A note from our CEO

Hey everyone,

Expo West 2025 was a great one. It was my 6th and it’s always exciting to connect with familiar faces: the “Squid Games Survivors”, as I jokingly call it. The energy was high, and despite economic uncertainty, optimism remains strong.
One of my favorite takes on innovation is by food trend researcher Kevin Ryan: “trends are like flowers: they bloom bright then wilt. Innovation is when the dirt changes.” I always try to look past the obvious trends (keto, CBD, adaptogens, fake meat, soda, anyone?) and keep my eyes in the dirt.

In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find:

• February’s sales and ad spend index for our portfolio

• Takeaways from Expo West

• Deep dive into the advantages of Amazon Streaming TV

• Our two presentations at Jungle Scout's Amazon Seller Week

• Amazon’s latest search data and what it signals

Have thoughts? Trends? Hot takes? Reply - this goes right to my inbox. If you like what you’re seeing, feel free to share.

Best regards,
Chris

Last Month’s Sales and Ad Spend Numbers

Takeaways from Expo West

My favorite takeaways from Expo West: Protein is everywhere, with 10g per serving now the norm; Brands are avoiding “fake” sugar-free claims, instead settling on 5-10g of natural sugars (dates, agave, coconut); and, Full-fat, high-protein dairy is making a comeback.

Furthermore, branding (and brand merchandise) has evolved significantly over the last 5 years. Brand t-shirts just don’t cut it anymore: expo is a full on fashion show. It’s fun to see.

Click to read my live takeaways from Day 1 and Day 2.

Here are more insights from our team:

And here is a picture of both new & old faces from Cartograph at the show this year!

The opportunity for Amazon Streaming TV

Last week, we partnered with Gigi to release a 26-page white paper on Amazon Streaming TV. Thanks to Max Calanni for leading the charge, and to Adam Epstein and Kyra Petticrew from the Gigi team.

Amazon Streaming TV is a major opportunity for brands, and over the past year, we've helped brands run high-impact, efficient ads across streaming platforms that drive both Amazon and DTC sales—a focus we’re doubling down on in 2025.

Why is Streaming TV one of the fastest-growing formats?

🔊 Un-skippable ads with full creative flexibility and sound on
🎯 Highly specific 1P targeting—e.g., “Show this to every subscriber of these three competitors, but not my DTC audience”
🗺️ Unmatched attribution tracking—via Amazon’s Marketing Cloud and data clean rooms, tracking purchases by viewers on both Amazon and DTC sites
👇 Low, flexible minimums—starting at just $5K–$10K

Download the full report here.

Amazon Seller Week

This year, we were invited to participate in Jungle Scout’s Amazon Seller Week, an event on the future of selling on Amazon and best-in-class strategies for scaling brands.

Today (Thursday, March 13, at 1 PM ET), Lola Born (Senior Brand Manager at Cartograph) and I will present a case study on BPN (Bare Performance Nutrition), one of the fastest-growing supplement brands on Amazon. HUGE shoutout to Lola for leading our partnership with BPN and this presentation!

We’ll cover how Cartograph helped BPN:
✅ Overcome third-party reseller challenges
✅ Reduce high customer acquisition costs
✅ Improve subscription rates and overall customer retention
✅ And more

[Sign up here] to watch our session and access all Amazon Seller Week recordings.

Yesterday, I joined a panel with a number of Amazon industry experts to discuss full-funnel advertising strategies. [Watch the recording here.]

February Search Term Trends on Amazon

Each month, we track and analyze search volume and CPCs for popular Amazon search terms. Here are some recent trends we found interesting.