Q&A with Incremental’s Erin Wilde
Our new head of customer success, Erin Wilde, joined the Incremental team in May. Prior to Incremental, she held leadership roles at Yext and Affinio. Wilde is originally from Connecticut, and after stints in San Diego and New York, she’s called Atlanta home for the last five years. We spoke to Wilde about her plans for the coming months—both in the office and OOO.
Why was this particular role appealing to you?
Erin Wilde: I think why this role was really interesting to me was the value prop of Incremental. Retail media is blowing up. I had already heard the buzz about incrementality and disjointed retail media metrics. It's the hottest topic right now. Whether that was from a friend of mine on a shopper team at Coca Cola, or friends leading client services at agencies, everyone’s feeling the same pain right now. They are stressed about retail media budgets, all the different retailers having different ROAS metrics, and how they can really report on incrementality and top-line sales impact.
When I was talking to Andrew Crow and Skye Frontier and understanding what this tool is solving for, it really is solving this major, shared pain point. So it seemed like a great opportunity to come on—and get back to my friends and show them that we can help!
Check out our post on some of the common “ROAS Traps” that can lure in media buyers, and some ways to escape them.
What are you getting started on?
EW: I actually started my first week at the Path to Purchase event, which was great to go and see Skye and Andrew Lipsman speak and meet customers in real life. I got to see a lot of different folks speak—whether it was Kraft Heinz to Campbell's to Whole Foods to Kroger—and get a sense of what is going on even at a more granular level in this retail media measurement space.
What I took from that, and what I'm focused on right now, is making sure that the actions clients can take from our data are super easy. I don't want any customer to purchase Incremental, find our models interesting, but then never tap in and take real action on the insights. I'm excited to make sure that everyone has a really easy way to take a sometimes overwhelming amount of data and easily translate it into action. So making sure that we seamlessly become a part of their budget planning, media buying workflow, and are a trusted input to guide overall strategy across retail channels—these are the early wins I’m excited to create with customers.
“What I'm focused on right now is making sure that the actions clients can take from our data are super easy.”
Check out a recent case study about one CPG brand that optimized for iROI and doubled sales.
What do you envision the next six months looking like, the next year?
EW: I think starting with some baselining—getting back to the basics of client success here. I need to start by building out all the elements that are key to the customer journey, one being a mutual customer-success plan. So when a client does sign on with Incremental, we have this guide for both teams that documents how we will work best together, what is the best operating cadence, who is responsible for what. Who on the Incremental side can you count on to help you with the platform or any integrations. Then also laying that out on the client side, and really building accountability on both sides. Who do we go to to make sure that the optimizations are being applied against Amazon budgets? Who do we need to join our executive business reviews to make sure that we are delivering against larger company goals? So within that success plan, really building out roles and responsibilities, building out project trackers, client roadmaps, and just again, making this a co-signed, co-owned path to success. I need to make sure clients are as bought in and committed to the success of this partnership as we are!
I think year one will be a lot more of laying this same ground work—building out implementation resources, a true client onboarding experience, a robust client help center, strategic business reviews. Really making the customer journey scalable. And then getting into things like client health scores, retention forecasting, customer feedback and surveys, and using as much data as I can to keep client satisfaction as transparent as possible and our top priority.
I also really hope I get to meet as many clients as possible this year in person!
Let's say someone reads this interview and wants to work on your team. What advice do you have?
EW: When I was interviewing, I was just geeking out over the demo. Talking to Skye, talking to Lukas Soderberg, meeting with Dave Pollet. I was just really, really stoked on the product and the problem Incremental is solving. So I'd want to see that same passion and excitement. Make sure that we have fun in all of this. I think it's really special working with a small team right now. Everyone's loving what they're doing. So I would say even if you do not have a retail media background—wouldn't hurt—but if you can get excited about the space, the opportunity we have to really solve a problem with our customers, I would love to talk to you.
What do you do when you're not geeking out over retail media?
EW: I live in Atlanta, so for now, just trying to stay cool in this summer heat and spend as much time in a pool or lake as possible! I have a one-year-old daughter named Owen. So when I'm not working, she’s really become my whole world, trying to give her the best experiences I can.
What about hobbies?
EW: If I get an hour of baby-free time, you can find me catching up on Real Housewives, reading for book club, trying to get a Pilates class in, or testing out as many fun new bars and restaurants in ATL as I can. Traveling to spend time with family and friends is a big priority. We traveled a lot pre-baby, now we're just incorporating five more checked bags full of baby gear. But we’re taking her with us wherever we go now, which has been fun.
Any upcoming trips?
EW: We're taking Owen out to Big Sky Montana in August. I don't think we can put her on a horse, but we will figure out some baby-friendly activities out there.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
