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The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 127 - How Experiential Marketing Moves Shoppers To Act
Retail becomes unforgettable when it feels like culture, not just commerce. We sit down with Ryan Hughes of Gratsy to unpack how curated experiences—at home, in the community, and online with creators—turn casual shoppers into true fans. From precision-packed sampling kits to full-blown store takeovers, Ryan shows how a clear objective, smart logistics, and authentic storytelling can move people to try, buy, and share.
You’ll hear the behind-the-scenes of a standout activation with Walmart Connect and ESPN, where a lease space just past the registers morphed into a SportsCenter set, a mini sports museum, and a fan meet-and-greet hub. We talk through how that format makes “store as media” real, even when the product isn’t on the shelf, and how moments of pride and play can influence a whole basket. Ryan also breaks down creator strategy: choosing niche experts when precision matters, partnering with big names when reach counts, and always aligning talent to either awareness or action so the content doesn’t feel forced.
We dig into the culture that powers it all—accountability, creativity, and honest postmortems—plus the grit it takes to keep events calm on the surface when chaos strikes beneath. The “Bunpocalypse” scramble, the Old El Paso x Takis temperature-extremes stunt from Death Valley to America’s coldest spot, and the complexities of food-and-beverage sampling inside Walmart lease spaces all reveal what it means to scale bespoke experiences without losing freshness. If you care about experiential marketing, retail media, creator partnerships, and the operational muscle that makes big ideas sing, this conversation is your blueprint for building moments people remember and measure.
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Well, hello everyone, and welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville. I'm Andy Wilson. I'm the executive director and your host today. We've got such a great podcast. I'm looking forward to jumping to that right now. So let me just get straight to our guest, Ron Hughes. Welcome. Thanks. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01:I'm excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00:It is so great to have you in the studio. I will tell you, we we met several weeks ago at an event, in fact, an in-part event. Ryan came up to the, we were broadcasting live at the event. Ryan came to the booth and said, Hey, I need hey, uh what what is doing business in Binville? And so we got having a chat. And you know, the great thing is that our conversation led to this. It's so exciting about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm I'm uh as I as I mentioned, then I I'm a huge fan of the show. We we talk about it a lot. I've watched uh a fair amount of of both this and then uh BV show that he just spun up. Um my buddy Joel Ponce was just on that. So I'm I'm a big fan. Um we're really excited to be here and start to tell the Grazzi story.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we're excited to tell the Grazie story. And uh uh Ron, you're vice president of of uh product strategy. Correct. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:Um so my my org is kind of like all of the creative team and then our our digital product strategy and talent. Um and we'll talk about that in a second, but but talent's a big portion of our business.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I want our viewers to um to really understand this company. When after we visited, I did research about your company, and I will tell you, I was blown away. I was like, we have to tell the story to thousands of people to get to know more about your great company, what you do, how you do it, the the uh creativeness that you do. We got it, we got so many great stories to tell today, and we're gonna get straight to it. How's that? Yeah, that's great. That's great. Okay, we're good. All right, well, tell our audience just uh because we we want to get into some great questions, but tell our audience just a quick overview of Grosty and what you do.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, we are we're an experiential marketing agency. And for uh folks who don't really know what that is, the the way that we say it is that we create curated product experiences that connect brands with their audiences. Um we can really do that in any number of ways, but for ease of of understanding, we break it down in kind of like three three areas that we interact with with consumers. Uh the first one of those is in home. And our our business model started as kind of like DTC sampling, right? And that's still a big part of who we are at our core is this this idea that we are precision-packed and hyper-targeted product rot. We will send it to your home, we will create an experience that you can have with your family, and it it becomes this authentic way to try something new, right? And then we ask for feedback and all those things. The the second way that we interact is out in the community. And we do that through experiences or events. Um, that can be anything from a food truck uh to shoot last year around this time, we set up a cranberry bog out in front of four different Walmarts where folks could come, they put on waiters, you know, they they stepped in, they could throw the cranberries up and have these like real fun, authentic family experiences at at their local store, all the way to shoot, we've taken over Santa Monica Pier several times. Um the first time, like as a beach party for a skincare company, um, where we gave people the chance to, you know, sample sunscreen right where you need it at the beach, right? Um, and then the third way that we say we interact is online. And we do a lot of that through talent, through creators, whether that is, you know, small, hyper-targeted, right? Like we go after a beauty creator who may be an expert in oily skin or a certain hair type and and has that authentic connection all the way to we've done work with Snoop Dogg. We we uh did work with Betty White before she passed. You know, our our talent roster is really is really cool when you gotta go back and look at it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that that is why I'm wanted to have you on. When I when I went to your website, uh I uh the first thing I seen was the cranberries, okay? And I went, that's you, you know, because I think that's such a phenomenal commercial, if you will, and with the way you put that on. And then when we were visiting, you told me, I really want you to talk about a couple of those events that you uh did, I think Death Valley, you went to the mountaintop and some of that. And I think our audience is gonna be blown away to hear about this. So, but give us a great example uh where uh of one of your recent events where you said, okay, man, we just blew it out of the park.
