Unlocked Podcast Crossover with Elizabeth Donovan & Austin Leonard

PVSB 0:57

Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast, set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Peter V. S. Bond and Tree Raja Kapalin, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

Welcome to Unlocked with Austin and Elizabeth. Very special episode. Very special. I'm your host, Austin Leonard. I'm here with my co-host, Elizabeth Donovan. Elizabeth, where are we today?

SPEAKER_03 1:30

We are at Ed Week 2026 in New York City.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

And uh normally we'd like to do these remote. It's nice, comfortable in the home. But as you can see, we have two uh other folks in the room with us. Um who do we have today? The one. Well, the two.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

I mean the only. The two and only.

PVSB 1:47

The two and only. The two and only. CPG guys. Hey! We're gonna unlock the CPG guys today. What's up, Shrie? No, no, no. We're not definitely not.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

We're working on the name of the collab still, but the good news is uh It is a crossover event. It's a crossover event. One of the main things that helped drive us to actually get this going was listening for many years to our our good friends, Peter and Shreya, the CPG guys. So we can't thank you guys enough for joining us.

Sri 2:16

Congratulations on the success, having the guts to launch it, doing what you do, being who you both are, and getting to this many episodes. We know it's not easy.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

You inspire us every day. And I always said, I know we're making it when we have the CPG guys on the pod.

PVSB 2:33

We're honored to be here. We're big fans of what you guys are producing, both professionally and we love you guys personally. You're family to us, and we've created this little podcast community. We're so happy to have you as a part of it. We don't everyone asks, why do you talk about or promote other podcasts on your podcast? And what I say is, this is not a zero-sum game. A rising tide in podcasts lifts all

2:57

ships.

PVSB 2:58

I think I know from talking to you guys, you agree. Our goal is to try and get people to use podcasts as a method to both entertain and educate them. And if all they ever do is listen to the CPG guys, they're gonna get bored of us pretty quickly. But if we are in a rotation of podcasts where you get different perspectives and different approaches, that's what we're looking for. So we are so happy to have you in this community that we're all a part of.

Sri 3:26

He came for the ships and tides. I came for the adwe gossip.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

All right.

Sri 3:32

Perfect.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

Ships, tides, and gossip. Live from New York City. Live from New York City. It's Unlocked with Austin Louisville. With the unlocked people with the CBG gadget. That's a nice you guys got a new logo. Yeah. Yeah. We're working on the working on it.

PVSB 3:49

To quote the eternal uh Mel Brooks from uh SpaceFood, it's about the Moich and dice. It's about the Moich and Dice.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Unlocked merch. I can't believe it.

PVSB 3:56

Unlocked merch. We want we want some swag. Bring us some swag.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

You got it. You'll be the first one to get it. Well, we appreciate that. And and uh for those listening, the thing that I love about that is that's not just something that Peter and Therese say on the air behind the scenes. They've been super supportive, they're always willing to give advice, help. Yeah, and they're giving up a lot of time during a very busy week. So we appreciate that. Likewise. Thank you. Thank you. For those that haven't listened to Unlocked, because we do know that we're reaching a new audience, we are Unlocked with Austin and Elizabeth. We have been building this as a way to help give back to the community. What we like to do is really talk about the history of retail media because what we have learned is that helps us really guide into the future. So we're actually gonna flip the script on on the guys today and let them make it a little easier. Instead of them having to host and moderate, Elizabeth and I are gonna ask them the super tough questions, right, Elizabeth? Bring it.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

I don't think these guys have any tough questions. They know their stuff.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Well, before we do that, focus on don't underestimate our ability to disappoint you, but we'll do our best. But before we do that, Sri, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself for the five people that listen to our podcast that don't know who you are?

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Well, we actually have a thousand. We have a lot of listeners. Hey.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

But for the few that don't, that's a literal Peter.

Sri 5:22

I remember our thousand. It came in 2021. It was a magic moment. Congratulations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Thank you. Thank you.

Sri 5:30

I even cut cakes and did social media for five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five is when I stop. We're about one and a half away from fifty, which on LinkedIn will be a very magic moment. I can't wait to get that cake from Elizabeth Cake.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

I actually do make cakes.

Sri 5:45

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Um, with no preservatives and no dyes. So I want to keep red dye.

PVSB 5:51

I mean, we we live for look at us. We live for white flowers. We're old. We need to be preserved.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Okay, I'm gonna give you a few. We are six minutes in.

PVSB 6:00

We are already completely off the track.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

That's what makes it great.

PVSB 6:05

I want to talk about I want to look like that MM guy. That's how red I want to be. Okay. Okay. Ad week, yes. But seriously, who are you guys?

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Yeah. We'll start with you, Papa Street.

Sri 6:14

We're we're the CPG guys, Peter and I. We've been doing this about six years, give or take, six hundred and fifty odd episodes in, thrice a week. Every Tuesday, we kind of do a recap of what the latest happenings in the industry from earnings announcements to promotions to new executive appointments, things of that nature, things that are meaningful MA. We release two episodes a week. Usually one is with a brand or retailer, and one is with the network of service providers that exist in our community. And uh 650 episodes later, we're doing other things as well, such as doing keynotes on stage, hosting dinners for many of our partners, you know, Jibut. So our goal is to make the industry a better place. Where people can network freely, can work with each other. And at the end of the day, Peter and I are comic relief. We call the podcast Edutainment.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Oh, I love that.

Sri 7:04

Anything to add?

PVSB 7:05

Yeah, Sri and I have known each other 30 years. We met at the artist formerly known as IRI back in Norwalk, Connecticut, when we were working. Ah, something that we were old school. And it was it was in 2018, 2019 that Sri came to me at a conference in Chicago and said, Would you like to do something together? I was thinking about us co-authoring a weekly blog. And uh, for reasons uh that that transpired thereafter, we weren't able to do it. But at the beginning of the pandemic, Sri called me up and said, Hey, that idea about doing a blog, we should revisit that. Because I don't know if you've seen these companies like Instacart and Grizzly just exploding. We should be talking about that. And I said, Well, I love the idea, but I think uh a blog is a little last millennium. What do you think if we did a YouTube channel? So we just started using Zoom to record conversations where each week Sri and I would take turns asking questions. And after we recorded about five episodes, we decided that one, we needed to move to podcast format so people could consume on the go. Two, as much as we thought of ourselves as subject matter experts after five episodes, we'd exhausted our expertise and we probably needed guests. And uh last was that uh the original name we came up with, consumer engagement in an omnichannel world, was just a little too not rolling off the tongue enough. So we came up with the CPG guys, and those were kind of the three big catalysts that set us in motion. Uh, to Cherie's point, we are very much about educating. We understand that in this industry that we're in, understanding what a DSP versus an SSP is can be very dry. And we do lean heavy on the entertainment. And Sherie and I are always joking around, kidding around, because to us it's kind of the Mary Poppins approach. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So we're always joking with each other, but it's so that people can gravitate to what we're talking about and just uh laugh and learn at the same time. I'm very fortunate. My background was primarily on the retail side. I spent four years at Dunhumbey during their partnership with Kroger. I ran the extra care loyalty program at CBS for three years, as Sheree is fond to mention all the time. I'm the person responsible for the six-foot-long register receipts you get when you buy a bottle of soda. Uh and uh Sri cut his chops on the CPG side from PepsiCo to JJ to Revlon, and then most recently the CCO at General Mills. We bring a practitioner's approach to what we're talking about. And we we love it because we get to invite our friends on, friends like you, uh, to talk on the podcast. And we've built a community. And and if at the end of the day, when people stop us, uh anywhere we are, most often it's at a conference. But I mean, I was in Tokyo two summers ago walking through downtown, and this guy just walked up to me. I wasn't wearing any swag. I said, You CPG guy, and sat there, and I know it's a little, it's a little crazy. So we're so honored to be in this industry. This podcast has been a blessing to us. Nobody learns more about this industry from those podcasts than we do because we get to ask the questions we want answers to. So that's that's the only thing I'd ask, just that little bit.

Sri 10:15

Yeah. We get to learn every day. That's the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

You're learning, yeah, you're unlocking friendship.

PVSB 10:20

Unlocking friendships.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

You're unlocking learnings. And you know, do you guys know the story of how Austin and I?

PVSB 10:27

No, we want to know though. We want this story. We want the origin story, the meat cube, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

When I first met Austin, it was at the Ascendant Network. And um, this is even before the Which year?

Sri 10:39

Um long time ago.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Right after you were 23, the first year. Yeah. So he he was just talking. Were you at any of those?

