Schedule

Start your day with a delicious breakfast while connecting with fellow attendees. Fuel up, make introductions, and get ready for an inspiring day of learning, collaboration, and innovation.

Welcome and introduction to the event. Overview of the day's agenda and key goals.

Join Sri Rajagopalan & Peter Bond, the renowned “CPG Guys” for a dynamic opening keynote that sets the tone for analytics-driven insights in the modern consumer packaged goods (CPG) era. In a data-rich but increasingly complex market, this session demystifies how insights professionals can transform quality data into decisive actions in today’s volume-challenged times by focusing on the right priorities.

Key takeaways:

• What are the key opportunities and challenges in our industry.
• The C-suite approach to what's next (from CAGNY 2026).
• The role of Artificial Intelligence in the shopper journey.
• How JBP’s (joint business plans) are past us and JVC (Joint value creation) is what matters.
• Insight activation that sticks: turning deep analyses into decision-ready stories, dashboards, and cross-functional buy-in from marketing, product, and sales.

In a crowded marketplace, understanding shelf dynamics is a strategic necessity. This presentation explores the application of advanced discrete choice modeling to simulate CPG environments. Through three distinct case studies, we demonstrate how shelf-set simulations remove the guesswork from innovation and strategy. We explore how testing new product forms and packaging leads to breakthrough innovation, how leveraging line price modeling identifies the point that maximizes brand and category share without eroding brand equity, and how flavor optimization curates the ideal portfolio mix while minimizing cannibalization. Beyond the results, we address methodological design challenges and the solutions needed to ensure data integrity. Attendees will walk away with a practical roadmap for transforming complex trade-off data into actionable CPG strategies that win at the moment of truth.
Presented by: Daniel Garleb, MarketVision & Srabani Rake (former Reynolds, Kellogg's, Newell)

Take a short break to stretch, grab a coffee, and chat with fellow participants. Use this time to exchange ideas, meet new colleagues, and build connections that can spark future collaboration.

CPG research has long focused on shopper behavior at the point of click—search, retail, and media performance—while the influences shaping decisions earlier in the journey remain largely unseen. As AI increasingly helps consumers explore options, validate choices, and synthesize information, that hidden influence is growing. Consumers move through discovery moments that span AI tools, search, content, and retail environments. This session introduces a practical framework for making AI-shaped influence visible. Using observed digital behavior, it maps discovery-to-conversion journeys, develops a behavioral brand awareness score tied to real actions, and applies AI–search usage segmentation to reveal how shoppers discover and engage with brands. While grounded in CPG, the framework applies across industries where AI influences decision-making.

Key Takeaways:
- How AI reshapes discovery before the click—and how to map these moments using observed behavior rather than channel proxies.
-A practical method for building a behavioral brand awareness score that reveals the say–do gap in AI-influenced journeys.
-How AI–search usage segmentation uncovers different discovery dynamics and informs strategy, innovation, and growth.

Presented By: Margie Strickland, Luth Research

Traditional brand tracking methods are commonplace in research today, but they are often hard to act upon and leave marketers wanting more. In this session, you will learn how Mental Availability can provide a clear, strategic roadmap to brand growth.

The presenters will show how Mental Availability research can surface unexpected consumer disconnection from key brand pillars, provide a strategic view into the category and competitive landscapes, and how the insights guide upcoming brand strategy, positioning, and communication.

Presented By: Eric Mathis, Appinio & Alison Servi, Herman-Scheer

When Gen Z shops for olive oil, they’re not making informed choices—they’re navigating confusion. Faced with overwhelming options and unclear cues, many default to the cheapest or most familiar product, turning a high-involvement category into a low-confidence decision. In partnership with Filippo Berio, we studied Gen Z’s real path-to-purchase at Kroger using interviews, in-store observation, digital audits, and surveys. The research uncovered the shortcuts, misperceptions, and “good enough” heuristics driving behavior—not just what shoppers say, but what they actually do. We translated these insights into shopper clusters, decision trees, and a redesigned planogram that simplifies the aisle around use cases and cognitive ease. By replacing abstract claims with clear guidance and intuitive cues, the new approach makes better choices—and trade-ups—feel easier and less risky. This session demonstrates how a behaviorally informed, category-first approach can transform a confusing shelf into a decision environment that works better for shoppers, retailers, and brands alike.

Presented By: David Raska, Northern Kentucky University, with researchers from Filippo Berio and Kroger

CLTs and IHUTs are foundational in CPG research—but often yield very different results, influencing key business decisions. This session compares blinded CLT and branded in-home testing using large-scale U.S. benchmarking studies of identical products. By isolating factors like brand visibility and usage context, it reveals how methodology impacts outcomes such as overall liking, purchase intent, diagnostics, and optimization priorities. Findings show blinded CLTs offer stronger formulation diagnostics, while branded in-home tests better reflect real-world performance by capturing the influence of brand, packaging, and context. Attendees will gain a practical framework for when to use blinded, branded, or hybrid approaches—helping align research design with real-world decision-making.

Presented by: Daniel Protz, FlavorWiki by GPI & Cindy Dumlao, Mars Snacking
 

Hear from corporate insights leaders - from the retail and product side - about how they are addressing their fast-evolving challenges, including budgets, stakeholder requests, emerging tech, complex and growing data streams, shifts in consumer buying habits, and much more. 

Panelists: Emily Stern, Wakefern & Briahnna Flythe, Milo's
Moderated by: Cynthia Harris, 8:28 Insights

Learn how Mars Petcare is building a connected insights ecosystem to elevate human expertise by streamlining access to trusted data, connecting intelligence across the enterprise, and leveraging AI to surface predictive foresight so teams can focus on interpretation, implications, and decisive action. Key Takeaways:
• Empower teams by connecting data and knowledge by integrating structured (RMS, eCommerce, media) and unstructured (research, reviews, open-ends) sources into a single, accessible insights ecosystem
• Enable faster, more confident decisions by shifting from reactive reporting to proactive, decision-ready intelligence
• Amplify human expertise with AI to accelerate data synthesis and enable Insights teams to be a stronger bridge for driving organizational action

Presented by: Mike Mackezyk, Senior Manager, Data Capabilities, Mars Petcare U.S.; Chris Deinlein,  Senior Consultant, Strategic Insights & Analytics, Burke, Inc.; Patricia Salamone, VP, Client Consultant,  Burke, Inc.

Recharge for the final sessions and continue to forge valuable connections.

Wrap up the day's sessions with a relaxed networking reception. Enjoy light refreshments and drinks as you continue conversations, make new connections, and reflect on key takeaways with peers and speakers.