Best Food and Beverage Marketing Agencies for Omnichannel Growth

A packaged food or beverage brand now sells in several places at once: the grocery shelf, Amazon, Walmart.com, Instacart and often its own site. Amazon held 8.1% of US CPG sales in the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, against Walmart's 20.8% (according to eMarketer). Each retailer runs its own ad platform, audience data and sales reporting.

The agencies below can coordinate several of those channels for a food or beverage brand and tie the spend back to sales. The list covers packaged food and beverage brands. Restaurant and foodservice marketing calls for a different kind of partner, so those agencies are out of scope.

Disclosure: 9AM publishes this article and appears on the list. It was assessed against the same criteria as every other agency, and the list is not ranked.

How These Agencies Compare Across Retail Media, DTC, and Social

The table sorts the shortlist by channel model, so you can drop agencies that do not cover the channels your next sale depends on.

How We Built This Shortlist

Every agency, including 9AM, was checked against the criteria in 9AM's ranking methodology:

• Channel depth: real capability in the retail media networks and paid channels it claims, backed by partner status or published work.
• Food and beverage track record: named category clients or case studies we could open and read.
• Creative capability: whether the agency produces content in-house or only buys media.
• Measurement maturity: whether reporting connects spend to sales beyond platform-reported metrics.
• Fit: the brand size and stage the agency says it serves.

Agencies are grouped by channel model and listed in no rank order. Client results come from each agency's own pages or trade press and are labeled as agency-reported. Candidates whose category work we could not confirm from a primary source were left out.

Food and Beverage Marketing Agencies for Omnichannel Growth

Retail media and performance agencies

These agencies start from paid media across retailers and online channels. Shortlist them when Amazon, Walmart and Instacart already drive a large share of your sales.

9AM

9AM runs retail media and paid social from one team, so creator content, TikTok Shop listings and Walmart Connect campaigns follow one plan. Its food and beverage clients see a 60% improvement in conversion rates from taste and lifestyle targeting and a 40% increase in seasonal revenue from seasonal campaign planning. Recipe and usage content delivers 3x engagement rates, and influencer partnerships a 250% increase in brand awareness.

Its clearest category proof is a launch. For Mogu Mogu, a coconut jelly drink new to US shoppers, 9AM recruited 65+ local micro-influencers, reached 30M+ accounts and kept cost per engagement under 2¢.

• Ask before signing: Which of our retailers would you test first, and how would you measure in-store sales there?

Tinuiti

Few agencies have API access across as many grocery retail media networks. Tinuiti is one of eight Walmart Connect API and Target Product Ads API partners, and one of 12 Instacart agency API partners. It also holds Walmart Connect Premium+ status, shared by 17 of 115 partners. Its retail team has shared the stage with Kellogg's, Walmart Connect and Instacart at Adweek Commerce Week.

The commerce team works alongside Tinuiti's search, social, streaming TV and influencer teams. That setup suits a brand that wants retail media budgets planned with the rest of its media mix. The Chomps meat snack campaign shows the omnichannel model: Thursday Night Football ads with Amazon interactive video, measured through Amazon Marketing Cloud. Tinuiti reports a 91% lift in units sold during the season opener, with 98% of conversions happening in-store.

• Ask before signing: How did you measure in-store sales for Chomps, and could you run the same setup on Walmart Connect and Instacart?

Acadia

Acadia’s retail media team covers the grocery networks that matter most to food brands, Instacart and Kroger included, alongside Amazon and Walmart. Its CPG practice connects online media spend to offline sales and counts Barcel USA and Krinos among its clients.

The category proof is published. For snack brand Go Craize, Acadia tested new Instacart promotional features that lifted click-through rate 6% and cut cost per click 28%. Protein bar brand TRUBAR saw a 48% lift in retail marketplace sales from its integrated approach. Ad Age named Acadia Media Agency of the Year for 2026.

• Ask before signing: Can you show Kroger or Instacart results for a brand at our spend level?

Food and beverage specialists with integrated programs

These agencies work only in food, beverage or adjacent nutrition categories. They lead with brand, research and shopper work, then run media around it.

Quench

Quench has worked only in food and beverage since Pavone Group launched it in 2014. Its longest client, StarKist, shows the integrated model: TV, digital, social, PR and shopper marketing run as one program for 13 years. Over that partnership, Quench helped grow StarKist’s tuna pouch leadership to more than 83% dollar share, with StarKist Creations sales up nearly 160% since 2015 to $168 million.

The work is current. Home Run Inn Pizza named Quench agency of record in July 2026, covering brand strategy and retail activation. Quench also publishes an annual food and beverage trends report, now in its 17th edition.

• Ask before signing: Who on your team runs retail media buying, and which retailers have you activated for StarKist?

MarketPlace

MarketPlace has served food, beverage, supplement and pet brands from St. Louis since 2002. It pairs strategy consulting and in-house consumer research with branding and omnichannel campaign planning and activation.

Its strength is brands that sell to two audiences at once: shoppers and trade buyers. In 2024 it took on Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America for brand strategy, creative, media activation and trade show work. Choose MarketPlace when the positioning question comes before the media plan.

• Ask before signing: Which consumer campaigns have you run for a CPG brand, beyond trade and ingredient work?

Shelf and shopper specialists

Theory House

Theory House was founded in Charlotte in 2013 by shopper marketing specialists who set out to serve the brands chasing category leaders. Its services cover shopper insight, branding, retail activation and digital engagement around the store visit.

