In this episode titled, Unlocking CPG Growth: Collaboration, Innovation, and Retail Media Strategies, we sit down with Kris McDermott, a seasoned expert in omni-channel marketing and retail media strategies, to discuss how CPG companies can unlock sustainable growth in today’s competitive landscape. Kris shares actionable insights on fostering cross-functional collaboration, driving innovation, and leveraging retail media as a critical growth lever. From breaking down silos between brand and retail media teams to testing innovative strategies with a calculated risk-tolerance mindset, this conversation is packed with strategies for driving category growth and reversing declines. Whether you’re in CPG, retail, or a business leader looking to optimize marketing investments, this episode offers valuable advice you can apply immediately.
S1 E63 Unlocking CPG Growth: Collaboration, Innovation, and Retail Media Strategies Kris McDermott
“One of the most powerful ways to drive growth in a large, complex organization is to bring together teams from different groups. Innovation happens when diverse perspectives collide. Agility emerges when those teams collaborate to tackle challenges with speed and creativity.
It's not about protecting your lane, it's about combining insights, experimenting together, and embracing new approaches to solve broader business challenges and unlock growth that no single team could achieve on its own.” That’s a quote from Kris McDermott and a sneak peek at today’s episode.
Hi there, I’m Kerry Curran, Fractional Chief Growth Officer, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, where we discuss smart strategies that can drive your revenue growth.
In this episode titled Unlocking CPG Growth: Collaboration, Innovation, and Retail Media Strategies, I sit down with Kris McDermott, an omnichannel marketing and retail media expert. We discuss how CPG companies can unlock sustainable growth in today’s highly competitive landscape.
From breaking down silos to testing innovative strategies to adopting a risk-tolerant mindset, this conversation is packed with strategies for driving category growth and reversing declines.
Stay tuned to the end, where Kris shares tips on getting more out of your retailer and network joint business plans. This episode offers valuable advice you can apply immediately.
So let’s go!
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.282)
So welcome, Kris. Please share your background and expertise.
Kris McDermott (00:06.287)
Thank you very much for having me, Kerry. Until recently, I worked at Kimberly-Clark, leading their omnichannel marketing teams for Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, and emerging platforms. Prior to that, I led e-commerce capability and development for Edelman Global. I also spent a long time at Omnicom in various client leadership capacities and in their commerce organization as well.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:30.678)
Excellent. So you've been a CPG and retail media expert for a long time. Talk about the evolution you’ve seen—what has stood out to you the most?
Kris McDermott (00:44.699)
There’s a lot that’s changing—stuff is shifting every day. That’s actually what I love about it. It feels a lot like the early days of digital. I've read that the first wave of digital was search, then social, and now retail—and I think that’s accurate.
It’s similar in that there’s no clear playbook yet. For brand search, we’re now at a place where things are fairly straightforward—you can set it, forget it, and activate predictably. Social is getting there too. Retail? We’re not even close.
I was thinking about this the other day—retail is actually more complicated because it’s everything. It’s more of a data function than a channel function, and that’s proving difficult. Retail media used to mean on-site search. Once we understood that, it was relatively simple. But the offering has expanded and now it’s much more complex.
I think it’s exciting. I love figuring out something new. It feels like every day I’m reading about a new development in this space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:59.404)
Yeah, I agree. You and I first met on a Criteo panel long ago when retail media was still relatively new, and you're right—it’s evolved so rapidly. I like your point that it’s a “data center.” The ways you can promote a brand across retail media networks are becoming more complex, which makes it harder for manufacturing and CPG companies.
From your perspective, how can brands navigate and take advantage of this landscape?
Kris McDermott (02:45.644)
It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. What I usually talk about is adopting certain philosophical principles. One is being okay with risk and failure, and then pivoting quickly. And CPGs tend to be risk-averse.
They just are—because they have to be. Decisions made today can affect things 36 months from now, and by then it may be too late to change course.
That’s why risk tolerance is critical, and so is openly discussing both successes and failures. Now that I’ve been on the brand side, I understand how hard it is to “just change.” It needs to be felt at every level of the organization and grounded in authentic change management.
I think a lot of organizations are experiencing change fatigue. That’s something I struggled to understand when I was on the agency side. I’d roll my eyes and wonder why things couldn’t get done. But after a few weeks brand-side, I called former clients to apologize—I didn’t fully understand what they were up against.
You really have to choose your change bets carefully.
Change is never just “we’ll change.” There are massive implications—operationally, financially, for people’s roles and KPIs. Bonuses might be impacted. Leaders hesitate to invest in change because people get jaded. They think, “Whatever—this is just the new thing. It’ll change again next week.”
