Linqia was on site last week at Mediapost’s CPG Brand Insider Summit for a fun three days of action and insights with brand, agency and platform leaders across the CPG industry. We heard from Danone on their breakthrough nepo babies campaign, Liquid Death on how they broke the internet with some rocking grandmas, and Aspirin’s campaign for addressing the surprising insight that sports fans are two times more likely to have a heart event when watching their home team.

Beyond the inspiring creative brand campaigns, here are our top 10 takeaways from the Summit. 

1. Retail Media Networks are the hot topic in CPG. RMN was on everyone’s mind, and while the industry has made leaps in the last few years it still has a long way to go in building consistent measurement and processes. Retailers are not publishers and that means new ways of working for every brand.   
2. Influencers are a given. A few years ago influencers were the equivalent of retail media in that they were the new kids on the block with much to be defined. Now they are an integrated part of seemingly every breakthrough campaign and a necessary component of the marketing mix.  
3. Personalization is key. There are many ways to create a personalized consumer experience, but the key is making sure that experience is something the consumer actually wants. Quizzes as an example are a much more engaging way to collect consumer data than surveys, while providing those consumers with a customized experience. 
4. Nimbleness is an asset. Our world is more fast paced than ever, and so it can’t take six months to get something live if you want it to be relevant. Making your company uncomfortable with timelines is sometimes the way to break through. 
5. Test test test. This means creative, format, style, narrative, length and more. Testing not only delivers valuable insights, it ensures the content is fresh for the consumer since it implies varying messages and creative. 
6. Content is malleable. Just because something was created with an upper funnel intent does not mean that same content can’t be adjusted and optimized for lower funnel conversion. Influencer content is a great example of creative that can ride the funnel with small tweaks and optimizations. 
7. Breakthrough creative comes in different shapes and sizes. There is a difference between content that beats benchmarks, content that enters the social conversation, and content that shapes culture. There is no right or wrong, it just depends on the intent. 
8. The funnel doesn’t exist anymore. Consumers don’t think that way and aligning content to the pillars of the brand vs. the stages of the funnel is how you create impactful content. 
9. Silos can kill campaigns. Integrated strategies lead to better results. The more you break down silos in your organization and have cross department collaboration the better chance of success. 
10. Stay true to your brands DNA. The brands that have the highest loyalty never waver from what they stand for, they are unapologetically themselves.