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Episode 20

Inspiring Product Discovery and Brand Engagement

In this episode of Good Data Better Marketing podcast, Ali Miller, Vice President of Product Management, Ads at Instacart discusses the power of human interaction, winning the digital shelf, and creating a recipe for trust.

Guest speaker: Ali Miller

Ali works as the Vice President of Product Management, Ads at Instacart. She held the position back in April 2022. Prior to that, she was Senior Director of Product Management, Ads at Instacart from August 2021 to April 2022. Ali is a violinist at Oakland Symphony since 2005. She previously served at YouTube as the Director of Product Management from 2016 to August 2021. Ali also has 11 years of working experience at Google. Ali is popular as the contestant on the 39th season of America’s longest-running quiz game show, Jeopardy! She is making her Jeopardy! debut on Thursday, 16 February 2023.

Episode summary

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Ali to discuss the power of human interaction, winning the digital shelf, and creating a recipe for trust. 

Key takeaways

  • Mastering the digital shelf is crucial right now. Because it’s not finite, there’s endless opportunity to level the playing field for emerging brands while also showing consumers personalized and dynamic products that will resonate with them.

  •  Generative AI can unlock powerful consumer insights that were once unknown. AI has the ability to identify concepts and products that the consumer finds personal and inspirational.

  • Creating trust as a CPG is a balancing act between building connections and driving results. Fostering relationships with the folks who control the budget allows you to have transparent conversations and drive efficient outcomes.

Speaker quotes

“Digital shelf space is not finite, you can find the right thing that's going to resonate with the consumer at the right time. And so, emerging brands have a chance to play on a level playing field, and we can provide a little bit more diversity in what consumers are able to find and discover. I love that the digital shelf can be so much more responsive. And that's an amazing ads opportunity as well as a great opportunity for consumers to discover something new.” – Ali Miller

Episode timestamps

Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:13) - Ali’s career journey

*(10:17) - How Instacart helps promote diverse businesses

*(11:51) - Industry trends in customer engagement in CPG

*(19:15) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey

*(28:50) - How Ali defines “good data”

‍*(37:21) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it’s Magic Spoon)

*(40:55) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6-12 months

*(43:52) - Ali’s recommendations for upleveling customer engagement

Links

Connect with Ali on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn