Add to Cart, Add to Culture: The Full-Funnel Commerce Evolution

By Becky Johnson, Industry Journalist and Podcast Host

Retail media is moving beyond the moment of purchase, with brands using shopping data and creative campaigns to reach consumers before they begin searching for a product. At Advertising Week New York 2026, Instacart led a panel demonstrating how that shift is changing their approach to advertising, from recipe inspiration to events that continue online.

Lauren Johnson, a Deputy Editor, Commerce, at Adweek, led the conversation with Stephanie Paturzo Swingle, Head of Commercial Marketing at Instacart. Anouck Gotlib, CEO of Belgian Boys, later joins to discuss how the breakfast brand has expanded its investment from sponsored search to campaigns designed to introduce more people to its products.

Stephanie said brands increasingly want to bring Instacart’s data and purchasing capabilities into their broader marketing campaigns. Consumers may want to buy a product as soon as they encounter it, she said, creating opportunities to connect inspiration with an immediate purchase.

“The conversation is now becoming more about creativity, inspiration, upper funnel,” Stephanie states.

Instacart’s recipe and occasion ads illustrate that approach by pairing products with complementary ingredients. Stephanie cited a campaign for broth brand Kettle & Fire that sought to reach shoppers who were not already searching for broth. She said 55% of the customers reached were new to the brand, and 35% of those were new to the broth category.

The company has also expanded its advertising capabilities beyond its own platform. Stephanie pointed to partnerships with media and technology companies, as well as an in-house creative offering that allows brands to participate in Instacart campaigns or develop custom work.

That expansion has changed who participates in planning. When she joined Instacart four years ago, Stephanie said, meetings were largely with e-commerce teams. They now include chief marketing officers, brand teams and agencies working across budgets.

“They’re thinking, how do we create the best campaign?” Stephanie states.

Asked what makes that work successful, Stephanie identified three priorities: customer insights, an appropriate media plan and the ability to purchase. The aim, she said, is to use shopping behavior to inform the creative, put the message in the right channels and make products accessible throughout the campaign.

Measurement was another focus of the discussion. Beyond impressions, engagement and reach, Stephanie said Instacart examines whether campaigns introduce brands to audiences they would otherwise miss. She said 90% of the audiences reached through its creative offering were new to the advertised brands, and almost 80% of those would not have been reached through clients’ standard bidding tactics.

She also described a holiday campaign for Kerrygold that combined brand creative with sponsored products and other sales-focused advertising. Kerrygold saw a year-over-year sales increase and became the most-searched butter brand on Instacart, she said.

The conversation then turned to Cart Classics, a campaign that brought five consumer packaged goods brands into recipes and a pop-up grocery store event attended by creators and the press. Meals were served on grocery carts, and the campaign continued through email, display advertising and media outside Instacart.

Belgian Boys participated with a waffle recipe. For Anouck, whose company sells refrigerated breakfast products, the partnership offered a way to introduce consumers to the brand beyond its physical retail presence.

Anouck said the Cart Classics campaign reached an audience that was 98% new to Belgian Boys. She credited the combination of the event, email, influencer activity and press with helping the brand appear in multiple places.

“But it wasn’t only the event itself,” Anouck said. “It was this holistic campaign.”

New customers are particularly important in breakfast, where purchasing habits can be difficult to change. Anouck said about one in three consumers buying Belgian Boys on Instacart was new to the brand. Limited-time products, including seasonal offerings, had drawn new-to-brand shares of 70% to 80%, she said.

Anouck compared the platform’s storytelling possibilities with securing an end-cap display in a grocery store. Video and brand creative can give a smaller company more room to explain its products than a search listing alone.

“How do you get an end cap digitally?” Anouck asked.

Looking ahead, Stephanie said Instacart is exploring more creator partnerships, monitoring social trends and expanding relationships that let brands use its data across other media. She also described a video-based feed within the app that allows customers to discover products and shop directly.

Anouck said retail media had become Belgian Boys’ largest marketing spending category. As the brand grows, she wants to continue connecting digital discovery with experiences that introduce new customers to its products.

She closed by emphasizing the value of ongoing support from Instacart, including weekly meetings to review performance and identify opportunities to work with complementary brands. That relationship, she said, helped turn a modest initial investment into the company’s leading marketing priority.

Sarah Merians Photography for Advertising Week