DG Media Network's Sean Tinnelly - National Scale, Unique Reach, High Frequency

Sean (00:00)
Hi, I'm Sean Tinnelly, head of ad sales for Dollar General Media Network, and you're watching the CPG Guys Podcast.

Sri (00:08)
Hello, hello, and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys Podcast, live from Grocery Shop 2026. I'm of course Sri, your West Coast co-host, also CRO and co-founder at ThinkBlue Consulting, where you can get in touch with me at Sri at thinkblueconsulting.co. Pleased to listen to my younger daughter, Lara Raj, of the band Katseye, who's nominated for multiple VMAs this weekend at the time of the recording. They'll be performing on Saturday Night Live. My older daughter Rhea Raj, who just got recently signed by Republic Records along with HybeUSA.

I'm of course joined today by my East Coast co-host and co-founder, Mr. Muppet PVSB. And y'all have to ask him what that means. A fellow adjunct professor of business at the S. C. Johnson School of Business. How you doing man?

PVSB (00:52)
Did you say I'm a junkie professor Was that what you said? Something like that. Something like that. The Muppet Professor

Sri (00:57)
Professor.

PVSB (00:58)
The Muppet Professor. Well, listen, Mr. Waldorf, it's good to be with you here in Vegas, still recovering from yesterday's big event. we had our kickoff party at the chandelier. We had almost 175 people attending, and followed up by our dinner at

Zuma? Zuma. We were in Zuma. Zuma.

Sri (01:18)
Not Zima's.

PVSB (01:19)
It was Zuma. It was not Zima is a malt beverage from the 1980s. That is bringing me back in time. but I loved it, Sri. And what I'm really excited about, we have got a fantastic dinner planned tonight. We're going to be dining with the folks from Dollar General Media Network. I think that's appropriate given who we are about to introduce as our guest, but I'm I'm happy to be here, Sri.

We're creating content. That's what this is all about.

Sri (01:43)
Zima buffet memories, but in any event, to our audience, I want to thank all of you that listen to us and our sponsors. Without you, this podcast doesn't exist. I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our heart. Make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on your preferred listening platform where you can get our latest episodes. Go back and consume some of the 620-plus episodes we've already published. To our audience, if you're getting value from these conversations, we have three quick asks. First,

Subscribe to the CPG guys on whatever platform you're listening on right now, whether that's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, anywhere else you get your podcasts, hit that subscriber follow button so you never have to miss an episode. Second, leave us a rating. It takes a few seconds and it makes an enormous difference in helping other CPG and retail media professionals find us. We build this community one listener, one episode at a time, and Peter says he likes a very special French fry place. What's it called? So you want the five stars.

PVSB (02:35)
So five guys.

And I like to listen to five for fighting. So there's there's a theme here, Sri. The number five. I like the number five. Smash the five. If you're giving us a rating, don't give us anything other than a five. You can give us anything you want, but don't give us anything other than a five. Was I direct enough, Sri? Very clear. Okay, I wanted to be clear.

Sri (02:54)
I think the ask is very clear and now the execution has to happen.

PVSB (02:57)
Pick up your phone, click the five star, and then get right back to listening to us. We got a good guest. Trust me, he's a gem.

Sri (03:05)
We're giving him a five star rating. And third, follow us on LinkedIn. Between episodes we're publishing thought leadership, industry analysis, content you won't find anywhere else, all built for the CPG and retail community you're already a part of. So search CPG guys on LinkedIn and hit follow, click the link in the digital show notes. And of course, at the end of the day it's about subscribing, reading, following. Three simple actions that help us bring you more of the conversations that matter. Now let's talk about a guest.

