The Path to Purchase Institute honors visionary leaders Emily Gibbons and Jill Smith

The Path to Purchase Institute has announced Emily Gibbons, VP of science and technology at 84.51°, and Jill Smith, VP of sales, Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°, as recipients of its prestigious 2023 Women of Excellence Awards.     In its eighth year, the P2P Women of Excellence awards program recognizes female brand marketers, retailers, agency executives and solution providers for their achievements in influencing the commerce marketing industry along the path to purchase.  

Innovator Award

Emily Gibbons received the Innovator Award, which recognizes leaders who have pioneered creative solutions and challenged existing paradigms through breakthrough ideas and strategies. As head of 84.51°'s commercial insights and loyalty portfolio, Emily helps drive continuous innovation of the user experience, science, and capabilities in 84.51°’s portfolio to ensure our solutions are market leading, actionable, and valuable to clients.     A few examples of Emily's innovative work include: 

• Creating a data science package library and APIs to make advanced analytics more accessible to clients earlier in their data maturity journey. This has supported increased adoption of 84.51°'s Cloud solutions. 

• Leading the creation of the Kroger Precision Marketing Audience API which connects insights directly to marketing activation, enabling faster and more effective decision making for CPG brands.

• Helping transform client organizations by guiding them on pragmatic approaches to embed data science and drive measurable impact. Her "crawl, walk, run" philosophy has accelerated outcomes. 

Emily's creative leadership style energizes her team to continuously push boundaries and build solutions that deliver real value. She is passionate about mentoring colleagues and guiding clients to become insight-driven organizations.

Industry Impact Award

Jill Smith was honored with the Industry Impact Award for her significant contributions in educating the marketing industry about the possibilities of retail media. This award celebrates leaders who have been instrumental in influencing the advancement of an industry as a whole by actively sharing insights, engaging in first-to-market research, instituting systemic change or redefining industry standards.  

A member of the founding team at Kroger Precision Marketing, Jill played a critical role in developing our go-to-market strategy and forging partnerships with agency holding companies. Her leadership shaped new commercial models that demonstrated the value of retail data for driving attributable sales.     Of significance, she designed, executed and relentlessly delivered a plan to bring a non-endemic product offering to life—a first of its kind for Kroger Precision Marketing that elevated senior relationships across all agency holding companies to create unique commercial models and business offerings.  

Smith has also been an advocate for sharing insights at industry events and guiding other women leaders through mentorship programs. Over the past year, Jill has been invited to speak at national industry events with agency and brand partners. She has shared insights about how grocery data is helping brands and agencies unlock attributable sales; adjusting tactics and introducing new touchpoints to help shoppers navigate the new shopping landscape; and streaming TV as the next frontier of commerce.      In 2022, she was selected by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber to participate in WE Lead, a 10-month executive leadership development experience for high-potential, goal-oriented women who are actively preparing for the next level of their career.   

Both women exhibit the spirit of innovation and inspiration that the Path to Purchase Institute seeks to highlight. We congratulate Emily and Jill on these well-deserved honors. They serve as excellent role models for other leaders working to guide brands, retailers and agencies into the future through visionary thinking and insight-driven strategies.