Women In Retail Media Collective join The CPG Guys

03/15/25 • 40 min

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Emma Helsloot and Ana Laura Zain - cofounders of the Women in Retail Media Collective. Their mission :Connect, grow, and lead via a community designed to empower women to shape the future of retail media.

Find Emma Helsloot on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-helsloot-78767a64/

Find Ana Laura Zain on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/analaurazain/

Find WRMC on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-retail-media-collective/

Find WRMC online here: https://wrmcollective.com/

Click here to join: https://wrmcollective.com/#join-us

Here's what we asked them :

Let’s start with the proverbial meet-cute story. How did you two come to know each other and what is your involvement in retail media?
As we look across the leadership in retail media, we notice pockets of female leaders, but generally, it is fairly isolated. What are you seeing?
We’re all about data here at the CPG Guys. What are some cool industry data points about women in commerce that you want to highlight to our audience?
So how did you decide to create a community for women in retail media and what were the goals you established?
What are the primary resources/benefits that the WRMC offers to its members? We understand you have established a blog on your site.
How do men fit into the equation when it comes to the WRMC? Is this community designed to be inclusive?
How are you making yourself known to the industry and what channels are you leveraging to connect with potential members?
What do you hope to achieve in this first year of launching the WRMC?
How does our audience best get involved in WRMC?

Apply to join the Cornell retail media program https://ecornell.cornell.edu/certificates/marketing/retail-media-strategy/?utm_source=cpg+guys&utm_medium=multi-channel_campaign&utm_campaign=mktgstrat_Retail+Media+Strategy+-+CPG+Guys

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Find Emma Helsloot on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-helsloot-78767a64/

Find Ana Laura Zain on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/analaurazain/

Find WRMC on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-retail-media-collective/

Find WRMC online here: https://wrmcollective.com/

Click here to join: https://wrmcollective.com/#join-us

Here's what we asked them :

Let’s start with the proverbial meet-cute story. How did you two come to know each other and what is your involvement in retail media?
As we look across the leadership in retail media, we notice pockets of female leaders, but generally, it is fairly isolated. What are you seeing?
We’re all about data here at the CPG Guys. What are some cool industry data points about women in commerce that you want to highlight to our audience?
So how did you decide to create a community for women in retail media and what were the goals you established?
What are the primary resources/benefits that the WRMC offers to its members? We understand you have established a blog on your site.
How do men fit into the equation when it comes to the WRMC? Is this community designed to be inclusive?
How are you making yourself known to the industry and what channels are you leveraging to connect with potential members?
What do you hope to achieve in this first year of launching the WRMC?
How does our audience best get involved in WRMC?

Previous Episode

Live from Commerce Media Brand Summit with Bayer's Chelsey Alexander

In this episode, the CPG Guys are joined by Chelsey Alexander,
Vice President, Emerging Digital Platforms at Bayer Consumer Health. The episode was recorded in Atlanta GA at the Commerce Brand Media Summit in March 2025.

Follow Chelsey Alexander on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsey-alexander-a3269757/

Follow Bayer on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bayer/

Follow Bayer online at: https://www.bayer.com/en/personal-health/better-health-for-all

Chelsey answers these questions:

Tell us about you the person. Take us through your career growth from starting in the drug channel at P&G to a brand GM and leading emerging channels leadership today?
How has your brick and mortar and marketing experiences served you well to be in the role you are in today developing a brand and retail channels?
Social commerce and marketplaces have made great in roads last couple years. Given this is a large part of your role, can you talk about some of the things you’ve learned or important things for brands to keep in mind?
When it comes to the digital shelf,how are you managing content and the rise of AI and personalization?
In which parts of the customer journey do you believe brands need to be best in class to rise above the competition?
Tell us about your team and how you motivate them everyday? What is your approach to people leadership?
Who has been your mentor and advisor and what is the importance of this? What advise would you give other startups in this place?
What trends are you following these days? AI, tech, other trends? Why are these important?

Next Episode

The Intersection of Data & Media with Canadian Tire’s Simone Lumsden

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Simone Lumsden, SVP of Triangle Loyalty & Retail Media at Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (“CTC”), one of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies that includes a retail segment, a financial services division and CT REIT. Their retail business is led by Canadian Tire, which provides Canadians with products for life in Canada across its Living, Playing, Fixing, Automotive and Seasonal & Gardening categories. Party City, PartSource and Gas+ are key parts of the Canadian Tire networkalong with Mark's, a leading source for casual and industrial wear, Pro Hockey Life, a hockey speciality store and SportChek, Hockey Experts, Sports Experts, and Atmosphere, which offer the best active wear brands.

Follow Simone Lumsden on Linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-lumsden9901/
Flow Canadian Tire on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-tire/
Follow Canadian Tire online at: https://corp.canadiantire.ca/English/home/default.aspx

Simone answers these questions:

What about this chosen field most excited you are were there some pivotal experiences that prepared you for your current role at CTC?
Both Retail Media & loyalty are highly developed in the United States. What is the state of data driven closed loop marketing in Canada and what are the primary objectives of Triangle's offerings?
Would you help dimensionalize your solutions in terms of audience size, geographic coverage & omnichannel reach etc?
Let’s double click down into the retail media solution. What are your core onsite solutions that help brands reach your shoppers and what do you want to highlight about these offerings?
Looking further up the funnel, what kinds of offsite & instore solutions do you offer brands and what ad tech stack partnerships have you established to enable these solutions?
Measurement is a key component for helping brands move from the old world of linear TV and print media to performance marketing.What types of measurement tools do you make available to brands investing in Triangle Retail Media?
Tell us about Triangle Loyalty. What is available to CPG brands and how does it connect to your retail media solutions?
What most intrigues you about the near term in retail media and loyalty? Are there some specific trends that you are following or investing against?