Podcasts about cpg

Been wanting to spread the word about your brand and have your moment on CPG Vibes?? Now is your chance!! In this Special Edition episode, we are inviting up tp 8 brands live to share their story and their product for 3-4 minutes each.To get on our show for this episode as a 'Spotlight Brand' you can't 'reserve a spot' in advance, you have to tune in live, comment during our episode and we will pluck you from the crowd and bring you on. That's it!Also in this episode, we discuss all the insight and facts around Category Review and how to navigate these waters. Wade has many years as a category manager and has tons of insight and guidance around this topic.Broadcasted LIVE on LinkedIn, Co-Hosts Alex Bayer (Genius Juice) and Wade Yenny with a combined experience in the CPG space of 35 years, chat about all things food and beverage in the market and share what's going on in their lives and any current events. They also do shout-outs and answer questions live from viewers & listeners during their show!

Amy Zitelman is the co-founder and CEO of Soom Foods, the tahini brand known by every restaurant chef – and now more and more consumers- across the US. On this episode of ITS, Amy and Ali talk about building what you know with what you have, which means taking a real inventory of your resources, skill-sets, and tolerance, then keeping disciplined to scaling that before launching into other categories, channels or products.In the Sauce is Powered by Simplecast.

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   Elizabeth says, “At the end of the day, one of the things that we take so much pride in is, this is not a meat imitator. This is just a whole food, real food, veggie burger. And everything in there are ingredients from the earth, not from a lab.”   Today, we interview Elizabeth Raymond, Co-Founder of NoBull Burger. NoBull Burger, is the TRUE veggieburger, and is a handcrafted, 100% plant-based veggieburger that takes pride in using premium ingredients to make an exceptionally tasting, whole-food veggieburgers.   We discussed:    * What she's grateful for * Origin Story and Overview of NoBull Burger and their values * Their biggest challenges in past and present * Advice for other CPG founders * Their focus on Mental Health * Their personal story with Mental Health and how they use the brand as a platform to help others * Understanding your self worth as a founder of a CPG brand * The state of nutritional psychology and how NoBull Burger fits in * A breakdown of ingredients and products * Where to buy this amazing product (Ramon's words) * And so much more…    Join Ramon Vela and Elizabeth Raymond as we break down the inside story of No Bull Burger on The Story of a Brand.   For more on NoBull Burger, visit: https://nobullburger.com/   Subscribe and listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand” on your favorite podcast player.   *   This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   Here's the deal: I have a gift for you from our primary sponsor — Sendlane. They're giving away their online course eCommerce Academy - Email & SMS Marketing!   This course gives you the step-by-step playbook to drive more revenue and retention with email & SMS. This is typically a $500 package, but for our listeners, it's entirely FREE when you get started with your FREE 14-day trial of Sendlane.    When you do, chat with their support team and let them know you're one of our listeners to get full access to hours of course content that will help you make email marketing your #1 growth engine.   Visit https://storybrandgift.com to get the details, sign up for a free trial and get your gift!

Adam Brown is The Founder and President of Sircle Media, a Social Media Strategy Firm based in New York City. He has worked in and around digital marketing since 1999 and has held various positions on both the client and vendor sides. This has given him tremendous insight into how these relationships work best, which has allowed him to develop a keen understanding of what businesses really need. He takes this expertise and knowledge and applies it to his clients each day.At Sircle, he works with CPG, Beverage, and Spirits brands to help them navigate their social media strategies and execution. The Internet is a constantly evolving medium that is nearly impossible to keep up with, especially while trying to run a business. Adam and Sircle Media help clients do both simultaneously.Adam's writing has been featured on websites such as Social Media Today and The Salesforce Marketing Cloud and he regularly teaches classes on Social Media in New York City. He is a proud NYC native and lives there with his wife and two teenage daughters.Broadcasted LIVE on LinkedIn, Co-Hosts Alex Bayer (Genius Juice) and Wade Yenny with a combined experience in the CPG space of 35 years, chat about all things food and beverage in the market and share what's going on in their lives and any current events. They also do shout-outs and answer questions live from viewers & listeners during their show!

The hosts discussed the news that Michelle Obama has joined kids' food and beverage company PLEZi Nutrition as a co-founder and strategic partner and spoke about the potential impact of the former first lady's influence and political connections on the brand's development. They also highlighted the 10 brands named as part of Target's third Takeoff Food and Beverage program. Show notes: 0:43: Mike Missed A Lot Of Recesses. You Only Need To Watch Lost Once. Get It In Schools. – Melissa Traverse fills in for John Craven and her excellent seating posture gives way to a chat about fidgeting and Mike's misbehavior as a youth. The hosts collectively urged early-stage beverage founders to apply for New Beverage Showdown 25, before they spoke about what Michelle Obama will bring to the table in her new role as PLEZi co-founder and why not everyone is pleased with her foray into CPG. Later, they noted that several emerging brands often mentioned on Taste Radio landed a spot in Target's accelerator program, congratulated two companies whose products are now sold at Erewhon and chatted about several new and notable products, including a golden milk mix, a pouch drink for Gen Z consumers and a better-for-you option for a quick meal. Brands in this episode: Liquid Death, Super Coffee, Vive Organic, PLEZi, Better Chew, Resist Nutrition, Honeycut Kitchen, Glonuts, Immorel, Homiya, Brooklyn's Tea, Bumpin Blends, Mocktail Club, Soldadera, Better Sour, Struesli, Anjali's Cup, Hapi Water, Sea Monster, Off Limits, Somos, A Dozen Cousins, Talk House Cocktails

Have you heard these common myths about guaranteed sales and consignment sales? Myth #1: Guaranteed sales are always better for your business. Myth #2: Consignment sales are too risky and never worth the effort. But, the truth is, there are pros and cons to each model and the best approach depends on YOUR business needs. In this to-the-point episode, I'll dive into the truth and help you make informed decisions for your brand. You'll be able to... Differentiate between guaranteed and consignment sales Know the types of products best suited for guaranteed sales agreements Implement expert tips for creating successful partnerships Heed cautionary advice on potential risks associated with guaranteed sales practices Be sure to check out our full show notes here, which have links to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and our Food Biz Wiz Facebook group. The Food Biz Wiz Facebook is a great place to connect with other CPG founders! This episode is sponsored by my Wholesale Success System Workshop! This FREE training is for all my listeners who know that they want to take control of their sales, land on more shelves, and have higher sales once they’re there. I’ll outline my simple sales system so that you can repeat this process in your biz. Follow this link to save your spot and join us!

Welcome, 7 Hatters! In this episode, we speak with Parker Olson and dive deep into hats 1, 3 and 4, the soul, servant and the entrepreneur, as we take a ride in the Forij van, cruising through the entrepreneurial landscape fueled by dedication and a love for his product.A truly inspiring young entrepreneur, Parker is the founder of Forij, a rapidly growing consumer packaged goods company that offers innovative, high-quality and award-winning Granola... enriched with vital brain nutrients (derived from mushrooms). The coolest part is that Parker's passion for his brand has led him to travel across the country in his trusty van, personally promoting his products and connecting with customers.His commitment to sustainability and ethically sourced ingredients has earned him a loyal customer base and widespread industry recognition. Parker's determination and entrepreneurial spirit have taken Forij from a small start-up to a flourishing business, significantly impacting the CPG landscape.So if you're ready to take our trusty van for a ride riddled with the ups and downs of a young entrepreneur, let's welcome Parker to the 7 Hats... -------------------------Visit https://www.the7hats.com/ for more information and more shows.Parker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parker-olson-forij/Parker's Website: https://www.forij.co/ My Bio & Links: https://sleek.bio/yuvalselikSUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW...Want to be the first to know when new episodes are released? Please subscribe and leave a review!Subscribes and podcasts reviews are pretty darn important to iTunes, and the more reviews we receive, the more likely we'll be able to get The 7 Hats message in front of more people (It's all about the iTunes algorithms)I'd be extremely grateful if you left a review letting me know your favorite part of the show or episode :)

Circana's Don Unser, president of thought leadership and Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor for the retail industry, share observations and insights into the nearly $3 trillion U.S. retail landscape.  Tapping into Circana's Complete Store™ measurement of online and offline sales across CPG, general merchandise and foodservice, retailers, manufacturers and operators will learn how consumer behaviors are impacting shopping today, and how they can plan for what comes next.    Highlights:   Consumers view of grocery shopping is an exercise of “extreme essentials,” indicating they are grudgingly paying higher prices for fast-moving consumer goods. Consumers' approach to general merchandise, however, is with a “discrete discretionary” mindset, where they need to replenish items that are nearing the end of their lifecycle, such as for well-worn activewear.   Retailers and manufacturers have been focused on share growth, but by the end of 2023 and into 2024, expect a shift in outlook to be about margin growth. The pie, folks, isn't getting any bigger.   Learn the impact that economic indicators such as jobs, wages, online shopping, even work-from-home is having on consumer spending, particularly for “potent purchases” and “impact purchases.”  

Building a company in 2023 has a vast number of challenges: increased competition, constricted financial markets, and higher supply chain costs. So what are founders to do about it? Mike Fata joins me to share his perspective on what founders can do today to set themselves up for success tomorrow.Mike is a prolific writer, mentor, and entrepreneur in the CPG industry. Mike co-founded Manitoba Harvest in 1998, which he grew for over 20 years until selling to $419 million. Since selling the company, he's published a new book, Grow: 12 Unconventional Lessons for becoming an unstoppable entrepreneur, and has invested in a number of companies including Nuts For Cheese, Mid-Day Squares, and Sol Cuisine.Startup to Scale is a podcast by Foodbevy, an online community to connect emerging food, beverage, and CPG founders to great resources and partners to grow their business. Visit us at Foodbevy.com to learn about becoming a member or an industry partner today.

Before the founders of Magic Spoon tackled the cereal aisle, their first startup was a line of protein bars using cricket protein called Exo. While the business was eventually sold, it taught them the importance of product-market fit and the difficulty of building a category from scratch. I sat down with Gabi Lewis, co-founder of Magic Spoon to discuss his journey as a CPG entrepreneur, the lessons he's learned along the way, and why Magic Spoon had to raise nearly $100 million to bring change to the breakfast cereal aisle.

Alison Lewis is the Chief Growth Officer of Kimberly-Clark and Pree Rao co-leads Egon Zehnder's Global marketing and sales practice. Egon Zehnder is a top leadership advisory firm, which includes executive search. Kimberly-Clark is a leading consumer goods firm, with revenue of $20 billion with brands like: Huggies, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Kotex and Scott. Both guests bring rich career paths in the CPG industry, with Alison having previously worked at Kraft-Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Johnson & Johnson, and Pree having worked at Unilever and Danone before joining Egon Zehnder over four years ago.In this episode, Jim, Alison, and Pree reflect on the Kellogg Leadership Summit and highlight themes from Alison's keynote speech on leadership. They discuss the importance of having a growth mindset, using criticism as a motivator, and the evolving titles and roles of CMOs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If Expo West and Whole Foods had a baby, it might look something like Pop Up Grocer. A non-traditional retailer in which brand discovery, not sales, is paramount, Pop Up Grocer is the brainchild of veteran CPG marketing executive Emily Schildt. Founded in 2019, the company has built nine limited-run stores in cities across the U.S., each designed to showcase trendy natural and organic brands, particularly those with limited retail distribution or sold primarily direct-to-consumer.  In March, Pop Up Grocer opened its first permanent location in New York City's Soho neighborhood. The flagship store features a selection of 130 emerging brands that will be rotated on a quarterly basis. The shop also serves as a homebase for Pop Up Grocer, which will continue to open new short-term stores. In this episode, Schildt spoke about the inspiration behind Pop Up Grocer, its role as an “influencer retailer” and advertiser-first business model, how the company evaluates brand performance and why you might be surprised by its curation strategy.   Show notes: 0:44: Emily Schildt, Founder & CEO, Pop-Up Grocer – Taste Radio editor Ray Latif met with Schildt at Pop Up Grocer in Manhattan where she spoke about her work-life balance (or lack thereof) in the weeks leading up to the store's opening, how her experience at Chobani provided her with a foundation for a career in CPG and how consulting with early-stage entrepreneurs gave way to the lightbulb moment for a pop up retail concept. She also discussed how Pop Up Grocer's first store proved her thesis about a lack of retail opportunity for small and emerging brands, why she describes the stores as “showcases, first and foremost,” how the company tracks consumer engagement and the selection criteria for adding brands to its shelves. Later, she explained Pop Up Grocer's influence on major chain retail buyers, how she views and incorporates trends into its business strategy, the retailer's aesthetic and target consumer, and plans for new short-term and permanent locations. Brands in this episode: Chobani, Lavva, Kind Snacks

Topics- The culture shock going from founding a CPG company, to working for a large scale corporate organization- When speaking with founders, what are some attributes Kyle looks for that shows the brand is on the right path?- Why growing deep regionally is a smart strategy before a large nationwide launch?- How posting consistently on LinkedIn has positively affected Kyle's career and relationships in the industry- Why foodservice is often overlooked, and why it shouldn't be- What was the idea behind launching "We Got to Goods" with Erika Rankin? 

Welcome back to the Business of Wellness! Today's solo episode is a deep-dive on the Bud Light controversy from a food & beverage marketing standpoint. We take a hard look at what better-for-you brands can and should learn from Bud Light's many missteps throughout the handling of this controversy and discuss: Why defining & staying true to your unique value proposition as a food & bev brand is integral to driving key marketing & brand strategy decisions; why taste is ultimately the key driver of customer retention throughout a product & brand's lifecycle, and why having clear values and a strategy in place that reflects those values  creates unshakeable brand loyalty among customers. I also share what I've learned about influencer marketing strategies from working with big brands and working for them; some background on Bud Light's VP of Marketing; why Bud Light's non-apology and lack of accountability got them into hot water, and why choosing NOT to stand behind their top talent will be one of their greatest hurdles to overcome. We also get into the ins and outs of beer distributors, why these relationships matter, and what it says to customers that Bud Light is giving cases of beer away for free to these key customer touch-points.  Plus, we go behind the scenes on  product development and R&D for food & beverage brands, the latest Anheuser Busch InBev earnings call highlights,  and how so much of where this all began with Bud Light is rooted in diet culture (yes, you read that correctly). Trust me, folks—  you don't want to miss this episode!  Thanks for listening to The Business of Wellness with Jaclyn London, MS, RD! Please be sure to follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts; share your thoughts on Bud Light with me by leaving a review, and a 5-star rating.

Description:On today's show, Lee is joined by Sandro Roco, the Founder and CEO of the first Asian-inspired sparkling water brand, Sanzo. Sandro's career journey has been as flavorful as his products. Before founding Sanzo, he worked as a nuclear power plant engineer, on the trading floor at JPMorgan, and created his own fashion app! Tune in today to hear how Sandro's pride in his Asian American heritage combined with his desire for financial freedom, led him to found Sanzo, the lessons that he has learned through the process of building the company from the ground up, and the myths about entrepreneurship that he is trying to bust! Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats.In This Episode You'll Hear About:[03:54] How Sandro's upbringing in diverse central New Jersey as a child of immigrant parents helped foster his entrepreneurial spirit (and what his first entrepreneurial venture was).[12:48] What he loved about his first job as a delivery boy for his then girlfriend's family's deli. [15:51] The valuable lessons that he learned during his years at Villanova University, particularly as editor-in-chief of the college newspaper.[19:49] Sandro explains the motivation behind his decision to get a corporate engineering job when he graduated from college and when he realized that wasn't the path for him. [23:26] The app that he developed while working on the trading floor at JPMorgan and how it altered the trajectory of his career. [30:00] Myths that have left many people feeling intimidated about founding businesses.[34:15] The culmination of factors that inspired Sandro to found Sanzo (and what the business was like in the early days).[40:35] The worst and best Sanzo flavors that have been created to date. [42:36] Why Sandro believes a beverage company requires a different funding strategy to many other types of businesses, and his advice for fundraising successfully. [51:33] Some important things that you should know if you are thinking about taking the leap into the entrepreneurial world. To Find Out More:SanzoSanzo on InstagramSanzo on FacebookSanzo on LinkedInSandro Roco on LinkedInSandro Roco on InstagramLee Greene on LinkedInStairway to CEOStairway to CEO on InstagramQuotes:“Before I even really appreciated what a job was, I just enjoyed the idea of ”Hey, I sell something and I then get additional money and it gives me a sense of freedom.” — [0:12:06]“I really appreciated the humanity in a small mom-and-pop business.” —[0:14:08]“What really set the foundation for me was I had the opportunity to be the editor-in-chief of our college newspaper…[and] we had the ability to run it like a business.” —[0:16:33]“I knew pretty early on that being a traditional engineer was really not it for me. I wanted something a little bit more exciting.” —[0:21:01]“We've done a disservice over the last however long in empowering people to take control of their careers and their lives.” —[0:30:47]“It's important when you're doing R&D to measure your taste and aroma because a lot of times those can differ.” — [0:41:47]“The world of beverage in particular tends to be quite capital intensive.” —[0:42:21]“If you can operate a business profitability and never have to take a dime in investor capital, I would be the first one to say, ‘Go and do that.' There's a lot less stress to it in many ways and you are really much more in control of your own destiny.” —[0:43:25]“I don't think you can self-finance a beverage company unless you have generational wealth. Maybe you can get off the ground in five, six figures, but to really get it moving, in my experience, it takes seven figures worth of capital.” —[0:43:46]“The biggest thing that I've learned about fundraising [is that] it all comes down to storytelling.” — [0:44:12]“Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. It is a taxing journey. It is a taxing life. There are a lot of sacrifices that you end up having to make, especially in the earliest days. And I think it is important to demystify that part.” —[0:51:45]“You really have to have a bias towards action. Do something each day, something to push the ball forward. It's not just reading something on the internet or reading a blog about how to start a business. It's going out there and actually starting a business. It's going out there and talking to prospective customers. It's going out there and trying to build something and if and when it fails, finding an entrepreneur who is willing to give you some feedback.” — [0:52:48]

Jacob Muise is the Founder and CEO of Maui Nui Venison. Their venison comes from Axis deer, a non-native species to Hawaiʻi. Numerous and free-roaming, these deer are truly wild until the moment they humanely harvest them using 100% stress-free methods. Because their deer are wild instead of being raised for food, they enjoy a natural varied diet, which means their meat is higher in nutrients and noticeably more delicious. Connect with Maui Nui Venison Website | Nutrient Density Study

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Anibal Dams, Global CPG Lead at Gain Theory, experts in data, advanced analytics, technology and consulting who fuse hindsight, insight, and foresight to deliver business growth. Gain Theory is a division of WPP.This episode is sponsored by Gain Theory.Follow Anibal Dams on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anibaldams/Follow Gain Theory on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaintheory/Follow Gain Theory online at: https://www.gaintheory.com/Anibal answers these questions:1) You lead the CPG vertical at Gain Theory. What do you think are the main challenges faced by CPG brands in this current landscape? 2) Let's delve into the issue around Multi-Touch Attribution further, what would be your recommendation for CPG brands to overcome this and how does Gain Theory's “Sensor” solution address this?3) In addition to Sensor, what are the other ways you are helping CPG businesses to accelerate growth?4) Predicting the future is never easy. What puts Gain Theory in a position to be confident in delivering foresight for your clients?CPG Guys Website: http://CPGguys.comFMCG Guys Website: http://FMCGguys.comCPG Scoop Website: http://CPGscoop.comNextUp Website: http://nexupisnow.org/cpgguysRetailWit Website: http://retailwit.comDISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.  CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