SPEAKER_01:Um, so we just recently, and and some of your viewers may have have been there, we just wrapped a project uh down in Fayetteville where we partnered with Walmart Connect and ESPN. So ESPN has recently launched kind of a new direct consumer offering where you don't you don't have to have cable, you don't have to go through you know a certain deal, you can buy ESPN directly from them. And they uh work in, I'm sure you've seen the you know the rise in power of the RMNs, right? Like they through a partnership with Connect kind of had this media partnership out there, and it was like, okay, but how do we interact with with shoppers in stores, right? Walmart is is constantly pushing the store as media, which is a really cool opportunity, especially us, to like, you know, kind of I don't want to use the word disrupt shopping habits, but but provide something that is attractive and fun and engaging for shoppers around brands. And so they they kind of came to us and it was like, how do we how do we do this? Because you're not Walmart doesn't sell ESPN. You know what I mean? Like, what are you gonna do? And it's like, well, let's let's work together and create this this big experience, right? And so it was kind of like one part studio. We had uh the the guys from 99.5 that were in there a couple days a week recording. It was one part um kind of like sports history memorabilia museum. We had the SEC trophy was in there, we had uh like Darren McFadden's Heisman finalist, we had uh we got his his two doak walkers on on loan from the university for a little while, down to um Jordan Weber uh lent us a an Olympics worn uniform that we were able to kind of like like put up there. And then we did a bunch of stuff where there was uh fan meet and greets. So, you know, the whole idea was let's bring Arkansas sporting legends to the store and and let people do this. And so we worked with ESPN directly. There were so many stakeholders, but we got you know, we got an actual sports center desk in there. We um yeah, it was it was a really, really cool experience. And I think everybody uh everybody really enjoyed it. And so we're the second one is is running right now in Dallas because that whole so for your viewers that took place in a Walmart lease space. So you know, like just beyond the cash registers, there's always uh an eye doctor or a salon. Right. We take those spaces over and completely transform them into kind of like pop-up store within a store or product experience.
SPEAKER_00:You know, what what um again when in my research and our conversation we had, one of the things we focus here at doing business in Bittenville on is what we call the omni-channel experience. Because as you know, you you know, you have the brick and mortar, you have the online, you have the pickup, you have the you have the delivery, all of that takes place. It's so exciting what retail is doing. And now what you have created, you and your company, is this entertainment that's all part of this omnichannel experience, because when you go in those stores, what you're doing is exciting, or outside the stores or other places, what you're doing is creating this whole omnichannel experience. And that's the exciting part of retail today. So, okay, you have to have great talent. And so my question is I mean, especially when you deal with celebrities and all the and athletes and all that. So, how do you how do you align that? How that's gotta be the hard part behind the scenes we don't get to see. So uh align kind of like all the moving pieces.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So I I think it's interesting. Um, you know, we we talked earlier and I was like, how do you adapt strategies? And I thought a lot about that, right? And it's like we don't so much adapt strategies as adaptation is the strategy. The way that people interact with culture changes all the time, right? Like if you look at the way people shop today versus the way they shopped five years ago, it's night and day. If you look at where AI is taking just the the standard customer experience in any channel, whether that's retail, whether that's subscription services, what have you, you know, it evolves very, very quickly. And so you've got to stay on top of those things and be nimble.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you very you you've got and I think too, you've got to have this whole diverse of talent in order to create what you just talked about, uh this this format where all of us are interested in what you're doing, you know, at some point. You've got to have this huge diversity of of talent. And it seems like you're being able to bring that diversity of talent together and create this experience. Is that yeah?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, is that I think so. I think you know, we we hire for a wide variety of traits, right? Um and I think like internally we look for subject matter experts, right? Because as we, you know, we're we're a small company, we're a young company where we just turn six over the summer. And so that, you know, that leads to certain hurdles as you scale. Right. Um it used to be everybody kind of did everything. And as we've grown, we've been able to like like really lean into subject matter experts and and bring folks in who have unique skill sets that really build it. And then, you know, the other side of that on talent, like as as we look at it as something that we help demystify for for our folks, um, you have to like look at that based on what you're trying to do. Right. And really like focus on, okay, like what's the size and scale you're trying to get at versus what's authentic. Like, are we driving awareness or are we driving direct action? And you start there and you build a program for those things.