News Briefs

Walmart Connect, the retail giant’s closed-loop omnichannel media business, has partnered with Omnicom Media, the media services division of Omnicom Group. The partnership marks the first such agreement between Walmart Connect and an agency holding company, according to a news release.

Making the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Walmart executive vice president and chief revenue officer Seth Dallaire said, "As marketers prepare for the deprecation of third-party cookies, we're building a platform and ecosystem that leverages the scale of Walmart's first-party data and strong customer relationships to help them deliver strong ROI in an increasingly fragmented environment. Our partnership with Omnicom illustrates Walmart Connect's focus on driving growth, improving product capabilities and educating the industry on the role retail media platforms have in delivering measurable solutions that connect clients with omnichannel shoppers."

Spanning pricing, agency support, ongoing product feedback and ground-floor opportunities, the partnership particularly enables cross-screen planning against Walmart audiences in Omni (i.e., Omnicom's open operating system that facilitates the entire consumer purchasing journey). This allows Omnicom's agencies to serve up connected experiences across media and commerce platforms within owned, earned and paid environments.

Planners can identify domains, apps and screens with the most effective reach and cost for Walmart audiences. Additionally, using the Omni ID, they can also push advertiser's first-party data to the Walmart DSP where it combines with Walmart audiences.

Walmart Connect and Omnicom first collaborated in 2021 with Omnicom Media Group's participation in beta tests for the Walmart DSP's frequency cap function.

Accenture has agreed to acquire The Stable, a commerce agency that supports brand launches online and in stores. The deal builds on Accenture’s continued investments in commerce to help clients accelerate growth and sustain relevance across North America, according to a company news release. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Stable, which was recognized as one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing private companies in 2021, works to grow consumer brands of all sizes, stages and verticals through omnichannel retail and direct-to-consumer commerce. The Stable acquired Arkansas-based agency The Retail Firm, marking the Minneapolis-based agency’s fourth acquisition since 2020.

Under its new deal with Accenture, The Stable will enhance Accenture Song’s global commerce transformation expertise and expand its ability to operate data-driven digital commerce ecosystems that deliver innovative marketing and commerce experiences.

Accenture Song helps clients grow with a focus on customer relevance. Its offerings span ideation to execution: growth, product and experience design; technology and experience platforms; creative, media and marketing strategy; and campaign, commerce transformation content and channel orchestration.  

Founded in 2015, The Stable provides a full suite of omnichannel commerce capabilities aimed at driving revenue and efficiency for brands across consumer goods, retail, marketplaces and DTC channels. The company builds and executes strategies that acquires customers, creates immersive experiences and scales brands, based on data and insights and brought to life through sales and operations, creative, digital and patented technology.

The Stable’s team of more than 400 people will join Accenture, building upon the latter’s strategy, design, performance, technology and larger-scale operations capabilities to better serve Accenture’s clients particularly across CPG and services segments, and expanding into high tech, life sciences — over the counter (OTC), media and retail industries for their commerce needs, according to the release.

The Stable is also the latest in a series of acquisitions that Accenture has made to scale commerce expertise and excellence, including Businet System and Tambourine both located in Japan, Openmind in Italy, Glamit in Argentina, and Experity in Brazil. The acquisition of The Stable aligns with Accenture Song’s strategy to deepen its capabilities across product innovation, commerce and marketing transformation, sales and service.

Path to Purchase Institute parent company EnsembleIQ has been recognized by workplace evaluation firm Comparably in its fifth annual “Best Leadership Teams” list for small/mid-size companies (500 or fewer employees).

This honor is based on ratings voluntarily and anonymously submitted to Comparably by EnsembleIQ employees about the performance of the company leadership team. Those rated included direct managers and senior leaders, who all received “A” level grades during the past 12 months (June 24, 2021 through June 24, 2022).

“The leadership team is approachable and open to new suggestions and ideas. They make themselves available to the team at-large and encourage/motivate us to perform our best,” one employee shared. Another stated, “Communication is excellent. I am asked to participate in any meeting or event that can help my growth and knowledge of the company.”

“This evaluation clearly illustrates that our team members value how company leaders have created a positive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diversity of our employees,” EnsembleIQ CEO Jennifer Litterick said in a news release. “Prioritizing positive culture change has strengthened the core of our organization. Our leaders are providing a supportive, flexible and development-driven environment for employees to innovate and drive growth by delivering actionable business intelligence and connections to retail, healthcare and hospitality business professionals and solution providers.”

