Going Local on a Global Scale through Effective Product Content Management

Transcript

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Teresa Sperti (00:00):

Welcome to unpacking the Digital Shelf APAC edition where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities shaping digital commerce across Asia Pacific. With insights from the region's top experts, welcome back APAC edition listeners. Today I'm really excited to welcome my latest guest to the show, Amanda Green, the general manager of digital and innovation at Treasury Wine Estates. Treasury Wine Estates, for those of you not familiar with, the organization, is one of the world's largest wine producers selling and distributing across 70 countries and owns a vast portfolio of brands, including the world renowned Penfolds brand. Amanda is a local digital icon having spent much of her career in the CPG and FMCG space with brands including Nike, L'Oreal, and now leading digital and innovation at Treasury Wine Estates. Welcome, Amanda. So great to have you on the pod.

Amanda Green (01:08):

Thanks. Great to be here.

Teresa Sperti (01:10):

So in today's episode, we are going to explore the topic of going local on a global scale through effective product content management. With you, Amanda, TWE is on an exciting journey to evolve its approach to product content management, to deliver relevancy and tailored channel experiences at an individual market level. And as part of that journey, you're also preparing the business for the future to be future ready as digital shelf management evolves in the face of Gen ai. So we have so much to unpack in today's discussion, so why don't we get into it? So firstly, Amanda, why don't we start with you sharing a bit about your journey that you're embarking on to reinvent the ways that treasury wine Estates manages product content?

Amanda Green (01:57):

Sure. So let's just start where my content journey at treasury started. So it really kicked off leading e-comm and digital at Penfolds. We really needed a more scalable way to manage content across channels and with our retailers. So that's when we bought in our first pim. So this has really helped us centralize content for a NZ and started lifting the quality and consistency of what we're delivering to retailers. Now that I've moved into this global digital world across all of twe, the plan is to sort of take that PIM foundation as scale it. So we're really prioritizing a global PIM and DAM to enable new ways of working across our markets and really behind that, the goal is simple, right? Deliver the right content to the right channel in the right format every time. And the reason behind this is that really our retailer and consumer expectations have changed.

(02:48):

They want content that's going to be relevant, fast and localized, but above all though, it really has to be consistent across all touch points with our brands. So without a global system and a strategy, you just can't keep up. And then as you think about as AI is starting to reshape the use of our digital shelf, we're not focused on today, we're also focusing on laying that foundation now to generate, manage and scale content in a much smarter and more automated way going forward. And I think as I look at that, one of the biggest challenges we face in doing this is that global rarely is going to mean one size fits all. So retailer requirements really drastically vary between our regions. For example, Australia's Australia retailers are often focused on structured product data and standardized formats. But in China, storytelling and rich lifestyle imagery are king, and it's often driven by platforms like T-Mobile or doin. So meanwhile in the US there's a huge focus on syndication flexibility and speed across a really fragmented retail landscape. So these nuances mean that we can't just plug in one system and call it done and can't say yes, we're dominating global content. We really need an adaptable framework that actually can flex to our regional needs while still being globally governed.

Teresa Sperti (04:08):

I'm curious, Amanda, we know that from a China perspective, that the Chinese market is so different from an e-commerce point of view. What are you learning from the Chinese market in terms of how shoppers engage with content that you can then utilize to shape what you are doing in other markets? Or are the markets just so radically different that you can't take learnings from China and apply that to other markets?

Amanda Green (04:36):

You can always learn from other markets and share. And I think just sort of speaking to that, I mean, it's not like one market has only one type of consumer. People travel so much as well now that you've got different consumers from different countries in every region. So you can always learn and adapt. But I think when we take it back to the basic differences between the markets, really there's really big differences in how consumers engage with the wine. So Asia's hugely diverse, but generally, I'm going to put big generalizations here. Across the board, we see different behaviors compared to developed western markets, which is in markets like China or Japan, consumers are often newer to wine. So education plays a much bigger role in those regions than others. They're looking for content that really demystifies wine and not just long tasting notes, but clear engaging explanations that tell them why they should drink this wine and why it's good and how it differs from another wine.

