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10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
Underrated advice for choosing a retail media agency partner
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[00:00:00] Kiri Masters: Choosing the right retail media agency can make or break your success, but most brands are asking all the wrong questions. We get so caught up in credentials and case studies that we miss what actually matters. [00:00:15] The people you'll be working with every day.
[00:00:17] In today's episode, I called up several brand site leaders who've been through the agency selection process to get their most underrated advice.
[00:00:27] You'll hear why one leader says you need to find your [00:00:30] people. How to spot agencies that adapt to your workflows versus forcing you into theirs and a reality. Check about those polished pitch teams who mysteriously vanish after you sign the contract. If you are evaluating agencies right now, [00:00:45] or you know you'll need to soon, this episode will change how you approach that selection process.
[00:00:50] Let's dive in.
[00:00:51]
[00:00:52] Kiri Masters: Now let's hear from AJ Patel, SVP of Global Growth at You Beauty.
[00:00:58] AJ Patel: I think that you should always [00:01:00] look at the brands which the agency represents.
[00:01:04] I think it's very telling if a brand is representing super strong partners and actually validating that with. The partner who they're working [00:01:15] with, um, you know, finding a contact within that business and making sure that, you know, they've had a positive experience with the agency. A lot of agencies are.
[00:01:26] Fluffy in nature, and we'll show we increase [00:01:30] conversion by X percent. We increase revenue by Y percent, but at the end of the day, they sometimes are a little bit misleading or facetious in a way that they tell their story and it's not necessarily. Going to paint a picture of what they've done to drive [00:01:45] that business or scale.
[00:01:47] A lot of the time, you know that those sales or those conversion rates may be impacted by external factors, which the agency didn't even touch. So, you know, diving deeper, making sure you are [00:02:00] asking. For a list of references, um, brand references, doing your own external research, you know, reaching out to the leaders of those companies through LinkedIn is super valuable.
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[00:02:12] Kiri Masters: Now let's hear from Ben Galvin, [00:02:15] senior director of Omnichannel retail sales, and e-commerce at Monster Energy.
[00:02:19] Ben Galvin: Yeah. So, um, my background a lot in the commercial side of the business has been, uh, learning a lot around not just what an agency does for you, but what they can do for you. So one of the [00:02:30] things that I like to look at is don't just evaluate their experience with retail media, but assess their adaptability to your tech stack or data infrastructure.
[00:02:38] As well as the retailers, uh, DA data infrastructures as well. Agencies that can integrate seamlessly [00:02:45] into your workflows are far more valuable than those with just a big name portfolio or performance data or frankly, connections to multiple retailers. If you're a company that you work with, Microsoft and you work on the Power BI platform.
[00:02:58] That agency being able to connect to your [00:03:00] Power BI platform, which your leadership is used to seeing is critical. And again, they don't think about that because as an agency you are here to ultimately inlaid to, in this case, your customer, the brands and the more you can adapt to their. Cadences, their [00:03:15] technologies, frankly, their way of reporting, the better off everyone's gonna be.
[00:03:19] Because the similarity of going back to your question, uh, earlier around engaging and educating. Leadership, that's a big component of it. And making sure that those workflows, the [00:03:30] reporting as well as all of the infrastructure can be integrated seamlessly. So the brand leaders, supply leaders, uh, ultimately can make the best decision possible with the data you're providing. [00:03:45] When your time, budget and team are already maxed out. Keeping up with retailer platforms and media requirements can feel like a never ending labyrinth. That's why even the best brands bring in an [00:04:00] execution partner.
[00:04:01] Acosta Group makes retail media execution simpler. They stay ahead of every platform. Update tech shift. And media spec, so your campaigns actually show up and perform without [00:04:15] draining your team.
[00:04:15] 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 you. That's A-C-O-S-T [00:04:30] group.
[00:04:30]
[00:04:31] Kiri Masters: Now let's hear from Darren Silverman, SVP of Digital Commerce and Media at Petmate.
[00:04:37] Darren Silverman: So I think, uh, underrated advice and when we started working and looking at agencies and looking at partners, um, we were mesmerized by the big [00:04:45] names and I do think you have to really look at an agency that's the right scale for where your business is at this point in time.
[00:04:52] Um, there are some great high credential agencies with huge clients and big names, and they might be within your budget, but whether you're gonna get the right [00:05:00] level of attention or understanding if you are at a mid-size or even smaller emerging business could be pretty complicated. So really looking at that to me is, uh, very important.
[00:05:09] Biggest is definitely not always best in this choosing of the space.
[00:05:12]
[00:05:14] Kiri Masters: Now let's [00:05:15] hear from Ash McMullen, head of e-Commerce at Advantis Health.
[00:05:19] Ash McMullen: choosing an agency, asking yourself, is the team that's pitching to you going to be the team that you're working with? And are they the right culture fit [00:05:30] and 'cause you can educate an agency partner on the type of reporting that you like, but there's a big piece of just overall communication and work, wanting to work with someone and getting the sense that they wanna work with you.
[00:05:43] Two, Because [00:05:45] you can have the greatest pitch ever by a team you'll never see again. And it really matters to like meet and collaborate with the team that you will be working with that will be supporting your business during that RFP process.
[00:05:58] And also throw in like, are they [00:06:00] smarter than you? And are they going to push you outside the box and bring that thought leadership to the table.
[00:06:06]
[00:06:07] Kiri Masters: Now let's hear from Jody Malick, senior Director, e-Commerce at Belkin.
[00:06:12] Jyoti Malik: , I think one underrated advice for choosing an [00:06:15] agency is not to focus on just the general capability questions, the case studies, the RFP template and sort of.
[00:06:22] A pitch based conversation, but really have an immersive discussion about the business, the landscape, the goals, the challenges, the good and [00:06:30] bad on the table. So this helps both parties really get on the same page as to what the partnership with entail and the conversation can give the brand team as well as the agency partner.
[00:06:40] Deeper insights into how to structure the partnership and how to think about the [00:06:45] partnership and a practical way to do this. Could be to have one or two like real priority scenarios for the business. And have a conversation around how the agency team will approach them as part of the partner selection exercise.
[00:06:58] And then the brand can [00:07:00] look at the responses across the different candidates as well as against brand's own business needs and criteria, and see what works best. Um, we actually did this in a recent, uh, selection exercise and it's turned out wonderfully and we have an amazing agency partner.
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