PVSB 10:49

I didn't. I only I never went to an Ascendant event. I only went to one of their cocktail parties at Groceryshop.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Well, that community is very special to us. That's where I met Austin. That's where I met a lot of the builders in this industry that really inspired us to do this podcast. And I was really thinking about how can I have my childhood dreams come true? Because I always went, you know how some people You wanted to go to Daughter Stadium too? That yeah, how cool. And you're like you're in New York. I don't know. Oh, sorry.

PVSB 11:16

Oh, different dream.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Different dream. But I would say, you know, some girls dream about their wedding. I dreamed about always having a microphone. And I was on stage, but I was alone. But I knew I could never be alone because I love people so much. So I started thinking about running this podcast. And then one day, you know, I was looking and looking, and I was like, I don't know who could be my co-host. But he was right in front of me all these days. There he was. There he was. Hilarious. I was gonna say quirky, but not really. Quirky? All right, that's a new one. Not quirky, but really so smart and knowledgeable, and just a builder just like myself. And I said, you know what? As usual, Austin and I are never playing by the rules. We're always talking too much. And rules?

Sri 12:03

Who will who cares for rules? Forget the rules. I thought he was only there for the looks. No, I know a lot more.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

I went outside and I just came right up to him. I'm totally ignoring this. I went right up to him and I said, Austin, I'm making a podcast and I want you to be my co-host. I asked nobody else in the world, I told nobody else about it. And Austin pulls up his phone. I've been writing a podcast. And we compared notes. We're like, and so let's do it. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

And the time it was perfect. In in the energy that we have and the fun that we have with it, that was the part that that makes it obviously a fun side hustle and allows us to start to build this fun thing that we're building. But again, you guys were were part of that that motivation and that inspiration for us to do it. You are at the bar.

PVSB 12:46

Was it a radio basis? Full disclosure, you should know. At this point, we only say together for the kids. But but you go ahead. Live the dream that is Muppet something, Waldorf. Do you guys remember the Muppet Show? No, I mean remember Waldorf and Statler, the crotchy old guys up in the balcony? That's us.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

We love it. That's nice.

PVSB 13:04

They don't know this.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Definitely not Miss Piggy.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

No. No, no. We're not part of their Muppet show. No, no, it's our Muppet Show. They are up on our balcony. They are watching.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Let's do video because we do podcasts because of the Lady of Faces. It's like perfect fit.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

We we are starting to get into things. We have an Instagram handle. Ooh. We are going to post. We will share soon. It's taking a while.

PVSB 13:30

You need TikTok too. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Maybe this is the first episode that we air a few clips. There we go. No MySpace? Yeah, I was going to say MySpace.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

I didn't know how to code those sounds. Somehow I had fewer followers than our Instagram. So you know what? I would love to bring back the top eight. There we go. You know? Oh. Speaking of top eight, just to get us back on track. Oh, yes. We did week. We do actually. We wanted to give a couple before we get to ad week because we're good, we will get there. Um, we like, let's take that look back moment first. So, because you guys have been in the industry for a while, you guys were at the forefront of like, hey, we need to be talking about retail media and commerce media. But what was that moment? What's that first moment that really said, hey, this is going to be huge? We think this is important for the industry. We think this is important most importantly for actually driving business results. What was that first moment that you guys want to talk about?

PVSB 14:23

I I can tell you when I knew that what we were doing was resonating. We had invited on uh a fellow by the name of Josh Ryder. Josh was at the time working for Seth Delaire when he was at Instacart and he was getting prepared to launch the Instacart Ads platform. Uh, we had gone to Josh and said, We'd love to have you come on the podcast. And he kept pushing us off because PR was getting ready to give a big push behind Instacart Ads. But they remember, it's the summer of 2020, and they kept signing more and more retailers. So every time they'd sign a big retailer, Pierre would push him off. And after about six times getting pushed, he finally called us up and he goes, I don't know if I'm ever gonna get a slot, so I want to come on your podcast because I need some amplification. So he came on and we talked to him two weeks after the episode, and we just wanted to see if he got any feedback. Right. And we called him up, and Josh said, Oh yeah, I got some feedback for you. I can name at least 20 brands that have signed on to the Instacart ads platform because they heard your podcast episode.

