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Bobbi Brown on owning the narrative
What we saw on Day 3 at POSSIBLE—and why it's changing how teams plan and spend.
Zihan Lyu
May 01, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
Hi there!
The final day didn’t slow down.
Bobbi Brown delivered hard-earned lessons in building lasting brands. And sessions from LEGO, Unilever and Roundel spotlighted how retail media is maturing fast — with omnichannel execution, data collaboration, and creativity taking center stage.
🧠 Day 3 Download
▶ The Art of Building a Brand
Speakers: Bobbi Brown (Founder @ Jones Road) & Michael Kassan (Founder & CEO @ 3C Ventures)
In a packed Sparkle Ballroom, beauty icon Bobbi Brown sat down with 3C Ventures' Michael Kassan for a candid conversation that was equal parts masterclass and memoir. From her billion-dollar journey with Bobbi Brown Cosmetics to the rapid rise of Jones Road, Bobbi peeled back the layers of success to reveal what truly powers her: instinct, honesty, and a relentless belief in the power of being yourself.
When I’m able to be myself, I’m my best — it makes me confident, it makes me comfortable.
Bobbi credited her Chicago upbringing, her sharp gut instinct, and a refusal to follow trends she didn’t believe in as the core pillars of her brand philosophy. Whether launching Jones Road the day her Estée Lauder non-compete expired — amid the 2020 election chaos — or training staff to match blush to real skin tones (not contour lines), her strategy has always hinged on simplicity and truth.
Other standout insights:
She launched Jones Road DTC because she “wanted to control everything — the narrative, the customer, the experience.”
Her legacy? Making people feel good in their own skin. “I believe my legacy will be that I help people feel good about who they are.”
She doesn’t fear failure: “I don't believe in failure. I believe, well, that didn’t work — let me do something else.”
And on being a leader?
I like people that don’t get rattled when I say ‘I hate that.’
A reminder for all founders, marketers, and creators in the room: authenticity is a lifetime practice. And Bobbi Brown is living proof.
🧠 Want more behind-the-scenes brand stories?
This year, ClickZ launched #BuildingBrands, a founder-led editorial series sharing the unfiltered, messy, and often surprising stories behind the logos we love.
Check out a few we’ve done with industry leaders and brand builders who’ve shaped — and reshaped — the landscape in their own way.
🌟 Bootstrapping, Breakdowns, and the Brand That Wouldn’t Quit [Inside the founding journey of Dripdash]
🌟 What Milk Agency Learned by Launching a Brand of Its Own
📩 Although the event has ended, the conversation doesn’t have to.
Got a story like that? Want to share your journey — or just talk brand strategy?
Whether you’re building the next big name or navigating your first rebrand, we’d love to hear your take.
▶ Driving Discovery: The Intersection of Brand Experiences and Retail Media
Target • Unilever • LEGO Group
As retail media matures into a core driver of brand discovery and growth, Target’s Roundel gathered industry giants Unilever and The LEGO Group to share how they’re rethinking omnichannel strategy—blending digital and physical experiences to meet consumers where they are.
Strive for seamless connections across your teams and through the consumer journey.
What we learned:
🔹 Values win, always.
Whether it’s LEGO’s enduring mission to “inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow,” or Unilever’s 20-year “Real Beauty” campaign, both brands have stayed relevant by anchoring every activation—physical or digital—in purpose and consistency.
🔹 Retail media is no longer bottom-of-funnel.
LEGO’s Valentine’s Day front-of-store activations and Unilever’s Whole Body Deodorant campaigns prove the power of retail media to shape brand perception and drive new category growth. These executions spanned stores, digital, and even social commerce—creating true omnichannel momentum.
🔹 Data collaboration is non-negotiable.
Matt Drzewicki of Roundel shared how partnerships and signal sharing across platforms like Pinterest and The Trade Desk are amplifying performance—with lifts as high as 39%. And as more brands shift from product-first to audience-first models, tools that unify data and surface actionable insights have never been more vital.
👉 That’s where a partner like Fospha comes in.
While sessions like this spotlight creative and strategic innovation, it’s solutions like Fospha’s that help marketing teams close the loop—attribution, incrementality, and full-funnel measurement, all in one place. As brands continue to blend content, commerce, and conversion, having a clear view of what’s actually driving performance is critical.
🔹 What’s next?
From AI-fuelled insight generation to IRL activations like LEGO’s F1 race-day experience at Target Miami Lakes, the message was clear: Great brand experiences are built at the intersection of data, relevance, and joy. Fospha helps marketers ensure those experiences are also measurable and scalable.
▶ How a Cheezmergency Changed Kellanova’s Retail Media Game
Kellanova • Walmart Connect • Digitas NA
In a standout case study that delivered more than just snacks, Cheez-It helped redefine the rules of retail media planning. This session unpacked how Kellanova, Walmart Connect, and Digitas NA came together to turn a cheeky creative platform (“Cheezmergency”) into a data-rich, full-funnel campaign—one that didn’t just drive sales, but restructured team dynamics, budget allocation, and measurement strategy in the process.
We realized when we get results like this, it really becomes pretty easy to find the money.
Key takeaways:
🧀 Cravings meet conversion.
Cheez-It’s “Cheezmergency” idea was built on a shared cultural truth: snack cravings demand instant satisfaction. With Walmart Connect, that insight turned into a media strategy spanning TV, social, and in-store touchpoints. The result? A $34 million lift in sales and a 25% boost in household penetration—three times the usual lift.
🔁 Full-funnel doesn’t mean fragmented.
The campaign broke down old barriers between brand and shopper teams by treating retail media not as a silo, but as a “one-stop shop” for awareness, performance, and loyalty. As Megan Jones (Digitas) noted, “The funnel isn’t dead—it’s just fluid.”
📊 Performance now needs to mean more.
The team didn’t just look at ROAS—they tracked new-to-brand buyers, a KPI that reshaped how internal teams think about success. But making this shift requires tools that can match.
👉 That’s where Fospha’s Halo comes in.
Retail media is only half the story. Fospha’s new product, Halo, reveals how upper-funnel social campaigns—on platforms like TikTok, Meta and Snap—actually drive sales on Amazon. With Unified ROAS across DTC and marketplaces, Halo shows that what’s often dismissed as ‘brand awareness’ is fueling far more conversions than traditional tools can see.
Fospha’s data shows that 42% of Amazon sales are influenced by non-Amazon media—a wake-up call for marketers still measuring in silos.
With insights like this, teams can finally stop underinvesting in platforms that are quietly driving results—and start reallocating spend with confidence.
🎯 What’s next?
Expect to see more brands treating retail media not as an add-on, but as a central planning pillar—fuelled by integrated data, creative experimentation, and partners who can measure what matters.
Here's more fresh takes from the industry's finest, straight from the floor 🔥
@clickz_official At #POSSIBLE 2025, Cristina was exploring how to drive growth through smarter marketing operations and why we’re now in an interest conten... See more
@clickz_official 🎥 Meet Micah Fancher. He’s Sr. Manager, Partner Solutions at Roundel (@target ) At #POSSIBLE 2025, Micah spotlighted a big shift: retail m... See more
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🔗 Got ideas to share? Book a meeting with the ClickZ team and let’s talk what’s next.
That’s a wrap on POSSIBLE 2025 — but we’re not done yet.
Over the weekend, we’ll be dropping more insights, deeper interviews, and bold takes from the C-suite and beyond. Keep an eye on your inbox.
See you soon,
The Unofficially POSSIBLE Team
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