Wild Hive Content Intake — Retail Media Code

What this is. A short questionnaire to capture Wild Hive's POV on retail media so we can write Article 032 without scheduling an interview.

How to approach it. We're after the parts only Wild Hive can answer: your perspective, real client situations (anonymized is fine), specific platform experience. Don't worry about polished prose. Plain language works. Most questions are optional and clearly marked so.

Time. Roughly 20–30 minutes for a thorough response. Progress saves automatically in your browser, so you can step away and come back.

Your Progress 0%

Don't fill this out if you're human:

01 · About this submission

Quick context

Who you are and who else should be involved.

Your name*

Your role*

Author bylineOptional

Who should be credited as the author? A specific person, "Wild Hive Team," or undecided.

Other reviewersOptional

Anyone else from Wild Hive who should review before publication.

02 · Your opening POV

What's the most important thing this article should say?

If Wild Hive could only get one message across in this piece, what would it be? This becomes the article's spine.

In one or two sentences, what's Wild Hive's POV on retail media for emerging CPG brands?*

Don't worry about word-craft. Just say what you believe. Example shape: "Retail media is X, but most brands treat it as Y, and the cost is Z."

What's the most expensive mistake you see emerging CPG brands making with retail media?*

The brief notes a few candidates: silo'd operations, over-indexing at bottom of funnel, ignoring the in-store blind spot, letting tactics override brand. Which do you see most often, and why is it expensive?

Where do most agencies get retail media wrong?Optional

The brief flags two competing types of content: platform/tech vendor (how to optimize on platform X) and performance agency content (tactical without brand context). What's the gap Wild Hive fills?

03 · The integration POV

Retail media as amplifier, not replacement

How retail media fits alongside PR, influencer, earned media, and content. This is core to Wild Hive's differentiator vs. performance-only agencies.

What happens when retail media messaging contradicts a brand's earned media narrative?*

Have you seen this play out with a client or watched it happen to a competitor? What's the actual cost — credibility, conversion, retention, all of the above?

How should retail media work alongside PR, influencer partnerships, and content?Optional

This connects to Kary's upcoming piece on paid/earned convergence. Any framing or thinking already in motion you want to seed here?

An anonymized example where integration worked wellOptional

Even a brief scenario is gold. Industry, situation, what they did, what happened. Categories like "a functional beverage brand" are fine if names are confidential.

An anonymized example where retail media drowned out the brand storyOptional

A cautionary tale — what went wrong, why, what the cost was.

04 · The nutrition credibility angle

Protecting credibility in a performance channel

For better-for-you and functional food brands, RMN ads optimized purely for conversion can undermine careful health positioning. This is Wild Hive's unique territory.

How do you maintain nutrition credibility in RMN placements?*

What's the Wild Hive approach? Messaging principles, guardrails, creative review processes, how you brief the team — whatever's relevant.

An anonymized scenario where a brand's nutrition foundation got undermined by tactical RMN adsOptional

The brief explicitly flags this as a Wild Hive POV opportunity. A brand that built credibility through RDN partnerships and research communications, then watched their RMN ads ignore all of that to push price or convenience — have you seen it?

What does GOOD look like for a nutrition-credible brand using RMNs?Optional

Specific tactics, messaging examples, or principles that distinguish credible execution from generic performance ads.

05 · Platform prioritization

Where emerging brands should actually spend

There are 250+ RMNs globally, 160+ in the U.S. alone. Wild Hive's POV on prioritization is one of the most useful things this article can offer readers.

When does Instacart make sense vs. investing directly in Walmart Connect?Optional

Instacart offers aggregated access across multiple grocers via a single interface — potentially more accessible for emerging brands. Walmart Connect is the second-largest RMN. How do you think about the tradeoff?

How should better-for-you brands think about specialty retailers like Whole Foods or Sprouts?Optional

Smaller reach but possibly higher fit. Worth the investment or distraction from scale plays?

Wild Hive's framework for prioritizing RMN spendOptional

The brief offers a starting framework: allocate proportionally to retailer revenue, add support for new launches, focus on shopper marketing opportunities. What would you add, change, or push back on?

Past food/nutrition retail media work you can referenceOptional

Anonymized is fine. Even client types ("a functional beverage brand," "a wellness snack company") help.

06 · Practical guidance

What you'd tell a marketing leader starting today

The article needs actionable takeaways. This section is where readers get the most direct value.

Top 3 things you'd tell an emerging CPG marketing leader right nowOptional

Short, direct. One per line works.

Common mistakes you'd warn againstOptional

Brief candidates: overpaying for premium placements, advertising out-of-stock items, failing to measure incrementality, letting RMN tactics override brand strategy. Which resonate? What else?

Your take on the in-store blind spotOptional

85% of grocery purchases still happen in physical stores, but brands often focus exclusively on trackable digital RMN spend. How should they think about this?

Ready to submit?

Once you submit, Ashley at Newfangled will be notified and we'll start drafting the piece. If you need to add anything afterward, just reply to that notification.

Thank you

Your responses have been submitted. Ashley at Newfangled has been notified and we'll start drafting Article 032.

If you need to add anything, just reply to that email.

Cracking the Retail Media Code