Builders Wanted Instacart’s Ali Miller: Inspiring Product Discovery and Brand Engagement
This episode features an interview with Ali Miller,Vice President of Product Management, Ads at Instacart. Since joining the company in 2021, she enables brands to connect with consumers to discover and purchase products they will love. Previously, Ali served as the Director of Product Management at YouTube and spent 11 years at Google as a Product Specialist and Product Manager. She also tested her skills on Jeopardy!, America’s longest-running quiz game show, in early 2023.
In this episode, Kailey sits down with Ali to discuss the power of human interaction, winning the digital shelf, and creating a recipe for trust.
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Key Takeaways:
- Mastering the digital shelf is crucial right now. Because it’s not finite, there’s endless opportunity to level the playing field for emerging brands while also showing consumers personalized and dynamic products that will resonate with them.
- Generative AI can unlock powerful consumer insights that were once unknown. AI has the ability to identify concepts and products that the consumer finds personal and inspirational.
- Creating trust as a CPG is a balancing act between building connections and driving results. Fostering relationships with the folks who control the budget allows you to have transparent conversations and drive efficient outcomes.
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“Digital shelf space is not finite, you can find the right thing that's going to resonate with the consumer at the right time. And so, emerging brands have a chance to play on a level playing field, and we can provide a little bit more diversity in what consumers are able to find and discover. I love that the digital shelf can be so much more responsive. And that's an amazing ads opportunity as well as a great opportunity for consumers to discover something new.” – Ali Miller
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Episode Timestamps:
*(02:13) - Ali’s career journey
*(10:17) - How Instacart helps promote diverse businesses
*(11:51) - Industry trends in customer engagement in CPG
*(19:15) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey
*(28:50) - How Ali defines “good data”
*(37:21) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Magic Spoon)
*(40:55) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6-12 months
*(43:52) - Ali’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement
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Links:
Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn
Learn more about Caspian Studios
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