Hy-Vee’s New CMO on Retail Media, Supplier Strategy & In-Store Tech | Live at FMI 2025
🎙 Omni Talk Retail Live at FMI 2025: A Conversation with Hy-Vee CMO Kathryn Mazza 🎙
Join Chris Walton & Anne Mezzenga for an exclusive interview with Katherine Maza, newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer of Hy-Vee live from the Simbe Podcast Studio at FMI 2025. She shares insights on retail media, supplier partnerships, and the role of technology in grocery marketing.
⏳ Key Moments:
00:00 - Introduction: Live from FMI 2025 with Hy-Vee’s New CMO
02:30 - Kathryn's Journey from Retail Media to CMO
05:10 - Why Retail Media & Marketing Must Be Integrated
07:45 - How Hy-Vee Uses In-Store Screens & Audio to Engage Customers
10:30 - The Role of Supplier Partnerships in Grocery Success
14:00 - Retail Tech Investments: Data, AI & Store Analytics
18:15 - How In-Store Media & Digital Advertising Drive Sales
21:00 - Kathryn’s Top Priorities for 2025 & Beyond
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Transcript
Hello, everyone.
Speaker A:Welcome back.
Speaker A:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker A:And we are coming to you live from the Simbi booth at FMI once again.
Speaker A:And we have a guest we're bringing back onto the show.
Speaker A:It's been a little while, but she's got some pretty big news to report.
Speaker A:Standing between Chris and myself is Catherine Mazza, the recently appointed Chief Marketing Officer at Hy Vee.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker C:Oh, thank you, Ann.
Speaker C:Thank you, Chris.
Speaker C:Great to be here.
Speaker A:First, congrats.
Speaker C:Thank you so much.
Speaker C:Appreciate it.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:This is just a few weeks old here.
Speaker A:Like news.
Speaker A:Not even.
Speaker A:I mean, days probably.
Speaker A:I don't even know what day it is anymore.
Speaker A:But we're so thrilled that we get to have you on the show.
Speaker A:So thanks for making the time.
Speaker C:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:And this is your first official interview.
Speaker B:Right in the new role, too.
Speaker C:This is the US you guys got.
Speaker B:The exclusive made in maiden CMO voyage together.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We last had Catherine onto you saying we had you on at Shop Talk, Right.
Speaker B:When you just joined as the head of retail media for Hy Vee.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So let's.
Speaker B:Let's start with that.
Speaker B:Why don't you give us a.
Speaker B:Give the audience a little background on you because your story is really interesting.
Speaker B:And then also for Hy Vee, for those maybe that aren't as familiar that you know in terms of where Hy Vee, what Hy Vee is and where it operates.
Speaker C:Yeah, sure.
Speaker C:So just a refresher.
Speaker C: I joined hy vee in February: Speaker C:Prior to that, I was coming from 18 years in Dick's Sporting Goods, where I led different marketing teams and launched their retail media network.
Speaker C:So Hy Vee reached out to me and I did some research, quickly Learned They're a $14 billion mega grocery retailer in the Midwest, and they're extremely focused on their customer service, quality, giving back to the community.
Speaker C:They're a very, very strong brand.
Speaker C:So certainly was an appealing place to go and start up a retail media network.
Speaker A:Well, Kathryn, one of the things I want to make sure that I ask you because I thought it was so unique and smart on Hy Vee's behalf to take somebody who's so steeped in retail media and put them in the position of chief Marketing officer.
Speaker A:Especially when we think about where revenue's coming from and what a chief marketing officer really needs to have in there.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:To have in their bally wick as they're kind of going forward?
Speaker A:What are your thoughts on that and what do you feel like your experience having run retail media, how that sets you up for success in this new role, leading marketing?
Speaker C:Yeah, great, great question.
Speaker C:I mean, I think the sky's the limit.
Speaker C:The efficiencies that you can find and just the success that you can run from an ROI from your enterprise side and your retail media side.
Speaker C:So when you think about it, I mean, everything is about the customer, right?
Speaker C:Whether you are running marketing through the network or your enterprise, it's all about the customer.
Speaker C:And it all needs to be data driven.
Speaker C:And you're using the exact same subset of data to drive your retail media and your marketing efforts.
Speaker C:So I think it only makes sense to bring it all together to make sure that you're not siloed and you don't know what one area of marketing is doing and how the customer is going to see brands come to life in one area versus the other.
Speaker C:So I think it's a huge, huge opportunity.
Speaker C:And then when you think about just media mix modeling and measurement and understanding the effectiveness across your full portfolio, I think that's another huge opportunity.
Speaker A:Do you have any advice that you would give to other organizations who are kind of thinking about exactly what you said, restructuring their organization or bringing in somebody with retail media expertise?
Speaker A:Because it is really changing the teams, the culture and really the strategy for a lot of retailers.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great idea.
Speaker C:We, you know, my previous, in my previous life with Dick's, I owned both the enterprise media and retail media.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:And that was extremely helpful.
Speaker C:And so I got to see some of the momentum in some of the, you know, the positive nature of doing that at Dick's.
Speaker C:Now that, you know, I can oversee all of marketing and the retail media network, I think it's just going to be even better than focusing just on media.
Speaker A:Well, especially with those, the measurement metrics that you're able to see and utilize across traditional media formats.
Speaker A:And then in this new world of retail media.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker C:I mean, the advertisers want to know exactly what they're getting for every dollar spending.
Speaker C:As a 14 billion dollar company and a CMO, I also want to know what I am getting for every dollar I'm spending.
Speaker B:Yeah, right.
Speaker C:I'm sure you do on the sell side.
Speaker C:Both on the same goals.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker B:Do the advertisers always want to know that?
Speaker B:Ed and I had that discussion on our walk to dinner yesterday.
Speaker B:I'm not, you know, given the, some of the things they spend money on sometimes, you know, and the Clio Awards and whatnot.
Speaker B:Anyway, we'll save that topic for another day.
Speaker B:I'm curious too.
Speaker B:So, experience at both Dick's and now Hy Vee, what are some of the similarities or differences in retail media, in sporting goods versus grocery?
Speaker B:What are some of the things you've had to learn or think about differently?
Speaker C:Yeah, so there's a lot of similarities.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You use data, it's all about the customer personalization, good reporting, strong capabilities, internal relationships.
Speaker C:You have to be attached at the hip with your merchandising teams, your store op teams and in your it.
Speaker C:So those are all very similar.
Speaker C:Cpg, there's so many more suppliers in the box than there was at Dick's Sporting Goods.
Speaker C:The volume is just so much higher than it was at Dick's.
Speaker C:Also, the brands I worked with at Dick's were probably more focused on brand stories.
Speaker C:Higher in the funnel.
Speaker C:We did a lot of social online video, right.
Speaker C:CPG, they're very interested in being on hy vee.com or having advertising in our stores.
Speaker C:So it's much lower down in the funnel, which brings us really high conversion expectations.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker C:That's so.
Speaker B:I never thought about any of that.
Speaker B:That was so wonderful.
Speaker A:Catherine, are there certain technologies you say, like being in lockstep with merchandising, are technologies that you are looking into or that you feel like could be helpful as you try to kind of gather that information about what's happening in the store, how products are performing and then how you kind of coordinate media efforts for your retail media network around that?
Speaker C:Yeah, there's.
Speaker C:There's a lot of different technologies out there that I'm looking into.
Speaker C:So one of the things that we made a big bet on was in store retail media.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We have 10,000 screens across our store.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker C:We have the, the in store audio.
Speaker C:We do custom graphics and signage.
Speaker C:So I would like to deeply understand the consumer journey through the store in a bigger way to just be able to prove out and understand exactly how they're engaging with, with all these different touch points.
Speaker C:It's something we're working on right now and we're doing a pilot.
Speaker C:So hopefully we'll have, you know, good news to report and it'll be another thing we're first to market with.
Speaker C:Another thing is, is just connecting the merchandising piece.
Speaker C:You know, they sell all kinds of displays or end caps out to different suppliers.
Speaker C:So just understanding what they have from A commitment standpoint.
Speaker C:And how does that compare to the media that we're running to make sure that, hey, if we're running media in digital, that the product is there at the right place at the right time.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That's huge.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you do, like, in store audio ads too, then?