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Well, you know, let's talk about culture and values for a moment because you you you brought up authenticity, accountability, creativity, because in my my research for your company, you know, I I've your testimonies are from is or your client testimonies that they talk about accountability, they talk about creativity, they talk about authenticity as very important values inside your organization, what you're trying to display or present to your to the customer or you know. And do you call them customers?
SPEAKER_01:What do you uh we we call them whatever we need to, right? So um I say that because we um I'll use this phrase again, we're the background dancers. Um we're there to support somebody else's story. So if you call them customers, we call them customers. If you call them members, we call them members. If you call them fans, we're gonna call them fans. Yeah, because we're not, you know, it's not our ship. Yeah. Um, but I think, you know, to those three points, like the the authenticity, the the accountability, the creativity, we don't have a choice. You know, we have to be that way. Like we're we're young, we're small. But as I said, the culture moves so fast. If we want to be relevant, you have to be that way. You have to hold each other accountable. And a lot of that takes place through uh celebrating both wins and losses, right? Like after every project, you know, I've I've been at a lot of different companies and I've seen a lot of different approaches. We take the COE very seriously. Um, because while everything we do is somewhat bespoke, there is a lesson that comes from everything you do that that you should hopefully be able to turn around and apply to the next project and make it a little, a little bit better, a little bit smoother, a little bit more effective.
SPEAKER_00:Good. Exciting. Okay. Um now uh let's talk about innovation and risk for a moment, okay? Okay. Because um again, in our conversation and research, I know there's some stories around those, innovation and risk. Can you can you talk to us about a story or two about it?
SPEAKER_01:There there definitely are. So I think, you know, when we when we first talked, I told you a story uh that was prior to my time, and it was one of the first things that put us on the map. And uh Old El Paso, the the taco shells, and talkies had a collaboration, right? And so there were these supremely spicy taco shells. And you know, the the team was like kicking around ideas on like how to really lean into that as a as a product benefit, and this whole idea of temperature extremes came up. And so I was like, well, you know, we don't just want to sample, we want to like contextually sample. So uh Jake, who's our our VP of sales and a good friend of mine, um he he's a big dude and like literally strapped a tent to his back uh with a with a thermos full of taco meat, and he and Bethany, our CEO, and a camera crew, like hiked out, which was the coldest place on record in America, and and did like pop-up taco sampling. And then they they repeated that same deal uh out in Death Valley. And the whole thing was like, hey, let's capture content and let's let's really do this. And that's you know, you you talk about taking a risk, like trying to talk a client into that. And and being like, yeah, I know this is the it's a crazy idea, but like stick with us here and and and let's talk through what this looks like. And so I think, you know, what's important to realize is that it's never just us taking a risk, right? It is it is the client, it is the partner, it is all the people who come along with you. And and it's like, hey, I've got an idea. This is this is out there, but what if we blank, right? And so we work very hard to cultivate that trust because at the end of the day, it's not just us. Like you're gonna have to go to your boss and be like, hey, so I spent money on this crazy pop-up experience. Or, you know, like we're gonna bring cranberry bogs to Walmart, whatever those things are. I love it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you really do uh what you're what what I think I really want our audience and viewers to really understand is that you do experimental marketing with bold ideas. And I think that takes uh a lot of courage to do some of the things that you're doing, but what a win for the market, the market, the company or the organization that you're doing. What a win for them. I mean, right you because I will tell you, people, you know, they they remember those kind of things, those bold moves that you do. I, you know, just like several things when I went on your website, I oh, I remember that commercial. I remember seeing that. Sure. And so so let me so I know with everything we do, there's setbacks. Sure. Always. Okay. So you know, especially what you're trying to do. Uh and and so when there's a setback, talk about how you pivot.
