Beyond The Shelf

David's guest this week is Todd Hassenfelt, Global Digital Commerce Senior Director, Strategy and Execution at Colgate-Palmolive. Todd has worked with many of the world's leading brands including Hill's, Tom's, Irish Spring and many others. They discuss Todd's start in the space (2:00), how a global organization like Colgate-Palmolive collaborates across teams (7:42), best practices for using generative AI for images (14:41), takeaways from the Amazon Black Friday NFL game (28:24), and much more.Connect with Todd on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-hassenfelt/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

David's guest for this episode is Josh Clarkson, Director of Digital at Russell Stover Chocolates, where he's building a brand-new digital team from scratch. Josh shares his learnings from various leadership roles over the years (3:56), the idea for and execution of the world's largest box of chocolate to celebrate Russell Stover's 100th anniversary (10:23), his differing approaches to seasonality (21:57) and the meaning behind the phrase "seamless commerce" (25:32).Enter Russell Stover's 100 Year Giveaway here: http://russellstover.com/100kConnect with Josh on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joshuaclarksonLearn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

This week David's guest is Randy Mercer, Chief Product Officer at 1WorldSync, where he leads the Global Product Management and Solutions Architecture teams. They talk about Randy's beginnings in the space (1:51), how 1WorldSync utilizes AI to improve e-commerce performance (11:09), and the ever-increasing importance of mobile imagery to entice consumers on their path to purchase (23:42).Connect with Randy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randalmercer/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Today's guest is Alex Crowe, Global Vice President of Omnichannel Strategy at Criteo. Criteo helps advertisers, retailers and publishers activate and monetize audiences everywhere shoppable moments happen. They discuss the cost pressures facing retail media on both the consumer and marketing sides (3:23), what Alex thinks the main purpose of retail media is and how Criteo stands out in terms of measuring retail media performance (11:16), and the importance of media having a view of all media touchpoints to better inform how to split up media budgets (17:03).Connect with Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-crowe-b71b5840Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Today David speaks with Carter Jensen, Senior Manager of Global Digital Strategy at General Mills. Carter has three areas of focus: Leading the acceleration of AI; heading up consumer-first digital strategy; and an international focus on digital learning and development. They discuss the differences between agency life vs working in-house for a big brand (4:41), Carter's experience at General Mills (6:57), how to balance an international team's needs when they're different than North America (22:54), and how transformative Carter thinks AI will be in the next five years (26:03).Connect with Carter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carterjensen/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

David speaks with Jared Taitel, Director of eCommerce Marketing Merchandising and Design at PepsiCo. Jared and David discuss the It'sRapid/PepsiCo partnership at length - how it started and how It'sRapid's creative automation capabilities have saved Jared's team countless hours on what would otherwise be crafting individual creatives across thousands of individual SKUs. They also dive into Jared's journey from the music business to the marketing business, as well as his thoughts on emerging technologies in the retail media space such as generative AI.Connect with Jared on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredtaitel/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Today's guest is Jenny Baker, Director of E-Commerce Digital Content at Market Performance Group. David and Jenny discuss Jenny's background, including having run her own e-commerce company for many years; the "See, Scroll, Click" concept; how keeping content authentic and real is more important than being glamorous; and much more.Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-baker-613984238/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Dave's guest this week is Doug Straton, Chief Customer Evangelist at Bazaarvoice.  Previously he's served in roles at The Hershey Company and Unilever.  Relevant topics include the "Content Supply Chain" (a phrase Doug coined), as well as Doug's POV on the future of user-generated content. Connect with Doug on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-c-straton-7a59a34/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker 

Today David speaks with Anne Zybowski, VP of E-Commerce and Digital Shelf at Circana (formerly known as IRI and NPD). Anne's is a pioneer in the e-commerce and digital space, with an illustrious career that's included senior leadership positions at Kantar, Clorox and Ideoclick prior to joining Circana. Dave and Anne discuss her experience as subject matter expert for Target, Walmart and Amazon at Kantar, her work at Clorox and her learnings at Circana.Connect with Anne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-zybowski/ Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

This week, Beyond The Shelf presents an audio broadcast of our Fresh Content Fridays series, where we discuss content best practices with leaders in the space. David's guests are Adrienne Prast, Manager of Digital Content at BIC, and Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr. They discuss strategies related to global opportunities, seasonal content and more.Video podcast: https://youtu.be/3eawnIVtFkc Adrienne Prast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrienne-prast/Chris Perry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisaperry/Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker