News Briefs

Vanguard Cos. has named longtime corrugated and design industry leader Chad Burghart as its director of creative services. Burghart will oversee the company’s regional design teams, guiding the creation and enhancement of Vanguard’s display, packaging, fulfillment and customer solutions.

Burghart will report to Chris Cummings, executive vice president of sales.

“We are thrilled that Chad has joined our team contributing his industry and design experience,” Cummings said in a media release. 

James Beard, Vanguard’s chief executive officer, added that Burghart’s expertise will “strengthen our business and help drive our continued success.”

Burghart brings extensive experience across point-of-purchase displays, corrugated materials and packaging innovation. He previously held leadership roles at Packaging Corporation of America (PCA), Sonoco, Georgia-Pacific, Miller Zell and, most recently, Bay Cities.

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, Vanguard Cos. provides a wide range of P-O-P displays, retail and industrial packaging, signage, e-commerce packaging and fulfillment services. The company combines shopper insights, structural and graphic design, and program management capabilities to support omnichannel merchandising programs across retail sectors.

Wakefern Food Corp. is increasing the in-store retail media touchpoints within its ShopRite stores. 

The retailer-owned supermarket cooperative is adding digital screens to 31 ShopRite locations across New York and New Jersey through an expanded partnership with Grocery TV. The rollout brings the platform’s presence to more than 230 ShopRite stores and over 6,500 stores nationwide.

The installations include screens at store entrances, front-end lanes and pharmacy areas. They allow ShopRite to communicate sales, promotions, service updates and job information while giving brands additional opportunities to reach shoppers during their trip.

“In-store retail media is no longer a test-and-learn channel,” Marlow Nickell, co-founder and CEO of Grocery TV, said in a media release. “Our expansion with ShopRite shows how quickly retailers are scaling networks. It's part of a broader shift we’re seeing nationwide, as grocers formalize in-store media as a strategic revenue stream and a core part of the shopper experience.”

ShopRite first partnered with Grocery TV in 2021 and has steadily expanded its use of the platform. In 2024, ShopRite began rolling out Grocery TV’s digital screens near the pharmacy counter to serve health-related information and brand advertising to shoppers.

“By customizing screen placement to fit each store’s unique layout and traffic patterns, we can deliver a variety of important information to customers from ShopRite and national brands,” added Darren Caudill, chief sales officer for Wakefern.

Related: Grocery TV Marks Milestone Amid In-Store Retail Media Growth

The expansion adds to Grocery TV’s broader national growth across more than 120 grocery retailers, reaching a reported 95 million unique shoppers and offering brands additional in-store touchpoints near the point of purchase.

Love’s Travel Stops has named Dallas-based TRG (formerly The Richards Group) as its strategic agency of record for creative, media and brand strategy, beginning in January 2026. 

It’s the latest step in the convenience retailer’s broader effort to elevate its brand, unify its marketing approach and accelerate customer acquisition and retention initiatives.

The move follows a year of increased marketing investment for Love’s. In May, the company hired its first-ever chief marketing officer, former Walgreens SVP and CMO Patrick McLean. In October, it launched Love’s Media Group, a retailer media network designed to reach professional truck drivers and highway travelers more targeted, relevant advertising experiences. The addition of a full-service strategic agency of record is the latest signal that the company is building a more cohesive, growth-focused marketing engine.

McLean said the selection of TRG followed a competitive agency search that began in summer 2025 and was managed by Joanne Davis Consulting. Love’s previously relied on smaller agencies for project-based work, making this its first formal strategic agency partnership.

“Love’s looks forward to working with TRG to support our journey to build a marketing growth engine and evolve our already great brand into an iconic one that is virtually synonymous with the travel stop category,” McLean said in the company’s announcement. He added that TRG stood out for its strategic insights into the Love’s brand and customer base, noting the agency’s long track record helping build well-known American brands, including Chick-fil-A, Ram, Charles Schwab and The Home Depot.