(05:35):

And when you think about that, it's then also the tasting and pairing notes. So when we talk about wine here, for example, we'll be like, oh, this goes really nice with cheese and it has notes of cassa seed or blackberry. Well, that might not work in Asia. So in China we're more likely to talk about red dates or jasmine or even traditional food pairings like hotpot that makes it resonate then locally. So our language needs to shift to match local taste preferences and culinary norms as well. And then even as we describe taste and smell, it can be different and culturally specific. So western markets, we lean into structure like tannin and oak, and we understand what that means being in Asian markets, it might focus more on smoothness and elegance and fruity softness. It's a cultural nuance, but it totally changes how we would write and visualize that product content. So for the digital shelf in all of these regions, it means we can't use a one size fits all content approach to win in those markets. We need a shelf strategy that allows for deep localization from the words we use to the images that we use, but it's still efficient and consistent. So that's where having that content and PIM tools really come into play to help make all that possible.

Teresa Sperti (06:50):

So I'm curious to understand with 70 countries you are distributing in and a host of distributors and retailers that you're partnering with, how do you scale content production in a way that meets those different shopper needs that you just unpacked across different markets and do so in localized languages? I mean, it seems like a very, very complex challenge that you're leaning into. Have you got it all figured out or is this still a bit of a work in progress for the brand?

Amanda Green (07:19):

Yeah, no, we absolutely haven't got it all figured out a hundred percent. I don't think I would love to hear anyone who actually has, I mean, this is a pretty complex thing we're talking about, right? But I think everyone has a different approach to it. But I think the key things that brands really need to look to and what we look to do is having a very clear DNA around each of the brands. What is it that they're trying to do? What are the guidelines around the brand? And then also producing centralized global content that gives that sort of steer and that foundation of this is what we expect the brand to show up in all our channels. Then we would take that locally and within regions and localize it. There's always a sign off point, there's a workflow that you would localize the content.

(08:01):

It does come back to someone to sign off and say, yes, this is in line with our brand. But as you can imagine, that can be quite a manual process. And a lot of the companies I've worked for, and I mean it is slightly more automated now, but back in the day when we started, it was like that as well. So for me, when I look going forward, that's where I'm excited about the role that AI can play in a lot of this, right? If you have those guidelines, if you know there's certain nuances within each region, you can take that branding, that global content, that centralized content you have, but you can adapt it quickly, easily, and really change it to the nuances of the local region, quite straightforward. So the content supply chain and the role that that's going to play in all of our regions and our content in the future is really exciting,

Teresa Sperti (08:51):

Super exciting. And you are currently testing and trialing the ability to leverage AI for that purpose to help prime the engine to adapt on the basis of the nuances of a particular market.

Amanda Green (09:08):

At twi, we're already exploring some of those gen AI for tasks like product copy creation, SEO, enrichment and translations right now though it's very experimental. So we're testing on how AI can augment our existing workflows without losing that tone and detail and the regulatory accuracy that wine demands. But absolutely that goal is there using AI to scale faster and smarter across our markets. Yeah, it's such an opportunity, it's such an exciting time to be around AI and what it can do for this.

Teresa Sperti (09:40):

Yeah, great. In a category like wine ratings and reviews are key to decision making, particularly for those who have lower involvement with the category depth recency and quality of reviews is obviously all important aspects for effective review management. And unfortunately for brands like twe, however, management of reviews isn't something that is consistent across all markets. And can you share a little bit about the approaches that TWI is using for review management? And by doing so, maybe compare some of the different markets where you are collecting and managing reviews, US versus Australia versus China, for example, to give us some indication of some of the complexities that you are managing across different markets and how you go about managing through those complexities.

Amanda Green (10:34):

Absolutely, and this is a really interesting one because it varies across different markets, but also varies across different industries too. So from a beauty point of view, it's different to what we're seeing for wine. So if we're talking about the wine review landscape, I mean if we're looking at Australia, we've got a really fragmented review landscape here for wine. Most retailers manage views independently. So that means if I'm a consumer and I'm checking wine reviews on one retailer, I'm going to see a different in content, but also number of reviews on one retailer than I would on another retailer's site. So even if it's exactly the same product, because generally there is no syndication in wine here, so reviews don't carry across those platforms, which is really going to create a really fragmented experience for the shopper when they don't really get that full consistent picture about a bottle of wine.

