REWIND: The New Rules of Retail Media Creative - with Walmart Connect's Garima Ahuja

Speaker A: What if you had instant analytics on your PDP images and a, uh, faster way to create content that performs better? That's what we're diving into in today's episode. How top brands and retailers are using analytics and automation to stay ahead across retail media and the digital shelf. ITS Rapid helps teams scale smarter. They analyze image performance, they help you create optimized assets for retail media networks and the digital shelf, and they integrate directly with PIM and DAM systems for seamless execution. Brands like Pepsi, Mondelez and Instacart use ITS Rapid to go beyond basic tools to uncover gaps in PDP and retail media performance by analyzing the images themselves, not just the count. Streamline banner creation across hundreds of formats for Amazon ads, Walmart Connect and other retail and social platforms and and launch high performing content more than 80% faster across E commerce and marketing channels. If you're buried in manual work or struggling to keep up, uh, this episode and it's rapid will show you a better way. Visit ItsRapid AI to learn more.

Speaker B: Welcome to beyond the Shelf with Dave Feinlieb. This show is an open exploration of the people and process behind e commerce. Through conversations with innovators in the space, we learn the stories of these leaders and their strategies for e commerce success. We publish new episodes every Tuesday morning, so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And now, here's your host, Dave Finley.

Speaker A: Welcome back to beyond the Shelf. I'm Dave Finelieb and my guest today is Garima Ahuja, uh, with Walmart Connect. Garima is a senior Creative Ad Tech Partner at Walmart Connect, where she works at the intersection of creative innovation, retail media performance and advanced measurement. She brings over 14 years of experience across SaaS and advertising technology, helping brands scale smarter, more measurable media strategies. Before joining Walmart Connect, uh, Garima spent nearly four years at Amazon in roles including partner solutions, architect and technical account manager, supporting advertisers across Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud. She's also held senior technical account leadership roles at Adjust, advising brands on mobile measurement and performance analytics. Across her career, Garima has built deep expertise in bridging technical infrastructure with commercial outcomes, aligning product engineering and marketing teams to drive scalable retail media solutions. Garima, welcome to the show.

Speaker C: Thanks Dave. Pleasure uh, to be here.

Speaker A: Always such a delight to partner with you. This is a podcast episode I've really been looking forward to. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us. Joining us today.

Speaker C: Likewise. I was looking forward to it myself.

Speaker A: This is a great one. You've spent years in ad tech and retail media. What originally drew you into the space? Take us back. When did you realize retail media was becoming such a major force in uh, in the industry and in advertising in general?

Speaker C: So I started my career in mobile, ad tech and attribution. So I was always focused on connecting advertisers to real outcomes. And throughout my career I've been in roles where I help clients adopt new solutions, solve complex challenges and connect strategy to measurable outcomes. And it really clicked for me when I saw how retail media brings data media and purchase behavior all in one ecosystem, making it the most powerful and exciting spaces in advertising. And that naturally pulled me towards advertising commerce, uh, a dynamic space where you see innovation translate into real business impact. And at Walmart Connect, I'm seeing that play out at scale and accelerating.

Speaker A: That is a great tee up. The scale of Walmart is incredible. Of course we all know the brand. But for those who may not be as close to the ecosystem, tell us about Walmart Connect. Uh, what is it and where do you see the biggest opportunities for brands inside retail media when it, when it comes to Walmart Connect?

Speaker C: Yeah, sure. Um, so Walmart Connect is Walmart's full funnel retail media platform that helps brands connect with customers across the entire journey from discovery all the way to purchase. What makes Walmart Connect unique is the combination of scale solutions and signals. And as the number one US omnichannel retailer at scale Walmart, there are about 150 million customers served in Walmart stores and online per week in the US So advertisers can reach a uh, big game sized audience not just once a year but every week. And with Walmart's massive online and in store transaction insights, we transform advertising into measurable growth. We have visibility into what our customers are buying in store and online, giving us insights into a full view of their path to purchase. From a solution standpoint, we have expanded beyond lower funnel media. And brands are leaning into our full funnel offerings from on site display and sponsored search for conversion to CTV off site and social for discovery. And what ties all of this together are signals. Our first party purchase and browsing insights give advertisers confidence. They can see how media drives real outcomes both online and in store. Uh, when you combine scale solutions and signals, advertisers are not guessing. They're making informed investments that spark sales and drive measurable growth. And the biggest opportunity we are seeing is when brands stop treating retail media as just lower funnel and start Using as true end to end engine, connecting awareness through conversion and using those insights to continuously improve and grow.

