SVP of Walmart Connect Int'l & Sam's Club Connect's Rich Lehrfeld: Driving Brand Growth Through Full Funnel Unified Advertising

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0:50The CPG Guys: That's salesforce.com slash consumer goods. I'm Rich Lairfo, the SVP of Walmart Connect International and Sam's Club Connect. And you're watching the CPG Guys podcast. Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Sri Raja Goplin and Peter V.S. Bond, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome again to the CPG Guys podcast. I am your affable and lovable co-host, PVSB. I also moonlight as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom.

1:36The CPG Guys: We are recording today's episode from Le Majestique Hotel in Cannes for the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Joining me today is my co-host. He is the co-founder of Thinklue Consulting, the father of Popstars Ria Raj and Cat Size Lara Raj. Our fans, of course, call him Papa Raj, but here in Cannes, they call him Papa Entourage because he's always got a cadre of people surrounding him. but to me he's my bff he is the thelma to my louise the wayne to my garth of course i am referring to the man known as shree shree uh we're closing out can we're getting down to the last but we saved the best for last didn't we here we certainly did i think we have one more after this but this is that's a different kind of episode yeah you know you could have just rolled right through you could you could have just rolled right through and acknowledge said we need a Can recap episode.

2:30The CPG Guys: Oh, yeah. Okay, that doesn't really count. But anyhow. It's been, it feels like a month. The second to last. There we go. No, the best podcast. How about we just call that? The best episode. Okay, perfect. Best episode in the making right here with our guests. But Peter, overall, a fast four days. Lots of activation, lots of panels, lots of conversations. And lots of networking events, breakfast, happy hours, lunches. fruitful is what I would sum up the week as. I absolutely would. Shreed, thank you as always for joining me. To our audience, if you are getting value from these conversations, we only have three asks.

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3:48The CPG Guys: And third, follow us on LinkedIn. Between episodes, we're publishing thought leadership, industry analysis, and content. you will not find anywhere else, all built on the CPG and retail media community you're already a part of. Search CPGGuys on LinkedIn and hit follower, click the link in the digital show notes of this episode. Subscribe, rate, follow. These three simple actions that help us bring you more of the conversations that matter. So let's get to our terrific guest. He's one of the most influential figures in retail media, and yet he's never been on the podcast until now. Yes. Problem solved.

4:24The CPG Guys: I know, problem solved. He's a leader who has helped shape the conversation around what it means to build advertising that truly drives business outcomes, not just impressions. Rich Lerfeld is the senior vice president and general manager of Walmart International Advertising, the retail media arm of one of the world's largest and most consequential retailers. But his remit has grown significantly. He, in addition to leading Walmart international advertising, now leads Sam's Club Connect, making him the architect of what is fast becoming a unified global advertising ecosystem powered by Walmart's unmatched scale, first party data and customer relationships.

5:00The CPG Guys: Under Rich's leadership, Walmart advertising has evolved from a performance marketing vehicle into a full-funnel omni-channel growth platform, one that's moved the industry conversation beyond clicks and ROAS towards accountability, long -term customer value, and measurable business outcomes that CPG brands actually care about. Sam Clubs Connect's inaugural presence at Cannes Lions this week is just the latest signal that Walmart is playing at the highest levels of brand building, not just commerce activation. And with Walmart's first party data spanning hundreds of millions of shopper journeys, Rich is uniquely positioned to tell us what the future of the advertising retailer partnership actually looks like.

5:43The CPG Guys: Rich, welcome to the CPG, guys. We're glad to have you. Well, thank you for having me. I'm a big fan. I always listen. And yes, I have been ducking you for a long time. So I'm glad we can do this. Busted! I know. I love you guys. Of course, I want to do this. We've had so many people across Walmart and Sam's Club, Walmart Connect, some great people. So I'm just happy to be part of it. Happy to be part of the conversation. You guys do a great job in the industry, supporting the overall industry and also having the conversation about what we're doing and why we're doing it. So thank you. The relationship we have with the corporate communications team at Walmart is tremendous.

