INSIDER SESSION RECAP: EMERGING BRANDS AND RETAIL MEDIA
Live Insider Session Recap: Expo West, Emerging Brand Trends and Retail Media
Key insights from Expo West 2026 on emerging CPG brand trends, retail media strategy for new brands, and how to scale from launch to national distribution at Target, Walmart, and beyond.
Expo West 2025 brought 65,000 attendees and over 3,000 brands to Anaheim, signaling one clear message: emerging brands are reshaping the CPG landscape, and retail media is no longer optional for scale. From protein-infused everything to seed oil-free innovations, the show revealed which trends are gaining shelf space and which strategies separate brands that survive from brands that thrive. The bottom line? Brands launching into mass retail need capital, placement strategy, and a retail media plan before they ever see their first PO.
Watch the full webinar on the DIGITS YouTube channel for deeper insights from Dave Glaza and Lunr Capital’s Sam Stutzman, including live Q&A and detailed tactical breakdowns.
Expo West isn’t just a trade show. It’s where emerging brands earn their shot at Target endcaps, Sprouts accelerator programs, and Walmart national rollouts. With buyers on the show floor and retailers actively seeking innovation in healthier formulations and functional benefits, the opportunity is real. But so are the pitfalls for unprepared brands.
Key Takeaways at a Glance
- Protein, seed oil-free formulations, and functional beverages dominated Expo West 2025 product innovation
- Retail media budgets of 2 to 10% of retail sales are now table stakes for emerging brands launching at mass retailers
- 75 to 80% of retail business still happens in physical stores, requiring in-store placement strategy alongside digital tactics
- Paid search and geo-targeted offsite display should be prioritized before expensive managed service programs
- Brands need capital partners and retail media plans in hand before finalizing buyer negotiations
What Were the Biggest Product Trends at Expo West 2026?
Protein continues dominating across categories, but consumers are becoming savvier about artificial additions. Seed oil-free products are moving from niche to mainstream. Functional beverages, sparkling coffee, and non-alcoholic alternatives are filling white space.
Protein showed up everywhere at Expo West, but the brands gaining traction are those using real ingredients rather than synthetic additives. Yo Pizza, recently launched at Target, delivers 40 grams of protein through Greek yogurt in the crust rather than isolates or powders.
Seed oil-free products represent genuine market gaps. Brands like Veggie Vice are launching actual vegetable chips (not vegetable-flavored chips) that are also seed oil-free. The “Bobby Approved” trend on TikTok is driving consumer awareness around seed oil elimination.
Functional beverages continue expanding with more sophistication. Fuzzy Coffee introduced sparkling coffee infused with Lion’s Mane and L-theanine to balance caffeine’s effects. Collagen beverages, electrolyte packets, and creatine-infused products are emerging, though consumer education remains a barrier.
Non-alcoholic beverages carved significant floor space, positioning themselves as alternatives to drink alongside or between alcoholic beverages (the “zebra striping” trend).
For detailed brand examples and category-by-category analysis, watch the full webinar on the DIGITS YouTube channel.
What Categories Are Retailers Actively Seeking Innovation?
Baby food and snacks, senior nutrition, breakfast formats, and differentiated meat snacks represent the biggest white space opportunities based on buyer conversations and retailer assortment gaps.
Target and other mass retailers are aggressively cleaning up food and beverage assortments to remove additives and dyes, creating immediate opportunities for better-for-you baby snacks beyond traditional baby food purees.
Senior nutrition remains dramatically underserved. With an aging population, the gap between typical supplements and functional foods designed for seniors represents real opportunity.
Breakfast innovation is stalling despite being a daily consumption occasion. Beyond better-for-you pancakes and waffles, retailers need new formats and global flavors.
Meat snacks have become commoditized. Chomps, Archer, New Primal, and Mighty Spark dominate, but differentiation is critical. Wicked Cutz claims a patent on breakfast meat sticks (sausage, egg, and cheese) which Dave thought was the best bite of the week. One brand is developing protein gummies as an alternative delivery mechanism.
How Should Emerging Brands Think About Retail Media Budgets?
Plan for 2 to 10% of retail sales as your retail media investment range. Two percent is survival mode. Ten percent signals aggressive growth. Most successful mid and big brands budget 3 to 5% minimum.
When Sam Stutzman worked on Target’s Roundel sales team, the standard recommendation was minimum 3% of annual sales for retail media investment. This benchmark represents table stakes for brands serious about driving velocity and earning expanded distribution.
Brands investing below 2% struggle to generate meaningful impact. The 10%+ tier represents brands with capital and aggressive growth mandates, often distributed in smaller store counts investing heavily to prove velocity and earn national rollouts.
Here’s the strategic insight most brands miss: retail media budgets should be negotiated and committed before finalizing distribution agreements. Walking into buyer meetings with a prepared retail media plan demonstrates investment commitment and seriousness.
As Sam Stutzman noted: “If you go in to that retail buyer with the retail media plan in advance before you even win the shelf space, it’s going to go a really long way with them to show how invested you are in growing with that specific retailer.”
Why Is Retail Media Different from Amazon?
Seventy-five to eighty percent of omnichannel retail business happens in physical stores, not digital carts. Retail media must drive both digital conversion and physical store traffic. Amazon strategies don’t translate directly.