While much of the retail media conversation centers on high volume, densely populated markets, Dollar General has built its media network around very different customers. The hard-to-reach shopper that other platforms often overlook, with more than 21,000 stores, roughly 80% of them serving communities of 20,000 people or fewer, DGMN gives CPG brands a pat to audiences and geographies that are difficult to reach through traditional digital.

or big box retail media alone. This conversation takes into how DGMN is evolving its on-site, off-site and in store capabilities. How it thinks about measurement and first party data at a small format scale and what advice Sean has for brands looking to activate in rural America. Today we are joined by someone who has spent his career on both the platform and marketplace sides of retail media and ad tech. Now he leads ad sales for one of the fastest growing, most differentiated retail media networks in the country. Let's welcome Sean Tinnelly

Who's head of ad sales at Dollar General Media Network, where he's charged with driving strategic growth and the continued expansion of it. Before joining Dollar General, he led the pantry business at Walmart Connect, and his career also includes readership roles as Smarto, Rakuten Marketing, and eBay. If you want to understand how retail media works when your customer base is rural, urban, and suburban, across those markets across America, hard to reach places, and often overlooked by traditional digital targeting.

You wanna hear from this guy, Sean Tinnelly. Welcome to the CPG guide.

Sean (04:59)
Longtime listener, first time guest, and I'm very excited to be here.

PVSB (05:05)
Listen, we are so pleased to have a huge fan of the Triple A Phillies joining us for today's game.

Sean (05:12)
I knew he was gonna

PVSB (05:13)
I can't. You know you know I'm gonna throw it in there. But we're we love having you here, even though your team is six games behind the Braves going into the stretch. we're gonna get in. keep hope alive. That's all I'm gonna say.

Sean (05:25)
mark the tape folks. I hope this comes back to haunt you. We've got

PVSB (05:29)
Big bowl full of hopium for you here. Thank you, Sean. Good to have you.

Sri (05:33)
The Yankees will be grateful if the Phillies can do business and take care of the Dodgers.

Sean (05:36)
You

know what? I hope that happens for you.

Sri (05:39)
Very

grateful and thankful. Yes. I'll be looking forward to that day.

Sean (05:42)
Me too.

Sri (05:42)
And he hasn't said a word about the Eagles because his team, the Giants, lost pretty badly yesterday in Jackson Dart. I don't know man, maybe Gum talk about

Sean (05:51)
Self admitted. Not many of us are willing to admit.

PVSB (05:54)
Sri, we haven't decl we haven't actually told our audience that since we did announce that we were abandoning the Giants, we haven't quite actually told them where we're

Sri (06:02)
So it's

PVSB (06:04)
we are now LA Rams fans. That Sri and I made a decision as a group. After We

Sri (06:09)
Thirty years of giant fan.

PVSB (06:11)
just had enough. We'd had enough.

Sean (06:13)
I mean, you got a couple of Super Bowls.

PVSB (06:15)
Yeah, that was that. Those

Sri (06:16)
That's Eli Manning days.

PVSB (06:17)
are those days are long gone. Long gone. Which random

Sean (06:20)
It says a lot about a guy who's loyal to the New York Jets.

PVSB (06:24)
Yeah, it does. It says you have issues. You need therapy.

Sean (06:27)
It's a disease my father took my mother.

Sri (06:30)
I'm loyal to the Yankees.

PVSB (06:31)
I feel ya. I feel ya.

Sri (06:32)
To our audience, please check out the digital show notes of this episode to find a hyperlink to Sean's LinkedIn profile to learn more. And as we carry on with this conversation, you can jump right in, which I will kick in kick off now with our very first question for Sean. Sean, let's talk about your own career path. You've been on the ad tech side at Smarto, the marketplace side at eBay and Rakuten.

The big box retail media side at Walmart Connect, what drew you to Dollar General and DGMN specifically and how's that mix of experience shaped how you're building out ad sales there?

Sean (07:02)
Well, Sri, I'll tell you the biggest thing I really learned in my career is that the most important word in retail media is actually retail. And it took me a little while to get there, right? Like I had to really understand the retail side of the business. I was highly exposed to the marketplace, ad tech. But what I really needed to do is deep in and and learn the retail side. I was very blessed to work with some incredible merchants, store operators, folks on the supply side.

As well as my CPG partners. They did a great job educating me in the categories, the assortments, distribution, innovation, the customer, and what ultimately is going to drive growth. Right. And I think that once you understand all of that, you understand that media is really not the business. It's actually the tool to help grow the retailer and to grow the supplier and serve our customers. That's a huge part of what drew me to Dollar General. I'm a builder at heart.