So you need to ask: how do I make this the thing to bet on? How do I make this matter and bring it to life cross-functionally? I might have gone a little off-topic, but that’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:23.117)
No, I love that. We've talked about this before—it's not necessarily about being risk-tolerant or risk-averse. You're not asking them to be reckless—just to try something new.
CPGs have been the gold standard in marketing and brand building. But learning new ways of doing things requires strategic, organizational, and communication shifts.
One of the things you've talked about before is using data to inform that shift. Today, brands have so many more signals to learn from. How can they use that data to identify opportunities or know when to pivot?
Kris McDermott (06:47.652)
I think it's important to distinguish between real risk and what just feels risky because it’s unfamiliar. That distinction can build credibility. You can say: "This feels risky, but the actual downside is minimal—and the upside is huge."
Conversely, sometimes the risk is real, and it’s a big bet. That’s okay too. The point is to be honest about it. If everything were working perfectly, we wouldn’t be talking about making changes. So you reimagine.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:37.409)
Yeah, and move out of your comfort zone—even if it's challenging.
Kris McDermott (07:45.275)
Exactly. In CPG, some things just take forever—product development, supply chain, logistics. I didn’t fully grasp that until I went brand-side. It’s like turning an aircraft carrier two degrees—it takes a lot of people and time.
But there are things you can change in real time—especially in marketing. You can listen to social signals and build campaigns around what people are saying. That’s the opportunity.
The companies that are succeeding are responding to cultural trends in as close to real time as possible.
Even better, short-term signals can feed long-term strategy. Say you hear customers wishing for a specific product—you can take that to your innovation team.
You don’t want to overreact to every cultural blip, but there needs to be an engine monitoring market signals. Insights teams are starting to pull in more real-time data—Google search trends, social sentiment.
That would’ve been unthinkable 10 years ago, but now it’s essential. It gives us direct input into how customers actually feel about our products.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:28.905)
Yeah, I love that. And you’ve talked before about the 80/20 rule—keeping 80% steady, but using 20% to test and respond to signals. Can you expand on that?
Kris McDermott (10:47.418)
Yes, it’s about having an appetite for testing and learning. What is your consistent drumbeat? That’s the 80%. Then use the 20% for test campaigns and innovation.
Ironically, CPGs embrace this in product development and couponing—they’re always testing. But marketing? That’s where they tend to be more rigid.
Kris McDermott (11:45.051)
Campaigns get treated like sacred cows. But we also overreact and change things too fast. The big idea should probably stick around longer than you're comfortable with.
Every brand seems to have a new platform each year—consumers don’t care. They need a consistent long-term story.
So keep your core campaign steady, but let the fun, responsive stuff live in the 20%. I think Mondelēz does this well—Oreo has fun cultural moments, but the brand remains intact.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:46.305)
Yeah. Do you think that gap is due to a lack of communication between brand strategists and digital teams?
Kris McDermott (12:57.530)
I think it’s more about organizational cohesion. Shopper marketers are scrappy—they’ll make things happen with $15 and three days. Brands, on the other hand, need $3 million and six months.
That creates tension—and opportunity. The key is bringing those groups together. Most CPGs are full of specialists. But there aren’t enough “quarterbacks” who can see the full field and connect the dots across teams.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:16.237)
So how do you help bridge that gap? You've used the term "multilingual"—helping people speak across functions.
Kris McDermott (14:31.122)
It starts with pilots. Find the hand-raisers—the curious people. I call it forming a “tiger team.”
Get five to seven people from different teams. If I hear someone say, “Why do we do it this way?”—that’s someone I want on the team. Then we can start mapping commonalities and shared language.
You can't underestimate the power of FOMO in CPGs. When one pilot works, others want in. Even if it fails, there's power in owning the failure and sharing what you learned. That gets people’s attention too.
So it becomes an organizational muscle. The more people understand the other side, the more effective cross-functional collaboration becomes.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:59.127)
Exactly. Having a major and minor across disciplines helps you become a translator—and that’s what high-performing teams need.
Kris McDermott (17:38.075)
Absolutely. I encourage managers to have that conversation—help team members identify what their “minors” should be.
You may not know the right question to ask. That’s fine—just start with curiosity. Ask why something works the way it does. Someone can point you to the right team, like revenue generation, and then you start learning.
It builds trust and helps you become more effective over time.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:02.465)
Yes, it’s so important. And one thing I hear a lot on this podcast is that collaboration across business units is a consistent challenge.
When teams align around one shared challenge—like driving category growth or innovating in a flat economy—that's when the magic happens.