Its agency profile lists shopper marketing work for 1800 Tequila and Mountain Dew. Shortlist Theory House when national distribution is secured and the next problem is turning placement into sell-through at the shelf. Pair it with a retail media agency if online retail is also a priority.

• Ask before signing: Who runs retail media while you handle the shelf, and how will you share data with them?

Social and creator-led CPG agencies

Cool Nerds Marketing

Cool Nerds Marketing works only with consumer brands, with food and beverage as its core. It runs organic social, creator partnerships, paid amplification and brand activation from one strategy, supported by an in-house content studio.

The agency says it has supported brands connected to Campbell's, Herr's, Bonduelle, V8 and Pace, and it describes itself as equally active on DTC, Amazon and retail activation. It suits a brand whose main need is steady social content and creator demand that feeds both its own site and retailer listings.

• Ask before signing: How do you connect social and creator results to Amazon and in-store sales?

What Omnichannel Growth Means for a Food or Beverage Brand

Omnichannel marketing runs every sales channel from one plan, with shared audiences, shared creative and one view of total sales. Multichannel marketing simply means the brand is present in many places, with each channel managed and judged on its own.

Here’s a quick visual explanation of its advantages:

The difference matters more in food and beverage than in most categories.

A shopper may see a creator's taste test on TikTok, check reviews on Amazon and buy the product in a store a week later. If paid social, Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect each report only their own clicks, nobody sees that path.

In practice, an omnichannel food and beverage agency does four things:

• Plans retail media (Amazon, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Instacart) alongside DTC and paid social budgets.
• Reuses creator and product content across product pages, social ads and retailer placements.
• Shifts spend between retailers and channels based on total sales, including in-store sales where retailers report them.
• Times campaigns around seasonal demand and retailer promotional calendars.

How to Tell Whether an Agency Can Prove Sell-Through

An omnichannel agency earns its fee only if it can show which spend moved product, online and in store. Each ad platform reports only the sales it can see, and in-store purchases often fall outside that view. Use these questions in the first call to test measurement before you compare creative.

• Which sales signals do you report against? A strong answer names retailer-reported attributed sales, syndicated scan data from providers such as Circana or Nielsen, and your own DTC orders, then explains how they are reconciled.
• How do you test incrementality? Ask for a recent holdout or geo test and what it changed in the budget. For a deeper look at testing partners, see our guide to marketing analytics agencies for attribution and incrementality.
• How do you account for halo sales? Amazon search, social video and creator posts often lift store sales that no single platform claims. Ask how the agency estimates that lift and how often it revisits the estimate.
• Who owns the accounts and the data? Your brand should own its Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect and Meta accounts, plus raw reporting exports.
• How do you review claims? Health, nutrition and "natural" claims face FDA and FTC rules. Ask who signs off on copy before it runs across retailers and social.

An agency that answers the first two questions with specifics usually handles the rest well. Vague answers about "full-funnel visibility" are a reason to keep looking.

Which Agency Type Fits Your Next Retail or DTC Milestone

Match the agency to the milestone you need to hit in the next 12 months. A brand can outgrow one model and move to another as distribution widens.

If two rows apply, start with the one closest to revenue. For most growing brands that is retail media, since it sits next to the purchase on Amazon, Walmart and Instacart.

Conclusion

The best food and beverage marketing agency for omnichannel growth is the one that covers the channels where your next sale happens. It should also show, with your own sales data, which spend moved product.

Start by naming that channel, then shortlist two or three agencies from different groups above. Put each through the sell-through questions before you compare creative or fees. The agency that answers with specific tests, data sources and account terms is the one most likely to scale with you.

If you are launching or scaling a product across Amazon, Walmart, Target and social, book a strategy call with 9AM to talk through your channel plan.

FAQ

What is a food and beverage marketing agency?

It is an agency that markets packaged food or drink products to shoppers, retailers or both. The work can include branding, packaging, shopper marketing, retail media, social media and creator programs. Category experience matters because claims rules, seasonality and retailer calendars shape every campaign.

Should you hire separate retail media and DTC agencies?

Two agencies can work if one owns the overall plan and both report against the same sales data. Without that, each agency optimizes its own channel and nobody owns total sales. Smaller brands usually do better with one partner that covers both.

How do food and beverage marketing agencies charge?

Most agencies on this list do not publish prices. Common structures are a monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend, or a project fee for brand and packaging work. Ask how fees change as retail media spend grows, since percentage-of-spend models rise with it.

Do food brands need a category specialist?

Not always. A specialist brings category insight and retailer relationships. A retail media or performance agency brings platform depth and testing discipline. Pick the gap that limits your growth today.

Is a CPG performance marketing agency the same as a food and beverage marketing agency?

Not always. A CPG performance agency usually focuses on paid media and ecommerce across many consumer categories, while a food and beverage agency adds category work such as packaging, shopper marketing and claims review. For omnichannel growth, look for an agency that covers both: paid and retail media, plus experience with grocery buyers and food-specific creative.

What should a food and beverage agency’s case study show?

A useful case study names the brand and category, the channels used, and a sales outcome, such as unit lift, dollar share or retail velocity, not just impressions. It should also state the time frame and whether in-store sales were measured. Tinuiti’s Chomps case is a good model: it reports in-store conversions alongside the Amazon results.

Are large holding-company agencies a good fit for emerging food brands?

Networks such as Dentsu’s Merkle are built for national brands with large media budgets and multi-market programs. Emerging and mid-size brands often get more senior attention and faster testing from a specialist or independent agency. Ask who will run your account day to day and how much of your budget goes to fees versus media.