Retail Media Deep Dive: Matt Krueger, EastPoint Sports, and Matt Volk, KEEN - Episode 267
INTERVIEW WITH MATT KRUEGER AND MATT VOLK
DESCRIPTION
Today Kiri speaks with two guests, Matt Krueger, Vice President of Digital (Amazon & DTC), at EastPoint Sports, and Matt Volk, Director of Performance and Analytics for Pure Play at KEEN. They discuss retail media.
Make sure you tune in to find out more!
Matt Krueger is the Vice President of Digital (Amazon & DTC) at EastPoint Sports. He began his career with pure play sporting goods retailer Eastbay.com under the Footlocker umbrella. He has 10+ years of eCommerce and Marketing experience in the footwear/apparel space with the past 3-5 years focusing on Amazon + Global Marketplaces. With a passion for the digital shelf, organizational transformation, and team structure; Matt has recently moved into the CPG / Hardgoods space to lead the Digital business for EastPoint Sports', a private-equity-backed company and the leader in indoor/outdoor sporting and recreational games.
Matt Volk has spent his career in eCommerce across a variety of marketing and analytics roles, including managing data warehouses, defining paid media, and developing content management strategies. He has worked across pure play retail, DTC, and most recently the omnichannel brand side at KEEN footwear. These experiences have given him a well-rounded view of the commercial market, product lifecycle, and cross-functional requirements for success at retail. In his current role as Director of Performance and Analytics for Pure Play at KEEN, he's driving the continued digital transformation process by optimizing retail media, delivering best-in-class content, and overseeing robust analytics capabilities.
They both worked together for the retail media at KEEN.
“If you’re ever on track to sell out of inventory, you should not be advertising that product. Advertising is a lever to increase sell-through and once you sell out on retail media platforms, you see degradation to that flywheel, and it takes time to build that back up.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
This episode is part of our Retail Media Deep Dive series, where we discuss the shape of retail media from the perspective of brand-side digital leaders. In this episode, you’ll hear about:
What is one thing their companies have done well with RMNs?
Matt K: At EPS I believe we’re still in a learning mode. Less mature digital organization. Because we’re PE-backed, one thing we are looking at is contribution margin impacts based on advertising investment.
Volk: Scaling efficiently by leveraging automation technologies for execution and reporting. Creating well-defined processes and playbooks for focus, execution, and cross-functional alignment to drive outsized impact through synergy.
What’s one thing you believe about RMNs that others don’t?
Matt K:
1) Could be a short(er)-term reset on costs and expectations.
Some may agree to that actually.2) Is there a ceiling in the long-term future? As more retailers look to vendors for marketplace or dropship expansion, once you take into all the costs to operate… how profitable is it?
Volk: managing in-house and building an RMN competency center is preferable where feasible but will become more challenging as the complexity of the RMN landscape grows. Where appropriate investing in a COE now with technology, human resources, well-defined GTM strategies, and operationalized execution will aid in future readiness.
How do you suggest brands think about org structure/incentives around RMNs? (Eg sales and marketing team ownership)
Matt K: Caveat, first and foremost, I think it’s personnel skillset dependent. Personally, sitting in the eCommerce/Marketplace teams with close relationships and transparency to brand marketing is what I’ve seen work best. The analytical expertise that eCommerce teams usually have shown promise.
Volk: As with all aspects of RMN, it’s critical that the team executing media is not operating in a silo. They need to be closely aligned with sales, planning, ecommerce, and brand marketing. We need to put forth the right product or story, at the right time, with the right message in a way that aligns with the broader digital and non-digital shelf presence. Building out a pure play/marketplace team separate from wholesale and DTC allows for the independent management of team structure and ownership of the budget.
What have you changed your mind about, regarding RMNs?
Matt K: This somewhat goes to my point above. I was all about add, add, add. Give brands more control over their ad spend. I’m not sure it’s sustainable. Think there’s a threshold with ROI versus those retailers who are just asking for $ because other “big retailers” are doing it; yet don’t have the justification to do so (traffic, metrics, connections, portals, agility, etc.). Must be selective.
Volk: A measured approach to the expansion of RMN participation is critical to ensure teams remain focused where needed.
They also discuss what metrics brands should be tracking, their top 3 predictions for RMNs, and what they are excited about, ecommerce related.
Connect with Kiri Masters
Learn more about Bobsled Marketing, an Acadia Company
Connect with Matt Krueger
Learn more about EastPoint Sports
Connect with Matt Volk
Learn more about KEEN