Chipoys Co-Founder and Better-For-You CPG Entrepreneur. Erick's jump from International Marketing Director for Monster Energy to Product and Brand at Chipoys is a masterclass in CPG execution. Erick and his co-founder share the complimentary dichotomy synergy, when aligned properly, can build a product that redefines a category for consumers. Think Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab or Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak... perfect harmony, well most of the time! The team is building the first major better-for-you option answer to the traditional Red Dye #42 chips still conquering convenience and retail today. The challenges associated with disrupting a market full of legacy brands while scaling both domestic and international simultaneously are just some of the higher-level topics discussed. They are also just as focused on their offerings and SKU count in an effort to ubiquitously saturate their category as when they launched.  For more information about Chipoys, including all of their flavors, visit their website at https://chipoys.com/. And to find Chipoys in a store near you, use their store locator, or find them on Amazon. Leave Some Feedback: Who should we have on the show next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy the episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us: TheHowtoEntrepreneur.com Instagram Twitter LinkedIn   Today's Sponsors: CoPilot (FKA Delta Trainer) - #1 Rated one-on-one remote personal training SANESolution - Harvard Medical endorsed body & mind health framework American Dream U -  Transitioning veteran professionals

Mark is a dad and a health and fitness enthusiast. And he has 17 years of start-up experience. He is currently the founder and CEO of IWON Organics, a plant-based food company that makes bold, flavor-infused snacks and cereal made from plant proteins like peas, beans and brown rice - our mission is to help others with their health and nutrition journey. IWON (I'm Winning on Nutrition) is focused on promoting healthy snacking and successful, long-term eating habits based on the principles of balanced nutritional profiles, made up of healthy proteins, fats and carbohydrates.IWON's snacks can be found in over 5,000 stores nationwide, including Kroger's, Wegmans, Sprouts, Whole Foods (SoPac and NorCal regions), Vitamin Shoppe, Safeway, Ralphs, Brookshire's, and online at iwonorganics.com, Amazon and Thrive Market.Broadcasted LIVE on LinkedIn, Co-Hosts Alex Bayer (Genius Juice) and Wade Yenny with a combined experience in the CPG space of 35 years, chat about all things food and beverage in the market and share what's going on in their lives and any current events. They also do shout-outs and answer questions live from viewers & listeners during their show!

Nothing tastes better than homemade from scratch! Building a business model around this concept has a unique set of challenges. Ronnie Givargis joins me to talk about his business and his future plans in Southern California.    Scaling a “from scratch” restaurant concept Expanding based on a community need The biggest issue is employees and the labor force – getting and keeping them – motivation has shifted Investing in a central location to help with some of the scratch processes How to stay connected with the customer in the marketplace Customers and staff are becoming friends Vision: open up other scratch concepts all under one hub Advice – be very well capitalized if you plan to expand to multiple locations Develop your own managers Expanding the concept into other scratch-made concepts like coffee and Mexican food Season 3, Episode 25 Scratch Bakery Cafe:  LinkedIn Website Instagram Facebook Connect with Ronnie Connect with Tony About me and my mission and the podcast: Are you looking for a fun and light-hearted podcast to discover unique brands and learn about the people and strategies successful companies are implementing in the CPG and Food and Beverage Industry?  The brands featured here take us into the world of innovation, sustainability, good for you, lifestyle, QSR, Foodservice, Distribution, DTC, Club, and more. I am a fun-loving business leader, podcaster, husband, dad, cyclist, and Convention of States volunteer in my spare time. My mission is to discover the people and ideas behind these different, better, and special companies.    Entrepreneurs and CEOs, are you: Searching for distributor or broker partners?  Actively prospecting commercial buyers to gain more points of distribution? Searching for the right person to add to the team? My Direct Response Marketing Service attracts exactly what you need to help your brand thrive and grow.  Here is a NOVEL approach to ATTRACT distributors, buyers, and people (DEMO)   Contact me: Tony@timpl.com Follow me on LinkedIn: Different, Better, Special Brands Join Our Community Music from Uppbeat and ZapSplat https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/get-the-funk-in License code: SF3WUKBUJQULFHXE TIKTOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

Are you active across Amazon, Shopify, Meta, and Google without a cohesive strategy? Most founders are operating each in a silo and missing out on combined learnings from each.Luke Tierney is the founder of Eco D2C and joins me as we discuss how to leverage the strengths of each digital platform to continuously optimize your product listings and marketing to tell a cohesive story designed to convert.These learnings will increase your sales as you optimize your conversion rates.Don't have time to implement these tips in your business? Reach out to Luke and the Eco DTC team: luke@ecod2c.comStartup to Scale is a podcast by Foodbevy, an online community to connect emerging food, beverage, and CPG founders to great resources and partners to grow their business. Visit us at Foodbevy.com to learn about becoming a member or an industry partner today.

It's Furry, Furbulous Friday! Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA, (the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), joins us to fill us in on all the great work they do to save animals. She updated us on PETA's Global Compassion Fund and more recent news. Learn how you can help support PETA's efforts at peta.org.Next, we welcome Zach Bluemer and Andres Izquieta founders of CHIKI CHIKI BOOM BOOM. Andres Izquieta Is a multi-hyphenate CPG entrepreneur in the areas of food and beverage, fashion, and entertainment.  His passion and drive sit at the intersection of sustainability, culture, community, and consumer products.  He's the CEO & co-founder of tropical water beverage company, Chiki Chiki Boom Boom, a brand driven by Latin culture and impact. Andres is also the co-founder of Five Four Group, a multi-million dollar fashion conglomerate with brands such as Five Four, Menlo Club, New Republic, Young & Reckless, and Ales Grey, who have collectively generated over $600 million in revenues.  Zach Bluemer utilizes tech and innovation to grow visionary companies with the goals of improving health, happiness, and sustainability. He was the first employee at Vita Coco coconut water and has worked with and advised numerous Food & Beverage emerging stars including MUSH, Blue Stripes, Sambazon, and Grupo Rica.  Thank you to our sponsors!Enviromedica – The BEST probiotics on the planetChildren's Health Defense - Listen every Monday for Bern and Mary Holland, President of CHD! Sunwarrior - Use the code OLR for 20% off your purchase!Well Being JournalThorne - Get 20% off your order and free shipping!

About Rachel: Rachel is a creative entrepreneur with a passion for ushering in a "revival" in the foodspace, starting with better-for-you nut butters that actually taste good, with no added sugars, preservatives, or palm oil. When she's not deep in the throes of building this almond butter business, she's busy being Mom to her three kids (ages 3, 4.5, and 6.5) alongside her husband (who is also an entrepreneur!). Rachel and her family live in Indianapolis, IN and love to travel, learn new things, and have a lot of fun while they're at it!Website: https://revivalfoodco.com Instagram: @revivalfoodco on IG and TikTok Personal IG: @rayyyyyych What you'll learn in this episode:Unexpected learnings of being on the inside of a CPG brandBest advice she's received as an entrepreneur & Scaling her businessNeed for a "revival" in grocery and how consumer trends are going in this directionFlavors and sustainability in her ingredientsAbout Us - Women Who Brunch:Women Who Brunch is a community for women who love connecting, networking, and learning from each other over the most important meal of the week...BRUNCH!Visit our website for updates on events, recipes, brunch spots, product reviews and more or say hi on Instagram!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenwhobrunchWebsite: https://womenwhobrunch.com

The hosts assessed the fallout from a highly publicized claim of “copycat” branding (and the accuser's subsequent apology), recapped a raucous pitch slam and shared a firsthand account of Omson's rhapsodic rave. They also spoke about a somewhat controversial food and sampled plenty of tasty, trendy products in the studio. Show notes: 0:43: Pizza Party. $200 For Free (Not Exactly). Storm The Stage! That… Hat. Human Petri Dish. – John made a pre-lunch for Mike and Ray and the hosts collectively chatted about a Linkedin diatribe penned by the founder of olive oil brand Graza and the industry's subsequent reaction, and why those who already have their tickets to BevNET Live should make dinner plans. Ray and Jacqui reflected on an outstanding event hosted by non-profit CPG organization Naturally San Diego, Mike talked about a new line noodles and how his hat almost broke the Internet (not really, but it was close), before the hosts all began biting into and imbibing upon new and interesting products, including what appeared to be blue slime, very spicy crunchy snacks, Delta-9 seltzers, better-for-you brownies and an innovative non-alcoholic “mezcal.” Brands in this episode: Brightland, Graza, Mike's Hot Honey, Wynn's Kitchen, Cien Chiles, Rationale Brewing, I Amaranth, Chasin' Dreams, Omsom, Samadhi Moss, BLK & Bold, Wize Tea, Little Saints, Chuza, Cheech and Chong's, Louie Louie, Nature's Bakery, Little Debbie, Tootsie Rolls

Greg Wank is a partner at and the leader of Anchin's Food and Beverage and Branded CPG Practices. On this episode of ITS, Greg and Ali talk margins, working capital, cash, and taxes. As Greg says, it's not just that the game has changed in 2023, it's that playing field is completely different.In the Sauce is Powered by Simplecast.

Are you an overwhelmed solopreneur, trying to balance family and business commitments while being told to just manage your time better? In this episode, Charlie Berkinshaw, our Retail Ready® VP of Student Success and the founder and CEO of Element Shrub, and Priya Patil, the founder of Belovd Foods, discuss how they work to improve their organization and time management for balancing their family life AND CPG businesses. Listen in to hear Charlie and Priya's takeaways on... Why Charlie embraces a "slow" approach to growth Which planning and organizational tactics Priya can use to optimize her time How having a CPG community has benefitted Priya's business Make sure to check out our full show notes here, which have links to Alli's Instagram, LinkedIn, and our Food Biz Wiz Facebook group. The Food Biz Wiz Facebook group is a great way to connect with other food founders and share what YOUR next steps for organization are after listening in. This episode is sponsored by Retail Ready® Right Now! If you listened in and were wondering how YOU can have Charlie’s AND our community’s support on your CPG challenges, then Retail Ready® IS the perfect place for you! Retail Ready® is our online course and community for producers who are looking to increase their sales. Click here for our quickstart enrollment so that you can learn more and get started TODAY!

