News Briefs

Amie Owen, the new chief client officer at Flywheel, brings more than 20 years of experience to the role. She has worked with some of the world's largest brands to navigate retail, shopper marketing, commerce media and retail media. 

She also has played key roles in building and scaling industry-defining commerce capabilities and driving growth across every stage of the commerce journey, per a LinkedIn announcement from the Baltimore-based advertising services agency. 

"As our newly appointed chief client officer, Amie will help brands unlock the full potential of total commerce, bringing together strategy, media, content, operations, insights, activation and measurement to drive measurable business outcomes across the entire ecosystem," Flywheel posted. "As commerce continues to evolve, there are few leaders better positioned to help brands navigate what's next."

Also read: Path to Purchase Institute Announces New Advisory Council to Guide the Future of Commerce Marketing

"What energizes me most about this elevation is the opportunity to help brands unlock growth through our collective commerce offering, sitting under one roof, that will drive Flywheel's end-to-end new commerce offering," Owen posted on LinkedIn. "Total commerce is now at our fingertips: retail strategy, planning, omni media buying, content, retail operations, insights, activation and measurement, all underpinned by our proprietary technology and platform. Our team's ultimate success is to drive measurable business outcomes across our clients' total ecosystems."

Owen is a member of P2PI's Advisory Council, part of a select group of commerce and shopper marketing leaders helping to guide the Institute's strategic direction, contribute to thought leadership and shape member programming.

In 2023, Owen was named to P2PI's 40 Under 40 list.  

Circana has upgraded its AI-enabled Liquid Testing solution. The Chicago-based market research firm's tool now integrates media measurement and campaign experimentation, allowing brands to measure true incremental sales impact using store-level POS data.

Building on a successful in-store launch, Circana's platform now supports continuous experimentation across various media environments. A key breakthrough is its ability to gauge incrementality without turning to dark markets or traditional holdouts.

Key features of the updated Liquid Testing solution include:

• Accurate measurement of media incrementality using real sales data.
• Always-on experimentation across diverse media landscapes.
• Rapid delivery of insights, in a matter of days rather than months.
• A unified self-service platform to optimize campaigns in real time.

The Liquid Testing tool is a key component of Circana's broader software and innovation strategy, in this case creating a single system that provides fast, transparent and actionable outcomes.

"By connecting media and in-store performance in a single, self-serve platform, teams can run experiments continuously, optimize in-flight, and make more confident decisions about where to invest for growth." said Cara Pratt, president, global media and retail at Circana. 

The enhanced platform will roll out in phases, beginning with CPG users in the United States, followed by CPG users in EMEA and select general merchandise users across the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Italy later in 2026.

Also Read: Circana Tool Speeds Purchase-Based Audience Building, Activation

InMarket and Basis are building on their partnership, expanding their efforts to bridge a gap in advertising performance.

American retail media spending is projected to hit nearly $70 billion this year, according to eMarketer, a rate that surpasses both search and social platforms. As a result, media planners face increasing pressure to prove exactly what the ROI is actually driving.

This partnership enhances retail media measurement for users of Basis' automated advertising OS, which now has native access to InMarket's complete suite of outcome measurement tools and exclusive retail media network audiences. Now Basis users can focus on verified visits and purchases directly within their existing workflow.

This expanded agreement transforms existing audience integration into a full-funnel solution where they can track the journey from ad exposure to in-store visits and sales across various retailers and RMNs.  Those incremental sales lift tools will be extended to reach clients in dining, CPG and automotive industries. 

New capabilities for advertisers include:

• Incremental visit and sales life measurement: Basis customers can directly access InMarket's measurement capabilities to measure real-world impact on foot traffic and sales.
• Unique RMN Audiences: RMN-specific audience data from visitation patterns and spending habits are available natively in Basis for better targeting of campaigns.
• Lift optimized audiences: Marketers can deploy InMarket's Lift Optimized Audiences to plan, activate and target known visitors, purchases and look-alikes, driving more measurable growth and maximum efficiency.

Inmar Intelligence has launched a Multi-Retailer Creator Activation tool. This solution is engineered to take a data-first approach in selection and amplification, to empower brands to make the most of creator content across multiple retailer audiences. The Multi-Retailer Creator Activation tool converts content into performance-driven retail media that provides enhanced targeting and measurable sales outcomes. 

Creators and retail media networks (RMNs) mutually benefit one another. Creators provide a human touch to RMNs as they become a key part of the commerce engine, backed by Inmar research that found 64% of consumers who interact with creators daily usually visit three or more retailers each week. The shows the power influencers wield in shaping consumer behavior. As creator marketing evolves into a more integral capability within the retail media solution set, brands want to both drive scale and measure impact.

Today there are more than 250 retail media networks, leaving brands to face an increasingly fragmented landscape and forcing them to manage siloed campaigns, retailer by retailer. Inmar's new offering is designed to provide a unified operating model that replaces fragmentation with a centralized, omnichannel approach while keeping the most impactful creator as part of the campaign. 

Enabled by Inmar's proprietary technology and first-party retail purchase signals, the Multi-Retailer Creator Activation Strategy identifies high-performing creators using the Total Fitscore metric. This tool matches creators to the retailers and audiences best aligned with a brand's campaign. Content is then activated across social, off-site and on-site retail media, allowing brands to maximize the message and measure impact accurately.

The Raley’s Cos. has partnered with Grocery TV to launch an in-store retail media network across 208 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. 

The banner-wide rollout is part of the grocer's broader full-funnel retail media strategy, designed to meet growing demand for integrated in-store and digital campaigns. The screens will be able to connect directly to shoppers at the point of purchase.

"Our retail media business has been evolving quickly, and in-store was the clear next step," Zac Wilson, vice president of digital commerce, The Raley's Companies, said in a media release. "With the Grocery TV partnership, what could have taken years to build, we were able to stand up in a matter of weeks. Speed is critical in an ever-evolving and fast paced industry. That speed, combined with their ability to help us build advertiser demand as we grow, is critical to a successful partnership."

Also Read:  Raley's Launches Member Prices Loyalty Program

"The Raley's Companies have built deep trust across the diverse communities they serve throughout the West,"  Marlow Nickell, co-founder and CEO, Grocery TV, said in the release. "That trust, combined with strong store traffic, creates a powerful in-store environment for brands."

The West Sacramento, California-based grocer operates more than 230 locations across four states and four Tribal Nations under the Raley's, Bel Air, Nob Hill, Raley's One Market, Bashas', Food City, AJ’s, Bashas' Diné Markets, Full Circle, Farm Fresh to You, and Fieldera banners.

Grocery TV partners with more than 120 retailers, bringing its platform to more than 6,700 stores.

TRG Packaging and Display Solutions has acquired Columbia Container, a full-service corrugated manufacturer based in Baltimore.

The acquisition expands TRG's presence in the Mid-Atlantic region and enhances its ability to serve customers across the market with speed, flexibility and high-quality packaging and display solutions.

Columbia Container serves national, regional and local clients with a broad range of products — from traditional brown boxes to litho-mounted P-O-P displays.

As part of TRG's national network, Columbia Container will gain access to expanded operational resources and capabilities while maintaining the approach and customer focus that have driven its success.

The current leadership team at Columbia Container will remain in place.