News Briefs

Market research firm Circana has entered into definitive agreements to acquire NCSolutions (NCS), the joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina designed to improve advertising effectiveness, as well as Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) business.

Nielsen’s MMM business enables the CPG ecosystem to assess the impact of their investments, understand what’s working and optimize marketing budgets accordingly. NCS is a purchase-based ad targeting and measurement firm serving the CPG industry.

With these two acquisitions, Circana will expand its media measurement capabilities while also increasing its marketing mix modeling, unified measurement solutions and footprint, according to a joint statement. As a result, clients of all three organizations will gain broader access to audience targeting, media measurement, in-flight optimization and clean room solutions. 

Both businesses eventually will be integrated into Circana’s media team, which works with advertisers and their agency partners to plan, target, activate, measure and optimize media spend. Its media solutions portfolio is built on an enterprise technology platform with CPG and general merchandise shopper, sales and causal data sets, and advanced analytics. 

The transactions are expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2024.

“We are excited to welcome NCSolutions and Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling business to Circana to expand and enhance our media capabilities for our clients,” Kirk Perry, president and CEO of Circana, said in the statement. “Both businesses have incredible expertise, solutions and clients that, when combined with Circana’s data and technology assets, will fuel clients’ growth.”

“NCSolutions and Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling are strong businesses that deliver spectacular value for clients,” added Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. “As Nielsen focuses on expanding its leadership position in audience measurement and content data, we’re thrilled that the tremendous leadership and passionate teams at NCS and MMM can continue to accelerate their growth through synergies within Circana.”

Data and technology company Inmar Intelligence has appointed Ranjana Choudhry as senior vice president, media and data platforms. Choudhry brings more than 25 years of media experience across retail, CPG and agency sectors to the data and technology company’s MarTech leadership team.

Choudhry most recently served as vice president of advertising and social media at Wakefern Food Corp., where she built an internal advertising agency to power campaigns, drove the retailer’s digital transformation and spearheaded the launch of its retailer media network, Wakefern Media Exchange, according to a statement from Inmar. 

At Inmar, Choudhry leads the company’s media solutions, encompassing Moments Media, social and retail media networks. Her core priorities include harnessing Inmar’s data insights to deliver highly targeted campaigns that resonate with consumers, driving overall business growth and ensuring a more seamless consumer journey. According to her LinkedIn profile, she started at Inmar in July.

“I am thrilled to be joining Inmar as the new lead of the company’s media solutions,” Chouldhry said in the statement. “Leveraging Inmar’s expansive data sets and strong retail partnerships, I’m excited to start developing efficient and impactful marketing campaigns, and ultimately solving global business challenges for our customers across retail sectors.”

Prior to her role at Wakefern, Choudhry served as chief client officer and managing director of Red Fuse Agency, where she was responsible for managing all Colgate-Palmolive brands globally. She has also held roles as regional managing director, Latin America, and global account director and general manager, India at Young & Rubicam. She’s also an adjunct professor at New York University. 

Rob Weisberg, president of MarTech solutions at Inmar Intelligence, added: “[Chouldhry’s] deep understanding of the media landscape will be instrumental in driving business outcomes and delivering a seamless customer experience.”

This new hire, according to Inmar, continues the momentum from the company's partnership with Northeast Grocery Inc., the parent company of Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets, announced in July. It also follows 13 industry awards for excellence in social media, technology, business, data and marketing the company received in 2024, including the Path to Purchase Institute’s Women of Excellence Award for Business Excellence.

Integrated commerce agency Harvest Group has partnered with Stackline, a retail intelligence and software company, to offer more data-driven insights related to sales and marketing performance on Amazon. 

This collaboration gives Harvest Group’s client partners access to Stackline's data solutions. Harvest Group will integrate the data into its Amazon service offerings, enabling more “accurate and actionable” analytics to inform brands’ Amazon strategies, according to a joint statement.

The Stackline datasets that Harvest Group is incorporating into its Amazon offerings includes sales, spending patterns, keyword search trends, and traffic and conversion analytics, spanning more than 1 billion products available across the retail landscape. 

“Our partnership with Stackline allows us to combine the best retail and shopper insights that exist in the marketplace with our best-in-class managed service that helps clients accomplish their growth goals,” Harvest Group CEO Ross Cully said in the statement. “Data and technology create competitive advantages as commerce and media converge.”