Speaker B:In the store.
Speaker B:Interesting, because Ann and I are always going back and forth on that.
Speaker B:I won't say which side of the fence I fall on, which side of the fence she falls on, but our loyal Omnitok fans will know.
Speaker B:But why do you find value in that?
Speaker B:Like, what value does that.
Speaker B:That outlet bring to you, say, versus, you know, video screens or other forms of retail media?
Speaker B:Like, what's the beneficial side of, you know, in store audio?
Speaker C:Yeah, so I can tell you, I've gone back and forth on this one numerous times as well.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker A:I love this.
Speaker C:For audio to be effective, I think it's all about in store execution.
Speaker C:One.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:You have to have.
Speaker B:You have to have the product.
Speaker C:The players have to be turned on.
Speaker C:The volume has to be turned up.
Speaker C:Not too loud though, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, you have to, like, make sure you actually have the equipment working correctly.
Speaker C:And then from there, I have seen it work well when you pair it with something else.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:So whenever you have, you know, a screen takeover in our stores and we're talking about, you know, the message over audio as well, or you have signage across your store and you're reaching out and talking about audio, or before the consumer even got into the store, they got a text message in email, they saw the product.
Speaker C:So as a standalone, I'm not sure the verdict's out.
Speaker C:I think on a standalone.
Speaker B:Oh, really?
Speaker C:I think we'll see.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Yeah, just run in store audio.
Speaker C:Yeah, you know, I think.
Speaker C:I think we'll see.
Speaker C:I have seen now that when you add audio on top of other tactics, we have gotten better performance.
Speaker A:So is this like.
Speaker A:Like, I.
Speaker A:This is probably a terrible comparison, but I'm thinking about, like being at a basketball game and they're like, okay, you.
Speaker A:Everybody gets free chicken nuggets at this part of the game.
Speaker A:And it.
Speaker A:But it's like blasted on every screen.
Speaker A:It's on people's apps for the game.
Speaker A:Like, so it's something like that where it's almost like more of a.
Speaker A:Of like a presentation than it is just like there's a discount on chicken nuggets in aisle four.
Speaker A:Because that's the stuff that to me, I'm like, it's got to be branded, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, you need that Presentation.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then maybe on the way out, you can say, and don't forget your chicken nuggets.
Speaker C:Right after you already had the big thing.
Speaker C:They know what you're talking about.
Speaker A:Right, Got it, got it.
Speaker B:And might have just tipped her hat on where she comes down on that argument.
Speaker B:All right, so let's talk.
Speaker B: So beginning of the year: Speaker B:What are your priorities for the year?
Speaker C:Yeah, so one is just combining, you know, the network under the marketing umbrella and making sure we have our internal ways of working cleaned up and that we're running effectively.
Speaker C:Another thing is, you know, my time here at fmi, if I'm taking away one thing, it's just how special our relationships are with these suppliers.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:As my first one, you know, I've gone to so many different conferences out in the industry and this one, the way that you come and you meet with your suppliers and really nurture those relationships and have those really honest, strategic conversations is like no other.
Speaker C:So, you know, me just continuing to nurture those relationships, make sure that we're partnering with our merchandising teams, our in store teams for execution, the marketing teams, the retail media, that's going to be a huge, huge effort.
Speaker C:And then also on the tech side, we just gotta make sure that we have our data in a really good place.
Speaker C:Then we have the capabilities to be able to leverage our data, slice and dice it, do segmentation and run really effective media, and then most importantly, be able to report on it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:But I need those capabilities not just for the network, but we need to have that across the enterprise side too.
Speaker A:Ugh.
Speaker A:Kathryn, I'm so excited that we got to talk to you again today.
Speaker A:The next time we talk to you, you're gonna just be in see the CEO role or something.
Speaker A:I have a feeling if things keep going this way, you'll just be total hy vee domination for Katherine.
Speaker B:I'm go listen to some radio ads in my local hy vee.
Speaker B:That's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker B:That's what I'm doing when I get home.
Speaker A:Well, thank you so much for making the time.
Speaker A:Thanks again to Cimbie for hosting us here at fmi.
Speaker A:We have another couple of interviews coming up, so until then, be careful out there.