Right. I didn't just come here to run a sales team. This is America's general store. Almost 90 years of history, 20,000 plus stores with an incredible proximity to our consumer. And I looked at that and I thought to myself, there's really an opportunity to build a media business that's connecting to how this retailer grows. And I was very fortunate to be part of building something special before. And I really think that the opportunity to do that again at Dollar General.

was just something that I couldn't pass up.

PVSB (08:31)
Sean, did anyone ever tell you that you have a voice for podcasting? You might want to think about this as a side hustle. This could be though I don't know if we do we want the competition, Sri He's got he might have a better voice than us. Okay, just stick with Dollar General. But we've got We do have the radio faces. stores, so huge scale, like huge scale.

80% of them in markets of 20,000 people or fewer. So my question is, how does that rural small format footprint change the way you introduce Dollar General Media Network to CPG brand versus how they think about some of their bigger retail media players?

Sean (09:18)
Yeah. So Peter, I actually think that's one of the biggest misconceptions about Dollar General. And that's one of the things that's really excited me to be with Dollar General. Rural America is incredibly important to us, but we are really not just a rural retailer. we're America's general store. We're in rural, we're in suburban, we're in urban America. We have over 21,000 stores, and 75% of America lives within five miles of a dollar general.

We're also top five in scale alongside a lot of the other larger retailers in this country. So what I see is a retailer growing, a consumer that's evolving, and a huge opportunity for CPGs. So when I'm sitting with a supplier, the conversation's pretty simple. Where can you grow your business? Can we find you new buyers? Can we drive another trip? Can we sell more units? And can we grow penetration? Can we help launch your next innovation?

That is why I really believe Dollar General needs to have a seat at the table. When you're building your total retail media mix, this is a place where brands can grow.

Sri (10:24)
Sean, it's an interesting misconception that people say Dollar General is rural, because I live in suburban LA, bang smack in the middle of everything in humanity. I have access to three Dollar Generals in a ten mile radius. So walk us through the current shape of TGMN today, on site, off site, in store. How do all those pieces fit the jigsaw puzzle together and where is most of the current advertiser demand concentrated?

Sean (10:52)
You know, Sri, the way I like to think about it is I really don't want Dollar General Media Network to be a bunch of disconnected media products. I really want us to build how the customer actually shops at Dollar General. We can generate awareness off site. We can influence discovery and conversion on-site and through search as well as through DG delivery. And then we can actually reach the customer at the point of purchase through Dollar General in-store radio network, which is going to be 12,000 stores very soon.

But what really excites me is connecting it back to the retail business, our merchants, enterprise marketing, e-commerce team, the stores. Now we're not just talking to a supplier about a campaign. We're talking about how are we going to grow their total business at Dollar General. seeing strong demand across our own and operated channels. And the early adopters are leaning into a little bit more of what we're building. That's where I want us to go.

I really don't want our teams to be approaching folks with a list of media products. I want us to start with where the supplier's trying to accomplish at Dollar General. And we really want to build the plan from there.

PVSB (12:00)
have a little interesting story for you, Sean. I landed yesterday here in Las Vegas, had to do some shopping and get prepared for this week. Now, I don't drink coffee and I also don't drink carbonated beverages. That's that's how

Sri (12:13)
Drink coffee.

PVSB (12:13)
that's how antithetical I am too like I do like zema.

But so what do I do? My favorite my favorite drink is I drink Rockstar Recovery. It's a non-carbonated energy drink, zero calorie. So I go to the Rockstar website, I say, Where should I find this? Where does it take me? A DG market just north of the airport. Hopped in, pulled twelve cans out, stocked them in the fridge here in the hotel room. We're ready to go. DG market

Sean (12:50)
We're in Las Vegas and it's not pretty rural.

