Asking an industry to rethink how and where it makes money is never going to be easy. And yet, to a certain extent, something like that is happening across the consumer goods industry. Companies are increasingly recognizing that their future may lie less in developing and marketing consumer products, and more in creating genuine consumer experiences.

Last week Netflix officially released Season 3 of its hit series "Orange is the New Black." This was my excuse to lock myself indoors for an entire weekend, binge watch the new release and order delivery. But as I spent the weekend mesmerized by bright lights and convoluted plot lines, I was struck by the frequency with which household brands and products appeared on my screen. As I progressed from one episode to the next, I became aware of the prominent role product placement seemed to play - a much bigger role than on traditional, network TV. So I set …

No matter the industry, people like to talk about innovation. That's because innovation is about positive change, and change is often a key component of growth for any business. In the competitive CPG space, innovation is a lofty word and is often confused with introducing any new item to a category.

Virtually every brand we work with is trying to win Millennials and it's not surprising why. Eighty million shoppers with one trillion dollars in buying power are hard to ignore. But equally hard to ignore are recent stats that show when it comes to shopper marketing, Millennials know what they want.

Word-of-mouth recommendations have been influencing purchase for decades, but technology, the Internet and social media have had a tremendous impact on the continual change to the ratings and reviews landscape.

Just how hot is healthy food? Merger and acquisition advisory firm, Piper Jaffray, reports the compound annual growth rate of the healthy food sector is 24.1%, versus all other food at 8.6%. Healthy food's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) multiple is 26.2X compared to other food's EBITDA multiple at only 14.0X. Such figures explain the feeding frenzy by private equity and public food and beverage companies to gobble up these healthy startups to improve their own returns.

It's taken over a half century, but I think we may be entering into a new era of food enlightenment. A time when farming, manufacturing, and logistics scale are being combined with organic, sustainable, and transparent. Where convenience and cost are working with, not against, healthy and right. From CPG companies to fast food chains, this renaissance is exciting to witness, and I believe we will look back at the 20-teens as the time when we returned to "old-fashioned" ... for the better.

Walmart and Whole Foods, two of the nation's most well-known retailers, boldly stepped into the proverbial boxing ring last month, with announcements that take unabashed aim at their competition. Walmart's news heralded a subscription-shipping program in the same vein as Amazon Prime, while Whole Foods unveiled plans to open a new retail format that at first glance - many details of the business model have yet to be announced - bears a striking resemblance to the Millennial-favorite Trader Joe's.

Online shopping just got a whole lot more convenient. Within the last week, both Amazon and Walmart announced the piloting of two new services: Amazon is experimenting with same-day delivery in select cities and Walmart will be testing its first subscription-based shipping program. The latter will help Walmart (a brand that has always prided itself on its everyday low-price guarantees) compete with the already uber-convenient Amazon Prime, offering free three-day shipping on approximately 15% of the products within the retailer's digital catalogue. And while retailers like Walmart have always had a leg-up at understanding the nuances of omnichannel, more than …