(11:24):

I mean, I found myself doing it. I'll look at different retailers to say, well, what are the people on this platform saying versus the people on this platform? So from a brand point of view, it's really a big challenge for us because reviews are influencing purchase, especially in categories like wine, where we really rely on peer input. What is someone else saying about the taste, not just what the brand is saying, but what is my mate over here saying about what this wine tastes like? It is really important to me. So if I have 100 views sitting on one website and there's none on another, from a brand point of view, that makes it really difficult for us because a product might be underperforming on that other website, but that's actually not because of a sales or a brand issue. It's actually just because stories being really incomplete and inconsistent for the consumer. And then if I'm looking ahead, this is the really important one for me is that reviews play an even bigger role in the Gentech. AI evolves. So reviews are going to factor into recency volume and sentiment for AI when it's making product recommendations. So these gaps that we are seeing in the Australian market today could actually directly impact how visible our products are going to be in future AI driven shopping experiences.

Teresa Sperti (12:37):

And I'm just going to interrupt you there, Amanda. I think that's such an important and critical point. We've been talking a lot about and coining a phrase at Arctic Fox around product authority and the role that product authority is going to play within a world where a lot of discovery is happening from a gen AI perspective or through the generative engines. And like you say, the review piece combined with how frequently a product is surfaced or visible online to those engines, they're all going to play a role in influencing a product's authority and its ability to be found. And so I think that's a really, really critical point just to pause on and touch on as you are unpacking this piece, because this space is still so new for many brands, and understanding what drives those engines is critical as shoppers start to increasingly leverage those engines for the purposes of discovery.

Amanda Green (13:48):

It reminds me of back in the day, and Theresa you'll remember this, when everyone was trying to understand SEO algorithms and how we were relevant and how do we get to the top of the search results page? I feel we're kind of at that now when we're talking about agen ai.

Teresa Sperti (14:03):

Absolutely agree. And there are parallels there, and that's what we've been talking about internally at Arctic Fox, is that the old page rank and how did you drive page rank? What is the equivalent in the GEO, in a GEO sense? And it's exactly the types of things that we're talking about here. And brands really need to think about, again, I dunno if we've coined this phrase, but we are saying we have this, how do you drive product authority in order to be the 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 of those 2, 3, 4 or five products that are being presented back? Because we know that within generative engines, they're not being given a long list of products. It's curated very short, curated list. And so how do you build that product authority is going to be key for many brands.

Amanda Green (14:56):

Yeah, no, absolutely. One thing that we're fairly confident in is that reviews are going to be playing a big role in that. Yeah. And then even back to our earlier point around localization and cultural nuance as you go to that, that's also going to play a role in it too. How relevant is this for this person who is maybe in China and is it serving up relevant content to them? It's going to get rid of the things that aren't, so that becomes even more important

Teresa Sperti (15:23):

When we look. Yeah. And so some of those barriers or challenges from an Australian perspective, brands are really going to have to start to lean into and quickly given how fast and rapidly the landscape is changing from a shopping or shopper perspective. So that's really interesting around Australia. Talk to us about what is happening within some of those other markets for you around management, us maybe what's happening within Asia, and obviously there are different countries within Asia, so there'll be differences across some of those different major countries within that region as well.

Amanda Green (16:00):

Yeah, I think the main market compared to is probably the US in terms of it's a different game there. It's got a much more advanced infrastructure. So syndication tools like Bizarre Voice are wildly adopted. So we can gather reviews once and we can push it across multiple retailer sites, including our own. And in fairness, I see this in different industries in Australia, I'm just not seeing it in the wine industry in Australia. So by doing that, and as a consumer, when you take that consumer viewpoint, that's giving a consumer much more unified and trustworthy experience. So you see the same volume, you see the same recency, the same quality review content wherever you shop about this one product. It gives you that sort of, I guess, trust in the brand and what's being said that they're consistent across all channels, which is a much better brand position to be in because you're giving a much better consumer experience. So just looking at the differences, it's highlighting a real opportunity when we're talking about ai, but we're also talking about the different markets. But it's opportunity not just to boost visibility and conversion, but to build trust and consistency at scale in a global business. Having a fragmented review landscape means we're missing chances to influence purchase decisions. So we are really working towards that more connected, consistent approach to reviews globally, taking that US market as an example, and really working with our partners to make that happen in every market.