One area you’ve been really insightful about is how brands can get more out of their joint business plans (JVPs) with retailers. Can you explain what a JVP is, and share some tips?
Kris McDermott (20:19.886)
Sure. A Joint Business Plan (JBP) is an agreement between a brand and retailer that outlines planned spend, expected outcomes, and how success will be tracked.
Many brands have now separated media into its own JVP because it involves such significant investment and clear tracking. But this can lead to a transactional mindset—write a check, get a result. That’s not ideal.
Instead, reframe the JBP as a learning opportunity. What do we want to discover together? Retailers usually welcome this challenge.
You still have to commit a certain spend to unlock benefits—discounts, placements, or special capabilities. But above that, build innovation into the JVP. Involve your insights and data teams, and even your merchants. Ask, “What do we not know that we want to learn?”
If you can say, “We’re spending these dollars with Retailer X to learn Y and grow the category by Z%,” that’s powerful.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:07.787)
Yes, that reframing is such a smart way to elevate what can otherwise feel like a cost of doing business.
Kris McDermott (23:04.676)
Exactly. If you treat it as a strategic investment rather than an obligation, it becomes a growth lever—not a burden.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (24:47.851)
So true. Last question—what’s one step listeners can take to start implementing these ideas?
Kris McDermott (25:10.874)
Great question. First, look at the challenges in front of you and identify someone new in your organization you can talk to about them.
Make it a team exercise: “Talk to someone new in the next two weeks about our shared business challenges.”
Also, audit your majors and minors. Identify a discipline you want to learn more about and bake that into your personal objectives. Ask, “How can I help?” That mindset—curiosity plus initiative—goes a long way in big organizations.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (26:49.427)
Excellent. Kris, thank you so much for your time and insights. How can people find you?
Kris McDermott (26:57.626)
I’m easy to find. I was an early adopter on LinkedIn, so my profile is just Kris McDermott. My email is kris.mcdermott@gmail.com—also easy to remember.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (27:10.861)
Perfect. I’ll include that in the show notes. Thanks again—this was incredibly insightful.
Kris McDermott (27:17.806)
Thank you, Kerry. This was great. So happy to be here.
I hope you found this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast as valuable as I did. I loved my conversation with Kris because she’s a true CPG expert, and her recommendations are incredibly insightful—especially those on getting more out of your JBPs, or joint business plans.
If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast for more expert advice on smarter marketing strategies.
We’re available on all the top podcast directories. I also invite you to connect with me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn, and check out revenuebasedmarketing.com, where I share additional expert insights and past podcast episodes you may have missed.
If your revenue needs a boost, be sure to ask me about my consulting and Fractional Chief Growth Officer services. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
S1 E63 Unlocking CPG Growth: Collaboration, Innovation, and Retail Media Strategies Kris McDermott
“One of the most powerful ways to drive growth in a large, complex organization is to bring together teams from different groups. Innovation happens when diverse perspectives collide. Agility emerges when those teams collaborate to tackle challenges with speed and creativity.
It's not about protecting your lane, it's about combining insights, experimenting together, and embracing new approaches to solve broader business challenges and unlock growth that no single team could achieve on its own.” That’s a quote from Kris McDermott and a sneak peek at today’s episode.
Hi there, I’m Kerry Curran, Fractional Chief Growth Officer, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, where we discuss smart strategies that can drive your revenue growth.
In this episode titled Unlocking CPG Growth: Collaboration, Innovation, and Retail Media Strategies, I sit down with Kris McDermott, an omnichannel marketing and retail media expert. We discuss how CPG companies can unlock sustainable growth in today’s highly competitive landscape.
From breaking down silos to testing innovative strategies to adopting a risk-tolerant mindset, this conversation is packed with strategies for driving category growth and reversing declines.
Stay tuned to the end, where Kris shares tips on getting more out of your retailer and network joint business plans. This episode offers valuable advice you can apply immediately.
So let’s go!
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.282)
So welcome, Kris. Please share your background and expertise.
Kris McDermott (00:06.287)
Thank you very much for having me, Kerry. Until recently, I worked at Kimberly-Clark, leading their omnichannel marketing teams for Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, and emerging platforms. Prior to that, I led e-commerce capability and development for Edelman Global. I also spent a long time at Omnicom in various client leadership capacities and in their commerce organization as well.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:30.678)
Excellent. So you've been a CPG and retail media expert for a long time. Talk about the evolution you’ve seen—what has stood out to you the most?
Kris McDermott (00:44.699)
There’s a lot that’s changing—stuff is shifting every day. That’s actually what I love about it. It feels a lot like the early days of digital. I've read that the first wave of digital was search, then social, and now retail—and I think that’s accurate.