6:19The CPG Guys: We're always talking and strategizing on different avenues. We've beyond, obviously, the core connect business in the international advertising. We've had people on from Marketplace, from supply chain logistics, oh, data ventures. And I was fortunate enough to go to Inspire last year. That was a great event. So we're just so happy to be in such close connection with the Walmart family. Yeah, we love being part of your family. We love coming on your show and talking to you guys. It's important. The industry is important to us. How we come to the industry, how we support suppliers, how we support advertisers, how we support all of our customers and grow this together because we think there's a lot of value.

6:58We know there's a lot of value in what we're all doing.

7:01The CPG Guys: To our audience, please check out the digital show notes of this episode. You're going to find a link to Rich's LinkedIn profile and links to both Walmart Connect here in the United States and Sam's Club Connect. So those will all be buried in. So don't worry, you don't have to write them down or figure out what it is. Just go to the digital show notes, easy hyperlink. All right, let's get to the questions. Rich, I'll kick us off. Now that you're leading Walmart Connect alongside international advertising and Sam's Club Connect, what does one connected global advertising ecosystem actually look like operationally?

7:35The CPG Guys: And how soon will advertisers actually feel that that's what's happened? Obviously, retail media is exploding. You guys cover it. You do a wonderful job of bringing it to life in a lot of your episodes. Reach was critical when I started in the media business. Reach is still important. But the notion of actually being able to connect with consumers through the journey, especially when they're making decisions at the point of sale, is even more critical than ever. And then being able to get those audiences, be able to measure, that's what retail media promises. So a full funnel approach that's measurable, that's actionable.

8:09Retail media is that promise. So if you think about it, it's been exploding in the U.S. It's also been starting to explode internationally. It is maybe a little behind, but that notion of a strong first party signal that can give you better audiences, that can help you activate, that can help you measure is critical no matter where you go. So that those principles are going to carry around the world. They're carrying at Sam's Club and with our Sam's Club Connect. So for us, when I talk about a connected global ecosystem, it's about taking the great activation, the great way we build both in the U.S.

8:41and bring it globally and bring it into Sam's Club. And that doesn't necessarily mean that we lose the individual nature of a Mexico or a Canada or Sam's Club itself. There's a lot of nuances to each one of those businesses. But if we can think holistically about our business and we can operate as one more and bring some of the wonderful stuff that we built globally, it's just going to make it much more impactful. I look at operationally for me in eight Ps. I always go in these kind of Ps. And you can, again, you can stop me at any point. But the notion of Ps, I start with purpose. What is our purpose?

9:17If Walmart's purpose is to help people save money and live better, what do we do to come to work every day to help support that mission? Well, we come to work every day by building advertising a platform that can deliver value to our customers or our members. It has to start there. We have to build a platform that can deliver tremendous value for our suppliers or sellers or advertisers. Help them grow their businesses. We have to be maniacal helping them do that. If we help them grow their businesses, solve their business challenges, we'll make money. Not the other way around. And then ultimately, we have to create value.

9:49We have to create value for Walmart. We have these alternative revenue streams that can feed back into the business to help support our operations. That's critical business. So purpose, like why do we do it and how we do it? People, how do we take the operational way of we operate against people and structure, the great things that we've learned in the US and bring it to international? And that can mean structure, that can mean people and competencies. So purpose, people, processes, how do we operate? How do we work together, both in Walmart Connect, Sam's Club Connect, and also across the ecosystems of Sam's Club and Walmart?

10:22Really critical. The value proposition. So again, what are we offering to advertisers? I think of the business as supply, demand, and performance. Pretty simple. What do we offer to advertisers to help them engage with customers on-site or in-store or in-market? it. So usually two things, which is like off platform or on platform. And how do we bring that to life? I talk about partnerships, partnerships of internally, but really specifically externally. Who do we work with to help engage with customers, tech partnerships, media partnerships, agency partnerships, and how we bring to life that in the U.S.

10:57and international and back and forth. I talk about the products and the platform and the operations. What is our tech platform? What's the value propositions that move to the platform? And how do we deliver against that? I talk about the P &L. Everybody has to know how do we make money? How do we deliver for Walmart overall? And then last is the prioritization. If I missed one, I apologize. I think I got eight there. The prioritization of how we do all this and the sequential nature of how you bring this to market and how you take a business and scale that. And that's the eight. So for me, if we can do this all well.