Speaker A: When brands start activating across that full funnel, what does that mean for creative? What new challenges are agencies running into?

Speaker C: So when brands activate across the full funnel, the biggest shift is the scale and complexity of creative required. It's no longer just handful of assets, it's dozens of variations across placements, each with unique requirements around format, messaging and context. What makes this challenging is that creative adaptation is not just mechanical, it's strategic. Different placements require different visual hierarchy and different messaging and different ways of engaging the shopper. At the same time, the underlying workflow hasn't evolved at the same pace. Creative development is still fragmented across tools and platforms. Specs are constantly changing and moderation often happens late in the process, creating, rework and slowing the teams down. Agencies are being asked to deliver significantly more creative with greater customization, but within systems that are still largely manual and disconnected. And, and that's where the real challenge emerges. Not in understanding what drives performance, but in the ability to consistently produce, test and optimize high quality creatives at scale. And this matters because creative has a direct impact on performance. We know from a recent Kantar study that creatively effective ads can be up to four times more likely to drive sales and roi.

Speaker A: Incredible. So the numbers are there, the scale is there, the creative is incredibly important when it comes to performance. Garima with the challenges around scaling and executing creative across the funnel, how are Walmart connects APIs and partners like it's rapid working together to help brands make this more efficient and ultimately drive better performance.

Speaker C: Our APIs are the foundation that help enable partners like yourself to really scale their impact. A big focus for us has been helping to reduce friction across the creative life cycle so our partners can stay in their native environments and do what they do best. For example, with our uh, Display API for Creative, we enable partners to integrate directly into our creative hub so brands can build, manage and submit creatives without leaving the partner platform. And this helps to eliminate fragmentation and manual steps that agencies struggle with today. We recently launched Moderation Assist API which is something that we are really excited about. It's designed to shift moderation earlier in the process so partners can start to identify policy issues upfront, get clearer guidance and reduce some of those back and forth cycles that tend to slow things down. And as I mentioned earlier, the more retail media becomes full funnel, brands need a lot more creative across touch points. And that's where partners like its rapid play a critical role. Through our APIs, partners can plug directly into the platform to streamline creative campaign and reporting. On the creative side, that means being able to build and adapt assets at scale across formats and placements. And on the measurement side, access to closed loop performance data allows for continuous optimization. So it's not just about producing more creative, it's about producing more effective creative. Ultimately, the value of our APIs is that they connect creative media and measurement, and our partners help brands move faster and drive better performance.

Speaker A: We're excited to be partnering with you, uh, on this, uh, API set, which I have to say has been great to work with and a great enabler for our brands and partners to collaborate. Uh, on.

Speaker B: This episode of beyond the Shelf is brought to you by ITS Rapid. It's Rapid is the platform Pepsi, Mondelez, Instacart and hundreds of other leading brands and retailers use to build personal content at scale. Whether that's images, videos or product descriptions for their product detail pages, shoppable videos or banners for their digital ad campaigns, or sell sheets for sales enablement. Brands that use ItsRapid are able to produce high quality on brand content, on average more than 80% faster than category competitors. To find out more, please visit ItsRapid AI

Speaker C: Dave, speaking of analytics and performance, Its Rapid offers optics to help brands optimize creatives before campaigns go live. Can you tell us more about that?