PVSB (12:53)
No, it isn't. And Sri and I had the pleasure of touring a DJ market when we were down in Tennessee last October, November area, and we were blown away at how much of your daily shopping can be covered in a DG market. Really great stuff. So now on to my actual question. Okay. So DGMN has leaned heavily into first party data and closed loop measurement, as you've been kind of alluding to.

And you've built up a really great set of partners in your tech stack, the Trade Desk, LiveRamp, Google Ad Manager. So how do you talk to brands about the value of that data given how different the DG shopper looks from a traditional grocery or mass merchandise retailer? Yeah.

Sean (13:34)
For me, it really starts with the customer, right? We've got over a hundred million marketable consumer profiles across rural, suburban, urban. And what a lot of folks don't know is that half of those are not available through your traditional third-party data sets. You can only get them through Dollar General. And think about that. That is a huge Dollar General customer base that you might not really fully understand or even be able to reach if you're relying on the same data that you've always used.

But a big audience to me is not enough. I want to understand who's buying your brand. I want to know who's not buying your brand, who's buying the category, and who's not. And that to me is where the growth opportunity really is. Because then what we can do is we can then really build those audiences. We can activate them across DGMN or the other platforms that you're already using, like Trade Desk, DV360, Yahoo. And then we want to close the loop with our measurement.

And to me, it has to be really simple. I don't care if we could tell you we served a bunch of impressions. Did we find you a new buyer? Did we drive another trip? Did we sell more units? And are we growing your business at Dollar General? To me, that is what matters. We have to find the growth opportunities and we're going to utilize that data. And then we're going to use the media to go get it.

Sri (14:57)
No doubt get the media to go find it. DGMN recently expanded I gotta use the word, I'm sorry. AI based in store audio.

PVSB (15:06)
Into the conversation where we before we mentioned the dreaded acronym AI?

Sri (15:11)
We waited eighteen minutes. That's pretty good Congratulations, Peter.

PVSB (15:14)
That's a that's a l that's a l that's a new record.

Sri (15:17)
Believable.

How are in store media formats like that performing relative to digital? How do you help brands think about allocating budget across on site, off site and now in store through the audio network?

Sean (15:28)
So ideally, we don't really want to approach someone and say, hey, let's start with in-store or start with digital. We have to start with the retail plan. What's in the merchant JBP? Where is your assortment going in our store? Exactly. What's always on? Where are your end caps? What's your innovation? What is going to be your big seasonal moments? Then what we like to do is we'll figure out what media could support that.

Our recent yellow glasses activation is a great example. This wasn't just the media campaign. We brought together the broader Dollar General ecosystem, inclusive of enterprise marketing, and we built a media plan around a major company initiative. Ultimately, it delivered nearly twice the planned media exposure, and that's the stuff that gets me excited. I really don't want to sell a supplier an in-store product because I have one.

I want to understand what are we trying to accomplish for the business, for our customers, and then bring the right pieces of Dollar General together around it. And to me, that is really what retail media should be.

Sri (16:36)
I love that the definition of retail media right there. Customers, merchant, JBP. At the end of the day, if you deliver on those three promises, you're going to have awesome outcome for brands. So let me remind our audience that we're speaking with Sean Tinnelly, head of ad sales for Dollar General Media Network. Over to you, Peter.

PVSB (16:54)
Sean, for a lot of consumer goods manufacturers, rural and small town shoppers are honestly hard to reach with traditional digital marketing. So what does DGMN unlock for a brand if they simply can't get anywhere else in their media mix? What makes you so indispensable in that respect?

Sean (17:15)
Well, Peter, know, we are really proud of our rural customer, but I really want folks who are listening to this to understand we're not just rural. We have a huge suburban business. And as Sri called out, we are in urban markets. We're seeing digital e commerce bring a new customer to Dollar General. Think about this. We have 21,000 stores, 75% of America living within five miles of Dollar General.

And now we are starting to lay delivery on top of that. And we're seeing it. Delivery is 80% incremental. And we're seeing strong repeat. Over a million customers who first came to Dollar General through delivery are now shopping in our stores. And I love that because it's changing the perception of Dollar General. Digital isn't competing with the store, and it's actually becoming a front door for Dollar General.