The CPG Guys are joined by Bob Arnold, CEO of Q Mixers, which makes the world's best carbonated mixers that are proudly served by discerning bars and restaurants across America, as well as sold in grocery and liquor stores nationwide.Follow  Bob Arnold on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-arnold-972a253/ Follow Q Mixers on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/q-mixers/Follow Q Mixers online at: https://qmixers.com/ Bob answers the following questions:1) Bob, your career has some elite brands in your background but you are clearly the ‘beverages guy'.Take us through the years at InBev, Coca-Cola and now as CEO of Q Mixers. What advice would you give to someone early in their career in this space seeking to follow in your footsteps in beverages?2) With eCommerce prevalent everywhere and volume moving to omnichannel, how have you led the last 3 years to digitize your portfolio and make it available online for consumers to discover & purchase?3) Peter and I strongly believe that the path to true scale is being available on the store shelf. How do you focus on category management and therefore ensuing distribution?4) Take us through the portfolio and I noticed you have cocktail recipes? How do these come together and how does that play out at retail?5) I have been waiting to ask you about the ‘highball' - what is this? What other tricks and trips would you share with our audience? How does this help sell the product?6) Innovation - last 3 years, we haven't really seen much in the CPG world given supply chain issues. What's your take on the importance of it? How are you innovation and is there a pipeline?7) Let's go to talent. No brand can be successful without the right brand stewards? What makes a good marketer - what is their DNA? How do they connect with retail?8) The last question on the CPG Guys is always ‘fast forward' - what's next for you and Q Mixers? Where is the growth: innovation, distribution, both?CPG Guys Website: http://CPGguys.comFMCG Guys Website: http://FMCGguys.comCPG Scoop Website: http://CPGscoop.comNextUp Website: http://nexupisnow.org/cpgguysRetailWit Website: http://retailwit.comDISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.  CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

Love it or hate it…artificial intelligence (AI) has started to take over different areas of our lives and there's no escaping it. While everyone is talking ChatGPT, I've been captivated by another AI revolution that has just started to impact the CPG industry. Did you know that some of the "influencers" you follow might not even be real? I mean its common knowledge by now that influencers are great at adding digital platform filters, using photo editing software, and understanding which angles or poses are the most flattering…but I'm talking about something even more fake than that. Virtual influencers are computer-generated characters that can be human-like, with realistic features, personalities, and characteristics. While they're not yet mainstream, they're certainly growing in popularity with some of them amassing millions of followers and equally large earnings from paid brand partnerships…some within the CPG industry. And while the idea of a virtual influencer achieving legitimate, wide-scale fandom may seem like a modern idea, fictional celebrities can be traced all the way back to a time well before computers were invented. But where these virtual humans hit the digital platforms was in 2011 when Ami Yamato started creating YouTube vlog content with a virtual persona. Then five years later, @lilmiquela started posting photos on Instagram that had people questioning if this character was real. Now...AI systems like ChatGPT could soon blur an important line. So far, it has been well understood that there is a real person behind the scenes of these digital characters, but that likely won't be the case going forward. Combine that with that fact that today's virtual influencers look less like anime characters and more like humans each day, and CPG brand portfolios like Pernod Ricard are starting to go “all in” on them. The Olmeca Tequila virtual influencer Maria Margarita is he best example of this extreme usage by a CPG brand…outside of creating virtual versions of brand mascots. Additionally, this content will cover the "pros" and "cons" of working with virtual influencers and why they might one day become ubiquitous in our metaverse-filled world. FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS LINKEDIN - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaschallmba⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TWITTER - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FACEBOOK - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/jschallconsulting --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joshua-schall/support