Speaker A: Our normal format, by the way, here on beyond the Shelf is I get to ask the questions, but I'm not asked a lot of questions. And a hat tip to Garima who said, hey, how about if we ask you some questions? And it was just a, uh, fabulous idea. So, uh, excited to be able to collaborate on it and a, uh, great addition to the podcast. Yeah, this is an incredible kind of intersection of the Walmart Connect API set capabilities. We've heard our A need from our brand and advertising partners and AI, of course. And you can bring those three things together, connect brand, great brands and AI. And it's enabled us to build this solution called It's Rapid Optics. What Optics does is it gives you kind of a pre read on your advertising creative. So if you've ever wondered, should I go with display ad A or should I go with display ad B or should or should I go with C? And you've got a lot of opinions in the room. I Optics can really take a whole set of data, can take audience insights, put all that together and really quickly give you a read on those different creatives and say, this one is likely to perform better for this particular shopper audience. So it's a really powerful way to leverage AI to understand what's likely to perform better. And also look at other metrics like accessibility, alignment with brand messaging, adherence to retail network requirements. All of that gets rolled up into what we call an optics score, 1 to 100. And that gives you a measure of the likely performance of your ad. The challenge with historical solutions is it used to take days or even weeks to get that kind of insight. The power of AI is you can do that in an instant and through the connection with Walmart Connect. Once that creative has been optimized and created and iterated with the click of a button, we can publish that right to Walmart Connect so it can go live on all the different surfaces that Walmart Connect supports.

Speaker C: That's great. Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's very exciting. It's an exciting opportunity. And uh, this AI capability, we're all looking for ways to put AI to work and this is a great opportunity to do that. Let me ask you, flip it around and uh, let me kind of touch on a couple of other topics here. So what are some of the other ways you're seeing brands move quickly and experiment with, test and learns when it comes to creative, whether that's video or even other formats?

Speaker C: Great question. What we are seeing is brands leaning into variation and experimentation. Testing different messaging visuals and formats to understand what drives performance. And experimentation is important because small changes in creative can have an impact on performance that includes experimenting across formats like sponsored video on site display off site like CTV with Walmart dsp which we know can help capture attention more effectively. We are also seeing brands test different creative approaches like showing the product in use versus more static imagery or simplifying messaging to focus on a uh, single benefit. And ultimately it's about using those learnings to continuously refine creative and improve performance over time.

Speaker A: Great examples of putting the signal you mentioned earlier to work. What are some of the creative formats brands and agencies should be investing in

Speaker C: more at the point of purchase we continue to see performance from sponsored search where creative is all about clarity, making the product and value immediately obvious. Within search sponsored videos is a great way to stand out in search results combining intent with more engaging visual storytelling. In fact 60% of sponsored video purchasers are from new to brand customers. For mid funnel there's on site display which plays more of a discovery role, helping brands drive awareness and stay top of minds as they browse and consider. And as you move further up the funnel, there is greater investment in offsite and social where brands can tell a uh, richer story, reach new audience and drive consideration. But it's less about any one format and more about showing up consistently across the funnel using each environment for what it does the best. I'll give you a few examples. Um, customers exposed to a consumables brand across Walmart sponsored search, on site display, off site and CTV ads saw on average an 85% higher conversion rate compared to customers who were only exposed to sponsored search, on site display and off site display ads. Customers exposed to a home and hardlines brands on Walmart sponsored search, on site display, off site display and CTV ads saw an average of 43% higher conversion rate compared to customers who were only exposed to sponsored search, on site and off site display ads. And lastly customers were exposed to a foods brand across Walmart sponsored search, on site display, off site display and CTV ads saw on average a uh, 21% higher conversion rate compared to customers who were only exposed to sponsored search, on site and off site display ads.

Speaker A: Great stats for our listeners and I think uh, a great example of showing creative in multiple formats, multiple surfaces but also the complexity potentially that goes with that. So great um, opportunity to get in front of the shopper. Also great opportunity to put tools to work.

Speaker C: You bet. Um, on that note Dave, um, can you share a couple of examples of creative its rapid has worked on for Walmart Connect advertisers and the results you saw?

