Retail Media Vibes

Ep. 1 - Summerween Trends, Labubu Collectibles, and the Rise of Agentic Shopping

• Brandon Viveiros • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Welcome to the debut episode of Retail Media Vibes, where we're stepping back from the daily grind to swap ideas and pick up insights that you won't hear in boardroom discussions. This podcast was born from the recognition that retail media professionals are living in a constant state of pressure, with demands for growth and performance that never stop.

We welcome Tom Brydon from Accenture as the inaugural guest, diving straight into the fascinating world where retailers and brands intersect. Tom shares his unique perspective from working with major retailers to develop their media capabilities while simultaneously helping brands leverage these same platforms for growth.

The conversation explores several trending topics reshaping retail, starting with "Summerween" – the increasingly popular practice of selling Halloween merchandise as early as June. With Halloween sales reaching $11.6 billion annually and nearly half of shoppers starting their purchases before October, this extension of the season represents significant revenue opportunities for retailers and brands alike.

We tackle the emerging technology of agentic shopping, where AI assistants find and purchase products with minimal human input. While giants like Google, Walmart, and Amazon are all developing these capabilities, the technology and consumer behavior aren't quite aligned yet. BV predicts adoption will begin with routine purchases before consumers trust AI with higher-stakes decisions.

Perhaps most thought-provoking is their discussion about the tension between brand marketing and retail-focused media. If brands ultimately exist to sell products, and most products are sold through retail channels, shouldn't more brands build their identity through retail ecosystems? This segment offers valuable perspective for anyone struggling to bridge the gap between broad brand messaging and retail execution.

The episode wraps with an exploration of the booming "kidult" economy – adults purchasing toys for themselves – exemplified by the Labubu collectible craze. With adults accounting for 43% of toy self-purchases ($1.8 billion in a single quarter), this represents a massive opportunity for brands willing to tap into nostalgic experiences.

Whether you're a strategist, analyst, creative, media planner, or brand manager, this podcast delivers fresh insights into the evolving retail media landscape. Subscribe now and join the conversation about what's really happening in retail media today.

Speaker 1:

What's up party people, bv here and welcome to Retail Media Vibes a doing business in Bentonville podcast. I'm the guy who believes that every media plan needs a breeze. The funnel isn't broken and AI is here to help, just like me. So I'd like to welcome you to episode one, which is being recorded at Podcast Video Studios here in Rogers, arkansas. So I'm really excited to get this podcast going and it's been a long time coming and I'm really happy to have you along for this journey.

Speaker 1:

So before we start the show, I want to give you guys a little disclaimer. I want to say that, first, all my opinions expressed are not necessarily reflective of any of my past employers, any of my present employers or any of my future employers. And this is an opinion-based show. It's a subjective opinion based upon my observations, and it's definitely not going to be perfect by any stretch. So before we actually get into the show, I do want to talk about a little bit why I started Retail Media Vibes as a podcast.

Speaker 1:

Because you know, retail media first is something I know and something I've lived, and it's been a big part of my career. Retail media first is something I know and something I've lived and it's been a big part of my career and I know, like for so many of you that are listening, whether you're on the brand side, the agency side, with a retailer and you're working as a strategist, an analyst, a creative, a media planner, a producer, this industry is a huge part of your life too and, to be honest, it can be a grind at times. We work in a space that demands growth and performance every single day and our time and attention is constantly being pulled in different directions. It's fast moving, it's high pressure and sometimes it feels like you're just living it 24-7. So that's why I created this podcast. It's a place where we can step back from the grind just for a minute, maybe 30 minutes, and we can swap ideas, hear stuff that people don't always say in the room and pick up an idea and maybe have a laugh along the way. So you know, retail media keeps expanding. It's touching everything from ad tech to shopper trends to commerce strategy, and you know it's not just about the work. So it's about the people, the perspectives, the energy, the people, the perspectives, the energy, the real conversations that make this interesting and fun. So that's the spirit of this podcast good conversation, good people and good vibes.

Speaker 1:

So with that, let's get into the show. All right, so I'm excited to have my first guest on my first episode, tom bryden from accenture. Welcome, tom, thanks so much. I'll need to be the first guest. Tom and I go way back and we've known each other for quite some time and I'd love to let the audience get to know you just a little bit and spend a little bit of time about that. So, tom, just to get to know you a little bit, what would you say you do? What is your job?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I work for Accenture, as you mentioned. Really, I sit at the intersection between retailers and brands. I focus primarily on media capabilities, analytics, digital shelf content. For me, it's super interesting to get to work with some of the biggest retailers in the world, helping them advance their retail media capabilities, but then also work with a multitude of different brands to help them accelerate their growth at those same retailers. So in some cases I'm in a very fortunate position where I'm working with the same retailer that the brands also want to work with and you know we can leverage some of the scale that Essentia has. So every day is different. It's fast paced, as you mentioned at the start. You live it for sure, but I'm very fortunate to get to see a lot of the retail world.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so why do you care about retail? Like there's a lot of places, a lot of ways to engage in media and marketing, but why retail? Why do you care about retail so much?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, you know we live in Northwest Arkansas, it's the home of Walmart, and so I think you almost have to be going out of your way to ignore retail in this area. But I think for me, like I'm passionate about it, for a couple of reasons. One is because my background is psychology and there's a very like psychological component to retail in terms of how do you connect with your shoppers, um, why do they pick and choose to purchase their hard-earned money on one brand versus another? Why did they walk into a walmart versus a target? Um, that is very interesting to me. The other reason is because when I was a png about six years ago that was really the start of some of the larger jbp negotiations that were happening Walmart just in-housed its capabilities and when you've got the largest retailer in the world having very serious multi-year conversations with one of the biggest advertisers in the world, I realized I had to pay attention, and so I did, and then from there it kind of grew.

Speaker 1:

And that's before retail media really blew up, right, and so, like, like that was one of the probably the starting points of where retail media started to get bigger and bigger and bigger, when Walmart really started to get really involved there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they deserve a lot of credit, honestly, Um the the growth and the investment they've put into building out their, their retail media ecosystem. Um, ecosystem is kind of incredible doing the majority of it in-house as well. So, like I said, we're lucky to live here and, you know, coming from a digital marketing background, it was a natural fit for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, awesome. Well, I like to do a little icebreaker with my guests, or I will, since this is episode one, so you get to be the first guest with the first icebreaker. So what is one retailer that is out of business today that you want to see come back?

Speaker 2:

I miss Blockbuster. Yeah, yeah, you know. I lived in the UK and moved here when I was 28. So I remember Saturday nights, friday nights, going with my family making sure the DVD was behind the face of the title and then sometimes it'd be out if everybody wanted to watch it. But it was a nostalgia thing. I actually worked there for a short time, was rocking the blue polo for a while and for me, like Blockbuster, is a nostalgic piece, but also it's a missed opportunity piece. Um, I strongly believe that, with the brand identity and the physical footprint and scale that blockbuster had maybe, you know, 15, 20 years ago, if they'd embraced a more digital first mindset, you'd be probably logging on and instead of clicking on Hulu or Netflix, you could be clicking on a blockbuster stream.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes sense, yeah, yeah, I like it, I like it, cool yeah. For me I think it was like I was thinking about this a little while and like service merchandise. I don't know if many of you are familiar with service merchant merchandise, but that used to be a store. I mean kind of like a, a best buy in a way, but kind of like a best buy in a way, but kind of like a best buy type of store. But why? Why I, I miss it and wish it came back was really from for similar to you, like a nostalgic point of view, like I used to go there with my grandparents and we used to look at the electronics and a lot of the cool, cool stuff there. So service merchandise was one that came to mind for me. Yeah, so, uh, one other icebreaker question so what is one reel or tikt, tiktok in your feed? That right now, that makes you laugh.

Speaker 2:

I do disclaimer I do not use TikTok, okay, but I do like an Instagram reel. I'm a big fan of YouTube, as you know, so I like a YouTube show. Oh yeah, there you go. Shorts, yeah, shorts. In line with the kind of futuristic ai component of some of the things we're going to talk about. One that really tickled me recently was, uh, it was a compilation of how you know everybody, some people are scared of robots and the future and what they could do. People think it's going to be like a terminator situation. And then they were like, yep, this is the future. And then it cut to a number of different uh robotics concepts and basically they all fell over or freaked out, um, and that, to me, was like we've got a ways to go, but we're making good progress. But it was just funny that the way they set it up, so that one, that one, got me yeah, that's yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1:

What about you? For me, like right now and I don't know if it's just because it's it's timely but there's this, uh, like dogs doing podcasts okay, that are just cracking's, just cracking me up, so it's two dogs and one's the host and they're, you know, saying some cliche thing like who's a good boy? And they're like, of course I'm a good boy and they start cracking up, laughing and so, like I I've seen there's a whole series of them and I've seen I hope maybe I've seen them all at this point, but yeah, really love that one, because obviously here we are doing a podcast, so okay, well, just let me know which breed of dog I am when we get them and it's usually like a gold retriever and a frenchie is like that's the one that, oh, nice, yeah, okay, yeah, I mean easily found you.

Speaker 1:

I mean I'm sure you get on reels, you'll, you'll find it pretty quickly, cool, well, great, great to get to know you. Um, all, right, we going to move on now to our topics, right? So call this segment Topical Banter, and so I will introduce a topic and then we'll banter about that topic. So we have a few great topics today. So first topic we have is Summerween. I know what did I just say, right, summerween.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, it's basically Halloween in the middle of the summer. So this has been like a trend that was happening on social where people were starting to get in the Halloween spirit in the middle of July. You know, june, june and July, right. And so you know, retailers are really leaning into it. I was in Lowe's the other day and they've got this, you know, you know 30 foot zombie in there or something like that, you know hanging out, and so this and this is August, right. So you know, like, well, before October.

Speaker 1:

So it feels like the the retailers are getting into it. Walmart's definitely getting into it, um, michael's, so they're getting the Jack-o'-lanterns, the skeletons, candy decor there is pulling it out way in front of uh, way in front of October and it's, it's booming like Halloween. Sales last year were $11.6 billion and nearly half of those shoppers now start buying before october. So that's, that's a huge, you know, huge, huge amount of money. Uh, well, well, before october, when you think people start thinking about it, right? So you know, summer wean. So is this something just made up to be a marketing stunt now, or is this really becoming a retail strategy? So you know, what do you think? Do you think retailers, retailers are pushing shoppers into Summerween or do you think you know the shoppers in the social media culture is pushing retailers into jump in a little bit early? What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I do think there's a cultural component to it. There's also a US culture versus other countries component to it as well. I think, like something I noticed having lived here for 10 years, is that, you know, the us goes big on holidays in general, which is just, which is great. I think it's awesome that we celebrate these big seasonal temple things right. Um, I personally feel it's a bit early. Uh, it's. You know, october, where we live, is full foliage and cooler mornings, and it's tough for me to get in the Halloween spirit. But, that being said, it works. Like you know, if you can extend out a big buying period, there is an opportunity to increase revenue, especially if you're a brand that naturally and organically plays in that space. So I can see the benefit of it from a brand and retailer standpoint. And if you know the average consumer is embracing it and doesn't feel that it's kind of off topic or too early, then why not?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean it feels like it also fits a certain niche of people who are really into Halloween, right, and so it starts to get them into the spirit. Also, to your point, if you start to extend the season, you know, incrementally there's opportunity to, you know, grow revenue, right, you know make more sales during that period of time. So, you know, if, if you were advising a brand which you do often right Would you tell them to lean into Summerween or just kind of wait it out a little bit longer to see, like cause, I think it's, it's. It's interesting to figure out how, how certain brands could play right, other than the people who are creating just these products that you know are sold for Halloween, for decor or candy or etc.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I'm a media guy so I'm always going to go with the data.

Speaker 1:

What's the data say?

Speaker 2:

It's not a sexy answer, but I think there is data that you could draw upon in terms of consumer trends and you know social listening and things that you could do to inform that decision. It's probably too late now that you could do to inform that decision. It's probably too late now if you're oh, yeah, but like if that, if that does become a trend next year and that's something that you want to plan for and your brands like. The key thing here is the brands that need to be thinking about it. They need to make sense in that space, right? One of the worst decisions brands can make, in my opinion, is forcing themselves into a movement or a conversation where they just don't play yeah, and then it feels false and it feels unauthentic. Yeah, for retailers absolutely we. I took my, my little girl she's six to walmart the other day and they had the pumpkins out and you know the decor pumpkins and she thought was the best thing ever and wanted me to buy one. So it works. There's a real life example of how it works?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely. So you bought that pumpkin and you probably will buy more things the next time you go right, Because every time you go with your kid, they're going to hit you up for the next thing.

Speaker 2:

What are those stores that pop up on Halloween? Spirit Halloween, yeah, spirit Halloween, yeah, so that's our house, that's basically it.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's basically what you got Well, so you're really leaning into Halloween as a family.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my wife loves Halloween. That's good, that's good.

Speaker 1:

So like, when is like what is around the timing? So when does this end, like, do we start moving summerween into June or, like you know, may? And the other thing too is like there's also back-to-school time for a lot of families, right? So now you've got this dual seasonality that retailers you know like, let's say, like a walmart right, that are trying to. You know you got to have space for all the back to school stuff. Then you got to have space for all this halloween stuff, and so, you know, assortment it's got to be challenging. I would assume you're trying to figure that out. So how, yeah you? So how do we pull this?

Speaker 2:

I mean, you see it time and time again. I mean I'm not advocating for Valentine's Day in December, right, but if you've got children, which Halloween you know?

Speaker 2:

primarily a children's, kids-based activity, I don't know, man, we'll talk about kid'll talk about adults later, so but, like you know, the last as a parent or two, like the last thing I want to be thinking about is preparing for something that happens two and a half months away, when I'm trying to figure out a new routine and add life and back to school. So for me personally, no, but there are some people that plan way out. Um, you know it, hobby lobby is another one. Yeah, yeah, it's all right. Yeah, um, you know, joe passed there the other day. It was absolutely packed, um, and so I can only assume, like the next big thing is harrowing.

Speaker 1:

So people are getting in there early and wanted to plan and prep and make it special I wonder, if you combine the two, have like back to school with hall, with summer, yeah and so, yeah, and you've got well, it can be a bit scary. So yeah, yeah, I guess it would be for kids.

Speaker 2:

You know, going back to school is scary, right, so it's a good, good combination but you say with like black friday as well, like cyber, like black friday, cyber monday.

Speaker 1:

Now it's just weeks of saving friday yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's, it's a month. It's not like yeah, you know, start, yeah, start. As soon as halloween is over, it's like boom, yeah, but holiday season is now two months, so yeah, yeah, it's interesting okay all right, great, uh, great conversation on summer wean, but we're going to move on now to our next topic.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to talk about agentic shopping, right? So ai agents I I think overall that's just a huge topic. There are all kinds of agents that are being used or being planned to be used in retail and, honestly, it's probably too big for just this one podcast, right? So we're not going to go into all of them, but we're going to talk about agentic shopping specifically. You know, that's the idea of AI finding and buying the stuff you want automatically, with minimal intervention, right, or practically zero intervention, and everybody's, everybody is working on this, right? So you've got open AI perplexity. Google, walmart, amazon Everybody's experimenting, everybody's trying to figure it out, and so I think shoppers are kind of curious about it, but I don't think adoption is, honestly, I don't think the tech is quite there yet, and, honestly, the value proposition like when is it the right time to use agentic shopping?

Speaker 1:

When is it not? Proposition like when is it the right time to use agentic shopping? When is it not? Like are you gonna you're gonna use it for your everyday essentials, like toilet paper, but maybe not for if you're gonna buy a couch, right. So it's like I think, finding the right use cases for this and having the right tech and right right tools um does seem to be, you know, kind of the the balance that everybody's trying to figure out and so so, and then, plus, you know consumer behavior needs to change right and so there's an evolution. It doesn't usually happen just overnight, so trying to figure all that out, so you know, if shoppers right now are I guess they're getting more used to using AI for discovery, like how do I find something? Hey, find me this, find me that, find me the other. What do you think really needs to happen for them to kind of take that next step and look at using AI or agents or some technology that buys things on their behalf?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean Accenture's hugely into the AI space. So we have a lot of discussions around this, and not just what's available now, but where will it go in the next six months, 12 months? You know, right, as you know, this is such a rapidly evolving space, right? What you know now is going to be outdated by the end of the year. So it I think, if I look at if I, if I take your adoption question first, like I, you know, I would look at something like if I made a, an equivalent or a comparison that's what I like to do when I'm thinking about adoption which is like if I look at the iPhone, the way that you used to unlock the iPhone was you had to put in a pin and then it moved to fingerprint ID and there was outcry about that.

Speaker 2:

There was I don't want my fingerprint in a database and PII. It's true, it was things. Yeah, very much yeah. Apple kind of said tough luck and kept going and people adopted it. Then Face ID came in and people got even more upset about Face ID because they felt like it was an infringement on their personal space. Well, now 50% of the world unlocks their phone with their face, probably more so if you count all the other stuff, Now you can get through security in the airport right, which is with your face, right.

Speaker 2:

So I know it's not, that's not exactly what you're asking me, but if I think about, if I link it to giving up control and doing something that maybe feels strange now but won't in six months, a year's time, I could see this topic and agentic shopping going that way. I think exactly what you said, though I think people will start with the mundane, the repetitive, the low risk in terms of cost elements of it. But you don't go to a travel agent now to book your flights. You go online and book them and you hand over thousands of dollars and you trust that when you do that airline or the hotel company is is legit, true, um, and so you know I would be an early adopter of that.

Speaker 1:

yeah for sure yeah, I think this coming holiday season is going to be a key time, yeah, for this right. So, you know, with everybody working on this and you know the idea that you know consumer and shopper behavior may be adjusting like, I think there's going to be an opportunity to really see what the appetite is with the general general public, um, with, with, uh, you know, using AI for shopping in a lot of different ways. You know, potentially even, uh, even a Gentic as well.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean it also. It's what do you want AI to be for you? So AI can do a lot of things, but it can only do them well if it's infrastructure, it's data set, all the things that go into building it are concrete and accurate. If you're talking about driving value through time savings, totally see it Right.

Speaker 1:

And there are categories, I think, that lean towards that right. So toilet paper and the things that you buy on your everyday essentials that are somewhat on a regular basis and that require low involvement Right, low involvement products or it could be a niche product that you're struggling to find, like you know.

Speaker 2:

say, if you're having to dig around and go and find something extremely neat you know we both like sneakers, right, like you know if you're trying to find a very specific pair, that's maybe on the resale market, on the grain market, and you can't find it in the specific size you want, you've tried all the regular places. I mean, have have a go, find it for you, and then you know, maybe set it, maybe set it up, so that you know it doesn't go spend 500 straight away but it tells you it's found it and then you can make a decision yeah, and I've tested that out a little bit um, with some mixed results.

Speaker 1:

I will say um, but obviously you know what they say with ai today's the worst it'll ever be right, so it'll continue to that's a good thing.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, no right, yeah, it's yeah that that's.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty common right now. Yeah, this today's the worst it'll ever be. So, yeah, I mean, I can probably have a whole nother conversation about the difference between an ai agent buying sneakers and what a bot does to buy sneakers and suck up all the inventory. But that's, that's probably a topic or an article for another day.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, I have strong feelings on bots. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Great, all right, so let's flip the script. Tom, I think you brought a topic to the podcast today, so let's hear what you got.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I want to put you in the hot seat. Oh man, you're prepared, though I'm not going to ambush you with something. So, you know, we've worked in this space now for quite a while, and whilst we both ended up in the similar places, we both had quite different backgrounds to get here, sure, which is true of most people. I think one of the patterns or trends that I've seen is the ongoing tension between what you would consider brand-level marketing and media, and then shopper retail focused marketing and media. Yep, and for me, you know, if you, if you're going to ask me for a hot take on that, I think there's a world in which they both play together. But at the end of the day, like if I was to ask you, like, why does a company want to build a brand? What would your answer be to that?

Speaker 1:

To sell products, right, you know, to make money right. To generate revenue yeah.

Speaker 2:

And the two primary ways you can do that are a D2C solution or a retail location. Yeah, so if your ultimate goal is to drive conversion and loyalty because you believe in the brand and loyalty is another topic we could spend probably hours talking about but if that's your ultimate goal is to drive conversion, why are more brands not focusing their brand building activities around highly scalable retail ecosystems? Walmart has 95% household penetration right, amazon is a behemoth of e-commerce opportunities and Walmart is very quickly catching up on that, along with the targets, the Kroger's, et cetera, et cetera. So I was just interested in your take. You know you've worked on some, some huge brands like have you seen a shift in terms of companies now being more willing to try and build a brand, leveraging the scale and first party data and the associated attribution of of retail, or do you? Do you still see it as we have brand level activity and we have shopper and there's this gray area in the middle?

Speaker 1:

I mean, I think it's, it's interesting. So, you know, being where I was previously, you know I had exposure to the, you know, the biggest cpg company right in the us, right and so, and seeing how, how they operate, and working with those iconic brands. Now, in the role I'm at today, I'm getting more exposure to marketplace and smaller brands and I think, you know, for me, I think it does depend on you know what level of brand you are, so to speak, and I think the ones that are the smaller brands are leveraging those ecosystems. So marketplace sellers, let's say, let's call them, you know they're selling their products through these channels and they're trying to leverage any of those, the retailers channels, in order to, you know, gain as many sales and conversions as they possibly can. Now, there are limited budgets, right, so they can't do everything, so they have to obviously make choices, as every brand has to make choices on where they invest. But I do see, like the smaller brands, you know, really leaning in a little bit more into retail versus the big, you know, the bigger brands.

Speaker 1:

I think it's tough, man, it's tough to find that balance right, because, like For people to buy your product, they have to be aware of your product Right.

Speaker 1:

And so in the case with a retailer, if you're only being sold at Amazon or only being sold at Walmart, you know you've got to figure out how do you drive those eyeballs to those locations, to those sites.

Speaker 1:

And they have to be aware enough of what the value proposition, your product, what are the features and benefits and all that stuff. So you've got to find that right balance between those, the offsite and the onsite, to do it. But yeah, I think sometimes you know brands, bigger brands, may not always think about the retailer specifically when they're, you know, maybe working on a larger campaign. And so obviously that's where commerce, media and shopper marketing teams and those types of teams, customer teams, are the ones that usually are trying to figure out how do I take this big message and this new product or this brand positioning and trying to make it work at retail. And sometimes it doesn't always work the same right, because there's different goals at different retailers and the product is positioned differently at different retailers and the product is positioned differently in different retailers as well yeah, I think you there's.

Speaker 2:

As you know, there's the organic component of any of any brands. Business or retail is becoming more and more important because it's the fundamentals, as the foundation. So when I think about dtc I I think about the brands that do well tell a very clear story, right? They either have a very clear value proposition. They solve a problem or their ethics and what they stand for really resonates with people. They're usually the three brand stores and ways to tell more of a story within a retailer ecosystem versus a standalone DTC solution.

Speaker 2:

I could see that becoming more of an opportunity moving forward, as long as that content that you've got on the retailer site is as good and best in class as what you would put on your own right whatever. So it's just. I appreciate your insight because we go back and forth. I think there's a ton of stuff around measurement solutions and one ID and making sure you can track all the media through the funnel. But I do agree we sometimes get stuck in a difficult position, which is that if awareness is up here and conversions are under, it's that consideration layer where the two mostly overlap. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think of like people don't know where to put a tactic, but they it's not for awareness, it's not full conversion, they put it in the middle under consideration, right. So it's like it's kind of a little bit of both. Well, I mean, if me and you had a dollar for every time.

Speaker 2:

We got a brief that said drive awareness, consideration and conversion of x product at x retailer for x budget, I could probably retire by now. That is not. That is not a brief right. Yeah, that is. That is a catch-all solution for something, because we're not thinking through what the actual kpis are, what we want to achieve when we go to market. So and it's that it's probably for that exact reason and I guarantee you the budget isn't enough, never enough.

Speaker 1:

It's not well. If you're trying to do all those things right and you're trying to do well and you're trying to, you know, depending on what your cohort is and who you're trying to reach right like you don't, there's not enough money in order to to address all of this, and it's usually way too tactical way too short time frames.

Speaker 2:

That's why you need to be planning the year in advance and making sure that everything ladders up to what your overall objectives are for the year and the associated KPI. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cool, yeah, good stuff. Thanks for indulging me on that one. Yeah, no, I mean we'll probably talk about that one for just an hour on its own, because I think there's some really interesting areas to unpack specifically into that area. And, like I said in my open, like the funnel to me is not dead, like it just has to be, it's super important to really truly understand what value each level of the funnel has within a media plan or a marketing strategy. All right, so we're going to move over to a fun one now. So our next topic we're going to talk about this craze that is totally taking over the country. Maybe I guess it's even the world at this point, but let's talk about a little boo boo. Okay, all right, so have have you even. Are you familiar?

Speaker 2:

with a little boo boo I am. My wife actually mentioned it to me two days ago. Okay, it's the furry little animal. Yes, yeah, they've got wide eyes. They got this big grin.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's the furry little animal craze, right, yeah, they've got wide eyes, they've got this big grin, and it's from a company called Pop Mart and they have retail locations as well, right, which they actually just crushed their earnings, I think they just reported. They just totally crushed their earnings. So this is the latest collectible obsession and they're just absolutely crushing it right now in a lot of different ways. Um, but it's what's really interesting to me as part of this lububu craze is really the, the whole concept and the idea that more adults are shopping the toy category for themselves, right, and so the term that's being used is called cadult. Right, and so the, the cadult cohort, um, is a huge part of the toy market, right, and so, um, they account for about 43 percent of self-purchases. Is this cohort? Yes, 43 percent and 1.8 billion billion in Q1 of 2025 alone. So that's not just a niche, right. And just speaking about Laboo, I was actually on Walmartcom yesterday and I mean they have Laboo on its homepage and, you know, being sold through StockX, which is, you know, a resale marketplace for collectible items and that kind of stuff, and so it's really becoming more and more mainstream. So I mean, if you just think about the escalation of labubu and just kind of this cadult autonomy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, do you think, like, when I get concerned about all these things, is these hype cycles so like something's a trend and something's hot and then it dies off and then what's the next thing? Right? But I mean, do you think like cadult overall? Right? So you know, people, adults are buying lego sets, right, and those are collectible. Adults are buying pokemon cards and those are like they're, they're really getting into it and I'm sure some of it psychologically is nostalgia, um, you know, kind of missing out on what their, you know, their childhood, or missing their childhood, um. So I mean, do you think like this cadult economy is going to continue or do you think it will kind of stay with time and something else will come in?

Speaker 2:

no, I think it'll continue. The two examples you just said were the exact ones that popped into my head. Yes, like pokemon, pokemon's had a crazy resurgence over the past few years. You can't find it right and you know there's a whole secondary market and some cards are worth thousands, tens of thousands of dollars, so there's like it's got its own economy essentially Right.

Speaker 2:

I think adult adulthood adult is kind of baked into us. Honestly, like as you get older, you know millennials. Just like as a millennial, you know when I was, you know, in my teens and even in my early 20s, I didn't have a ton of responsibility. I I got to spend a lot of time doing the things that just I enjoyed doing. You can be kind of selfish, honestly, you don't realize it at the time because you're just exploring your interests and your passions. And then you know you get married and you maybe have a family and you're in a career and you're doing great things and you're getting satisfaction from that in other ways and you know, I personally wouldn't change that for the world, but you miss some of those things that you got to do when you were younger. Gaming's another one, um, and so I think people will continuously look for comfort in their childhood experiences. I don't think labubu is going to be around for very long.

Speaker 1:

Personally, I think it's a bit of a flash in that take. Yeah, I take tom. Oh, here we go um, I think it's. I think it's a bit of a flash in the pan Hot take.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, hot, take Tom. Oh, here we go. I think it's a bit of a flash in the pan type of thing, because this I think I read that it was launched it's been around for like six years, yeah, so you know if I'm thinking of a belt, like of a graph, right, you've had this kind of like. It's been enough to keep the business going. Then suddenly it takes off. I mean, it will fall back, and that's how people end up with boxes full of things that were once really interesting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, beanie babies right and go. Go back to beanie babies. I mean you talked about this a little, or mentioned this a little earlier, about, you know, being into sneakers, right, and so even the trends with the sneakers come and go. Like you know, it's not a few years ago, jordan pair, jordan ones were like the big thing. Yeah, now, I mean, they pretty much go on sale now when they're really getting a retail. Now you get a retail and you know, even if you buy them on secondary market they're below retail in some cases. So it's, it's like these things trend and now your jordan fours are the big thing and so the more you, the more you're interested in a certain product or category.

Speaker 2:

Like you get to kind of shape your experience as well. Yeah, I love reddit for that reason. There are so many communities on reddit that just allow me to dive in with other people that are passionate about the areas that I'm passionate about. I really like watches too. It's all the expensive stuff and, unfortunately, um, but so much knowledge to be shared and like conversations to be had and like that's one in an area where I think social media like really adds to society.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know yeah, yeah, no, it's good, it's good. Are there any brands outside of the tour? You know categories outside of toys you think could potentially lean into this adult cohort? For me, what I think of a lot is like the collaborations Right, so the opportunity to collab Right. Collaborations right, so the opportunity to collab right. Do you associate your product with a trending brand to collab on? You know a different packaging or a different color or scent or flavor, or you know, uh, style, like you know is. You know, that's what comes to me when I think about that that's a really good point.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I would argue that this, like cereal, have been, has been doing it, so I had all the time like the toys and the packages, or QSR with the McDonald's Happy Meals and things they're always bringing in the next Disney thing, or you know Roblox, or you know things. So I think there's ways to naturally integrate for sure, but I'm going to go back.

Speaker 1:

Then you have adults buying up all the stuff for that or attended for kids. I can't get my cereal because all the grown-ups can't even yeah, bought all, bought it all for themselves to get the toy inside.

Speaker 2:

So it achieves. It achieves the goal, but the toy needs to be relevant. So you've got to make a decision as a brand right. The toy needs to either appeal to the kids now yeah, like a roblox or it needs to have that retro inspiration component to it that makes the parent want to buy it. Yeah, yeah for sure, cool, cool.

Speaker 1:

All right, we'll wrap there on that one. Um, so, all right. So that wraps up for topical banter. We're gonna go into game time. Okay, are you ready to play a game? Sure, do you want to? This whole thing is pretty fun, so you know, yeah, keep going, all right. Well, all right. Today's game is called vibe check, okay. So, um, this is how it works. I'm gonna throw out a word or a trend or even something totally random, okay, and then you've got to give me your first gut reaction in one word no overthinking, just vibes, just like it's called vibe check. Okay, did you, did you process all that? Yeah, I'm gonna throw stuff out there. You're gonna give me a word. Tell me what you think. Okay, all right, pretty. One word is tough, man, I know that's okay. Though, all right, I know you can handle it. All right, do my best, all right. So let's start off with the easy one summerween. What is your one word? Early, early, okay. Ai and marketing Future.

Speaker 2:

The booboo craze Short-lived, wow, hyphenated but give it to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'll give it to you. So we didn't talk about this one, but maybe it'll be on another cast. But Amazon's same-day grocery delivery service that they just launched, yeah, trend setting. Uh, trend setting, trend setting. Okay, cool. How about taylor swift on travis and jason's podcast? What year?

Speaker 2:

smart, yeah, tiktok shops.

Speaker 1:

I want to. No, no, you got one word man TikTok shops.

Speaker 2:

See I'm overthinking it.

Speaker 1:

I'd say current, current, yeah All right, we're up on pumpkin spice season. So what do you think about PSL? I'll just say not for me. The new Cracker Barrel logo. Divisive, yeah, I'm pretty sure. All right, how about American football? There's only one good answer there. I'm going to say friendship, okay, oh, interesting. Coffee or tea, coffee, pineapple on pizza? No, no, all right, cool, all right. Well, thanks for playing. Vibes. Check, that was good, that was fun, all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm going to wrap this one up for now, and so time to wrap up the cast. If you haven't got enough Tom and I in our banter and stuff, if you haven't got enough enough Tom and I and our banter and stuff, you can check out. Check us out at the Embark Innovation Summit on September 16th. I'm going to be hosting a panel and Tom and a couple others will be discussing the future of shopping and what brands and startups must do to stay ahead. If you want more information about the summit, visit EmbarkSummitcom. So I hope everyone's enjoyed the vibes of today's show. I want to say a huge thanks to Tom for being guest number one. Any last words, tom? Anything you want to plug?

Speaker 2:

I would just say thank you for having me on. As for transparently being vulnerable, it's my first time ever doing a podcast, so learning for both of us. I would just say you know I'm very passionate about this space and I love talking to like-minded people about it. I don't think Accenture is known for retail media specifically. I think you know it's a huge company with a lot of skills set and technology powering it, but we're very bullish on where this could go, especially leveraging the scale that Accenture has. So I would just urge people drop me a LinkedIn message, schedule a coffee. I'm still convinced more business gets done over coffee in Northwest Arkansas than it does in office buildings. So hit me up and let's have a chat yeah Awesome, will you come back?

Speaker 1:

And if you say no, I'll just edit that out. But will you come back?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, I'll come back. Yes, all right. I mean, hopefully this gets some views and that people actually want you back.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I'm sure people want I want you back. How about that? All right? Well, if you have any thoughts or comments about the show, feel free to email me at retailmediavibes at gmailcom. Don't forget to like and subscribe, maybe leave a comment or a review. I want to thank you all. So much for listening and I will try to do better next time. Bv out.