The customer's an omnichannel customer already. Our job, we have to meet them there. And that to me is a really powerful opportunity for brands.

Sri (18:19)
What a well-worded statement that you ended with right there, that the customers are the omnichannel indeed, and that the primary role you're performing here is to meet them there. But if you do that right, it is genuinely the right opportunity for the brand. So let's now talk about the advertiser base, which is the brand, of course. DGM is bought on major partners like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Hershey's, P&G.

What does that growth in advertiser demand look like and where are you seeing the most momentum right now? Yeah.

Sean (18:50)
I would say I've been here for a year now, right? Groceryshop last year was wow, literally within like my first two weeks of being with Dollar General. and it's really night and day from when I walked in the door a year ago. think early on we were really asking our partners to believe in what Dollar General Media Network could be. Today, our early adopters, they're starting to lean in deeper. The conversations are becoming bigger, we're getting brought into the business a lot earlier.

But I do tell my team all the time, nobody owes us an investment. We don't get it because people like our story. We have to earn it. And that's through partnership, hard work, and ultimately business results. And I think that really means you've got to understand retail and not just media. You have to understand your merchant counterparts. You have to understand the categories that you're supporting, the assortment, the innovation.

Understand what the supplier is actually trying to accomplish with Dollar General. I never ever want Dollar General to be viewed as a tax or a line item because someone's partnering with Dollar General or they have to work with Dollar General. We really want to earn those dollars. And if we do that, I really want CPG leadership to ask their teams one question. What are we doing with Dollar General? That's the position that I really want us to earn.

PVSB (20:08)
Sean, I to talk a little bit about the makeup of your client base. is it a national CPG advertiser club only, or is there room it particularly a DGMN and for smaller regional brands to break into rural markets and use your platform to reach these consumers?

Sean (20:26)
I would say I don't really look at it as a large brand versus a small brand. I look at what is this brand trying to accomplish at Dollar General? As you both know, a large CPG, they might be trying to grow penetration. They might be trying to launch innovation, or they're trying to take market share from one of their competitors. An emerging brand, they might be saying, hey, we want to prove out velocity. We want to show that we can earn more distribution. And that's a different problem. Therefore, there needs to be a different plan.

But to me, the approach is always going to be the same. And it comes back to understanding the category, understanding what our merchant is trying to accomplish, and ultimately understanding our customers. If we figure that out and we figure out where we can help the brand go, my vision's really simple. I want a brand that's large or small, saying, if I want to win nationally, I have to win at Dollar General. I want Dollar General Media Network to be top of mind with all CPG leadership.

When they're talking about the biggest growth opportunities that they have, I really want someone in that room asking, what are we doing with Dollar General? And we've got to earn that position. But that's really the vision I have and where I want us to go.

Sri (21:36)
You know, retail media is actually maturing pretty fast. Terms like incrementality.

PVSB (21:42)
Okay, good.

Sri (21:45)
Adolescent year.

Sean (21:46)
It's got a driver's license.

Sri (21:47)
Sound

classy. I want to use good English language words.

PVSB (21:51)
I like that Sri.

Sri (21:52)
So incrementality, attribution, proving real ROI, dominating the conversation across the industry. I'm sure you experience it too. How's DGMN approaching measurement and incrementality specifically for a shopper basin store format that looks so different from a typical big box or grossly network?

Sean (22:09)
Yeah, so this is the part that I really do care about. At some point, it has to translate into business results. Roas, incrementality, attribution, it absolutely matters, but I don't want to stop at did this campaign work? Did we find a new buyer? Did we drive another trip? Did we sell more units? And did we grow penetration? Did we help the merchant and the supplier accomplish their shared goals? That's what I care about.

And as we get better at proving that out, I really think something bigger is going to happen. Our merchants, the e-commerce teams, the enterprise marketing teams, stores, as well as DGMN, they're going to start working even more closely. And that's what's going to drive the growth. Dollar General's already a national retail powerhouse. What we're doing now is we're connecting that physical scale with digital e-commerce data and we're layering media on top of that. And it's our job to prove that out.