11:32We can have consistency. We can deliver for advertisers in a more holistic way. So they're not just dealing with Sam's Club Connect. They're not just dealing with Walmart U.S. Connect. They're dealing internationally. They can expect that whatever they build or whatever their objectives are, that we can execute that similarly across the world.

11:49The CPG Guys: Shree, I think we need to tell our idol, Phil Kotler, to move over because his four Ps have just couldn't have the new P's. That is good. That is good. That is good. That will quite be double its size. Absolutely. That said, Rich, you know, you have pretty extensive experience in the U.S. market as well as Walmart Connect in the U.S. You started, I think, with the eight P's I'm getting the sense there's a playbook. Yes. And there are things in the playbook. Nine. And so perfectly set me up for this question. Tell us about which pieces of those playbook that you have extensive experience building here in the U.S.

12:22The CPG Guys: you're excited to take to international? Yeah. So I think all of it. So, you know, we have a lot of success in the U.S. You guys, obviously you've seen, you've talked to a lot of people in the U.S. For me, it's all of it from structures and people, but the platform is going to be super exciting. Again, supply, demand, performance. What do we provide to advertisers on-site and off-site? Lots of benefits and opportunities for advertisers. The demand side, I didn't go into that, but we want to attract advertisers of all sizes from the largest CPG advertisers all the way down to marketplace sellers and international.

12:56Sam's Club is a very 1P business, but internationally, we have the same needs and opportunities with marketplace sellers and then building out performance. But the thing I think that I'm most excited about, and specifically what Sam's Club is, because Sam's Club is a closed ecosystem, membership-based, people pay for that. It's really a one-to-one and understanding customers. We know everybody that walks into a club. We know everybody online. And being able to take that data and the measurement that can come out of that and the longitudinal life cycle of a customer, not just they had a one-time sale, but over the life cycle of the customer and even beyond taking that, what's the next?

13:35That's great action. So measurement is really going to be critical to everything we do. And the data allows us and the insights of the customer allows us to be able to do that.

13:45The CPG Guys: Rich, this is Sam Club Connect's first time at Cannes Lions. I didn't know that. It is. And it comes and it comes on the heels of a big branding announcement on Monday. What's the headline message you want advertisers and agencies to walk away with from this? Yeah, so so it does represent an evolution of our business. Those two pieces that we're announcing, and then I'll kind of, I'll try to summarize the notion that I want advertisers agencies in the marketplace to really understand. The first is that it's a new day at Walmart. We have been working towards platformizing, top of the word, platformizing.

14:19We'll go with that. Yeah, we'll go with that. Across Walmart overall, we see the value of making sure that we operate as a platform working together, whether that's marketplace or we talk about data, the advertising business, the way we think about products and building. We are starting to really think holistically across Sam's Club and Walmart International and Walmart. And advertising piece is no different. So Sam's Club is really a notion of that we're going to be part of the broader ecosystem of the connect business and all the benefits that come with hopefully me coming over the benefit of me coming over and the knowledge of working with the teams to make sure that we can think holistically globally.

14:57So that's the first thing. And under the chief growth officer of Walmart. The second thing is this notion of connectness. and why Walmart when we did Walmart Connect and now with Sam's Club Connect it's the notion of how do we connect members to great brands and then also Walmart within that so the three-way partnership to help accelerate so this connection is really critical to the business and to really accelerate so that stronger connection you'll start to see holistically globally but also within the Sam's Club Connect business it's a more unified narrative and then simply we can talk about the connect businesses.

15:31It makes it much simpler for advertisers. We can have one kind of conversation where we're not having to say Sam's Club X. It's the connect businesses. And then what you can expect over time is what you're doing with Walmart Connect in the US. We can execute similar programs. But also Sam's Club has a lot of uniqueness, especially the experiential and the in-store pieces that we can uniquely do and then uniquely measure in different ways. If you look at our value proposition now and the new proposition is really three things, membership and the value of membership. Again, our members pay. And what their expectation is a connection to us, a community of value.

16:07And so that expectation and then how we operate against those members will be unique to us. The notion of experience, we will be building out much more experiences. And we can talk about that if you want to. But Sam's Club will have a lot of unique experiences in club, out of the club, and also online that will be unique to that. And then the impact, the measurement, the impact, But retail media is really about that measurement. But again, the club assets and the notion of that uniqueness, that relationship we have, we will have lots of data that we can do really interesting things, measure impact, predict the future.