Sri 15:22

So V knew that day we're already getting reach. But then I also had the privilege of working for a very large market cap CPG company where I was dealing working with a ton of retail media networks. And very early in 2021, I felt this is gonna be a phenomenon of extraordinary scale. Remember, COVID happened. There was a massive movement in the grocery industry from about two, three percent penetration of e-com to 15% overnight when COVID hit. Like within one week, that changed. And so the industry had to gravitate. Retail media was built full of, I'm talking back then. Today, retail media is a full funnel mechanism. Four years ago, five years ago, it was more a lower funnel mechanism. Yeah, it was all display ads. Display ads and search. So even search came later, it was really display ads. Display. It made sense to us on day one through knowledge, experience, the Josh. Josh doesn't know that. We learn now he'll know publicly that that was a unique moment. But we know we had reach, and then we knew we really had reach when about a year into the show, uh, and I'm gonna give credit to our very first sponsor. Heather Marie Udo called us. From Shoppable. From Shopable. And she said, I'm willing to sponsor an episode of the show and said, Peter, somebody actually wants to write as a channel.

PVSB 16:44

We we had talked about when we thought we would have a large enough audience that we could possibly approach a sponsor at the rate we were growing our followers on LinkedIn, because that was the only metric we we really had that we could measure against. And so we said it's gonna be December of 2021 before we thought we'd have a credible enough audience size. And she came to us much earlier in February, and they kept coming. They kept coming. We were we were completely inbound sourcing of sponsors for the episode for the better part of three years.

Sri 17:19

Today it's a different ballgame. We are booked out our inventory right now of what are we sitting here in early October. We don't have a slot for another podcast till February.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

Wow.

Sri 17:31

Yeah. Booked out a high demand.

SPEAKER_04 17:33

I do remember those early episodes though. Like there was a you guys did a very wide range, even like thinking about how does supply chain work in the time when there's the first time anyone on the consumer-facing side cared about supply chain. And then there'd always be this like, and now we're gonna go to Sri's favorite topic, retail media, and then it's just it consumed us over time. Yeah, it became a point where the only ones talking about it, right? That was the that was the first time that anyone I was actually talking about retail media at the scale that you guys ended up building.

Sri 18:00

Boston, I do think we have a unique perspective or a privilege more than anything, an honor and a privilege of having been raised in in this industry as practitioners. Like I've run retail media budgets, he's run loyalty programs. So we come deep with that coaching background. We've done it as a job. So when someone sits across the t of the table as our guests, we kind of anticipate what's on their mind, and that's how we shape all our questions for them based on if we were doing their job, what would they care about the most and what would the message they want to get out to the industry.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

And that that's the key, right? You you know your guests, you understand your guests because you've been there, you've done that.

Sri 18:40

Yeah, a lot of people don't, I think, comprehend for every single episode the amount of energy and effort Peter and I put in pre-show to write the right script to introduce the person with the right language.

PVSB 18:53

You guys know this. We may look like that swan gliding effortlessly across the pond, but if you go underwater, there are some legs furiously kicking. Sri and I spend an inordinate amount of time, as I know you guys do, prepping, getting ready, figuring out what you want to talk about. We don't phone it in, we don't ask the same ten questions to every single person. Our goal is to get questions answered, but to do it in a way that our guests feel welcome and and want to be open about what their subject matter expertise is.

Sri 19:30

So also before we had a team, Peter and I were doing everything on subs.

PVSB 19:35

I had to teach myself how to post a podcast, how to record, how to do that. We did it.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

We're still doing.

PVSB 19:41

But you know what? It made me appreciate what it takes for people who now do those roles to do so that I know when we hire a video editor, we had an episode we recorded in Las Vegas. I gave it, he came back from vacation yesterday. I gave him a very concise document of everything. He had no questions and he produced the episode. I saw it this morning and he did it perfectly. So operationally, it's because we actually did the work ourselves that we can make sure that the work gets done as we pass it on to people that are probably more appropriate to do it than we are, so that we can focus on on some of these new things we're getting involved with.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

There's so much that goes behind the scenes. Like, look at this amazing setup, right? And look how quickly you did it because you're practicing, you've done it so much. Like for us, uh, you know, JLib actually sent us some microphones. That was so nice. That is so cool. Yeah. So um, I spoke on a panel, I think it was at CES, and I met the chief marketing officer, Tara, and she said, you know what? I love that the vision of your podcast. And she sent us some some head equipment. So now I'm like, okay, we see this setup. Austin and I'll like we need to continue to invest because we're growing. And we're at it week this weekend.

PVSB 20:58

To sure JBL or any other electronics company that wants to curry favor with the CPG guys, you can send us anything you want. Yes, and I'll be able to do that.

