Shownotes
In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from FMI 2026 at the Simbe booth, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga speak with Julian Mintz, VP of Sales at Albertsons Media Collective, about how retail media is evolving and what brands are looking for next.
Julian shares how Albertsons Media Collective is leveraging national scale, local banner strength, and true omnichannel reach to help brands connect with shoppers from the couch all the way to checkout. The conversation explores why in store media is moving into the spotlight, how measurement and closed loop attribution are shaping brand confidence, and what it takes to align media, merchandising, and promotion into a single strategy.
Julian also discusses how Albertsons works with CPG partners to break down silos between traditional media, shopper marketing, and retail media, and why education and internal collaboration are critical to driving unit sales and long term growth.
Key Topics Covered
- What differentiates Albertsons Media Collective in a crowded retail media landscape
- How Albertsons defines true omnichannel reach
- Why in store media is still early but gaining momentum fast
- The role of measurement and closed loop attribution in brand adoption
- Aligning media, merchandising, and promotion for better outcomes
- Breaking down silos between brand, agency, and shopper budgets
- How technology enables precision across banners and demographics
Stay tuned to Omni Talk Retail for continued coverage from FMI 2026, recorded live from the Simbe booth in the FMI Tech section.
#FMI2026 #AlbertsonsMediaCollective #RetailMedia #InStoreMedia #GroceryRetail #RetailTechnology #Omnichannel #RetailLeadership #OmniTalk
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Transcripts
Hello, welcome back.
Speaker A:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker A:And we are coming to you live from FMI in sunny San Diego in the Simbi booth.
Speaker A:We're here, number 118.
Speaker A:Come stop by all day.
Speaker A:We'll be here.
Speaker A:Simbi will help be helping us bring you interviews with loads of retailers and brands today.
Speaker A:And we cannot wait for this next one.
Speaker A:Standing in between Chris and myself is Julian Mintz.
Speaker A:Julian is the VP of Sales for Albertsons Media Collective.
Speaker A:Julian, welcome back.
Speaker A:We had you on at fmi.
Speaker C:Yes, thank you for having me back.
Speaker A:You've decided to join us again.
Speaker C:I was going to ask you the same question.
Speaker A:We're thrilled, thrilled to have you.
Speaker C:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:Yeah, so remind our audience, you know, we did have you on last year and it's good to always check in with our guests every year.
Speaker B:That's one thing we love about our job is so remind our audience of what it is that you do and all that you oversee as the VP of Sales for Albertsons Media Collective.
Speaker C:Yeah, so the, the title speaks for itself.
Speaker C:I lead the sales team at Albertsons Media Collective, so working with a great group of team members that work directly with our suppliers to help them grow their unit sales in our stores.
Speaker B:So you're talking to the brands a lot.
Speaker C:Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Speaker C:And it's an exciting time to be at Albertsons.
Speaker C:We're a few months in under our new leadership, Susan Morris, coming off of the merger that wasn't.
Speaker C:And the company just has such tremendous momentum and pretty blessed to be able to do my job.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, Julian, one thing that we hear from a lot of retail media companies right now is that they have closed loop attribution and omnichannel reach.
Speaker A:Those are a couple.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Yeah, that, that comes up, comes up.
Speaker A:A lot, you know, as the sales leader for Albertson's media collective, what are the things that you really believe are unique to Albertsons Media Collective?
Speaker A:Like, what are you really offering your colleagues, customers and brands that gets them to be like, oh, yeah, this is great.
Speaker A:Brian mentioned a couple of them.
Speaker A:I'd love to hear from your perspective how you, like, encourage the team to really show how unique.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:Look, it's a unique company with an extremely rich heritage.
Speaker C:We have several brands that have been around for over 100 years, but it really starts, first and foremost with our scale.
Speaker C:We have 2,200 stores, 13 of the largest, 15 DMAs.
Speaker C:So it's truly a national play where we can reach a Ton of people quickly.
Speaker C:And so it really starts with our scale.
Speaker C:And then we really believe in true omnichannel connections.
Speaker C:And again, you hear that all the time.
Speaker A:Tell us what that means to you and your team.
Speaker C:So for us, it means that we can reach a consumer whether they're on the couch, all the way to when they're at the cash register.
Speaker C:So that means from the very first impression that they see on TV or on streaming through digital at a home when they're scrolling their phone, to when they go online to maybe browse for products.
Speaker C:But then the big thing that we're focused on this year is what happens when they actually get to the store.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Because that's really the third leg in this true omnichannel journey.
Speaker C:And we'll talk a little bit more about it in a little bit.
Speaker C:But being able to engage them with really rich, context driven, creative, video, creative, digital, creative, measurable, creative.
Speaker C:When they're in the actual store, is.
Speaker A:There one of those tactics that you feel like is really gaining more traction from your customers than others?
Speaker A:Like are they hearing about radio?
Speaker A:Are they hearing about screens?
Speaker A:And they're like, ooh, I like that one.
Speaker A:Or that's more appealing?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Where do the brand's eyes light up when you're sitting across the table from them pitching them.
Speaker C:This is such a cop out answer, so bear with me.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:But they all do, depending on who you're talking to.
Speaker C:So we speak with people that have been buying traditional television that's been bought the same way for 60 years, and we're coming in with first party data and true sales attribution.
Speaker C:And that's what they're being asked by their CMOs for.
Speaker C:And so their eyes light up for that when we're talking to someone more on the shopper marketing side who's more attached to trade budgets, Being able to engage someone in the store with a digital screen in a cross merchandising fashion is something that they get really excited about.
Speaker C:So it really depends on who we're talking to.