16:42That's unique. That's unique. So our headline is membership model is a true differentiator and unique in the marketplace.

16:48The CPG Guys: I'll tell you before Sri asked the next question, Sri and I agree. We think of Sam's Club in particular as being the birthplace of innovation in the organization. whether it be scan and go where it started there, scan and ship. There's just so much that happens in that format. And coupled with the fact that you have 100 % attribution of all purchases there, all of the signals together brings about an ability for an advertiser to really target an audience, understand what the customer experience is, the journey is, and deliver a really delightful experience that has great outcomes. Yeah, exactly.

17:24Shrik?

17:25The CPG Guys: Well said, indeed. One of the things that was coming to my mind, you know, this is the first time you guys are here at Cannes, on the Sam's side at least, at Sam's Club Connect. How does a presence here fit into Connect's broader growth strategy? Is it scale, you know, as you work your scaled offerings like InClub, Omni? I'm watching this television that is opposite me scroll through, you know, there's things like audio, fuel screen, so take us through it. Yeah, so being here is super exciting. I love the energy that brings partners and people. And we talk a lot about AI or technology and people say it's going to replace some people and stuff.

18:06But I. He's already building an agent to replace me.

18:11The CPG Guys: Please don't do that. You know, I have an LLM ready for 600 episodes. Well, with all that kind of conversation, you know, Walmart talks about, you know, being people led and tech enabled or tech powered. And I still believe the notion of all of us together and the power that people can drive in the industry and the business with technology that's going to help enable. That's the fuel. I just don't think it's going to change. So having every people here in Cannes, having conversations with humans about partnerships, unique partnerships, different partnerships, of course, technology is going to be fueling that.

18:43But it allows us to kind of talk in different ways. And for us, Sri, as you were talking about, we are building this experience network within Sam's Club and we have it. We have unique opportunities for, as you said, Scan and Go, the radio program, demos, parking lot events. But also in the industry, we're building programs that allow suppliers or advertisers to connect with our members and create new members. The holistic, but those audiences or those ways to engage customers. And then ultimately, we can measure the outcomes and reconnect on an ongoing basis. And then over time, there's that unique connection.

19:24There's that unique experience. And I believe experience is critical. Sam's Club is all about experience. Over time, is it going to create more value? Is it going to make the member more engaged, create more value for suppliers and sellers? And then over time, will we be able to get lookalikes and more people like that engaged with our family and the supplier's family?

19:42The CPG Guys: All right. The industry conversation seems to be shifting from impressions and ROAS towards broader business outcomes. What does that shift look like in practice for how Walmart structures its advertising partnerships going forward? I guess traditionally, advertisers, suppliers, sellers, you know, they went from basic reach and frequency. And we started as an industry moving into more measurable things, clicks or short term ROAS. We're starting to obviously go into the IROAS. But I guess the future is advertisers are wanting to understand more broader business objectives. They want to understand long term growth.

20:20They want to understand engagement and what it leads to. And then over time, how do they find more customers? Membership gives that lens and gives a different lens on that business impact. As I was saying, we can look at the life cycle of a member more than anybody can do because we see that. We see people growing with their relationship with us a long time. We see them growing through life. And we can understand their needs, meet their needs, deliver more value because everything we should be doing is delivering value to the customer. Whether it's advertising or whether it's in-store benefits, it's value to the customer.

20:55Retail media is about experience and value. We don't want to shove something in front of them that doesn't have value. So whether it's a sample in a store, whether it's having them see a new product that they never would have seen before, that will lead them into a longer life cycle with that supplier or with that advertiser. That's what we want to do. We're really putting our partnerships around that. Not about if you want to just buy search, you just want short-term sales, we'll help you. I'm sure a lot of people ask you. And we're happy to do that. We're happy to do that. Well, they sell. They do reach, but they also, if you're buying sponsored product, you're selling product.

21:32We see it. We see the lift. But if you have deeper business objectives, which most do, they want that. But they also want to understand, like, how do I build a relationship with a member, a customer, an international? You know, all of our customers that come into our stores, they have a relationship with us. So they're looking for not just that. They're looking for a relationship. They're looking for a repeat purchase. With Sam's Club Connect, you know, our pack sizes are bigger. Our relationship goes deeper. There's so much opportunity. And that's what we're selling. And that's what we're trying to build off of to make it even a better ecosystem and experience for, again, our advertisers, suppliers, sellers, and deliver more value for our members.

22:10The CPG Guys: The CPG guys will never debate you if retail and brand should be delivering more value for the customer at the end of the day. The customers, all our collective boss. And even Peter and I, the people that we serve here in the industry, CPG and retail, it's the same boss. So we know that pretty clearly. We just had a very brief discussion here right now on brands wanting to go to lower funnel, getting just a sponsored product, things of that nature. So if I asked you, Rich, think through what would be one big mistake? Yeah, I think it's kind of like what we were talking about, which is this notion of like retail media is this last click purchase.

22:46Yeah, lower funnel. Lower funnel, last click, point of sale, which it is, again. It's how the industry started, right?

22:53The CPG Guys: Sure. And to a large degree, it's how most platforms develop. Sure. And it works. So why sponsor a product, right? If you get to the top of the Ingrid, it lifts sales. You know, consumers, you know, they'll sell more for growth. It's very quick. And we will do that, and we love it, and we help our suppliers or advertisers do that. But I think the misconception is that all it does. Yeah. And retail media has really expanded over the last couple of years to really understand the journey of customers. We talk about life cycle of the customer. We talk about full funnel. However you talk about it, everybody's like, what is it?

23:27Whatever you want. But the notion of a consumer journey, the way I think about it, is not necessarily linear. And even if it was linear, retail media can deliver on that, right? We can deliver a brand, an engagement, a passion point through sponsorship or some other way that a brand wants to connect with a customer or we want to connect with a customer down to the exploration of what the product is, understanding what the product is, the engagement. Wow, I'm going to go deeper. What is that? Let me research that all the way down to eventually the acquisition or the sale. Retail media can do all that.

24:01Allow you to optimize in a much faster way because you're getting insights and data. and then ultimately measure that and then bring it around again, which is to say, okay, well, I love that. That really worked. How do I find more of those people? And how do I keep engaging that member or that customer? Retail media can do that. So the misconception is it's only this one bottom funnel sort of thing. It's changed. And that's the exciting part for me as a past brand marketer and a future marketer, because I think it's all intersecting in the middle of that funnel. And retail media allows you to do that.

24:33The CPG Guys: So I want to do a quick follow-up on that one. Sure. So our take, the CPG guys take is the CPG brands are ways to go on that. But you're dealing with as a practitioner, thousands of some of the greatest brands in the world, global brands. Do you see that shift already happening? I do. I would say if we can be honest, maybe some of the larger CPG brands like in your world, they are a little ahead. They're thinking that they're starting to combine teams like no longer a brand team and a shopper marketing team. They're really starting to think about the team of how we reach the customer and the consumer, the CMO with the shopper marketing, the larger CPG.

25:11Maybe that's traditionally you can tell me like that. They've always led the way in that that respect. But I'm also seeing more of the smaller maybe the smaller brands also because there's only there was only one person doing it. So they already had all that. But that middle, maybe that middle section starting to learn, which is I can't have them separate. We can't operate separately. We have to kind of combine forces and think. And then they're also looking to us. What I have been saying to suppliers or partners this week, which excites me because I've always said this, which is give us a brief.

25:41Don't just tell us to buy search. I keep saying we will. If you want us to buy search for you, we'll buy or we'll recommend to you. But really what I want is a brief. Who do you think your customer is? What's their life like? Give us a psychographics. Give us demographics. Help us understand the business objectives. What are you trying to do? What do you think you want to do? And then we can come back to you with opportunities, solutions, ways to activate, and ways to think about in a different way of the Sam's Club members and the Walmart customer if it's international. And that's like a different kind of conversation for retail media.

26:18Maybe traditional media companies or maybe, as traditionally said, upper funnel. Maybe they got that brief in the past. I don't know. But what I know is these briefs are helping us really shape a completely different way to engage with members and for international, our customers and a different way we can activate because there's it's endless opportunities for all of us. Like there are endless opportunities. So give us a little give us a little and we'll give you a lot.

26:42The CPG Guys: Rich, we spoke a couple of weeks ago with Chris Peterson, the CEO of Newell Brands, and he talked about the fact that they've started to build digital personas for each of their brands as to who their ideal consumers are. And they're doing concept testing around everything from product to actually media and stuff. Are you getting to the point where you're asking for them to do this? Are you starting to see them come up with these kind of capabilities? Yeah, it's a great question. I would say some. Yeah. Not enough. And when we're asking. proof. Well, it's somewhat new. And again, when I'm asking it, people are like, wait a second.

27:16Yeah, that makes a lot. Everybody agrees with it. The agencies have gotten traditional briefs because sometimes they write the briefs. They just haven't really traditionally shared it with retail media companies or even brand traditional media companies. But I am seeing it. And even if it's not the biggest brief, even if it's a little tiny brief, it helps us get closer to what they're trying to do and the objectives. Alignment on the objectives and the KPIs and the goals is so critical because what I hate is, and it happens, let's be honest. What happens is we run a campaign and then it works or not works based on sometimes of what their perceived notion of what it needed to deliver.

27:55If it's not always ROAS, it's like, oh, wait a second, you delivered some sales, but I would have got that sale anyway. Yeah, it was short term. It only happened short term. We spent all this money and I got all these sales, but they didn't exist two weeks later, three weeks later. We got to know that, like, because it's a different approach, right? Again, if it's short term, I'll give you sponsored product. I'll give you search. If it's a longer term, then how do we engage a customer and deliver a different type of value? That's what we're trying to do.

28:22The CPG Guys: So, Rich, you obviously have access to your sister division, Walmart Data Ventures, first party data asset. And that integrates very closely with the Walmart Connect component here in the U.S. Coupled with the Science Club membership model specifically, how are you changing the kinds of insights and long-term value that you can offer to advertisers compared to, you know, transaction-only data assets? Yeah, it's kind of a wonderful question and kind of like what we talked about, which is this notion of one-to-one for Sam's Club Connect, this notion of understanding every customer that comes into a club or goes online, understanding their relationship.

29:03They pay for that membership. They expect and they deserve the value that comes with that. That can become, if you talk about our value proposition is great prices, a great assortment. In Sam's Club, it's a more curated assortment. Walmart International is a very broader assortment. And then the service notion or the speed of going to get the product. That's what customers want. If you get that right, you have trust. And trust is also about how you operate in your local community, your business practices. It's big. So trust, assortment, price, and that notion of service. We have to deliver that every day, right?

29:36And with Sam's Club, knowing that customer and knowing that value creation is great prices, great assortment, and making sure we can deliver the service. That becomes a unique selling proposition in how we operate and how we will deliver. And then what that allows us to do from a Sam's Club Connect perspective is, like I said, is that longitudinal nature of that relationship. So what we're talking about is this, what the differentiator is, and what we can uniquely deliver for Sam's Club is this notion of, okay, they had a transaction. Did they come back? Did they try something else? Were they staying over periods of time?

30:11And then how do we operationalize that over periods of time, which we can help them go do through great data, whether that in international, through all of the data sources we have there, or some of the unique data sets and ways of operating within Sam's Club. And then predict. The notion is taking that data, understanding the customer over a long period of time, and then a prediction model to what's going to happen next for them. And then how do we find lookalike? Because we want to broaden the pie for them. And that becomes unique for us.

30:43The CPG Guys: So, you know that Sri and I have done work with some of the other divisions of Walmart Connect internationally. We've worked with people in Canada. We've worked with the people in Chile. And I'd love you to be able to kind of comment on the fact that this dissemination of capabilities is not one way from Northwest Arkansas out. There is learning and capabilities that you're bringing and spreading. Little known secret. Haven't you featured on the Walmart Chile podcast? Yeah, that is true. We love the team. Make it because I missed my connection. Oh, so close. I saw him at the gate close. Bye-bye.

31:27The CPG Guys: I'll see you later. I'm off to Santiago. That is a great point. Sorry. So the notion of that it's not just the U.S. to international or to Sam's Club. The uniqueness, again, the uniqueness of the markets is really special. And the exciting thing is that there's so much growth. Yeah. There's growth on both sides. And if you think about even our Mexico business, our Mexico business is heavily in store right now and experiential versus the digital. The digital is there and it's robust, but we're going to be building even more. But taking the notion of how to customers, because it's Mexico, and across our formats, Sam's Club or Bodega or Walmart overall, and building the in-store capabilities, the engagement capabilities, the value propositions and the measurement.

32:11And we're actually taking it into the U.S. because they're actually ahead of us in many ways. So think about it. Add Sam's Club, too. The experience. So how do we take those experiences and that knowledge and bring it into Walmart U.S.? Yeah. Those are some of the things that we're thinking about. And also how they talk to customers and how they do their segments. In some ways, it's been a little different. And so we can bring that back. That's brilliant. Yeah. Very well said indeed, Rich. Sure.

32:38The CPG Guys: One of the things I need your help on is figuring out how she can get on the podcast at Chile, Santiago. I think I know someone. I think I can get that done. Chile, Santiago. I missed out because of a four-minute loss. I've been on that too. They're wonderful. When they had their supplier meeting and I was on stage talking with the team, I don't think your name came up, Shree. I don't know what happened. I beat him to the Mexico one, so I think. I know, we're even. This is how the stage is operating. If you want to come back, we're happy. We love you. We're happy to have you. That said, Rich, let's talk about the lines blurring between media, commerce, and the most important in-store club experience.

33:13Again, as I watch this TV wall in front of me, demos is a very important part of what happens in-store, right?

33:21The CPG Guys: Which of those convergence points is Walmart investing in most importantly right now, growing it, kind of also bringing it back into the media ecosystem that you touch? I'm excited about the notion of discovery. Well, I'm excited about a lot of things. I'm excited about, again, the longitudinal nature. But I think what gets lost is this notion of discovery to purchase. And how do we understand the customer? And how do they go from, all right, I've seen a product. I understand what that is. Or maybe I don't even understand what that is. How do I learn about what that is? How do I have experience with it?

33:54And then ultimately buy it. That kind of gets lost a lot and it's very hard to measure. So what we are working on a lot of measurement and a lot of capabilities that can help suppliers again. I use supplier, sellers, and advertisers together because it can be a multitude of different groups of people and also partners, agencies and partners. Wanting to understand that, the path to purchase and understanding what comes first, second, third, and fourth. And it's not the same for every supplier. It's not the same for every category. But our understanding of the customer or the member is getting better every day.

34:29And we're spending a lot of time trying to understand that and trying to prove that out and then giving those insights and helping the supplier or advertiser get those insights. I think what we want to get away from is thinking about just channels and thinking about the customer and this experience. How do we move them across experience? Because it shouldn't matter if it's a search or a display product or it's an in-store product. They matter to some extent. Sometimes suppliers want to just buy channels. what we would recommend to them is really under let's buy journeys and understand the based on the objective what is the objective they're trying to do again is it a new product that no one's ever heard of or it's in a line extension of a product they know the brand or it's just that you know i need share so what's that journey and how do we get them from seeing the product or discovering the product all the way to the purchase and then and then the ongoing loop as i said all right well

35:20The CPG Guys: Well, I'm going to close out our conversation really honing in on the future of growth. With Walmart's scale, obvious data superiority, and the technology that you've been investing in globally that spans Walmart Connect, your international iterations, and now the rebranded Sam's Club Connect. Share with us what your vision for the next big unlock is for advertisers. And how do you think about translating that scale into measurable growth for both Walmart and its partners? Yeah, it's a great question. And like I said, there's lots of ways. For what I think is really special about this point in time, especially as we have advancements in AI, which is the notion of intelligence.

36:06the notion of having so much information and so much data structuring in a way where we can make sense of it um of course we can report on it we can give you the results if we you know in our conversation we're talking about like it's hard to give results but we're doing that we're moving towards that the next wave is the intelligence it's not just having the results but what do you do with it right how do you take that information and make the next decision and and then over time make the next 10 decisions or 20 decisions. Intelligence and information and AI and hopefully the genius of us will combine into making this people and technology to come up with new ways to engage through that understanding.

36:51And I do believe we're doing that. We're moving towards that. Walmart has a foundation and Sam's Club has a foundation in understanding their consumers, engaging against that consumers, having a relationship over periods of time and then making that actionable over long periods of time. To me, that is turning that understanding into growth and not just for Walmart, but also for our partners that want to work with us and ask us those tough questions and figure out how to create that value for the customer or the member. That's super exciting and that's where we're going.