Speaker A: Well Garima, we have the privilege of working with so many great brands and advertisers. It's hard to choose just a couple of examples but two that come to mind, uh, one are a very large uh, beverage company. Uh, we work with them on lots of different kinds of creative but they're especially interested in uh, these high traffic opportunities. So they think about all the brands in their portfolio. They really want to have multiple brands represented when they're producing ad creative. So one thing we work with them on is getting the assets from their in house systems. Those are their systems of records, digital asset management systems, product information management systems, making that really easy to pull into the it's rapid design tool. They can then drop those into the different Walmart Connect ad formats. Whether that's on site or off site or video or what have you get things approved which is really important part of their workflow and then with this click of a button with this Walmart Connect API integration, publish that right to Walmart Connect. So taking product and image assets from their systems into this design tool at its rapid quick updates, make sure they're all retailer aligned and then publish right to the place they need to go to. So that has been an incredible opportunity to partner with a very large brand, um, and drive tremendous time to market efficiencies. Literally taking their workflows from weeks or in some cases even months, um, down to what can be a couple of hours or even a couple of minutes. So huge time savings. And obviously the faster they can get the assets live, the more time they have in front of the shoppers. So that's uh, one of my favorite examples. The other one is really, uh, products that I love. These are um, from a chocolate company we work with and um, they sell of course through the entire year. But the big opportunity for their business are these seasonal moments, these tentpole opportunities around holiday, Valentine's Day, uh, Easter, Mother's Day, other opportunities during the year. And for them it's all about really having an efficient workflow to get the brand direction in. Because they've got national brand assets that they're working with, they've got products that they want to get in front of the shopper and then they need to make sure they're ready in time for the holiday. So if they miss that window on the holiday, that's obviously uh, going to be a huge challenge for them. So lining all that up, getting the creative direction, getting the assets, getting the requirements for the Walmart Connect assets that they want to produce, getting that together, getting the approval process done and then getting it live, um, that's, you know, that, that's a lot to get done, uh, on these timelines. So really for them it's about being able to pull all that together and it's rapid, execute efficiently, make sure it's all approved and then get it live on Walmart Connect. The other thing we're seeing there, uh, is brands using optics that we talked about earlier to get an early read on which of these creatives is likely to perform better. And also very importantly, is it aligned with my brand style guidelines, um, all the different requirements I have both on the brand side and the retailer side. So performance with conversion, alignment, uh, with the brand and the retailer, and then efficiency around the workflow, those have all been big factors. But I've got to say my favorite part of the whole thing, I love AI and the connectivity, but being able to work with these brands and once in a while I even get to taste test their products, which are incredible. That may be my favorite part of the job.

Speaker C: Thank you for sharing these great examples of formats used, creative execution and the uh, Measurable lift, optics delivered.

Speaker A: Garima, thank you. It's been a great conversation. I want to chat before we wrap up here about brands. They're navigating all of this. We've talked about scale, scaling, creative testing, optimization, showing, uh, up across the entire funnel. What are some key tips, some insights, best practices you'd leave our brands and advertiser listeners with to drive stronger performance.

Speaker C: So it all comes down to getting the fundamentals right because we know creative quality can have a direct impact on both sales and long term brand growth. First, you have to grab attention quickly. We are in a really crowded environment. So things like clear visuals, stronger contrast and making product the hero help customers immediately understand what they are looking at. Second, it's about making the brand easy to recognize, keeping branding consistent and prominent so there's clear connection between the product and the brand across, uh, placements. And then third piece is really relevance, simple and focused messaging, showing the product in use and highlighting value or savings where it matters the most. When brands get those basics right, it makes the creative more engaging and helps drive stronger performance across the funnel.

Speaker A: So scale, you've got optimization and you've got really, at the end of the day, not losing sight of the fundamentals. If you can get that right, then you can really execute on great creative and great performance. Garima, it's been a great conversation today. We hope you'll come back. But in the meantime, what's the best way for our listeners to stay connected with you?

Speaker C: So first of all, thank you for having me on beyond the Shelf. And uh, regarding connecting with listeners, LinkedIn is the best place to connect with me. And if you are building in retail media or exploring the space, I'm, um, always open to connecting and exchanging ideas.

Speaker A: Well, thanks again for joining us here on beyond the Shelf. An amazing conversation, incredible insights. Do come back again. Uh, it's been wonderful talking with you and uh, for our listeners, a shout out for Garima. She's an incredible partner to work with. She's got great depth of knowledge in the space and uh, just really helps us move the ball forward when we bring ideas, when she brings ideas, we can really turn that into some amazing collaborations. So shout out for Garima. Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me on beyond the Shelf.

Speaker B: That's it for this week's episode of beyond the Shelf. If you enjoy the show, be sure to like subscribe and leave us a review. It really helps us grow and feel free to share us with your colleagues so they too can hear weekly perspectives from the brightest minds in e commerce. You can also check us out on LinkedIn where we post clips from each episode, share Dave's takes on breaking industry news and much more. Beyond the Shelf is a production of It's Rapid. Our host is Dave Feinleap and our producer is Jake Musicer. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on beyond the Shelf.