Unpacking the Digital Shelf

Folks, we live in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. To thrive in this environment, transformation by inches will simply not be enough. Leaps are required. Seven mind leaps, in fact, according to best-selling author Steve Dennis. His new book, Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption is a primer of the transformations leaders must make to be able to drive the vision, course, and speed required to be remarkable. Steve joined the podcast to lay out the core tenets in his clarion call of a book.

A couple of weeks ago, the advertising and communications industry gathered on the beaches of Cannes for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. In addition to celebrating the best creative work of the past year, there are executives from around the industry connecting to figure out what’s next. Our own Lauren Livak Gilbert was part of that throng, and she returned with some great insights we just had to share, so we put her in the hot seat for a change.

Live from the Cannes Lions Festival of creativity where commerce and retail media took center stage we turned to Jeff Cohen, Principal Evangelist at Amazon Ads to help navigate the changing world of the Amazon Canvas and how brands should be utilizing the suite of options from AMC to Prime Video and beyond.

There are tremendous amounts of trepidation and hope being invested in AI right now, with often trepidation winning out. Is all this angst really necessary? We turned to Byron Reese, an endlessly provocative futurist and author of the newly released book We Are Agora, to provide a long view of transformational technologies through the ages and therefore, the positivity we can take into a sometimes uncertain future. Grist for all the transformation cheerleading you do in your careers and lives.

On today’s episode, we return to the place where commerce started - a consumer, walking through a store, scanning the packaging, looking for what they need - or didn’t know they needed. In the digital world there is more space to tell your story, but in-store, you’ve got three seconds. Michael Keplinger, Founding Partner at Smashbrand, joined the podcast to articulate the modern testing strategy to ensure that the packaging creative you craft is truly what will make the sale - and how those lessons can be applied across all your channels.

Warren Daniels, CMO at Bynder, discusses delivering differentiated content in the digital age. They explore challenges faced by organizations in content creation, successful personalization strategies, managing content across departments, and the benefits of AI-driven content reuse and personalization.

Digital transformation is in Leah Carlson’s blood. From the first outside employee at a family-run business, to leading technology and web projects at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, to 6.5 years building out global creative, content, and growth capabilities at McCormick, and now at digital marketing agency Velir, she has created a way of working across global teams to implement technologies and best practices that drive efficiency while still enabling local control. Leah generously joined the podcast to share the most impactful lessons from her journey.

Are you tired of wasted ad dollars and subpar consumer experiences? Of course you are! The DSI partnered with Stratably to interview digital leaders and found that 71% of digital leaders from 78 consumer brands say Product Detail Page (PDP) quality significantly influences their ROAS. What to do about it? This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on just that, lead by Lauren Livak Gilbert, with guest experts Russ Dieringer, Founder & CEO, Stratably, and Claire McBride, VP Research & Education, Stratably.

As we shift from stopping climate change to Mitigation and adaptation, retailers and brands are increasingly making Net Zero commitments and digging into the practical ways they can have an impact. And, it turns out, that those who do are enjoying the side impacts of lower costs and higher search views and conversion. A win, win, win. Keith Anderson, Founder & Principal Analyst at Decarbonize.co, joined the podcast to shine a solar-powered light on the ways that brands are organized around turning their commitments into action and positive outcomes for all.

For a company that has been around since 1911, Mars has a reputation as one of the most visionary companies in the industry, particularly when it comes to building global capabilities that scale and flex to serve the needs of the regional lines of business. It’s not any easy feat. Celia Van Wickel, Director Omnichannel Digital Commerce Analytics at Mars, drives building out their global digital commerce analytics strategy, and works closely with the business to design, test and scale capabilities that deliver efficiency, measure results, and identify opportunities for growth. She kindly agreed to join the podcast to share the art and science for enabling digital commerce analytics to every region around the world.