On this episode of the EMARKETER Cannes Podcast Miniseries, we explore brand partnerships, retail data, and what it takes for retailers and brands to build more accountable, sustainable long-term growth together. Sarah Marzano, Vice President and Principal Analyst at EMARKETER, sits down with Christine Foster, Group Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Operations at Kroger Precision Marketing, for a conversation recorded at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Get more insights like these with our free, industry-leading newsletters covering advertising, marketing, and commerce. Sign up at emarketer.com/newsletters Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com Cannes Lion 2026 Coverage Center: https://www.emarketer.com/learningcenter/toolkits/cannes-lions-2026/ For a transcript of this episode click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-kroger-precision-marketing-discusses-how-marketers-rethinking-brand-growth-strategies © 2026 EMARKETER Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) is the retail media business of Kroger designed to make brand advertising more effective by closing the loop between media exposure and store sales. Powered by 84.51˚data science, and Kroger’s popular loyalty card program, KPM connects consumers to brands through engaging moments that inspire purchasing online or in-store. https://www.krogerprecisionmarketing.com

Kroger Precision Marketing Discusses How Marketers Are Rethinking Brand Growth Strategies

Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast

## Participants

- **Sarah Marzano** (EMARKETER)
- **Christine Foster** (Kroger Precision Marketing)
- **Christine Foster** (Kroger Precision Marketing)

## Transcript

This episode is made possible by Kroger Precision Marketing. Brand growth starts with signals you can trust. Powered by retail data from over 62 million households, Kroger Precision Marketing connects insights, media, and loyalty to help brands plan with confidence, act with precision, and drive scalable growth. Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to this CAN podcast mini-series featuring Kroger Precision Marketing. EMARKETER's Vice President and Principal Analyst Sarah Marzano sit here in the chat and share their stories.

It's down with Christine Foster, Group Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Operations at Kroger Precision Marketing to discuss why retail data is emerging as a critical planning foundation, what it takes for brands and retailers to build more accountable, sustainable, long-term growth together. This episode was recorded at the CAN-Lion International Festival of Creativity. Enjoy.

Early in the week, we all just got here, but I'm curious what conversations you're most looking forward to having here in CAN. What are you excited to hear about? First thing Monday. Very excited to be here, Sarah. I think for me, I'm really excited to have conversations that better connect creativity to commerce.

I think this is the inflection point in the industry that we're seeing and I am so excited about the kind of new conversations that we're having that kind of take us out of our silos that put us in a space to match the consumer journey, which as you know is evolving and changing. And I think we're going to hear a lot of those topics this week and I'm excited to see what new partnerships and announcements get made. It's going to be a great week.

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I feel like we're at this inflection point in retail media where we're starting to get the opportunity to be a little more playful, a little more innovative in how we reach consumers. Exactly. Exactly. It's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. So very cool. So something I'm curious to hear about, I think it was about a year ago that Kroger brought retail media, loyalty, customer insights and marketing together under a more unified structure.

One of the themes that I see often come up in my research is that organizational alignment feels like it's one of the biggest challenges facing a lot of our men today, particularly in the US. So I'd love to hear more about what problem you were trying to solve and what you've seen along this journey now that Kroger's about a year into this. Yeah, about a year in. So early last year, we brought our consumer insights, our loyalty marketing and our retail media business together under the Kroger Precision Marketing umbrella.

Since then, we have also integrated and we now partner with merchandising. So K...

Kroger Precision Marketing Discusses How Marketers Are Rethinking Brand Growth Strategies

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Kroger Precision Marketing Discusses How Marketers Are Rethinking Brand Growth Strategies

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.