Sri 21:07

You sure you're not gonna ask them for a sponsorship? Yeah.

PVSB 21:09

I I want some of that too.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

We just need some startup uh cameras to

Sri 21:14

Hey, the one thing we'll pass on to y'all when you're newer, you guys have been doing this more than a year at this point, so but I'd still call y'all newer in the ecosystem. Don't chase perfection. Don't chase the perfect video. Don't chase the perfect audio. When you've scaled like us, you don't have a choice. You have to have perfection in I I'll never say perfection. The quality has to be very high.

PVSB 21:37

I can't tell you how many podcasts I've seen out there come with the perfect studio and lighting, the great equipment, and they're 12 episodes and they're done.

Sri 21:45

Yeah, because the conversation is horrible.

PVSB 21:47

It's the conversation that matters.

Sri 21:49

Focus on the quality of the conversation that you guys are having and also with the guests you choose to bring, versus I need perfection audio quality and uh and my video quality. The other thing is we started only one episode a week. Now we're three episodes a week, and we do one a month.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

So we'll get it.

Sri 22:08

Hot off the press. We're starting a second podcast on November 2nd called On the Rise to give brand founders an opportunity to also reach the industry so retail can hear them. Now that we have merchants on the leaders, they have a spin-off. Yes, a second podcast.

PVSB 22:24

More importantly, our big event for that next year is going to be Expo West because that entire room is filled with early stage startups.

Sri 22:33

And I do want to share.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

You're answering the question already. There's the pros. There's such pros.

Sri 22:38

That'll be weekly, but more importantly, what I do want to share, which Peter and I are very proud of that new podcast, is every even episode, so episode two, four, six, eight, we're going to be discussing what I feel is a topic we should be discussing in the industry, which we don't approach as an industry, which is human adapted. AI is about to set upon us and already is set upon us in spectacular ways. What we are here for is ad week. It's going to affect how an agency does work every day. It's going to affect jobs, positively or negatively, TBD. Also, uh yesterday I was talking to an executive who was talking about stress management. Those episodes will entirely be about human adaptability, how to be a corporate athlete. While Peter and another experts who are partnering with somebody will announce that shortly as well. I have a feeling those episodes kick off November 2nd.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

I'm so excited.

Sri 23:33

We're going to invite you on that show.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Oh, I can't remember.

Sri 23:36

On the rise is the name. We need to showcase you as on the rise.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Well, I would love to, and thank you so much. Uh so you talked about some new themes. Let's think about Ed Week. What are we hearing for 2026? And you know, who else would you want to bring on on the rise?

PVSB 23:52

Um the in terms of the overall theme, of course, you you can't step on stage now a week without talking about AI, AI, AI. My bigger issue is not what we're hearing, it's what we're not hearing.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Exactly.

PVSB 24:06

What we're not hearing is the measurement aspect. The decisions that are being made to invest in uh commerce media and retail media are increasingly going from customer teams to CMO up to the board. Right. And the CFO doesn't want to make recommendations to whole scale change how they uh how they reallocate their uh marketing budget for advertising without having strong measurement. If you don't come to the table to talk about how you are showing that the efforts that you're putting into it financially and what have you are delivering measurable results, you're you're not gonna get the outcomes you're looking for. That's the one thing I I I absolutely urge people to do.

Sri 24:56

I feel today is day two of AdVicQues Day. There's literally conversations taking place through the entire network here at many off-site locations, not just the West 33rd Street one about agency models and AI and how they're completely transforming already. So AI, there's enough conversations. I got one which we should be talking about a lot more. And Elizabeth, is it squarely in your everyday job? Because you represent a big partnership with Axiom. We're not talking enough about data. We're not talking enough about the core data foundation about master data, because unified master data equal to good data, equal to good LLM, equal to good AI. And last thing I heard about two weeks ago from one of those AI founders, you don't have a good LLM, AI can annihilate the world. So the four of us need to prevent annihilation of the world.

PVSB 25:48

And I wait, you've gone all Terminator on us already, Sri?

SPEAKER_04 25:52

It's us against the world.

PVSB 25:55

So you're saying no Skynet.

Sri 25:57

No Skynet. No Skynet. Okay. No, but the my point again was why are we not talking enough about clean data, good data, but free.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

You gotta come to my panel.