SPEAKER_01:So that's that's interesting because like in in live events, like it's par for the course. They are coming. You know, there is no, there is no, like you can plan and you can have contingencies and you can have all of that. Um but something will require a pivot somewhere along the line. Like, you know, that's just it's just the way that the the industry works. Um, and you have to you have to just kind of roll with it, right? And so, like, I'll give you I'll give you a good example of that. Um, so over the summer we were doing a big retail activation down in Texas, and it was all, you know, grilling and barbecue based. Um, and so there was there was a whole bunch of supplier stakeholders involved, and it was it was a rather large production. And so two days before go time, uh we realized that you know what happened uh doesn't really matter, but a huge number of buns, hamburger buns, didn't make like weren't on site, and they were specific, like they were specific to a supplier. And then um, you know, it was a large quantity. And the other fun part is that they were in new items, so they weren't necessarily traded in all of the stores. And so this happened, and it was just one of those things where it was like, I want to say it was a Wednesday at like 10 30 in the morning that we we realized all within like 30 minutes. Um, we had not only a plan where pretty much the entire team like just spread out like spiders, and it was like, I live in Bella Vista, so I was like, I got I got southwest Missouri covered. I will get in the car right now, I will go buy every pack of hamburger buns that I can find. Um Christy, one of our our business ops folks, was like, I'll drive it. You know, she got on the phone with her husband and kids and was just like not coming home today, need to drive to Texas. And then we had to rent this big van and load it up with literally hundreds of packs of hamburger buns. And, you know, like nobody was the wise, right? Like we drove them overnight, we got them there. But I think what's important there is like we we make the analogy all the time that we're like the duck, right? Like, like on the surface, it's smooth, it's calm underneath, man, those little flippers are going. Um, and and what's important is that like that reaction, that that flipper going isn't something the consumer sees, right? It isn't something that ideally even the brand sees. It is it's part and parcel for working in live events and you learn to adapt.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, I think that what you're describing in what in our conversations, and I really want our our viewers to understand this, you have such a red company, this is part of your culture. You know, you're gonna you're gonna figure it out. You know, when when it there is a setback, when there is a crises, if you will, you're gonna do what it takes, work all night, drive all night, whatever it takes to end up. So how did that end up?
SPEAKER_01:Do you get the burn buns there? Buns there, you know, everybody uh everybody enjoyed their their summer barbecue, right? Like it was nobody knew. Um you know, we knew, and we still talk about bun pocalypse. We just we that sounds weird. That same scenario has probably come up, I don't know, three times in the past year where it becomes this like fun, crazy scavenger hunt that takes your afternoon.