Speaker C:Ultimately, it all ladders up to the cmo.
Speaker C:The CMO wants to do a few different things, but they ultimately are responsible for moving units.
Speaker C:And we're helping them do that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:Because you brought it up, you talked about in store, you know, connecting the dots between everything that goes on and particularly in store.
Speaker B:And Brian, who we had on earlier, who also works for Albertsons Media Collective, he mentioned that too, and he said that we're in the early innings of in store retail media.
Speaker B:So if that's the case.
Speaker B:It sounds like you agree.
Speaker B:How do you pitch that?
Speaker B:Like, what are the hooks that get the brand interested in what you can do for them in store.
Speaker C:I don't think anyone has a doubt that a digital experience in the store is really important.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We've been many years now into the merging of the physical and the digital shelf.
Speaker C:So shopping behavior has already changed.
Speaker C:Moments where people get inspired or they have their awareness raised to a certain brand.
Speaker C:That's changing as well across the media landscape.
Speaker C:So we're very confident that brands are bought in on that concept.
Speaker C:Very true that we're in the early innings.
Speaker C:It's much more developed in Europe.
Speaker C:I think what really excites brands is the way we're approaching it, which is with measurement at the forefront.
Speaker C:So it's not just about, hey, trust us, someone's going to walk through our store and see your ad.
Speaker C:It's that we're going to be able to close the loop eventually on attribution to sales in the same way we do our other digital media.
Speaker C:So it turns out to be a true end to end omnichannel solution where the outcome is at the forefront and we start with that before we even start planning the media.
Speaker C:And the in store experience being a part of that is a true game changer.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, I'd love to get your perspective too.
Speaker A:Like, okay, traditional media buys, you've got slotting, you've got got promotions, you've got co ops.
Speaker A:Now you have retail media as another line item for brands to be thinking about when they're partnering with you.
Speaker A:How do you kind of guide them on how to make this collective investment and kind of how to proportion each one of their investments so that they have the success that you're talking about.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:The starting point is having our house in order.
Speaker C:So internal collaboration, so everything that happens on the trade side, price promotion, media is in service of that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:At the end of the day, we're just trying to help our suppliers and our brands make their customers aware of all the great things that they're doing that then materialize on the physical or the digital shelf.
Speaker C:And so we have great coordination internally at Albertsons between our media team and our merchandising team to make sure that our media does exactly that.
Speaker C:So that's really the foundation of it.
Speaker C:And then from there it's just about working with marketers to help them understand that media and the retail media landscape doesn't have to be a narrow definition.
Speaker C:It doesn't just have to be what happens on our site or in our store, but can also include the NFL game that they have a spot in, or the super bowl or a billboard that they're placing when somebody's on the way to the store.
Speaker C:That all comes together and should speak in one line all the way down to then what someone sees on price and promotion on the shelf.
Speaker C:I'll give you an example.
Speaker C:We have a product that we call Promo amp.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Which brings in a live price and item feed from all of our different divisions.
Speaker C:So it's an API connection.
Speaker C:So that when an ad is served with an Albertsons banner on it, someone can see that updated promotion right there in the ad.
Speaker C:That's the type of coordination with our merchandising team that makes it really critical.
Speaker C:It makes the media more effective.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I guess goes back to what Brian was telling us, too, about how, you know, you have so many banners, so many, like, such a wide customer demographic, too, that to be able to get that much precision out of a media buy, you know, across multiple different, you know, demographics, is something that I don't think a lot of other media collectives or groups can do.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, look, we.
Speaker C:We place a lot of resources and a lot of focus on the advertising technology that sits behind the retail media solution.
Speaker C:To be able to do that, it's not a simple, straightforward one name on the.
Speaker C:We have 11 different banners, and we are locally great, but nationally strong.
Speaker C:And so we need to have tech.
Speaker B:That can have good tech to do that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:All right, so let's put you on the spot here.
Speaker B:Before we let you go, I want to ask you the tough question.
Speaker B:I want to ask you a tough question before we let you go.
Speaker B:So if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about how your CPG brand partners approach retail media buying, what would that be?
Speaker B:What would that one thing be?
Speaker C:It's a really.
Speaker C:I am on the spot.
Speaker C:Okay, good question.
Speaker C:I think it would just be the.
Speaker C:As we talk about internally at Albertsons, breaking down the silos between media and merchandise.
Speaker C:There's a lot of silos at the cpg, whether it's directly within their brand or at their agencies, which are in the process of being broken down.
Speaker C:I don't want to say that they're not.
Speaker C:Everybody recognizes that there's something that has to be done, but those silos need to be broken down so that the person that's buying television is talking to the person that's buying a sponsored search ad.
Speaker B:Really interesting.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And in many companies, they are, but they would even tell you that that's a process and a journey.
Speaker C:And these are big companies, right?
Speaker B:They'd all admit it.
Speaker C:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:And I think the better that they're able to do that and we can really bring down the walls between these bigger national brand budgets and then the more accountable shopper budgets that are currently running in the RMN space, which are all in support of performance and unit sales, the better the CPGs are going to be for it.
Speaker C:So we're trying to take a consultative approach rooted in education that helps them understand the benefit of that, which sounds.
Speaker A:Like it's something that they severely need in order to make the right choices and the right buys too.
Speaker C:Yeah, you said it.
Speaker B:For the future for sure.
Speaker A:Thank you so much, Julian Mintz.
Speaker A:Thank you for Simbi, who are helping us bring all of our coverage from the show.
Speaker A:Stop by See Us Today booth in the FMI tech section.
Speaker A:And until next time, be careful out there.