Sri 26:08

Yes. But but Elizabeth, you're one of those No, it it it's true. It should have been a whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

I would say that I've been to several um, you know, work sessions recently and part of some studies, and it it kind of scares me about the lack of this foundation. And even before being here at Axiom, people don't know my origin story at Acuweather. In 2015, I had the best data analysts with 50 plus years of weather data. Do you know what I did? And thank you, this is not a sponsored AkiWeather post, but I will say that what they let me do into so early on is I said, Can I go and do politicals with our data and how to get out the vote based on zip code and how the weather patterns have been in the fifth in the last 50 years? And do you know what happened? They said yes. And you know what I did? I got on the Acela to DC and I did cold calling like nobody ever did before. And you know who I met? The super PACs. I went into ever I don't even think you know I've not heard the story, but this is a lot of things. This is fascinating. And I connected with heads of campaigns so much so. I was in Brooklyn. We did both sides, by the way, left and right, because we're we we didn't know.

PVSB 27:33

Why not up and up and down? You were a nonpartisan data source.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

A data source, that's right. So but guess guess whose campaign that I worked on? Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, and they utilized the weather patterns for active get out the vote targeting.

Sri 27:50

I would have never guessed that. And guess what the data said?

PVSB 27:53

You should have put people in Pennsylvania, Michigan.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

And we called and we said that and didn't listen, did they? That I cannot say, but what I would say is Acuweather still gets those political dollars because the they're fabulous stories you can trust the and that was 2015, and that's when my love for data and how I curate on the channel but but you're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

But you're not wrong. The problem is that that's the less exciting side of the city. It's not sexy, it's it's it's it's it's resistant. I can definitely say from my past experience, that's something that people they uh especially the folks that are more on the sales side of things, they're more focused on how do we deliver on the revenue, how do we hit the goals that were given to us. They they are trusting that their teams on the back end are working on that. But it's it's an important topic that I don't think people give enough time.

Sri 28:43

So I want to ask you both a question now. We know you both were on a panel today. Tell us all about what the panel was, what did you guys speak about, and how was the uh audience uh reach.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Well, the amazing thing was that it was standing room only, and they didn't even let everyone in because there were so many people.

Sri 29:01

Because we had Despite him being there for the looks.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

He's there for the looks and the brain.

Sri 29:09

Hashtag iCandy.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

This is so nice. I love this. It's brain candy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

It was called the Next Frontier of Commerce Media. We were talking about how data identity and curation is the foundation with measurement. But you know why it was so important? It was important for the audience to hear how Dollar General is doing it, how Marriott is doing it, how other companies like Magnite from that lens is supporting. And then we had such a panel, and everyone was taken away with something to learn to bring back to their companies on how to bring how to get their data clean, but also how to utilize it for measurement across the omnichannel solution. And I would say it was the best one of all.

SPEAKER_04 29:57

And and I think that uh, you know, especially in an ad week setting, like you don't get to get into the how as much as you'd like. And certainly enough time. There's enough. Well, and there's there's also dynamics. But we had that's right. We were up there with obviously the illustrious Elizabeth Donovan, so which she was the mastermind on the panel. We had Xbound Mobile up there, we had uh Marriott Media up there, we had Magnite, and you know, I was lucky enough to get to represent Dollar General. And it's it was a really cool cross-section. Now, part of the future edge of that panel was we were talking about things that are happening in-store, especially, because that's where not only is that where a lot of the action is, and that's what people are really interested in, but that's also where we I think that we can bridge the gap from a measurement standpoint that it helps to bring those pieces together. So it was a lot of fun and uh congrats, guys, on the panel.

Sri 30:43

It was great and shaping the industry.

PVSB 30:45

That's what you've got you got a speech. Sri and I have not uh Sri is actually you've you have actually appeared at AdWeek. You did that a couple years ago in your role at at General.

SPEAKER_04 30:53

You appeared, Peter. I saw you out on the street right next to the DeLorean with your with your bags, and people were taking pictures with you. You know what I'm just gonna do.

PVSB 31:04

Any desire to be any better than the other. I have been on a panel. I was I was on a panel in 2022 with Westroll from uh from Fetch. From Fetch.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

I've been on the list three years.

PVSB 31:14

But I want that DeLorean. Okay, there was a DeLorean parked out front.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

Somebody at that I called it the Mandalorian parking. The Mandalorian, a different type of DeLorean. Is it a good one?