The TRG appointment comes as Love’s works to modernize the customer experience across its more than 660 travel stops in 42 states. The retailer has signaled plans to more tightly integrate brand building, store experience improvements and data-driven media as it looks to strengthen loyalty.

Love’s, founded in 1964 and headquartered in Oklahoma City, operates travel stops and convenience stores, as well as fuel, trucking and mobility services across North America and Europe. 

Amazon Ads has expanded access to its Omnichannel Metrics (OCM) solution, allowing advertisers across additional categories — including consumer electronics, fashion, home goods and furniture, home improvement, and toys and games — to measure the offline sales impact of their Amazon DSP campaigns.

Previously available to a smaller set of verticals (primarily grocery categories), OCM now gives both managed and self-service advertisers the ability to evaluate how display, audio and video ads across Amazon and the open internet influence purchases both on and off the Amazon store.

OCM leverages Amazon’s first-party Shopper Panel data alongside third-party purchase signals to connect ad exposure with offline transactions — tracking how ads influence buying both on and off Amazon.

According to an Amazon Ads launch announcement via its website, this holistic approach helps advertisers better understand total sales impact and optimize media strategies across the full funnel.

By automating the study creation process, OCM removes a key barrier that previously made omnichannel measurement time-consuming or limited to larger campaigns. The update makes it easier for brands to routinely track how Amazon Ads contribute to total sales — not just online conversions — and refine investment decisions accordingly.

The expanded feature is currently available in the U.S. to eligible advertisers using Amazon DSP.

Peq, a provider of independent incrementality measurement and optimization across the commerce media ecosystem, has appointed Ben Flaccus as chief growth officer. 

In his role, Flaccus will lead efforts to expand adoption of Peq’s omnicommerce performance platform among marketers. He will also focus on growing strategic partnerships and leading initiatives to drive the company’s next phase of growth.

Flaccus previously served as managing director, commerce, at Perion and brings more than 20 years of experience helping brands implement marketing technologies and solutions that deliver measurable results. His background spans both multinational organizations and startups.

“Ben's experience connecting marketing strategy with measurable business outcomes will be instrumental in helping our clients unlock the full potential of the Peq platform,” Brian Pozesky, CEO of Peq, said in a media release. 

The Peq omnicommerce performance platform integrates sales and media data to provide a unified view of incremental performance across commerce channels. The platform helps marketers to quantify the impact of investments, compare performance and optimize campaign spend.

Chicory is extending its reach beyond the open web through partnerships with grocery and meal-planning apps, including MyFitnessPal, Listonic and OurGroceries. The move allows the commerce media platform to deliver more relevant advertising and media experiences that support consumer decision-making throughout the path to purchase.

“This additional premium inventory will unlock more opportunities for us to engage with the right shoppers at the right moment,” Nicole Schumacher, CMO of Pre Brands, said in a media release.

Chicory’s ad solutions now appear across more than 5,200 websites and food blogs, supported by more than 70 commerce integrations and six retail media network partnerships. The latest expansion aligns with growing consumer interest in healthy living, home cooking and meal planning.

"Today’s consumer journey doesn’t happen in just one channel; it happens everywhere," Yuni Baker-Saito, CEO of Chicory, said in the release. "Our expansion into apps is the natural next step in meeting consumers in an active mindset and in the moments that matter."

In May, Chicory partnered with Ahold Delhaize USA’s retail media arm, AD Retail Media, to enhance its off-site advertising capabilities. This allows CPG brands to reach shoppers at key moments, such as when creating shopping lists or viewing products online. 

In June, Chicory published its “Economic Sentiment Report,” which surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and highlighted the growing influence of online recipe content on purchasing decisions and meal planning, especially amid current economic uncertainty and inflation. It also revealed that 46% of respondents cook at home more often, and 72% of Gen Z respondents use recipes to plan more affordable meals.

 “We're seeing recipe content boom in popularity, and it may come as a surprise to some brands and retailers just how much they guide purchases and shopping habits,” Baker-Saito added. The data also suggests increased promotional activity in the future, as brands see an opportunity to justify their value over lower-cost alternatives.