acosta group's. Award-winning connected commerce crew is trusted by brands like Coca-Cola and [00:05:30] Sanofi to deliver critical content updates.
[00:05:33] Acosta Group handles it all. Then layers on media buying. Learn about Acosta group's connected commerce capability at Acosta Group and tell them Retail Media [00:05:45] Breakfast Club sent you. That's A-C-O-S-T-A group
[00:05:52] Kiri Masters: One of Brian's most provocative arguments centers on something that retail media has really largely ignored, which is the [00:06:00] brand equity of the retailers themselves.
[00:06:03] Brian: Like next year, Safeway turns a hundred, Acme turns 130 Safeway. The reason Safeway is called Safeway is it pioneered the cash and carry business model. It was the safe way to buy [00:06:15] groceries, 'cause at the time it was founded, go into the Great depression.
[00:06:18] Families were buying groceries on credit. Credit, right. And going into debt to feed their kids and losing the family farm over it. So Safeway comes along, so, so we have these iconic brand. Acme was the first retailer where you didn't have to [00:06:30] ask the clerk to pick the merchandise off the shelf behind the counter.
[00:06:33] Like they, so we have these iconic brands that have fed families four generations. Like literally, like if you're, if you live in New England, you're a Shaw's family. If you live in SoCal, you're a Vaughn's family. Like so. [00:06:45] What I, what I love about our business, and I think my agency training, um, makes me appreciate is that brand relationship is, you know, the relationship between the store I go to every week, right?
[00:06:58] It's, we're a grocer, so we see [00:07:00] people once a week and average, and that connection, um, to the consumer. I think it's something that the agency world taught me. I think retailers tend to, you know, retailers are operators, right? So that's what they're phenomenal at. [00:07:15] Um, and so like sort of bringing this, this end consumer sensibility and kind of what that relationship means and, and, and how we can add more value into their lives.
[00:07:23] I, I, I really attribute to my agency experience.
[00:07:26]
[00:07:27] Kiri Masters: Wrapping up with one final anecdote [00:07:30] about how Brian's philosophy is showing up in practice this fall, Albertson's launched a BOGO for retail media program where advertisers who purchase an impression get another impression from Albertson's [00:07:45] Enterprise marketing budget.
[00:07:46] Now, that
[00:07:46] Now that's a bold move. Albertsons is putting its own enterprise media budget on the line to prove alignment with advertisers,
[00:07:56] but once again, it just seems so bloody obvious to Brian.
[00:07:59] Brian: So [00:08:00] for example, this fall we're doing this bogo. Program where an advertiser that purchases an impression through the collective will also get an additional impression from our enterprise budget because it's the same thing. We're trying to get people in the store, trying to get people down the aisle and items [00:08:15] and baskets, and having that strategic alignment to bring more of those assets together so we can drive that collective growth is really what we're gonna continue to to focus on, to live up to our name.
[00:08:28]
[00:08:30] Kiri Masters: Two months in, and Brian seems like he's just warming up here. If his track record is any guide spotting bloody obvious bets that everyone else misses, the proof is gonna be in the pudding. Let's Watch what he does next.
[00:08:43]