Teresa Sperti (17:31):

So ratings and reviews are no longer just static text reviews from individual consumers. Amanda brands are engaging influencers and creators to review and rate their products through video and more. And we are increasingly seeing these embedded into the PDP and across the shopper journey. However, in liquor, this isn't something that can occur in every market due to regulatory constraints. But from what I understand, in markets like China, you can engage creators and influencers to rate and review products and share more about their experiences. So I'm keen to hear about how you're leveraging creators in China to review and share their experiences with your products in new ways.

Amanda Green (18:16):

So ion, which is TikTok, everywhere else in the world, it actually is possible to sell and advertise alcohol online. So it has a really different approach, like everywhere else, we're very heavily restricted on advertising on that platform, let alone selling. So we've engaged third parties to live stream and stream content over a period of time, sometimes bringing in celebrity endorsement, and they've been selling those products online, which has been incredibly popular. And it's also fascinating. So I've toured some of the production suites that they have and the greens behind them and the producers sitting in the room. And it is quite fascinating to watch the content being produced. I would love to understand what they talk about for 24 hours.

(19:07):

But yeah, it's incredibly popular and that's a very different way to endorse and I guess influence people to buy and understand wine because like we talked about before, right? In China or some of the Asian countries, it's about education. The content is about education. So you can imagine having someone sitting there talking about wine for that period of time, it's going to educate them. They're going to walk away from that, just that understanding a little bit more about wine and be convinced to buy that wine. And that's the sort of engagement that they need. Whether same level of engagement could work in any other region, like a Western region where we feel we know our stuff, we know our stuff, it might be a different level of creator or influencer that we want. Maybe it's actually the wine maker we would want to hear from. So that would be

Teresa Sperti (19:56):

Fascinating. That's very true in Australia, the winemaker and revered experts really hold a lot of weight and credibility from a review standpoint. It's funny, I was looking at the Dan Murphy site the other day, and they've now recently embedded expert reviews. I dunno when it occurred, but I noticed their expert reviews. And after doing a little bit of digging, what I realized was those expert reviews are actually syndicated from major publications like Holiday, et cetera, et cetera. And so that holds a lot of weight here. But it's interesting, and you are right from a China perspective that wouldn't necessarily hold weight because their current maturity as a shopper base and their involvement with the category is not where Australian shoppers are at. And so I think that's a really interesting distinction across the markets and in terms of how we think about building credibility through known personalities and which ones hold weight and which ones don't.

Amanda Green (21:05):

Correct. And it could be a cultural thing as well in terms of who do you really respect and who do you want to take your advice from, be more you respect, getting some advice from your peers who are more similar to you than someone else.

Teresa Sperti (21:21):

Fascinating. So Amanda, we've touched on gen ai, but I want to go a little bit deeper, and I also want to talk about personalization. These are obviously going to reshape how we develop, manage, and optimize content, and it will dramatically shift the experience that brands need to deliver for the shopper. So I'm keen to understand how are you thinking about these trends and how has this influenced your approach to embedding really solid and robust product information management fundamentals and foundations?

Amanda Green (21:54):

Yeah, for me, this is the fascinating part of everything. We're really entering a new phase product content. We're not creating just four channels, but it's also being created by them we just spoke to with the content creators. So with AI and egen, e-commerce evolving fast platforms aren't just hosting content anymore, but they're also generating a shaping it based on what they think is going to drive engagement and conversion with their consumers. So if you look at Amazon, they're using generative AI to auto-create product listings for sellers. So if you're uploading just the basics of structured product data like features or ingredients and dimensions, Amazon's AI is going to be able to generate titles, bullet points, and content for you. So even if your own content now doesn't meet marketplace standards, Amazon's going to rewrite it using its own model.

(22:46):

So the fascinating part about that is the power is lying in the quality of the data that we're providing and not just the copy that we write. So before we would've just focused on that copy, but now it's actually really taking it back to what is that quality of data that we're providing so that they can generate content. And then if we're looking at TikTok as we just spoke to, that's flipping the model again, because that content is actually driven by the creators. The brands play very little part in that. We don't have a lot to do with that content that's been created. So they're producing videos, reviews, live demos, and doing it often with sort of auto-generated captions or AI enhanced overlays from us. So the role of the brand in that is really to provide assets, product details and structure that those creators can easily use and remix. So if we have backend content that isn't right, so if it's outdated or it's unclear and inconsistent, our products either going to get misrepresented or just ignored completely by those creators. So there's an evolving role of the brand in all of these. So

