While Goldfish has mostly been known as a kid- and parent-friendly cracker brand, the “snack that smiles back” is now aiming its gaze at Gen Z. At Retail Brew’s The Checkout forum last week, we talked to Danielle Brown, Campbell Soup Company’s VP of cookies and crackers (add that to our job title wishlist), about how it’s reaching Zoomers.

• According to Brown, the focus on Gen Z was a “deliberate shift” over the past few years to grow its consumer base beyond just kids and moms, especially because 40% of adult households are consuming Goldfish, she noted.

“What got you where you are isn’t really what’s gonna get you where you wanna go,” she told us.

Bringing the heat: One place this new focus took them was innovative flavors. While Gen Z still loves the classic cheddar, the brand has been working to cater to more “grown-up” palates, Brown said, with recent innovations like Old Bay, a partnership with spice giant McCormick, and Frank’s Red Hot.

• The Old Bay flavor sold out in nine hours on McCormick’s DTC site, according to Brown, an effort that helped Goldfish bring its “offline online.”

“As we broaden the aperture for the consumer base, we can also think differently about what product experiences are going to be appealing to them,” Brown noted.

Changing channels: They may be chronically online, but about half of Gen Zers actually favor an in-store experience, Brown said, so Campbell’s has changed its approach to integrating these segments.

• The company recently reorganized its sales division from separate e-commerce and in-store departments to one “commerce” department, finding that division “doesn’t work for this generation” and a “connected experience online and offline” is key.

Big fish: With 130.7k followers, Goldfish’s TikTok presence is helping drive Gen Z interest. Its #GoForTheHandful TikTok challenge—where Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanović held 301 in one hand—was a success last year, helping it be named a 2021 TikTok Culture Driver.

But how can a brand reach Gen Z without being “cheesy”? “Knowing your place, knowing who you are and how they see your brand and how you can authentically extend that to meet their needs is really important,” Brown said.

+1: That’s just a taste of our convo—click here to watch the entire thing.—EC

Marketing Brew is used to covering CMOs, but lately, there’s been a twist on the role: Alyssa Meyers just wrote about the rise of the chief music officer. Here’s what you need to know.

A few types of companies in particular could be best suited to usher in the era of the chief music officer, predicted Lauren McGuire, president at sonic branding agency Made Music Studio.

The first already has the ball rolling: companies that are “music dependent,” McGuire said, like health and fitness brands. Retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch and restaurants like Starbucks also fit that bill, according to McGuire, given the prevalence of music in their retail locations.

In fact, both already have employees curating music. Abercrombie, which has a significant presence on TikTok, confirmed that it has a “music coordinator” who deals with tasks like licensing as part of its A/V team. Starbucks said it has two employees with music-industry backgrounds curating playlists for its US stores, which the company started doing nearly 30 years ago.

Another type of brand that McGuire said could benefit from a chief music officer is the one that has “worked very hard to forge their brand with deep cultural ties to music,” like PepsiCo and Apple.

PepsiCo actually has its own internal music agency called Shakermaker that’s staffed with five employees, according to Adam Harter, the company’s SVP of marketing for sports, media, and entertainment. The team is led by Emma Quigley, PepsiCo’s first head of music, who joined in 2014.

“It gave us one voice to the industry. It gave us one line of sight to the economics across the industry,” Harter told us. “It gave us one consultant and one point of view on best practices and the way we should be leveraging music across all of our brands.”

Click here to read the full story on Marketing Brew. And click here for a refresher on how in-store music can help shops hit the right notes.—GT

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Ramona Giderof has a lot to cheer(s) about across her career: She’s worked at Anheuser-Busch since 2006, first coming on board in 2006 as the senior key account manager for the Walmart team. Multiple years and roles later—including as a sales director for CVS, and Kroger—Giderof is now the VP of convenience and military at the bev giant. Here, she spills more on her job.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I lead national and regional sales directors and key account managers across the US that focus on supporting national and regional convenience-store chains and military worldwide.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile: In my role, I lead the largest sales channel in the US for Anheuser-Busch.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Overseeing and collaborating across our commercial organization to drive strategy and engagement with key stakeholders, helping retailers win in the category.

An emerging trend that you’re most excited about? This is not necessarily emerging (it is for some, not for others), but I’m excited about collaborating with our retailers on their digital and e-commerce efforts. I want to help our retailers recruit and retain shoppers as well as drive shopper conversion through digital and e-commerce activation.

Today’s top retail reads.

Both sides now: Dissecting the dichotomy between how retailers think about ESG versus unionization. (Retail Dive)

See you in court: The world of e-comm disputes in China. (the Wall Street Journal)

Play it right: The college athlete having a field day nearly a year after the landmark NIL ruling, with 69 endorsements (so far), including from Arby’s, Boost Mobile, Eastbay, and Pedialyte. (Forbes)

Primed for success: Business is boomin’ on Amazon. Elevate your brand’s performance on the platform with key insights and winning strategies for Prime Day + beyond with Feedvisor’s vital trend data, collected from over 1k US brands. Start here.*

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Ahhhh work travel, we've missed you. We love a conference, don't you? Free food, smart people with inspiring ideas...aspirational breakfast meetings.

Which brings us to Retail Brew's newest debut: The Sku: A Retail Brew Summit. Here's what's on the agenda:

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