PVSB 31:22

Wait, wait, wait. I want to get to that. What do you call it? A Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

You know, okay, from the Mandalorian. I'll help their digital out-of-home payoff. So sponsored by a company called Track Suit. Track Suit, yeah. I still don't know what they do, but they did have the DeLorean out front in AdWeek. So there you go. Google and figure that out.

PVSB 31:40

Sri loves to rock a good tracksuit. I will give him that. Particularly if they're like the.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

I wore in the 90s.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Learning so much from the my guess here.

unknown 31:51

All right.

PVSB 31:52

I like a little juicy couture. Never mind. I was gonna say juicy. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

I hate to do it because I think we can keep going for another couple of hours. But at some point, they might kick us out of your comedy room. Oh my god. So let's go to the famous last question. Ignore him. Go to the famous last question, Liz. Okay, what is it? What's in your survival kit?

PVSB 32:11

I'm gonna go with Peter. No, Sharie, you go.

SPEAKER_04 32:13

And just to be clear, this isn't end of days survival kit. This is how do you navigate the crazy world of your own?

PVSB 32:19

See, my my survival kit includes I'm probably going to have, since I'm a little old school, I'm gonna have a book. It's gonna be Bill James Baseball Abstract because I like data and I love stats, and that's gonna be a big part of it. I'm probably gonna have Don Drysdale's autobiography, Once Abama Was a Dodger. Uh, and and and I'm gonna have, since a little, I have to be a little tech, I'm gonna have a subscription to MLB.tv. That would that would be my survival kit. Shriek.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

And it's the MLB to sponsor you.

Sri 32:47

It's pictures of my six children. Four of them are tattooed right here. The other two are tattooed right here. Lara, my three cats, and my newly acquired puppy who's changed my life bala.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Aww. I love that. See, now we'll get to we get to end on a high note.

Sri 33:02

You know, we do we want to hear your still, though.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

Survival kids, guys. So you're if you're watching the video, these are two things that are in my survival kids. So everyone always asks me, because there's definitely a lot of time on the road, how do you make it through it? Well, the first one is I hydrate, a lot of water, and then a fair amount of caffeine. So, but I will tell you the thing that drives me is is much to your point, is like I got that little girl Ava who's who's looking up and she loves to see when when dad's on stage. And also, I watched the question every time. My wife Nicole, who's also super supportive of everything. And you ask me every single time, hey, are you being a good dad? And I said, Man, I'm doing my best.

PVSB 33:37

Nicest thing about Sri is every conversation we have, the first thing he asked before we do anything, what did you do with Nadia yesterday? Where did you go to the golf course? Did you do that? Our conversations always start with family. It's never business first. Business is second, family is first.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Do you know? I just realized we all have girls. We are girl parents, yeah.

Sri 33:59

You want to hear your survival kit.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Well, I my why are my girls. Everything that I do, every breath that I take are from my beautiful daughters. I uh people my my oldest daughter keeps she's in drama. She goes in the play, the one that should I should show you.

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Isn't it a shocker? She's a drama.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

She has a voice of an angel. And people say, Olivia is just like you. And I said, No, she's better. Because at her age, at 10, 11, and 12, I was never on stage.

Sri 34:30

You know, let me let me share something. And it's a voice of memory board. Anyhow, go ahead. There is simply no greater joy on planet Earth than seeing your offspring succeed and outclass you. Amen. There's no greater.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

That's what I said. She she had she was in Annie, she had Miss Farrell, 80 lines in sixth grade, remembered everything with a solo, and I said, I could never have done that. And I'm so proud. I was crying like a little baby, of course, but that's it.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

It means we're doing our jobs right.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

That we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Well, to spend some time with Liz is to get to hear about her, her beautiful daughter. So I listen, I think all of our listeners know why we were so excited to finally get this uh crossover collaboration scheduled. So, guys, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

PVSB 35:15

Uh our honor to be a part of this. Thank you. We, as we said, we're so glad to have you in the brothers-sisterhood of podcasting. It's an important mechanism to educate our industry and connect ourselves into this community. And so all we want is incredible success for Unlocked. You guys are really delivering it episode after episode.

Sri 35:38

Congratulations again on hitting that magic 1K mark. Much more success to come, but that 1K is an important milestone. I remember it, we celebrated it. Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

Thank you. Liz, in honor of our 1000th, why don't you take us out?

SPEAKER_03 35:51

You know, I always love when you close it, but I'm gonna close it today. Thank you for joining Unlocked with the CPG guys. I'm Elizabeth Donovan here with my co-host Weson Leonard. Have a great day.