(23:51):

Even just those two platforms that shifted, it's really clear around content, it's becoming really dynamic, and it's also decentralized from the way we used to run businesses. So to show up, well, we really need to as a brand, invest in really strong product information foundations like PIM and DAM and content governance so that we're not just creating for one channel, but we're powering many different content ecosystems at once, which are now labeled that personalization. And for a consumer to really feel engaged with our brand,

Teresa Sperti (24:22):

It's interesting. The danger here is that we default into a place where we believe it's going to be done for us, and you are reinforcing the opposite. We have to influence how our brands are showing up and provide more information to influence how they show up, and then enable the smarts and the technology to do its thing. But the idea that it's going to be done for us is probably going to lead us to poorer quality representation of our products online.

Amanda Green (25:01):

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, especially with some of the brands that we're talking about, that consistency across all channels, every time a consumer engages with your brand, it needs to be consistent, and that's what's going to build the brand trust and the authenticity in the brand. And so you need to, as a brand, try and find ways to influence it in the best way possible when other people are creating your content for you. And that's just an evolution of how we work as a brand from the days when we used to be able to just put creative out there and consumers would trust it and appreciate it. Their world has changed, who they take inspiration from, who they listen to with their reviews has also changed. So we need to adapt with that.

Teresa Sperti (25:43):

I think that's really, really sage advice. So Amanda, we've talked about Genai talked about different needs for shoppers in different markets. We've talked about some of the opportunities that lie in certain markets like China in terms of leveraging credibility from influencers and creators as you are on your journey to better product information management at a global scale. I'm keen to get some sound soundbites from you. In terms of final takeaways for brands listening to this podcast, what are the two or three things that they could think about if they are managing these complexities at a global scale? What would your advice be?

Amanda Green (26:27):

Yeah, so there's a couple of things that spring to mind for me. I think every brand should really have a good understanding of their markets, not just where they are now, but also where they want to be as well, because that's going to shape how you either create content, approach it, things like that, and really what you need to understand about your consumer

(26:46):

And speaking on that. Then another one is consumer needs. So as a brand, what do we need to provide to our consumer to make them trust and feel that we're truly authentic to them when we understand them, when we want to engage with them, but then also that consumer and how are they influenced? So who's influencing their purchasing decisions, who's also maybe they're listening to about our brand that maybe we can't directly control, but then how can we actually maybe give content creators the information they need? That's come up a few times in this. That's where consumers are also looking to for advice. So then as a brand, how do you get that information to those people as well? And then I think one of the key ones, again, which we've talked about is ai. AI is a big thing, but I think it's really important as a company you're preparing about and thinking about and saying, how can this help me actually scale what we do?

(27:45):

Because a lot of what we talked about before with a lot of the regions and trying to get the local nuances and things like that, when it comes to content's, a lot of manual work, sometimes it's a lot of back and forth and trying to get that right. Well, AI is going to help with all of that. So have a look at where you are now, understand your markets in the future and where you want to be, and then say, okay, well actually AI plays a really good role in that. For me, I don't need to undertake everything right now. Let me do X, Y, and Z that just gets my foot in the door and then sit there and go AI six months down the track is actually probably going to help me do a lot of what I want to do. So let me just wait a few months because it probably will only be a few months. So really lean into AI as part of your future strategy around content and regionalization and local nuance, and really helping you get to where you want to because it is absolutely going to create, it's going to create lots of opportunities for businesses going forward,

Teresa Sperti (28:46):

And I think that's really important for local brands that don't have sizable teams from a resourcing point of view to be able to effectively manage content at scale, even at a local level, let alone if you are managing across multiple markets. So AI is your friend, I think is the key take out here, Amanda.

Amanda Green (29:09):

Yeah, absolutely. The content supply chain is probably one of my most exciting things to talk about, and I hear it being mentioned more and more often. Just the ability and what that can do to change business and opportunities and global influence is just phenomenal.

Teresa Sperti (29:25):

Absolutely. Well, this has been a fascinating conversation, Amanda. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your wisdom. It's been super helpful. And once again, a big thanks to our listeners for tuning into unpacking the Digital shelf, the APAC edition with me, Theresa Verdi.