Even at the most digitally advanced retailers, 75 to 80% of business still goes into physical shopping carts. At Target, roughly 25% of business is digital (split between ship-to-home and drive-up/pickup). The remaining 75% requires people physically walking aisles, selecting products, and checking out in-store.
This means retail media strategy must accomplish two distinct goals simultaneously: digital conversion (winning paid search placements, optimizing product detail pages) and physical store traffic (getting shoppers to walk into stores aware of your brand and motivated to try your product).
The recipe is different even when ingredients look similar. You wouldn’t ask an Italian chef to make Thai food just because both use garlic and oil. Similarly, don’t expect your Amazon playbook to work at Target without significant adaptation.
What Retail Media Tactics Should Emerging Brands Prioritize?
Start with paid search and self-serve display (day one), add geo-targeted offsite media (immediately after), activate promotions strategically, and only graduate to managed service programs once you have $500K+ or $1M+ annual budgets.
Retail media progression follows a specific sequence for emerging brands.
Priority 1: Paid Search and Self-Serve Display
Paid search at Target and Walmart should be your first dollar spent. DIGITS client metrics show: 20 to 25% of total business reached, effective CPMs around $3 to $4, average ROAS of 8:1, conversion rates of 40 to 50% at Target for in-stock local products, and low cost-per-click relative to performance.
Priority 2: Offsite Geo-Targeted Display and Social
This is where emerging brands typically fail to invest. Offsite display reaches the 75% of shoppers who will buy your product in physical stores but may never use the retailer’s app. The tactic: hyper-targeted display and social media advertising geo-fenced around each specific store location carrying your product.
DIGITS standard performance: $5 to $10 CPM, 4% average total business lift (roughly 10% digital lift, 4% store lift).
Priority 3: Promotions
Two paths exist: retailer-direct programs (Target Circle, Walmart Ibotta Cash) or third-party solutions (Vizer, GoToAisle). Third-party receipt-scan promotions work exceptionally well for brands with strong social followings.
Priority 4: Managed Service (When Ready)
Roundel’s minimum is $500K annual spend. Most emerging brands aren’t ready for this investment level at launch.
What About In-Store Placement Strategy?
Negotiate sales plan placements, endcaps, and pallet drops during initial buyer conversations, not after launch. In-store visibility drives the 75 to 80% of business happening in physical carts.
The biggest mistake emerging brands make is treating in-store placement as something that “just happens” while focusing all strategic energy on digital tactics.
Target has dramatically increased dedicated space for emerging and better-for-you brands. These aren’t accidents. They’re negotiated placements funded by brand investment.
During buyer negotiations, discuss sales plan placements, pallet drops, promotional signage, and endcap rotations. These conversations should happen before you finalize your purchase orders.
Have you allocated budget for in-store placements, or only for digital media?
Action Steps
Ready to translate Expo West insights into retail success? Here’s what to do next:
- Watch the full webinar: Head to the DIGITS YouTube channel for the complete session including live Q&A, detailed tactical examples, and visual breakdowns of each strategy.
- Build your retail media budget model: Calculate 3 to 5% of projected retail sales and line-item it in your P&L before buyer meetings.
- Separate your Amazon and retail strategies: Stop copy-pasting Amazon tactics. Build distinct plans for digital conversion and physical store traffic.
- Connect with capital and strategy partners: Talk to capital partners like Lunr Capital about financing inventory and retail media partners like DIGITS about building launch plans before your buyer meetings.
FAQs
How much should emerging brands budget for retail media?
Minimum 3% of retail sales is table stakes. Survival mode is 2%. Aggressive growth is 10%+. Most successful emerging brands budget 3 to 5% at launch.
What’s the difference between retail media and Amazon advertising?
Seventy-five to eighty percent of retail business happens in physical stores, requiring strategies that drive both digital conversion and in-store traffic. Amazon optimizes purely for digital.
Which retailers are most accessible for emerging brands?
Sprouts and Albertsons offer strong accelerator programs allowing brands to launch in small store subsets and expand based on performance.
When should we engage a retail media agency?
Before finalizing buyer negotiations. Walking into buyer meetings with a prepared retail media plan demonstrates investment seriousness and differentiates you from competitors.
Conclusion
Expo West 2025 proved emerging brands are reshaping CPG categories with better ingredients, functional benefits, and consumer-first innovation. But product innovation alone won’t earn shelf space or drive velocity.
The brands that scale successfully combine capital to fund inventory and marketing, strategic in-store placement negotiated upfront, and retail media plans that drive both digital conversion and physical store traffic.
The question is: will you show up to buyer meetings with product samples and hope, or with product innovation and a funded plan to drive velocity?
Watch the complete Expo West 2025 webinar on the DIGITS YouTube channel for detailed tactical guidance, brand examples, and live Q&A with Dave Glaza and Sam Stutzman.
Ready to build your retail media launch strategy? Contact DIGITS to develop a plan that drives both digital and physical store performance from day one.
About DIGITS Agency
DIGITS is an omnichannel retail media agency specializing in Target, regional grocers, and alcohol retail media. As a Target Managed Services partner and Roundel Media Studio Certified agency, DIGITS helps CPG brands navigate retail media with strategic planning, hands-on campaign management, and proprietary analytics. Learn more at www.digitsagency.com.
Dave Glaza, Founder & CEO of DIGITS, remains committed to bringing digital capabilities to physical stores!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