“Our collaboration with Harvest Group marks a significant milestone as we strive to enhance the success of our brand and agency partners worldwide,” added Michael Lagoni, CEO of Stackline. “We will leverage our collective [knowledge, data, insights] and retail technology to help every client accelerate performance and drive sustainable growth across their entire business."

Ahold Delhaize’s The Giant Co. has promoted Rebecca Lupfer to senior vice president and chief merchant, effective immediately. In her new role, Lupfer leads all aspects of merchandising for the company as well as commercial planning and pricing, reporting directly to The Giant Co.’s president, John Ruane.

Lupfer joined Ahold Financial Services in 2005 as a business analyst and held various positions before joining Ahold Delhaize USA in 2016 as a portfolio lead for seasonal merchandising, according to a statement. She joined The Giant Co. in 2018 as director of merchandising planning and has held various positions over the last six years, including VP of merchandising - center store, VP of the company’s Mid-Atlantic division, and, most recently, chief financial officer. 

“With nearly 20 years of retail grocery experience spanning nearly all areas of the business, [Lupfer] brings a tremendous amount of expertise to the table as well as an incredible passion for building strong teams that deliver results,” Ruane said in a statement. “With her strong knowledge of our business, team and customers, I know The Giant Company will continue to be the grocery store of choice for customers and team members alike.”  

Lupfer currently serves on the board of directors for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, and the Academy of Food Marketing and The Food Marketing Educational Foundation at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. 

In addition, she serves as the executive sponsor of the company’s women’s business resource group. 

Experiential retail media company Freeosk is enhancing its in-store discovery platform through a new integration with Place Exchange, a supply platform for programmatic out-of-home (OOH) media. 

The partnership offers agency and brand advertisers access to programmatically plug into Freeosk’s in-store digital video inventory and activate messaging on the discovery kiosks through the same demand-side platforms (DSPs) they already use, according to a media release. The inventory/technology will initially be available at Wakefern’s ShopRite.

The ad solutions include verified traffic sources based on real consumers actively shopping at physical stores, where a majority of purchases and shopping decisions are made. The most recent quarterly report from the U.S. Department of Commerce indicates that in-store commerce represents over 84% of total U.S. retail sales.

“The demand for in-store retail media activation is surging as marketers push for incremental growth opportunities,” Ari Buchalter, CEO of Place Exchange, said in the release. “Brands want highly motivating, immersive experiences to make lasting impressions that promote trial and build CLV (customer lifetime value).”

The Freeosk platform engages shoppers often in high-traffic aisles midway through a shopping journey, offering product samples, opt-in trials and little experiences at the kiosks. A rotating loop of dynamic media on the kiosks is designed to engage shoppers and influence in-store decisions and buying behavior. 

“The integration will meet the growing demand for highly-effective in-store retail media campaigns and drive more ad dollars from national brands to retail environments,” Matt Eichorn, president, co-founder, and CEO at Freeosk, added. “Together we are making product discovery easier while reducing risk aversion for shoppers.” 

Freeosk’s solutions are expected to scale in both the physical and programmatic worlds, per the release.

Ahold Delhaize USA’s Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop chains have selected Havas Media Network (HMN) North America as their media agency of record as the grocery giant continues its focus on advancing efficiency through scaled media. HMN is part of Havas Group, a global integrated marketing communications business owned by media giant Vivendi.

Havas Media Network will support the four brands’ strategy, planning and activation across all traditional and digital touchpoints, according to a media release. Leveraging real-time data to create relevance and precision will be at the center of the partnership.

“Reaching customers digitally is and will remain an integral part of advancing our brands’ omnichannel strategies,” Keith Nicks, chief digital officer for Ahold Delhaize USA, said in the release. 

As part of the digital execution, HMN will also implement dynamic creative optimization, which will enable the four Ahold Delhaize brands to create personalized ads based on real-time data.

“We’re equally excited to launch capabilities that enable personalization and a great experience for our brands’ customers,” added Caroline Masullo, head of digital marketing, Ahold Delhaize USA. “We look forward to beginning campaigns with Havas Media Network later this year and evaluating ways to further scale the relationship over time.”

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our partnership with ADUSA and its brands,” added Greg James, CEO of HMN North America. “Employing our extensive expertise in retail, proactive leadership and the power and efficiency of a data-led strategic approach, we’re excited to leverage our innovation to create solutions that help these four omnichannel brands achieve their goals.”