SPEAKER_00:Well, from concept, concept to completion. That's why that's what you're about. Yep, yep. Whatever it takes, underneath that all the sounds like your company is gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um you know, and that starts uh with understanding that that client, that ask. Um it goes back. It it's so important to start up front with a a clear understanding of objective and and then who your stakeholders are, right? Because you, especially in what we do, we talked about risk, we talked about trust. Um you're asking people to go along for crazy rides with you. And you know, is it is it a relationship where somebody's gonna instill total trust and they they just want this button, they they trust the reputation, they trust our expertise, or do they want to ride shotgun in the food truck? And we, you know, we'll work with either way, but understanding that up front is very, very important because we need to manage key milestones against that. Like, hey, how much of the sausage do you want to see being made? How involved do you want to do that? And and complexity drives a lot of that, right? So, you know, another great example I mentioned we've got a uh fourth wall lease space open in a in a Texas Walmart right now outside of Dallas, and it's with our partners at Chabani, um, Chabani and Lacalom Coffee. And there is uh there's a fair amount of both food and beverage sampling that goes on within the space, including this whole creamer, right? Where you can come up and you can try all the different flavors of of their creamer product uh with the Loch Alam coffee. So that in and of itself requires kind of all these stakeholders to figure out like, okay, how do you clean the lines? How do you refrigerate that space? Where is that product coming from? Is this coming out of the back room? Are we taking things out of stock from the store or is this a special order? Um, you know, that whole space is transactable, meaning you can purchase products in there. Where do those projects live in a virtual mod, right? Because our space didn't exist a week ago. Um so yeah so like when I when I say complexity drives that need for partnership, we really try to understand up front, like, hey, how complex is this ask? Has this been done before? If it hasn't been done before, let's let's talk about uh our ways of working so that we can all get to a successful place at the end.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful. Wow, great. Okay. As as you grow, okay, uh, let's talk about scaling for a minute. So as you grow, you take on larger clients. Um in my research again, uh I've seen a large company like Clorox and others here. It just mentioned large companies, no question about it. And then great testimonies, by the way, there. So as you begin to grow the company, talk about talk about your scaling process.
SPEAKER_01:So, you know, it's super interesting because everything we do is somewhat bespoke, right? Every every experience is different, every every client is different in what they're trying to achieve and and kind of like the way that they're going about it. So where we've spent a lot of our time is building processes that allow for that, right? Like, how can we let a subject matter expert lean in and really put their their knowledge to use, right? Um and so getting that transfer done, and we talked about you know going from the startup six years ago where everybody kind of did everything to like, oh no, there's a there's a person now with like this highly specialized skill set, but you can't get in the way because we you know, part of what we promise is this very kind of white glove service. And then and it has to stay unique, it has to stay fresh. We can't modularize it and just do the same thing over and over again because that's not an experience that's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, this has been so much fun. You have done such a great job talking about this. I I really do. So as we wrap, as we think about it, what what would what do you want our viewers to know about your great company? How do they get in touch with your great company? Talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, um, hello at Grazzi.com. Uh easy, easy email. Um G-R-A-T-S-Y. Um so you know, you can reach out there. I think we uh we're out in the community. We'd love to reach out um and have conversations. I think if there's if there's one thing I would ask your your listeners to consider, it's like what what are they doing? What can they do to ensure that the way they interact with their audience, their customers, their fans, whatever that is, how do you make that fun? How do you make that something that is engaging that your your target audience wants to engage with? And and once you solve that issue, which you know is where we lean in, um you find that you really wind up with honest connections, right? Like you find out um what that what that NPS metric really is when people are out spreading, hey, check out, look at this cool thing I got to do. I just went to Walmart. I didn't know that that was there. Or or I did, and I planned the trip around it, and that's cool.
SPEAKER_00:Ryan, um again, a great job. I mean, I was excited about your company before, but I'm more excited about your company now. And um now, even one of these days when you do one of these events, uh maybe we could come down and broadcast live or something on your events or something, you know? And uh, but maybe our viewers are likely to do that. If Ron and his team let us do it, we we'll come down and do it for sure.
SPEAKER_01:We'd love to have we'd love to have them.
SPEAKER_00:Um but uh Ron Hughes, thank you. You've just a great job talking about your company and and you know, uh one of the things to all of our viewers, you know, this this is a great company, uh there's great people there. You've heard and and Ryan talk about really the culture, the heartbeat of the company, and and uh just great people. But you really do um you're you're one of the kind. And where you do connect brands and their target customers in a measurable, memorable way. You do that so well. So congratulations to that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thanks. We we really try.
SPEAKER_00:We so great. So to all of our viewers, thank you for joining us today. Uh we appreciate you so much. Uh, can you continue to reach out to me on LinkedIn? I'll answer your uh your text to me. And also thank you for making uh doing business in Bendville so successful. As I mentioned before, we're in we are in over 100 countries and over 2,000 views a day. That's the McCause of View. Thank you. Thank you so much. Continue to repost us, continue to uh to um share your experiences with us, and we'll continue to have people like Ryan and his people here on our show. Okay. Thanks a lot. Come back sometime. I want you to come back. I'd love to. This was a blast. Okay, thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Goodbye.