Culture is an essential component of EnsembleIQ's strategy in attracting top-tier talent. In addition to utilizing Comparably for cultural assessment, the company has a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council with 35 people serving on three employee-driven task forces focused on Community, Cultural Competence and Cultural Belonging. It also offers two volunteer days per year and a platform to find in-person or remote volunteer opportunities that are individual or team based as well as monthly leadership training, a well-being program with a focus on mental health, and a culture where employees receive feedback every week. 

EnsembleIQ previously was honored by Comparably as a Best Place to Work in Chicago, where the company is headquartered. EnsembleIQ also operates out of a Toronto office and includes team members working remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada. View open positions at EnsembleIQ here.

Ahold Delhaize’s Giant Food has relaunched its Local Produce Boxes containing locally sourced, in-season produce sold exclusively through the grocery chain’s delivery service, Giant Delivers. For the second year in a row, the boxes are available throughout the summer without a subscription or commitment, the $20 boxes include six or more items from local farms in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

Box items vary weekly depending on farm harvests and what is in season. Participating farms include Baugher's Orchards and Houser Produce Farm of Maryland, Papen Farms and Fifer Orchards of Delaware, and Kirby Farms of Virginia. Shoppers can also save $5 by purchasing a Giant Delivers Local Meal Bundle, a specially curated recipe enabling customers to purchase all ingredients in one click. 

In addition, from July 8 through Sept. 8, Giant Food loyalty members can earn 400 Flexible Rewards points every time they spend at least $20 on participating local products. Customers can use those points towards grocery savings at the grocery chain, or on gas at participating Giant Food and Shell fuel stations.

"Giant's first summer of offering the Local Produce Boxes was a huge success and our customers loved knowing that their produce was sourced locally by the best farms around our area," said Adenike Olaleye, senior manager of e-commerce merchandising at Giant Food, in a news release. "We're working with more farmers this year to offer an even wider range of produce options that will keep our customers pleased week after week."

The Local Produce Boxes are available weekly through September or while supplies last.

Amazon has partnered with Uberall, a hybrid customer experience solutions provider, to help brands and businesses connect with customers who have Amazon Alexa voice assistant devices. This new deal enables Uberall clients, such as Shell and KFC, to promote their brand to Alexa’s millions of users and drive foot traffic to their locations. 

Leveraging Uberall CoreX — the company’s local customer experience platform that powers the entire customer journey from online discovery, to store visit, to recommendation and repeat purchase — Alexa will be able to recommend Uberall brand clients to users based on types of requests and questions.

Meanwhile, Uberall clients send their verified, cleansed data directly to Alexa, which will recommend their local goods and services and drive foot traffic. In addition to location information, this shared data includes contact information, hours of operation, descriptions, business categories, menus and services.

According to a news release, this aims to help brands promote their offering to Alexa’s millions of users who are usually searching with high buying intent in the local proximity. 

“More and more, consumers are turning to devices like Alexa for answers to virtually anything, making voice search a fast-growing part of everyday life,” said Florian Hubner, Uberall CEO & founder, in the release. “And with businesses having to rapidly update or change prices, pandemic guidelines, hours of operation and more due to ever-changing world circumstances, it's important that Alexa users have the latest information.”

This partnership aims to increase the reach of Uberall businesses since Amazon has a dominant share of the U.S. market for smart speakers, accounting for roughly two thirds of devices sold from the summer of 2017 to 2021, according to the Uberall release. In addition, the company’s decision to invest in voice activation is largely due to changing consumer and household habits, as approximately 40% of the U.S. population use voice search features according to eMarketer.

Menasha Packaging Company has finalized its acquisition of Color-Box, a business unit of corrugated box manufacturer Georgia-Pacific. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Like Menasha Packaging, Color-Box is a corrugated packaging manufacturer specializing in high-graphic boxes. Founded in 2000, Color-Box employs 550 and operates plants in Richmond, Indiana; Pelahatchie, Mississippi; and Madera, California. Color-Box packaging options include litho-laminate with seven colors and coatings, computer to print plate capabilities, a range of board combination and flute selections as well as other solutions, according to Georgia-Pacific's website.

"Our two organizations are going to be an excellent fit. By joining forces, we will be able to offer both an expanded geographic footprint, as well as enriched capabilities in high-end graphic packaging solutions for our customers," said Mike Riegsecker president of Menasha Packaging, in a news release. Menasha assists with go-to-market strategies for more than 1,500 brands, including national leaders and emerging startups.