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT In the early years of digital signage networks - particularly those that were ad-based - operators would often describe how their medium was captive. The proposition was that people stuck doing something - usually waiting - would pass their time looking at a screen. Then smartphones came along, and there went that notion. Except in places like gas stations, where people still needed to be somewhat focused on the task. A company called GSTV has been running a digital signage channel on the screens of fuel dispensers for almost two decades, and is deployed at more than 25,000 locations. The company dominates its category, and the mix of programming on the pump screens has 100 million unique viewers. The pitch to planners is far more sophisticated these days than the captive audience thing - something very obvious in this talk with CEO Sean McCaffrey, who gets into a lot of detail about the benefits for consumer brands and for the gas station and C-store operators who work with GSTV. Subscribe from wherever you pick up new podcasts. TRANSCRIPT Sean, thank you for joining me. It's almost weird to think about, but your company and your medium is actually a pretty mature medium now.  Sean McCaffrey: It is. I still look at it as very new. I've been with the business for five and a half years, and when I describe it to people at a backyard barbecue, and they ask what I do, I say: I run a six-year-old startup that happened and have a one-year proof of concept. So to your point, we've been around for 15+ years as a sector, if you will.  For people who maybe don't live in the United States, describe what it is that goes on.  Sean McCaffrey: Yeah, no problem. So GSTV  is a national digital video platform in 205 US markets. Out of 210, we reach about 50% percent of US adults every month, about 116m monthly unique viewers, and we connect with consumers three to five minutes at a time, three to five times a month when they're fueling up their vehicle. So think about it as a very habitual serialized engagement week in and week out when someone stops to fuel up as they're running errands on a road trip, on their way to the ballgame on a Saturday, that sort of thing, and we partner with the fuel and convenience retailers in the US to put in this amenity, provide information, entertainment, that sort of thing, and focus on building value for brands, agencies, retailers, and consumers, and we work with a variety of large chains, small chains middle market, kind of everything in between. And the nut of it is you've got a screen embedded in the fuel dispenser.  Sean McCaffrey: Correct. Our screens come embedded in the fuel equipment, which is a long-term hardware purchase decision for fuel retailers. The retailers get it as an amenity, and they get a small amount of promotional time within our show. There are shared economics amongst the parties obviously as well, and then we build a consumer experience that provides value to the retailers, value to consumers, and then brands and agencies can integrate in any number of ways. The way we look at it is we program a show every day. Every station is like an addressable household. The household has more family members, so we could have tens of thousands of different versions of the show on any given day, depending on what content and what advertising is running.  Now, we don't go probably down to that level of customization just based on how brands use it. But think about urban, suburban, weekday, weekend, all those lake and beach communities, let's say all summer long, that is a very different population from Thursday to Sunday, let's say in July versus January. So lots of ways to customize the entertainment, content, commercials, advertising, and so on. I have a bit of a past with this stuff going back to the early to mid 2000s when there was a Canadian company also looking at this, and at that time it was extraordinarily challenging to put a piece of electronics on a fuel dispenser that's sitting on top of a reservoir of thousands of gallons of flammable liquid. It was a little nerve-wracking.  Is it now a standard piece of kit, so to speak, for the fuel dispenser manufacturers like the Gilbarcos of the world? Sean McCaffrey: It is, and you're right, that era in the early to mid two 2000s, not just in our space, but really in broader digital signage or digital outta home, if you will, in general. There was a lot bigger hardware literally and figuratively, hardware and software challenges to solve. Now, they're not done today, but all of this has come a long way. So for our business today, yes, it's a very standard part of what our great partners at Dover and Gilbarco both produce. The retailer can make a choice on the equipment that they want to buy and everything comes kitted out for them. There's an upgrade opportunity if they have equipment already. There's a new equipment purchase opportunity, so there are obviously several different SKUs of hardware products they can buy, and then it's all IP addressable, and all enabled that our team runs. And we have a network operating center that it's all built on and enabled programmatically in terms of scheduling as well.  So it's really come a long way. Anyone that is involved in digital signage or the digital out-of-home space knows that mid two 2000s era, call it 15-20 years ago, there were lots and lots of networks trying to put signage out there in hopes of I think advertising would follow. A lot of it was probably a solution in search of a problem, as they say, and today, we're very focused on our place in the value proposition, so to speak. So our retail partners really care about that 20-foot consumer journey. Someone fueling up and then going in the store and buying anything. The hardware partners, they want a great product and to be able to offer this as an amenity, and then for consumers, our time is precious today While it's not a channel selection, you're not gonna binge watch hours and hours of our programming, let's say, in the way you might Netflix or Peacock. It is an opportunity to provide value to consumers, entertainment information, and that sort of thing. So come a long way in all regards, I think, and not just hardware.  And so you can retrofit an existing fuel dispenser, right?  Sean McCaffrey: They're some of the old SKUs of hardware, not necessarily, but yes, for the most part, it's generally an upgrade available.  And is that something you put on top of it, or you replace the screen that's in there?  Sean McCaffrey: It replaces the equipment that's already in there. One of the reasons that the businesses came together in a joint venture in early 2017 was first of all to provide some scale in the space. But second, there was a push from the credit card companies for a payment processing upgrade. So the EMV technology Europay, MasterCard, Visa. There was a requirement from the credit card companies that all the fuel and convenience retailers in the US had to upgrade their credit card technology. So that was an obvious time then for every retailer to decide on a larger upgrade cycle what they wanted to do, and many of them chose to augment it with screens that they didn't have previously.  So this is not a build it and they will come thing at all where you're incurring the capital cost to put this in, it's the fuel retailer?  Sean McCaffrey: Correct. That was the earlier generation of the business where some of the predecessor companies you probably know, or the company that you mentioned where there were screens that sat on top of the fuel dispensers of various sizes, and you then incurred every challenge you have beyond CapEx, just the installation, the maintenance, that sort of thing. These are all dispenser-integrated units. So the CapEx is built into the economics amongst the various parties.  And is the primary motivation to get people into the convenience store, because most few retailers these days seem to have a retail store associated with it, or is it the revenue share that they might see out of it or they do see out of it? Sean McCaffrey: It's primarily to drive people into the stores. A couple of percentage points of growth in soda and snack sales is I think a lot more interesting to most than the advertising revenue.  That's not to say the advertising revenue is not substantial or interesting, but there's lots and lots of data that the industry publishes every year here in the US about the volume of consumers that fuel up and just drive away, don't go in store, the volume that does go in store and what they purchase, and so any opportunity to drive sales in-store and raise basket size once somebody is in the store, for example, it gets you to buy a snack instead of just a soda, get you to buy a snack and a soda and a lottery ticket, you name it, is useful, and there's a great deal of sophistication in the space as well.  I think most consumers in the US are familiar with the largest brands, the 7-Elevens, the Circle Ks, and that sort of thing. But there are a number of what I'll call major and mid-major regional chains anywhere from 800 to 1000 stores down to maybe 50 to 100 stores where they've got a loyalty app, they've got a promotional program, so very sophisticated folks in the space that I think a lot would be surprised about to learn. I think the difference in fuel and convenience in the US to, let's say, grocery or big box or some of the other large physical retail channels, there isn't consolidated ownership that you see in those spaces. So at times, I don't think consumers really understand the size of the sector, but the fuel and convenience space is more than 3% of the US GDP. So it's a huge economic driver, and so back to the retailer, they care about that 20-foot consumer journey and getting more people to come in and then buy more once they go inside. I'm assuming that in the early days, you were selling the dream that if you do this, people will go into the store, but now the, the, there's analytics, there's the level of sophistication that can give you some data that will prove out that, yeah, this they saw this and then this happened, or how does that work? Sean McCaffrey: Absolutely. It's a great question. So obviously, the retailers have their own first-party data relative to sales. So they have an understanding most directly if something's being advertised out in the forecourt, and then sales go up in the store, they know. But we work with a number of third-party partners, IRI and Catalina, as two examples to measure sales lift both in the store and then nearby, in adjacent grocery stores, big box retailers, pharmacies, that sort of thing. Because there's an old cliche in advertising, right? That half of my advertising works, I just don't know which half, and that's not been good enough for a long time. We had 135, I think the number is, research studies in the field last year with clients from upper funnel analytics, brand favorability, and brand recall, down to much lower funnel direct sales and sales lift metrics. And so we've been at that for 5+ years now, and we start to see to some degree what you would expect, in other words, for CPG products in the fuel and convenience store. For very mature trademark brands and large-scale products, we might see a 1-3% sales lift which is huge for really established, CPG brands. For newer brands, li brand extensions, and things like that, we might see high single-digit, low double-digit sales lift, which is also great, and that's been validated by a number of the CPG brands that we work with as well. Obviously, the larger ones have very sophisticated in-house marketing sciences teams and do all sorts of market mix modeling. So even though we fund studies with IRI and Catalina, which are really well-established partners. The brands also do their own modeling and report good results.  It's a lot of what you would expect, I think, in that there's an opportunity to drive someone for an impulse convenience purchase when they're 20 feet away, if they're slightly hungry or slightly thirsty or many of the fuel and convenience retailers have pretty sophisticated food service programs these days and so if somebody's grabbing lunch or dinner, they've got a lot of choices. They can go to a grocery store and get a prepared meal. They can go to a drive-through at a QSR next door, or in some cases, they can go inside the field and convenience retailer and get pizzas and sandwiches and other things. We've got hungry consumers and a big opportunity to influence them but from a measurement standpoint, we've got lots of ways to draw a straighter line between the advertising impression and the business outcome. If you're doing that volume of research that repeatedly suggests that there's still some skepticism among the brands that they go, prove to me that this works. Sean McCaffrey: I wouldn't characterize it as skepticism as much as I think there's a spectrum depending on the category, and for example, an auto brand, the KPIs that they're looking for are dealer visits or site visits or someone going in and starting to build a vehicle. CPG brands obviously look at sales, and financial services brands look at card usage, card signups, and that sort of thing. So depending on the category, we've commercialized research capability with a couple of household names: Foursquare, Axiom, MasterCard, ISI, Catalina, and plenty of others. So our sales and marketing team can simply say “yes” when a client says, can we measure it? Some categories are more mature for us, for sure. Auto, CPG, financial services, insurance, you name it. There are some that are earlier adopters to us. Entertainment's one, for example, where we can show the trailer and tell somebody to tune in tonight, binge-watch it this weekend, et cetera, and so we've got a good diversity amongst categories. So in some cases, it's a newer brand, and they want to test and learn and then measure and grow. In other cases, it's brands where measurement is just a part of every single thing they do.  To my earlier point when I came up in advertising, I worked in a legacy radio business, a legacy billboard business where those are classically regarded as more, upper funnel reach media where we weren't typically asked to measure business outcomes or direct results, and I think today, especially in the current economic environment, particularly over the last decade, advertisers are looking to measure every marketing dollar they spend realizing it doesn't all do the same thing, right? The Super Bowl ad is not the same as a buy-it-now ad on social media or something like that. But the research that we do is on some well-established clients and some new clients, but I wouldn't say it relates to skepticism more so just that brands today expect everything to be measured,  And you also, I believe in the last two or three years have introduced capabilities to not only push people into 20 feet across the Forecourt, into the C Store there, but to the grocery store that might be five blocks away, that sort of thing is. Why did that happen, and what are you seeing out of that?  Sean McCaffrey: So the interesting thing I've learned more than I ever thought I would know about the fuel and convenience space, much less consumer behavior on the day people fuel, so we produced some research about five years ago with MasterCard, and then we did an updated version with a much deeper dive the last year with Affinity Solutions, which has credit card and loyalty card data to basically look at the way people spend money every hour of the day, every day of the week, online, offline, with then one filter, if you will, added: the day people fuel up and is anything different, and it turns out it's really different. Fuel Day is a surrogate for a lot more grocery shopping, a lot more QSR visitation, a lot more pharmacy stops, big box retail, do-it-yourself, that sort of thing. So Fuel Day is a very differentiated day for consumer behavior and consumer spending. So with the rise of retail media as an investment channel over the last couple of years. In other words, with Walmart starting a media network and Kroger starting a media network, we started having more and more of our CPG partners come to us and say, “Hey, we want to apply this sort of thinking, this retail media, commerce media thinking in the fuel and convenient space. But there isn't anyone with consolidated scale and the way there is in grocery and big box.” So as big as the biggest retailers are in our industry, you put the top five together, they have less than 20% of the sector. So we are the largest consolidated network in US fuel and convenience in terms of ad-supported media. We launched a product called GSTV Amplify, which is really a parallel path. Number one, it's about driving sales in the fuel and convenience stores, which is critically important, and then number two, it's recognizing that our consumers are 5-7 times more likely and spending that much more on the same day to go next door to a grocery store, QSR, you name it. So the agencies and brands that are spending money across retail media, in grocery, retail media in the big box, they can leverage that data, they can apply that thinking with us.  