This week Dave speaks with Lauren Livak Gilbert, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute (DSI), and Mike Black, CMO at Profitero. Lauren and Mike recently collaborated on the DSI/Profitero report, "Defining Content Effectiveness: How Content Maturity Can Help Brands Better Meet Shopper Needs."

They discuss why Mike is such a prolific poster on LinkedIn (6:33), Lauren's experience managing the digital shelf for J&J brands during the pre-COVID era (8:49), takeaways from the "Defining Content Effectiveness" report (18:19), the importance of AI usage complying with a brand's legal requirements, brand guidelines and workflows (27:51), and the narrowing of the gap between upper and lower funnels (29:37).

Download the DSI/Profitero "Defining Content Effectiveness" report: https://www.digitalshelfinstitute.org/report-dsi-profitero-defining-content-effectiveness

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenlivak/
Contact the Digital Shelf Institute: https://www.digitalshelfinstitute.org/contact

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeblack/

Take advantage of a special offer from It'sRapid and get a free image, video or banner ad by emailing [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

Dave's guest on today's show is Rob Gonzalez, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Salsify and Founding Member of The Digital Shelf Institute. They discuss how Rob made the switch from engineering to marketing (4:30), details of Rob's daily routine (8:41), the story behind the creation of the Digital Shelf Summit (10:11), details of the Salsify/ItsRapid partnership (18:36), how the advertising center of gravity has shifted in the last decade (27:35), and the two people who have influenced Rob's professional life the most (34:05).

Register for Salsify's 2024 Digital Shelf Partner Summit: https://www.salsify.com/partner-summit-2024

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgonzalez

Take advantage of special offer from It'sRapid and get a free image, video or banner ad by emailing [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

It's a triple threat conversation this week, as Dave sits down with Rae Marie Guimond and Brett Banner of Price Spider. Rae is Director, Strategy, SaaS Sales and Revenue Growth, while Brett is Senior Vice President of Strategy. 

Highlights include Brett's words of wisdom for working with customers (4:18), Rae's examples of how brands leverage PriceSpider to leverage basket-level shopper data (13:12), the challenge of brands pushing through their own organizational silos (16:07), an overview of the just-announced strategic partnership between PriceSpider and ItsRapid (25:08), and Brett (35:56) and Rae's (38:09) predictions for the next 12 months. 

Connect with Rae on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmguimond/

Connect with Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettbanner/

Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

This week Dave takes a detour and speaks with a guest whose insights on eCommerce come not from within the industry itself, but from the world of finance. Matt Nicklin is a Managing Director and Co-President of First Analysis Securities Corporation, where he specializes in tech and healthcare investments, including eCommerce transactions.

Matt gives a quick overview of the numerous markets within the financial system (3:49), what his day-to-day looks like (9:47), what he's been seeing in the eComm world recently (15:30), as well as the challenges (22:06) and opportunities (27:55) facing the space today.

NOTE: Nothing discussed or said during today's episode should be construed as investment advice.

Contact the First Analysis team: https://www.firstanalysis.com/About-us#Contact-us
Connect with First Analysis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/first-analysis/

Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

David closes out February with an illuminating conversation with Andrew Lipsman, Independent Analyst and Consultant, and the author of the popular "Media, Ads + Commerce" newsletter on Substack. Andrew struck out on his own in late 2023 after a fruitful career at industry analytics stalwarts NPD Group, comScore and Insider Intelligence (formerly eMarketer).

They discuss how Andrew's obsession with Michael Jordan as a Chicago Bulls fan in the 90s sparked his interest in analytics (3:22), his insights on Walmart's acquisition of Vizio (7:30), a brief overview of ROAS and how it's measured (16:42), and the tension between the shopper experience and the surface area of in-store ads (22:14), and his big 3 predictions for the next 12 months (26:11).

Subscribe to "Media, Ads + Commerce": https://mediaadsandcommerce.substack.com/

Follow Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-lipsman-10b2162/

Find out more about ItsRapid's Creative Automation Solution for Brands and Retailers! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

We're off this week, so we're re-airing our interview with Market Performance Group's Jenny Baker from last October. They discuss being 100% retail-ready for a brand launch (4:05), the "See, Scroll, Click" concept (9:16), what to keep in mind when working with an agency on UGC (15:11), and the importance of keeping it simple with video (27:25).

We'll be back next Tuesday with a brand-new episode of Beyond The Shelf!

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.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

On this week's show, Dave chats with Billy Courtney, Commerce Innovation Lead at Accenture. Billy arrived at Accenture via two acquisitions in a two-year period - the first one being of his own company, RichContext, by The Stable in 2020, which was itself acquired by Accenture in 2022.

Billy discusses his decision to start his own company (7:44), what it's like to be acquired twice in such a short span of time (14:05), why he thinks Product Detail Pages (PDPs) are experiencing a renaissance (19:55), and how brands have been using automation for things like content scores and page audits (22:06).

Connect with Billy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billycourtney/
Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

This week, David speaks with Nicolai Soendergaard, Director of Omni Enablement at Newell Brands. Nicolai has had an illustrious career in the space, with previous stints at LEGO and Kellogg. They discuss Nicolai's decision to move to the US (3:19), his advice for smaller brands looking to emulate big brand strategy on Amazon (7:41), why the concept of the "endless aisle" is a myth (18:57), and how AI is already making people more productive and efficient in their day-to-day work (29:26).

Connect with Nicolai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaiksoendergaard/

Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

David's guest this week is Greg Stevens, CEO of Turbyne. Previously Greg was Executive Vice President at Advantage Solutions, where he led the creation, development and spinout of Turbyne. They discuss why having a proprietary tech stack in your agency/business is the best defense against your competitors (6:19), how in-store retail media needs to come from a place of strength (19:22), what Greg saw at NRF 2024 (19:51), and why sailing is a good metaphor for business (30:32).

Learn more about Turbyne: https://www.turbyne.com/

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorystevens/

Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com

Producer: Jake Musiker

David catches up with David Novak, Chief Revenue Officer at Salsify and board member for numerous SaaS organizations. They discuss David's career journey from coding and engineering to sales (3:24), his experiences farming and how it relates to his professional work (10:39), and how brands can leverage AI in useful ways (24:47).

Register for the 2024 Salsify Summit: https://www.digitalshelfsummit.com/event/63127807-e648-419c-9180-31ebe128f77e/summary

Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnovak/

Find out more about ItsRapid's new Sellsheet Builder! Send an email to [email protected] with code "BEYOND2024"

Learn more: https://itsrapid.ai/

Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.com