It’s similar in that there’s no clear playbook yet. For brand search, we’re now at a place where things are fairly straightforward—you can set it, forget it, and activate predictably. Social is getting there too. Retail? We’re not even close.
I was thinking about this the other day—retail is actually more complicated because it’s everything. It’s more of a data function than a channel function, and that’s proving difficult. Retail media used to mean on-site search. Once we understood that, it was relatively simple. But the offering has expanded and now it’s much more complex.
I think it’s exciting. I love figuring out something new. It feels like every day I’m reading about a new development in this space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:59.404)
Yeah, I agree. You and I first met on a Criteo panel long ago when retail media was still relatively new, and you're right—it’s evolved so rapidly. I like your point that it’s a “data center.” The ways you can promote a brand across retail media networks are becoming more complex, which makes it harder for manufacturing and CPG companies.
From your perspective, how can brands navigate and take advantage of this landscape?
Kris McDermott (02:45.644)
It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. What I usually talk about is adopting certain philosophical principles. One is being okay with risk and failure, and then pivoting quickly. And CPGs tend to be risk-averse.
They just are—because they have to be. Decisions made today can affect things 36 months from now, and by then it may be too late to change course.
That’s why risk tolerance is critical, and so is openly discussing both successes and failures. Now that I’ve been on the brand side, I understand how hard it is to “just change.” It needs to be felt at every level of the organization and grounded in authentic change management.
I think a lot of organizations are experiencing change fatigue. That’s something I struggled to understand when I was on the agency side. I’d roll my eyes and wonder why things couldn’t get done. But after a few weeks brand-side, I called former clients to apologize—I didn’t fully understand what they were up against.
You really have to choose your change bets carefully.
Change is never just “we’ll change.” There are massive implications—operationally, financially, for people’s roles and KPIs. Bonuses might be impacted. Leaders hesitate to invest in change because people get jaded. They think, “Whatever—this is just the new thing. It’ll change again next week.”
So you need to ask: how do I make this the thing to bet on? How do I make this matter and bring it to life cross-functionally? I might have gone a little off-topic, but that’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:23.117)
No, I love that. We've talked about this before—it's not necessarily about being risk-tolerant or risk-averse. You're not asking them to be reckless—just to try something new.
CPGs have been the gold standard in marketing and brand building. But learning new ways of doing things requires strategic, organizational, and communication shifts.
One of the things you've talked about before is using data to inform that shift. Today, brands have so many more signals to learn from. How can they use that data to identify opportunities or know when to pivot?
Kris McDermott (06:47.652)
I think it's important to distinguish between real risk and what just feels risky because it’s unfamiliar. That distinction can build credibility. You can say: "This feels risky, but the actual downside is minimal—and the upside is huge."
Conversely, sometimes the risk is real, and it’s a big bet. That’s okay too. The point is to be honest about it. If everything were working perfectly, we wouldn’t be talking about making changes. So you reimagine.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:37.409)
Yeah, and move out of your comfort zone—even if it's challenging.
Kris McDermott (07:45.275)
Exactly. In CPG, some things just take forever—product development, supply chain, logistics. I didn’t fully grasp that until I went brand-side. It’s like turning an aircraft carrier two degrees—it takes a lot of people and time.
But there are things you can change in real time—especially in marketing. You can listen to social signals and build campaigns around what people are saying. That’s the opportunity.
The companies that are succeeding are responding to cultural trends in as close to real time as possible.
Even better, short-term signals can feed long-term strategy. Say you hear customers wishing for a specific product—you can take that to your innovation team.
You don’t want to overreact to every cultural blip, but there needs to be an engine monitoring market signals. Insights teams are starting to pull in more real-time data—Google search trends, social sentiment.
That would’ve been unthinkable 10 years ago, but now it’s essential. It gives us direct input into how customers actually feel about our products.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:28.905)
Yeah, I love that. And you’ve talked before about the 80/20 rule—keeping 80% steady, but using 20% to test and respond to signals. Can you expand on that?
Kris McDermott (10:47.418)
Yes, it’s about having an appetite for testing and learning. What is your consistent drumbeat? That’s the 80%. Then use the 20% for test campaigns and innovation.
Ironically, CPGs embrace this in product development and couponing—they’re always testing. But marketing? That’s where they tend to be more rigid.
Kris McDermott (11:45.051)
Campaigns get treated like sacred cows. But we also overreact and change things too fast. The big idea should probably stick around longer than you're comfortable with.
Every brand seems to have a new platform each year—consumers don’t care. They need a consistent long-term story.