And I think if we ask a brand to invest more in us, then we should really show how we're going to be growing their business.

PVSB (23:12)
Sean, this has been as what Sri would describe a cracker jack conversation. Some and so I want to help wrap this up in a nice neat bow. As Dollar General Media Network continues to scale its off-site, on-site, in-store capabilities, what's the roadmap looking forward and

what is the best advice for a brand that hasn't yet activated reaching the customers that are particularly strong within your portfolio?

Sean (23:41)
First, I'd really broaden it beyond rural America. As I said before, rural is extremely important to us. But when I look at the overall opportunity, I see Dollar General. I see a national retail powerhouse. We are still growing. And when I say we're still growing, we're growing physically. We're growing digitally. E-commerce is growing. And Dollar General Media Network, as the two of you have seen, is starting to really evolve alongside of it.

And I think that there's a massive ocean of consumers out there. And Dollar General is actually giving brands access to a really unique part of that ocean. What I want us to do is connect our merchants, our stores, e-commerce, enterprise marketing, and media all around what's going to help brands win those customers. I am already seeing it. The brands leaning in today are getting very good results. They're going much deeper with us, and they're helping shape what comes next.

Over time, I really do believe that more brands are going to see what those early adopters, as I call them, are seeing right now. So if you are a CPG leader and you're listening to this podcast, hopefully you are, I'd go back and ask your team one question. What are you doing with Dollar General? Because I really believe more and more, if you want to win nationally, you have to win at Dollar General.

PVSB (25:05)
Well said.

Sri (25:07)
So Peter, great conversation. I like the fact that Sean emphasized what he wants to see inside of brands. Ask the actual question, what are you doing with Dollar General? But what's your big takeaway, Peter?

PVSB (25:19)
Well, first I wanna say now I understand why Austin has been keeping the Velvet Voice away from us because I think he was a little concerned that Sean was gonna overshadow him and do we even need to bring Austin back now that we have a new voice champion here amongst us Sri. I am I'm humbled to be in his presence, Austin. We still love you. You I'm just gonna get his

Sean (25:38)
Jacket.

PVSB (25:39)
yeah, he he has been kind of poking me about where's my jacket.

Sean (25:42)
He told me he would wear it all the time.

PVSB (25:44)
Okay, we will issue him his jacket. We made him wait long enough. but what I learned today was very interesting, Sri, and and it was kind of buried in his opener, but he kind of referenced it little bit later on, which is for all that Dollar Gender Media Network is doing, it is doing it in the service of growing brands and growing the category. It is not doing it

In service of chasing a new revenue stream. That is antithetical to what DGMN is contributing to the organization. Brands should know if they're going to work with DGMN, it is going to help them build their brand. It's going to help Dollar General build its business. And that is the purpose of the network. So that that to me is the thing that really stood out among everything else we discussed today.

Sri (26:31)
kind of mentioned already Peter the approach that he wants the CPG CMO and the brand teams to kind of ask the question internally, what are we doing with Dollar General? And then when they do invest, I've taken some notes here to actually respond back with answers. Did the campaign work? Did we find a new buyer? Did we drive another trip? Did we sell more units? Did we grow penetration? Most importantly, did we help the merchant and supplier accomplish what they were trying to do and then close it out with if

They are going to invest more, we should be able to show them how we're helping grow their business. That makes for a successful retail media network. So, Sean, I wanna thank you for joining us here in a busy conference such as Grocery Shop. Thanks for being here, man.

Sean (27:17)
glad to be here and thank you for having me.

Sri (27:20)
Anytime to our audience if today's conversation sparked something for you, a new idea, a fresh perspective, a reminder of why this industry is worth showing up for every day. Share it, tag us, tell a colleague. The more voices we bring into this community, the sharper all of us get to the over forty-seven thousand plus followers on LinkedIn that trust us to inform, educate, and entertain you about our industry. Thank you for your trust and encouragement. Until next time, keep pushing the conversation forward from grocery shop. I'm Sri on behalf of my co-host

PVSB, this has been the CPG Guys Podcast. See you soon.