I had one Head of Investment at an agency say to me, this is basically the last TV ad someone can watch before they go into the grocery store. And I said if that framework helps you, sure, that's one way to look at it. We're in the solutions business. So from a scale standpoint, I mentioned our business. If you took the food and beverage sales at our stores compared to the largest grocery chains, what is the 10th largest grocer in America? If you added fuel to that like Kroger and Albertsons do when they when counting the numbers, we are the fifth largest behind Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and Albertsons. I'm not selling produce, I'm obviously not building physical retail stores, but I say it just to give an example of consumer purchasing power, right? And that's what brands and agencies are trying to find, the proverbial right place, right time, the right moment to find real attention and impact consumer behavior. Is there any kind of an audit trail? So if I'm on my big shop day and I stop at a fuel retailer and use my MasterCard to buy 12 gallons or whatever it is, and then I go to Costco, and then if it's me, I'll probably go to the wine store or something. But is that traceable? Is there a way of saying, okay, Dave got fuel at 11, and at 11:30, he bought stuff at Costco and so on?  Sean McCaffrey: So yes and no. Yes, in the sense that yes, we can do what you're describing. No, we're not tracking Dave specifically, right? We do not collect first-party data. So often, a question I get is if people are swiping their credit card at the field dispenser, so you know it's me. We do not collect and track that credit card data or any other data. What we have is a naturally data-rich environment. There is that credit card swipe, there is a device ID typically in the vehicle or on the person, and device IDs and credit cards are well-worn ways to connect to household identity graphs, loyalty card data, and other ways. So yes, so what you described, we do with partners. So depending on the category, CPG brand, or auto brand, we can do that walk back to impact to show sales lift, brand lift, or any other KPIs. We do some direct surveys.  There are companies, obviously, that do mobile location surveys that push advertisers for different things. But we work with well-established privacy-compliant industry partners to track that. As well as work with many of our brand and agency partners directly. Because the big agencies all have their own data operations these days, most of the big brands have an in-house marketing sciences team tracking all this. So what we decided to do when we were launching our approach to data analytics and research is not to build another black box that nobody was asking for, or nobody needed. What the big agencies and brands said to us is that we just need input. We need to be able to input the GSV exposure into our tools the same way we input a CTV impression or a YouTube impression or you name it, so they can understand the impact on the campaign because it's obviously never one thing. All of these ad impressions combined to provide impact to the brand and agency. But one of the things that were interesting to me when I consider joining the business is that it is much more of a mid to lower-funnel ad exposure opportunity. It's naturally frequency capped, right? We're going to see somebody three to five times a month, not three to five times a day when that banner ad follows you around the internet. So the fact that we do have these data signals that we can use, again, in a privacy-compliant way to track success metrics is important and a differentiator for us. Is it easier to do all that stuff now because of all the API integrations and AI and everything that's come along as opposed to in the past where yes, we have that data, but we're not sharing it with you?  Sean McCaffrey: It has, I think for a lot of different reasons, whether it's the rise of retail media, whether it's the acceleration of machine learning, tools, and this sort of stuff, or the big agencies all purchasing their own or building their own data operations, whether it's Epsilon, Axion, Merkel, that sort of thing or others like Omnicom. Everybody understands they need a privacy complaint consumer to opt-in to track this stuff, but then it's also important to have interoperability between all of this to measure. It doesn't do anyone much good to have a bunch increasing. walled gardens, right? So today, whether it's a cooperation-type environment or an industry-standard environment, it's a lot easier. At least in the US market, combined with the changes in the advertising market over the last decade. In other words, the value of the living room wall. Is certainly challenging now compared to when I was a kid, and there were three TV channels, and it was, every night was must see tv. Today we spend our time as consumers quite differently. That change was only accelerated with Covid as far as people splintered viewing habits, and then the disruption in signal loss and digital now with device IDs and other things being sunsetted, the deprecation of cookies. It's moving most advertisers into more, I think, middle-of-the-funnel analysis. In other words, not everything is a buy it now button sort of conversion—the proverbial last-click attribution of a decade ago. So for us, GSTV, is what we hear often from our advertising partners anyway. If we have the scale of broadcast, which they like because of most categories, you just still need a lot of people. We've got some level of digital muscle memory for targeting attribution. Then it is this real-world consumer opportunity, which is what people generally get excited about around mobile and out-of-homes. So it has the sort of DNA of several interesting things to advertisers, and we've built a team around the business on the sales and marketing side that comes from various big firms in the digital and video space. On our retail success team. I have a great team that literally helped build the network going back 10 years plus, and those two teams really parallel paths are commercial relationships and client service. So we have a retail success team that is just as focused on our commercial relationships with our retailers and our hardware partners. As is, our sales and marketing teams focus on the brands and agencies. The retail success team that's nurturing the footprint that you already have, are you still building that footprint, or is it built out?  Sean McCaffrey: Yes, we continue to build it. So a natural upgrade cycle still happens every month, every quarter, and every year, where we have retailers deciding to upgrade their equipment and add new sites. And then we have a very high 95+ percent renewal rate from retailers that have us already, and so the network is about a third of the fuel and convenience sector in the US today. At some point, it'll probably get north of half, and then beyond that, there's a point where we've probably ended up getting every retailer who's wanted this as an amenity because it is a different retailer. It's a retailer that is generally a little more focused on the customer experience, a little more focused on Forecourt conversion, a little more focused on end-to-end sort of promotional comms, and so on.  So there's no mission here to get every fuel and convenience retailer in the US just due to the nature of the space. But yeah, we continue to grow every month, every quarter, every year.  It's a case where it sounds like you have most of the markets that you'd want to be in any way so once you get to all that number, I forget what you said, it was 240 or something like that, at that point, adding more screens maybe doesn't matter all that much, right? Sean McCaffrey: Yes, you're right. It's one way to look at it. But I wouldn't say we'll be happy once we feel we've partnered with every fuel and convenience retail in the US who like us, I think their business continues to change. So as they think about forecourt-to-store conversion, integration with their loyalty apps, and promotions, we're talking to some commerce partners, some loyalty partners, and different people like that where can we potentially provide a service and another service and amenity to the retailers? Not everyone has the wherewithal or the financial structure to build that on their own. Can we go into parallel and adjacent spaces? We've typically not gone inside the store. We've not wanted to compete with our retailers in a way. But several have come to us lately wondering about their own sort of digital consumer experience journey, and there is an opportunity to partner together. So we're talking about that, and then the actual incorporation of the company. We do business with GSTV, but the actual incorporation of the company is destination media. And there's some thought to that in the sense that. We are a national digital video platform consumer, the literal consumer journey. There might be other places and spaces, high dwell time environments where it's somewhat similar to what we do today, where there's a premium audience we can define an entertainment and information amenity, and so are there opportunities to continue diversifying our consumer touchpoints, Channels within a platform-type environment where we can provide some additional value to the people we think about today, which is a long way of saying we're not going to build more screens or buy more screens just to get more screens. But I think there's some natural one plus one equals three or four or five with other potentially parallel channels or spaces beyond the fuel and convenience store.  Yeah, you would think that. My experience is that end-user customers are not looking for more technology vendors. They'd like to slim out the number that they have. So if you have enabling technology that could do the video marketing inside the stores they'd probably be pretty motivated to go that way as opposed to sourcing some other vendor.  Sean McCaffrey: We agree. I think there's a moment in time right now that to me feels a bit like that era you referenced earlier. In other words, in the mid 2000s where I think there are a lot of people, at least at this moment in time, running around suggesting hang screens anywhere you can hang screens, create experiences, sell ads and there's almost a suggestion that it's just that simple or just that easy, and anybody that's done it knows it's not, and it's really hard. And also, it needs to be there for a reason. In the mid two 2000s, there were a lot of networks that were well-funded and had great management. And, 2008's, recession aside, never really got off the ground because they were building a solution that really no one was looking for, vs. today, I think whether you're building a commercial real estate project and you're considering digital signage or you're doing something like we are, you have to think about how are you providing value?  And for us, we're doing something that would otherwise be overhead for the retailers and difficult to do at scale, and it was challenging when five or six companies were doing what we're doing, and they all were pretty small. It was tough to get the attention of larger brands and agencies. So yeah, whether it's the hardware and software capability, or the sales and marketing engine, or the combination thereof, we're happy with what we've built so far. By no means do we think we're done, but we're looking to be a solutions provider to partners and if somebody has a network or is considering building a network and we think we can provide value, we're certainly going to talk to them.  Do you have competition?  Sean McCaffrey: There is one small provider in our space that I believe has a couple of hundred locations right now. They work with a different hardware provider that we're contractually unable to work with. We're very focused on the fuel and convenience space from a retail partner standpoint, but from an advertising standpoint, I often get, who's your competition? Is it people in the movie theaters, or is it people in the airport or the malls? And no, we don't sell screens. We don't charge $100 a screen or $200 a location. We sell an audience, and you can slice and dice that audience in several different ways. So when we talk to advertising partners, it might be a major national CPG this morning, and they're launching a new product in the southeast this summer, and we're talking about that. We might have lunch with a television team at a big agency that's trying to find people who buy reach curves and things like that. And then late afternoon, it might be a digital auto home team at an agency looking for proximity to a QSR, and they want everything within five miles of a particular QSR.  We're competing for ad dollars in the television space, the digital video space, the retail media space, and the digital out-of-home space. And we don't have the luxury to say we're only one of those things, but I think we've got the opportunity to compete and take share across that spectrum, and that's really how we've grown. So the business has more than doubled in size in the last couple of years, both in employees and revenue. And it's mostly because our sources of advertising revenue have come from just a wider and wider part of the advertising landscape.  Does the business runway have an end to it because of the rise of EVs and EV charging stations and so on? I would imagine it does, but I think it's probably like 15-20 years out. Sean McCaffrey: We don't think of it as an end as much as an evolution, right? No one is debating the emergence of EV vehicles, no one is debating the eventual roadmap of electric vehicle charging. I think everyone, at least in the US anyway, is debating how long it's going to take, number one and number two. Number two, perhaps most importantly, is how's it gonna be paid for. There's never going to be enough tax subsidies to support all of it. So there we announced last year, we announced a partnership with our labs in ChargePoint to build an ad supporter network with ChargePoint, who's currently the largest large provider by a long stretch by probably a factor of five, the largest EV charging infrastructure provider where just like our business today, we think there's an opportunity for an ad-supported amenity to build out that infrastructure, and there's a bunch of advertising-supported models that have helped build out critical infrastructure going back to the early days of television and radio and everything since. Ad supported models help build us out. So we're excited about the relationship with ChargePoint and a number of their partners, and we think the journey for consumer behavior is going to be a long time, still a multi-decade transition, and as I alluded to earlier, the way we think about our business and the broader destination media sense is the platform and foundation we built in fuel and convenience is hugely important and hugely critical infrastructure today. But whether it's the EV platform, that's really our second network or a third, fourth, and fifth one to follow. We think time spent outside the home is going to continue to grow and add supported opportunities to identify those consumers, and serve them something relevant, measuring the success on the campaign is going to continue to be critical. So we remain pretty excited about the future, both the business we have today and the evolution it can drive for us.  That was super interesting, and time just flew by. I had many other questions to ask, but we'll have to do this again if you're willing.  Sean McCaffrey: Yeah, I'd be happy to. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you for having me. 