So keep your core campaign steady, but let the fun, responsive stuff live in the 20%. I think Mondelēz does this well—Oreo has fun cultural moments, but the brand remains intact.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:46.305)
Yeah. Do you think that gap is due to a lack of communication between brand strategists and digital teams?
Kris McDermott (12:57.530)
I think it’s more about organizational cohesion. Shopper marketers are scrappy—they’ll make things happen with $15 and three days. Brands, on the other hand, need $3 million and six months.
That creates tension—and opportunity. The key is bringing those groups together. Most CPGs are full of specialists. But there aren’t enough “quarterbacks” who can see the full field and connect the dots across teams.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:16.237)
So how do you help bridge that gap? You've used the term "multilingual"—helping people speak across functions.
Kris McDermott (14:31.122)
It starts with pilots. Find the hand-raisers—the curious people. I call it forming a “tiger team.”
Get five to seven people from different teams. If I hear someone say, “Why do we do it this way?”—that’s someone I want on the team. Then we can start mapping commonalities and shared language.
You can't underestimate the power of FOMO in CPGs. When one pilot works, others want in. Even if it fails, there's power in owning the failure and sharing what you learned. That gets people’s attention too.
So it becomes an organizational muscle. The more people understand the other side, the more effective cross-functional collaboration becomes.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:59.127)
Exactly. Having a major and minor across disciplines helps you become a translator—and that’s what high-performing teams need.
Kris McDermott (17:38.075)
Absolutely. I encourage managers to have that conversation—help team members identify what their “minors” should be.
You may not know the right question to ask. That’s fine—just start with curiosity. Ask why something works the way it does. Someone can point you to the right team, like revenue generation, and then you start learning.
It builds trust and helps you become more effective over time.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:02.465)
Yes, it’s so important. And one thing I hear a lot on this podcast is that collaboration across business units is a consistent challenge.
When teams align around one shared challenge—like driving category growth or innovating in a flat economy—that's when the magic happens.
One area you’ve been really insightful about is how brands can get more out of their joint business plans (JVPs) with retailers. Can you explain what a JVP is, and share some tips?
Kris McDermott (20:19.886)
Sure. A Joint Business Plan (JBP) is an agreement between a brand and retailer that outlines planned spend, expected outcomes, and how success will be tracked.
Many brands have now separated media into its own JVP because it involves such significant investment and clear tracking. But this can lead to a transactional mindset—write a check, get a result. That’s not ideal.
Instead, reframe the JBP as a learning opportunity. What do we want to discover together? Retailers usually welcome this challenge.
You still have to commit a certain spend to unlock benefits—discounts, placements, or special capabilities. But above that, build innovation into the JVP. Involve your insights and data teams, and even your merchants. Ask, “What do we not know that we want to learn?”
If you can say, “We’re spending these dollars with Retailer X to learn Y and grow the category by Z%,” that’s powerful.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:07.787)
Yes, that reframing is such a smart way to elevate what can otherwise feel like a cost of doing business.
Kris McDermott (23:04.676)
Exactly. If you treat it as a strategic investment rather than an obligation, it becomes a growth lever—not a burden.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (24:47.851)
So true. Last question—what’s one step listeners can take to start implementing these ideas?
Kris McDermott (25:10.874)
Great question. First, look at the challenges in front of you and identify someone new in your organization you can talk to about them.
Make it a team exercise: “Talk to someone new in the next two weeks about our shared business challenges.”
Also, audit your majors and minors. Identify a discipline you want to learn more about and bake that into your personal objectives. Ask, “How can I help?” That mindset—curiosity plus initiative—goes a long way in big organizations.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (26:49.427)
Excellent. Kris, thank you so much for your time and insights. How can people find you?
Kris McDermott (26:57.626)
I’m easy to find. I was an early adopter on LinkedIn, so my profile is just Kris McDermott. My email is kris.mcdermott@gmail.com—also easy to remember.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (27:10.861)
Perfect. I’ll include that in the show notes. Thanks again—this was incredibly insightful.
Kris McDermott (27:17.806)
Thank you, Kerry. This was great. So happy to be here.
I hope you found this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast as valuable as I did. I loved my conversation with Kris because she’s a true CPG expert, and her recommendations are incredibly insightful—especially those on getting more out of your JBPs, or joint business plans.
If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast for more expert advice on smarter marketing strategies.
We’re available on all the top podcast directories. I also invite you to connect with me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn, and check out revenuebasedmarketing.com, where I share additional expert insights and past podcast episodes you may have missed.
If your revenue needs a boost, be sure to ask me about my consulting and Fractional Chief Growth Officer services. I look forward to hearing from you soon.