37:24The CPG Guys: Did you classify Peter also in the genius list? Oh, don't get me started. He's the man. I'm the man. You hear that right there, Sri. You can't get rid of me. Am I the child rich? Sri, you can't quit me. But I like, it was directed to him. I'll keep you two working together. It's that, you know, we're talking about the long-term nature of relationships right here. Look at this. We're bringing it to life. Sri, great conversation here. I think it was worth the way to finally getting rich on the podcast. Of course, we told Walmart we would talk to anyone else until we finally had rich. So we forced our hands.

37:58The CPG Guys: Okay, thank you. What's your big takeaway? Very straightforward, actually, Peter. Customer obsession. Two words, customer, actually three words. Customer obsession is two out of the three. Results is the third. Rich gave a deep down overview of everything comes back to delivering value for the customer at the end of the day. And we must question every action we take with building media, whether it's campaigns, who we target, what kind of value we bring to them back to, is it truly a value in the basket that they take home? That's what will keep them coming back and build loyalty over time. And you were pretty, I think you're as clear as you possibly can on that.

38:39The CPG Guys: And then once that happens, the bias for results, everything should be measured. And based on those measurement results, learn what you can, close loop, get more obsessive on the customer. That's how I would summarize it, Peter. Brilliant. My takeaway is that for a number of years, Walmart's international advertising adventures have been, I look at them as kind of test and learn based upon the market. that they were in, the time was clearly right to bring that connect together and plug it into the power source that is known as Walmart Data Ventures and bring advertisers the most robust platform for identifying, targeting consumers and figuring out what the right experience was and being able to deliver it and measure against it.

39:34The CPG Guys: And that ultimately leads to outcomes. So, Rich, we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy can schedule to sit down with us. Please don't be a stranger. Don't make it another 600 plus episode. I love you guys. And you are part of the family. As you said, you are part of Walmart Connect. You're part of Sam's Club Connect. You have been integral into our success. And hopefully we've been a little part of your success. You are part of the family. You are well taken care of. You know, everybody had all the people I'm sure in your ranking of podcasts are probably in there somewhere. So you didn't need me.

40:09The CPG Guys: Walmart does occupy a very large percentage. I'm somewhat glad we waited to have you in this post 600 edition of ours, because the role that you have now is a first for all of Walmart retail in general. And it's a very unique glimpse and eyesight into building something truly connected. Right. Get that pun. So I think having that unique role means you can truly take experience that you have from the U.S. and now spread it globally also into Sam's Connect. Yeah. I mean, sorry, I know it's the end, but the teams are incredible in Sam's Club Connect and in international. They're so smart. They're so, again, this customer obsession you talked about, caring about our suppliers and our sellers and caring about the ultimate customer or the member is ingrained in who we are as Walmart.

41:03You know, everybody you know, that's what it is. And we're taking that obsession and now building on it as one global team. That's so exciting. And the opportunities are great. And we can speed up what we're doing and then we can do it the right way. And that to me is super excited to be part of this. And the new branding of Sam's Club Connect just builds on top of that as one team.

41:24The CPG Guys: No, we absolutely love, as we've said, working with the Walmart people, though we do have a bone to pick with this Harvey Maw fellow. We'll talk about that. No, Harvey, we love you. We love you, Harvey. You're one of our favorites. To our listeners and to the over 45 ,000 followers on LinkedIn, thank you for doing what you do every day, whether you're building brands, maybe driving retail partnerships, deploying technology, or shaping the future of commerce. You are the industry we cover, and this podcast exists because of you. If today's conversation sparks something for you, a new idea, maybe a fresh perspective, or just a reminder of why this industry is worth showing up for every day, share it, tag us, tell a colleague.

42:04The CPG Guys: The more voices we bring into this community, the sharper all of us get. Until next time, keep pushing the conversation forward. I'm PBSB, and on behalf of my co-host, Papa Entourage, this has been the CBG Guys Podcast. Goodbye.

42:22Thank you.

42:52The CPG Guys: product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPG Guys 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. The views expressed by CPG Guys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPG Guys 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 present in this podcast.