Why Promo Execution is Still Broken — and What Best-in-Class Looks Like in 2025

June 2025 | Insights

The 2025 Consumer Goods State of the Industry Report by the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) has made one thing abundantly clear: execution is the industry's weakest link.

Despite years of investment in digital transformation, most Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands are still leaking 4–7% of annual revenue due to poor campaign execution, disconnected planning, and misaligned teams.

The Pain is Real — and Growing

According to the POI report:

• 61% of brands admit to ongoing struggles with promotion execution.
• 38% blame these failures directly on a lack of accurate, real-time data and insights.
• <25% measure success at the store or SKU level.
• Spreadsheets and siloed systems still dominate workflows.

The result? Great plans fail at the last mile — whether it's inventory gaps, pricing errors, or poor targeting — and marketing dollars evaporate with no accountability.

What's Missing: Real-Time Alignment

Most CPG planning still happens in silos. Trade teams, sales, marketing, and supply chain operate on disconnected timelines and data systems, leading to:

• Missed uplift from planned promotions
• Stockouts during peak campaigns
• Inefficient spend allocation
• Disappointment at the shelf — and in the P&L

What Best-in-Class Looks Like

The POI report highlights a small but growing group of leaders that are breaking the cycle. These companies see exactly what the customer is looking at the store, on the website or in their messages. They :

• ✅ Align marketing, supply chain, and sales planning in real-time
• ✅ Use predictive analytics to simulate outcomes pre-launch
• ✅ Monitor execution quality at SKU × Store level live
• ✅ Empower frontline teams with alerts, recommendations and explanations not just reports
• ✅ Replace dashboards with dynamic, evolving control systems

Enter Realyn: Your Execution Control Stack

At Realyn, we've built what the industry has been missing — a real-time execution platform that unifies marketing, operations, and finance under one intelligent control system.

• 🧠 Live Planning Contexts: SKU × Store × Channel expectations, always current
• ⚙️ AI-Powered Control Agents: Detect risks and trigger preventive workflows
• 📡 Execution Insights: Days ahead of traditional BI tools
• 🚀 Fast Deployment: Operational in 3–5 days
• 💰 Immediate ROI: Up to 90% waste reduction in 90 days