Rachel Bennington's Excellence Grounded in Meeting the Needs of Partners at Retail
Rachel Bennington joined Inmar Intelligence in August, tasked with growing the solution provider’s integrated partnerships at retail.
She was ready to tackle the challenge head on, armed with a proprietary technology used for Inmar's incentives and couponing business.
Bennington worked previously at New Engen as vice president of retailer partnerships, where she drove a 710% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024 through major mass retail partnerships.
In November, at the Path to Purchase Institute's 2025 Women of Excellence ceremony, Bennington was named the 2025 Executive of the Year.
At Inmar as regional vice president, retail media engineer, she is working to deepen partnerships with club, dollar and c-store retailers through a solution for user-generated content within Inmar’s creator suite of offerings.
Oftentimes one of the biggest hurdles that brands have is the lack of current, relevant content that's specific to a retailer, she says. “Very quickly I realized that these teams are listening to the needs of the customers, and they're willing to produce something.”
Different from agencies creating large-production, high-fidelity types of studio content, Bennington and her team curated a bench of creators that are on expedited timelines. “From the time we sign with a brand, they can get multiple iterations of content, whether it's video or static imagery,” she says. “We’ll do updated content and have it delivered within two weeks or 12 business days.”
A BevAlc company recently made a packaging change that executives thought would confuse shoppers and make current advertising in the market irrelevant. Within three business days, Bennington and her team created cost-efficient updated content and media that rolled out on a national scale.
“The shopper sees the new content with media behind it to be able to drive that purchase at retail,” she says.
It was a need she recognized early on, and being able to grow Inmar’s solutions quickly has been a win for the entire company. “Multiple teams jumped in and have linked arms to make this happen,” she says. “It’s been incredible to see the response, including from clients who were waiting for something like this.”
Bennington also fostered partnerships with retailers in her first 90 days, building on relationships and offering solutions that fit their needs. “Being able to come to them with quick ways of working that make it easy on their teams to activate with us is critical," she says.
Going forward, incorporating AI is a priority for Bennington and her team. “It saves time, energy and it gives us a more complete output,” she says, adding that while AI cannot replicate what people think and feel as well as the experiences shoppers and consumers want to have with brands, companies such as Inmar can continue to use retail media capabilities with influencers, media and storytelling to create consumer connections with brands.
Bennington was dubbed a “salesman at heart” at a very young age by her family, but what resonated for her when selling Cutco knives door-to-door in college was perhaps even more telling in terms of a future path.
“I fell in love with listening to the customer's needs and being able to have a solution that fits their problems,” she says.
Her innate intellectual curiosity, a continuous-improvement mindset and gratitude for mentors and bosses who helped her grow, have continued to shape her career, from her beginnings in pharmaceutical sales at Novartis, to direct-to-consumer, to serving as the vice president of sales for CPG at GroundTruth.
Most recently, she added retail media to her resume at New Engen.
Bennington’s mantra centers on creating a solid foundation. “I build the relationships, build the trust, listen to the customer and what they need,” she says. “It may not even be with my product or what I have, but if I can help, then I'm going to build a relationship with them that means more than just my product — and they'll trust me when they do need my product.”
Bennington is confident retail media will continue to be a major part of the marketer story, and one that will grow and evolve over the next five years.
Retailers will continue to listen to the needs of their customers, she predicts, know where their shoppers are showing up in meaningful ways, and try to connect with them on those levels.
“You're going to continue to see smart partnerships in retail media over the next five years,” she says. “Being in the business of partnerships is going to help companies that have solutions like what [we have] be successful. Those opportunistic companies are looking for ways to plug in their solutions to not only boost retail media but also their customers.”
