Intro

Joining us for the second of three episodes recorded in the Bambuser remote podcast studio/beach cabana at Mandalay Bay during Shoptalk is Melanie Brown Vice President of Orange Apron Media and Monetization for The Home Depot. In a special two segment interview Melanie unpacks The Home Depot's retail media journey, highlighting the company's unique approach, which recently culminated in a doubling down and re-branding of its efforts. We've had analysts and consultants on to explore the rapidly growing retail media world, now we get a deeply experienced practitioner's in-depth perspectives.

As usual we open by dissecting the most important news of the week including the key take-aways from Amazon CEO Andy Jassey's annual shareholder letter, the end to Macy's proxy fight, the big nothing burger that is JC Penney's first new store in eight years, and Richard Baker's return trip to Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof. Then we tap into Steve's 2024 predictions of a "disruptor reckoning" and news that Rent the Runway sees better days ahead, while Allbird's risks delisting and Billy Reid acquires Knot Standard.

Orange Apron Media

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Don't miss the Leaders Leap virtual launch event on Monday, April 22nd, featuring special guests Seth Godin, Bridget Brennan, Sally Elliott, and Hal Lawton. Pre-register here.

There are just a few more days to take advantage of Leaders Leap pre-order freebies. Go here to see the special offers.

And if you are in Dallas don't miss our in-person live fireside chat, networking, and book signing on April 24. Pre-register here.

About Melanie

Melanie Babcock is the Vice President, Orange Apron Media and Monetization. In this role, Melanie has grown sources of ad revenue, profitability, sales and improved supplier experience.

Melanie joined The Home Depot in 2013, most recently serving as the VP of Integrated Media, which included the launch, development and growth of Retail Media+. Under Melanie’s leadership, her teams transformed The Home Depot’s marketing strategy from a product-centric to a customer-driven marketing strategy.

She scaled personalized customer marketing and worked closely with cross-functional partners to lead the development of marketing experiences more tailored to customers’ shopping and personal preferences. She launched a media measurement practice and changed the marketing team’s key metrics to deliver enterprise, department and incremental sales.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.