Starting a beverage company is one of the toughest categories to launch in. MOQs are much higher, cash requirements are high, shipping costs are expensive due to weight, ingredient lead times are long, and so much more. At the same time, consumers are drinking more RTD beverages than ever and there are a ton of leading trend indicators that show opportunities in the marketing.Join me for a conversation with Brian Post and Greg Kaminski of G&B Filling Station, a beverage launchpad on opportunities and watch outs for emerging brands. They combine formulation, sourcing, co-manufacturing, and storage in house.Startup to Scale is a podcast by Foodbevy, an online community to connect emerging food, beverage, and CPG founders to great resources and partners to grow their business. Visit us at Foodbevy.com to learn about becoming a member or an industry partner today.

Do you feel a little guilty bringing home dinner in a mound of single-use plastic bound for the landfill? Ashleigh Ferran had a moment of inspiration and wanted to help solve the single-use plastic problem. She just didn't know she was going to start an amazing chef-inspired food business! We are glad she did because this is the definition of a win-win-win business model. Ashleigh brings her high energy to the W@W podcast today to showcase how they are solving a big social and environmental problem while building a profitable model for expansion.    Center of the plate entre – ready to heat and serve – the customer rounds out the meal. Advanced freezing technologies Reusable Foodie She noticed legislation attempting to change consumer behaviors for plastic and she had her “Founder Conviction Moment” for circular to replace single-use packaging. The business model – partner with restaurants and chefs to deliver ready-made entrees to the dinner table and offer a high-margin extension to the restaurant in a circular, reusable packaging. Centralized kitchen and a partner who handles the health and safety and sanitizer. The tipping point to scale: hub and spoke. Building customers, community, chefs, and restaurants per region with some overlap into the next hub. Tap into the hot spots of food and innovators. In Good Company is the facilitator to help chefs expand their food and flavors across America and activate their own communities Chefs on the platform activate their network and all the restaurants have an expanded opportunity. Investing in the circular foundation now and is not waiting until the whole infrastructure is built Season 3, Episode 24 In Good Company:  LinkedIn Website Instagram Facebook Connect with Ashleigh Connect with Tony About me and my mission and the podcast: Are you looking for a fun and light-hearted podcast to discover unique brands and learn about the people and strategies successful companies are implementing in the CPG and Food and Beverage Industry?  The brands featured here take us into the world of innovation, sustainability, good for you, lifestyle, QSR, Foodservice, Distribution, DTC, Club, and more. I am a fun-loving business leader, podcaster, husband, dad, cyclist, and Convention of States volunteer in my spare time. My mission is to discover the people and ideas behind these different, better, and special companies.    Entrepreneurs and CEOs, are you: Searching for distributor or broker partners?  Actively prospecting commercial buyers to gain more points of distribution? Searching for the right person to add to the team? My Direct Response Marketing Service attracts exactly what you need to help your brand thrive and grow.  Here is a NOVEL approach to ATTRACT distributors, buyers, and people (DEMO)   Contact me: Tony@timpl.com Follow me on LinkedIn: Different, Better, Special Brands Join Our Community Music from Uppbeat and ZapSplat https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/get-the-funk-in License code: SF3WUKBUJQULFHXE TIKTOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

Description:Today, Lee is joined by the Founder and CEO of AKUA, Courtney Boyd Myers. Courtney's career path has seen three separate tracks which collided in the form of the sustainable food brand, AKUA. Having grown up at the seaside in Connecticut, she has a deep love and appreciation for the ocean which, years later, manifested in her delicious, nutritious kelp burgers with numerous health and environmental benefits. In this episode, Courtney shares her entrepreneurship journey and recounts the pivotal moment when her passion and varied experience met. Tune in to learn about AKUA's genesis and development, from the research process and abandoned products to fundraising and exciting collaborations!Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsor:AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats.In This Episode You'll Hear About:[01:27] An introduction to Courtney Boyd Myers, Founder and CEO of AKUA.[02:47] Courtney's idyllic childhood growing up at the ocean in Connecticut, her unfulfilling education experience, and her varied career history.[12:25] The three phases of her career prior to launching AKUA, and what she learned from each venture.[16:34] Courtney's journey to becoming a founder: the pivotal moment her passion and experience collided to create AKUA.[19:19] What makes kelp such an interesting future food in the context of climate change, and why Courtney landed on burgers as a format.[26:25] The genesis and development of AKUA, from the research process and abandoned products to fundraising and collaborations.[35:48] Courtney shares crowdfunding and community-building resources and tips.[39:19] The most unexpected challenges of her entrepreneurship journey and what she would have done differently with the experience she has today.[43:47] How she's grown personally and professionally, as a leader.[46:12] Courtney shares a final piece of advice for entrepreneurs and fills us in on what's next for AKUA!To Find Out More:AKUACourtney Boyd MyersCourtney Boyd Myers on LinkedInCourtney Boyd Myers on TwitterForbesGeneral Assembly‘How to Rock a Republic Campaign'RepublicWefunderLee Greene on LinkedInStairway to CEOStairway to CEO on InstagramQuotes:“I've gone from journalism to tech startups to food, which I don't necessarily think was as easy to do in our parents' generation and I think, for many reasons, it's a lot easier to do now.” —[0:09:30]“I had three separate career tracks prior to starting AKUA.” — [0:12:42]“I was a journalist for a long time and I had so much fun interviewing entrepreneurs and hearing their stories. That is where I got the exposure to entrepreneurship.” — [0:12:51]“Eventually I got the itch. I needed to know what it was like working for a startup, even if it meant leaving my career in journalism.” — [0:13:57]“A lot of times, as founders, we end up telling all the best parts about being a founder, and it's only recently that being vulnerable as a founder has been seen as okay. So I heard a lot of the highlights reels, especially as a journalist.” — [0:16:55]“Because the kelp goes through photosynthesis, it's sucking Co2 out of the water as it grows its body mass. So it's really helpful in the context of climate change in combatting acidification.” — [0:19:19] “If you think about growing food, most of the things you and I have on a daily basis require a lot of fresh water and dry land, and kelp requires neither. So it's a really interesting future food in the context of climate change.” — [0:19:33]“I wanted to figure out a way to get more people eating more kelp for so many reasons: health, environment, and supporting our farmers.” — [0:20:22]“I don't think in-person tastings are helpful … If the founder's in the room, throw out the results.” — [0:31:48]“We're turning to equity crowdfunding because I think it's going to be not only helpful for bringing in money, but also really helpful from a marketing perspective.” — [0:35:34]“I think that age-old ‘The dinner table's the greatest piece of connective technology' type of idea is something that really can't be overdone, especially post-COVID.” — [0:37:58]

In today's podcast, Kasey Kiser, Sr. Consultant of Strategy & Insights at Acadia, is hosting the new episode. She is joined by Rebecca Yi, Head of Influencer Marketing at Acadia. Make sure you tune in to find out more!  Rebecca is a marketing expert with over a decade of experience in digital transformation and social marketing strategy, particularly in influencer marketing. She has worked with various consumer-focused brands across industries such as health & wellness, CPG, food & bev, and more. Rebecca joined Acadia to build a modern version of influencer marketing within its unique service model and integrate it into omnichannel brand strategies to drive trackable impact and data-driven insights.

Join us for a candid conversation with Ryan Lewendon, the lawyer who played a pivotal role in the BodyArmor acquisition. Ryan shares his experiences working with high-profile clients such as Kobe Bryant and Ryan Rapole. He provides an inside look at the legal and strategic considerations that go into his day-to-day business endeavors. Ryan offers valuable lessons for anyone interested in the world of start-up businesses. Listen as he shares his unique perspective and insight.  https://youtu.be/3bIo37aHUaU Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilliland, and today I've got Ryan Lewendon with me. Ryan, how you doing?  Ryan Lewendon: Great. I'm doing great, Brett. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.  Brett Gilliland: Absolutely, man. You're coming to us from New York City today, is that correct?  Ryan Lewendon: That is right. I'm in, uh, Manhattan at my, uh, at my apartment, just, uh, Pump to pump to speak. Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Awesome, man. Well, I know you also have an office in California as well. Uh, Giannuzzi Lewendon Law Firm, uh, is a high growth food, beverage, and personal care industries is who you guys are serving. You guys founded it in 2011. Uh, you represent over a thousand consumer products. And here's the one that my kids were excited about. I told you before we started recording. It says, uh, most notably Ryan represented Body Armor in Coca-Cola's, largest ever brand acquisition with Coca-Cola, purchasing the remainder of Body Armor for 5.6 billion dollars at an enterprise value of 8 billion dollars man, talk about that a little bit, man. Cause that's, that doesn't just happen overnight. So that was a long journey, I'm sure, right?  Ryan Lewendon: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, my firm Giannuzzi Lewendon, we, we differentiate ourselves in really two ways. One, We're contextual experts in consumer, right? So we only work with consumer brands. We only work on the brand side, and it's all sort of everything topical or ingestible. So that's food, that's beverage, that's spirits, that's baby, that's pet, that's beauty, right? And um, I got into the industry through Vitamin Water. So my partner Nick, and I. We're the first lawyers for Vitamin Water and we get everything for Vitamin Water from every min, every round of financing, every distribution agreement, manufacturing agreement, every celebrity partnership, 50 cents deal with Vitamin Water. We had his, uh, own flavor and equity in the brand was one of my first deals at a law school and Jennifer Anniston's deal, which became, we went with Smartwater. That became one of the longest running CPG partnerships of all time. I think it went over 15 years after the sale to Coke, we did everything, uh, through the sale of Coke for 4.8 billion in 2007. Um, and from there we realized we had this great perspective on how to grow and scale a C P G business from the ground up. Right? Mo most lawyers kind of have this top down perspective on their clients. Like they know what the legal aspects are, but they don't really know how or why the business is built or why it grows, or why the people in the industry are important or how they interlock. And because of our experience of Vitamin Water, we realized we had this great viewpoint on it and we realized that these, these entrepreneurs who were growing these fast businesses, um, it was very valuable to them. So, uh, you know, Nick and I sort of, Put a little end cap on the career. Um, you know, last year with, uh, the Body Armor deal. Um, that's a company that I had worked with since, uh, 2011 when we started the firm. Um, you know, we left a bigger firm we were at and, and started this firm and, um, you know, it was, it was a great experience just from, you know, everything from, you know, the Kobe deal to the keurig Dr. Pepper deal to the Coke deal and, um, yeah, it, it, it was a, you know, it was a overnight success that, you know, happened over 10 years.

Broadcasted LIVE on LinkedIn, Co-Hosts Alex Bayer (Genius Juice) and Wade Yenny with a combined experience in the CPG space of 35 years, chat about all things food and beverage in the market and share what's going on in their lives and any current events. They also do shout-outs and answer questions live from viewers & listeners during their show!

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to leverage word of mouth to grow your brands, but is often incredibly challenging for CPG brands to properly execute. I invited on Krik Angacian, a two-time CPG founder (Protes and CandyCan) with one exit under his belt. He most recent founder of CPG Affiliate Partners LLC where he helps brands traverse the convoluted affiliate marketing space.We break down why founders often fail and the 5-step process on creating a successful affiliate strategySET CLEAR GOALSOFFER CREATIONFIND THE RIGHT AFFILIATESPROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR AFFILIATESTRACK YOUR PERFORMANCEStartup to Scale is a podcast by Foodbevy, an online community to connect emerging food, beverage, and CPG founders to great resources and partners to grow their business. Visit us at Foodbevy.com to learn about becoming a member or an industry partner today.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk with one of our past Marketing Excellence Award winners, Jeff Wilson, about how Ronin got started at  TCI EXPO and the importance of tradeshows in their marketing plan.Jeff is highly experienced with CPG, Retail, Semiconductor, Veterinary Hospital, and Product marketing communications. In addition to generating outstanding creativity, Jeff has deep expertise in business planning and analysis, new product or service development, team development, sales performance management, brand analysis, and future forecasting.   Jeff co-founded Deulofew Wilson Advertising, a specialty 4-A agency that provided marketing communication solutions to market challenges for multi-unit, small to mid-sized businesses. Deulofew Wilson was acquired by DDB Worldwide Group, where Jeff held senior creative and management positions. He developed integrated MarCom programs for accounts, including Weight Watchers, Michelin Tires, Olympus Camera, Tandy Corp, Sears, Computer City, IKEA, and The Incredible Universe.To learn more and to get involved with the TCIAF, please visit them at tcia.org.To learn more and to register for EAW, visit us at eaw.tcia.org.

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   Ben says, “the goal is not a subscription. The goal is for a customer to buy repeatedly, and sometimes a subscription is the right mechanism for that, but for many people, it's not. And so what you need is to have a series of different tools that enable you to meet the person where they are and then the right way for them to consume.”   Today, we interview Ben Fisher, Co-founder & CEO of Rodeo. Rodeo is a consumer-centric subscription platform for challenger CPG brands. Consumers *don't* want a subscription. They *want* your product, when they need it. With Rodeo, you can turn transactional customers into subscribers with a bespoke platform that offers "middle ground" flexibility tuned to your customer's buying patterns & products.   We discussed:    * What he's grateful for * His discussion on entrepreneurship, the pressures, anxiety * Ketamine therapy and was it helpful * How to achieve Zen like performance * A different perspective on what it means to be a high achiever * His morning routine - a break down * The pressure to perform * An overview of Rodeo * What's a flexible subscription * The challenges to implementing a subscription program * How to work with Rode: who is a customer, onboarding, etc. * And more…   Join Ramon Vela and Ben Fisher as we break down the inside story of Rodeo on The Story of a Brand.   For more on Rodeo, visit: https://hey.rodeo/   Subscribe and listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand” on your favorite podcast player.   *   This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   Here's the deal: I have a gift for you from our primary sponsor — Sendlane. They're giving away their online course eCommerce Academy - Email & SMS Marketing!   This course gives you the step-by-step playbook to drive more revenue and retention with email & SMS. This is typically a $500 package, but for our listeners, it's entirely FREE when you get started with your FREE 14-day trial of Sendlane.    When you do, chat with their support team and let them know you're one of our listeners to get full access to hours of course content that will help you make email marketing your #1 growth engine.   Visit https://storybrandgift.com to get the details, sign up for a free trial and get your gift!

Kevin McGee's crisis management background is the perfect skillset to lead the rebranding and expansion efforts of the nationally distributed craft beer brand, Anderson Valley Brewing Company. Kevin's home base in Boonville, CA might be the coolest place on earth to drink a beer, play frisbee golf and take in some music. AVBC also is leading the way in sustainability efforts.    35+ year old-school craft brewery Started one of the first nano–breweries in America Beer is a good business, recession-proof, and he and his father bought AVBC Expert in crisis management How they reorganized AVBC The story behind the bear with deer antlers Issues with the Brewery:  consumer-facing marketing was failing Legacy brands had grown rapidly with little marketing effort without talking to the consumer Instead of A-B testing – they physically show up in the market and understand what resonates Has a national sales team and outsources communications, social media, and outreach 80% of sales effort should be to your distributor Craft beer didn't benefit from pantry loading Trends in beer – return to beer-flavored beer & hire ABV per dollar & nonalcoholic 30-acre brewery in Anderson Valley, CA – an 18-hole disc golf course, stream, music events, outdoor stage The solar-powered array covers 50% of needs and they are expanding to 110%. Self-contained water cycle – 10 wells on the property Sustainability won't sell a product for you – comes in handy if you are high-quality or a tiebreaker Brain fart that I didn't edit out – LOL Other sustainability initiatives and cost savings - how do eliminate waste and expand margins A special collaboration with Surf Rider Foundation – Coastal Ale and donating 5% of gross margin 25thBoonville Beer Festival April 29th   Season 3, Episode 23 Anderson Valley Brewing:  LinkedIn Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Connect with Kevin McGee Connect with Tony About me and my mission and the podcast: Are you looking for a fun and light-hearted podcast to discover unique brands and learn about the people and strategies successful companies are implementing in the CPG and Food and Beverage Industry?  The brands featured here take us into the world of innovation, sustainability, good for you, lifestyle, QSR, Foodservice, Distribution, DTC, Club, and more. I am a fun-loving business leader, podcaster, husband, dad, cyclist, and Convention of States volunteer in my spare time. My mission is to discover the people and ideas behind these different, better, and special companies.    Entrepreneurs and CEOs, are you: Searching for distributor or broker partners?  Actively prospecting commercial buyers to gain more points of distribution? Searching for the right person to add to the team? My Direct Response Marketing Service attracts exactly what you need to help your brand thrive and grow.  Here is a NOVEL approach to ATTRACT distributors, buyers, and people (DEMO)   Contact me: Tony@timpl.com Follow me on LinkedIn: Different, Better, Special Brands Join Our Community Music from Uppbeat and ZapSplat https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/get-the-funk-in License code: SF3WUKBUJQULFHXE TIKTOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

On this episode, we have Bri Warner who is the CEO @ Atlantic Sea Farms Atlantic Sea Farms is supporting regenerative agriculture with its various regenerative seaweed products grown using regenerative aquaculture practices. In this episode, we learn about the deep fishermen livelihood and economic development vision driving the company, we get educated on what makes growing seagrass regenerative, and we discuss with Bri how we can scale vertically integrated, regenerative, and women-run businesses like Atlantic Sea Farms and others. Episode Highlights:

Ibraheem Basir, the founder and CEO of A Dozen Cousins, joins us for episode 193 of the Food Biz Wiz Podcast! If you haven’t heard about A Dozen Cousins, then you’re in for a special episode. A Dozen Cousins is the national bean, rice, and sauce company bringing Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American flavors to consumers in easy-to-cook meals. You won’t want to miss hearing about… Why he focused on launching in retail first How he leveraged his food passion and industry experiences What values A Dozen Cousins stands for and how they weave them into their work Their process for hiring diverse, values-aligned team members and building team culture Ibraheem’s wisdom in navigating the CPG scene is invaluable. Learn even more about his brand and send us a DM on Instagram, LinkedIn, or the Food Biz Wiz Facebook group by following this link to our full show notes. You can also find the links to the other episode and resources mentioned there, too! This episode is sponsored by our mini Reorder Checklist! This checklist is a list of ways to onboard a new retailer so that you’re more likely to sell off those shelves and receive reorders. You can find our simplified version at the link here OR, if you’re a Retail Ready® student, you can find the longform version and training directly within our course platform!

In this episode, we chat with Cynthia Herrera, Chief Executive Officer at Sun Bum. Sun care essentials originally created for friends and family that evolved into a globally recognized brand. Today, Sun Bum maintains its essence of being a planet, animal and family-friendly, and simply good. Tune in to hear how Cynthia's experience in some of the biggest CPG companies like SC Johnson, Nestle, Pepperidge Farm, and Nabisco has helped shape her marketing knowledge throughout the years and prepared her for her role today.

This episode features an interview with Erika Reed, Manager of Data Strategy at General Mills. After serving companies like Best Buy and Life Time in the marketing space, Erika ventured into analytics in 2020. She now uses data and technology to drive insights into action and helps brands deliver meaningful and engaging consumer experiences.In this episode, Kailey sits down with Erika to discuss providing a value exchange for consumer data, grappling with unknown traffic, and focusing on behavioral data instead of demographics.-------------------Key Takeaways:More than ever, consumers are not willing to readily give up their data. However, they will for the right value exchange. Offering them points, dollars, or convenience opens the door for companies to collect rich purchase data while providing value back to consumers.When it comes to building strategies, focus on the insights behavioral data tells you, not just demographics. Behavioral data allows marketers to create profiles and build relationships with consumers based on their purchasing habits.It's critical to ask consumers precise questions when first engaging with them. For example, Pillsbury asks consumers, “Who do you cook for?” when signing up for recipe inspiration. They can then combine this information with other data to create a customized and relevant experience.-------------------“We have all of this behavioral data, which is the most important type of data in my opinion. We can get to know a lot about you based on what you're buying, and we can use that to go find more of you. [...] Historically, we use demographic data as a proxy to get closer to relevancy, but now we have all of this rich purchase data that can give you signals that demographic data can't.“ – Erika Reed-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:07) - Erika's career journey*(08:10) - Industry trends in consumer engagement in CPG*(11:44) - Changes in consumer behavior in CPG*(21:40) - Challenges in the consumer engagement journey*(31:08) - How Erika defines “good data”‍*(36:06) - An example of another company doing it right with consumer engagement (hint: it's DSW)*(39:30) - Changes in consumer engagement in the next 6-12 months*(42:58) - Erika's recommendations for upleveling consumer engagement-------------------Links:Connect with Erika on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios