Goodway Group partners with Arima to bring synthetic data to retail, CPG and QSR brands. Arima - Mon Oct 19 2026 Goodway Group partners with Arima to bring synthetic data to commerce brands. Originally published by Goodway on October 1, 2026. NEW YORK - October 1, 2026 - Goodway Group, the independent growth partner for retail, commerce, and CPG brands, today announced a partnership with Arima, the data and software company behind The Synthetic Society(TM), giving brands a clearer view of their full market and a faster path to proving what their media investment delivers. The partnership pairs Arima's privacy-first synthetic population modeling with Goodway's Connected Commerce operating system and GOES(TM), its intelligence platform. Synthetic populations are simulated, not matched to real individuals, so brands get market-level insight without PII changing hands. Datasets built for a client stay with that client and are not resold to other agencies. The model reaches past a brand's own customer file to the buyers it can't otherwise see, and it makes incrementality testable without going dark in live markets. "We operate where media and commerce meet, which is exactly where brand understanding has been weakest," said Paul Frampton-Calero, CEO of Goodway Group. "Every holding company answers that the same way: more of its own stack, its own rules, its own identity graph, with the brand's data locked inside it. We'd rather own less and orchestrate more, partnering with the best in breed rather than building it all ourselves. We don't need a brand's customer data to understand its market, because we model the market instead." That matters most where measurement usually breaks. CPG portfolios with uneven store footprints. Retailers with thousands of SKUs and local variations too granular to sample. QSR businesses where every trade area behaves like its own market. "Arima models a market no CRM contains," Frampton-Calero continued. "We connect that model to what happens inside physical locations, with franchise-level measurement across hundreds of locations for brands including Bagel Brands, Publix and Unleashed Brands. We're independent, with no trading desk, so local and in-store performance doesn't get shortchanged the way it does at big agencies built around national media. We're also privately held and agnostic by design, so brands aren't locked into proprietary black boxes or bundled data." "The question is not whether your deterministic data is accurate. It is what you are systematically missing because of its inherent limitations," said Winston Li, Founder of Arima. "Goodway's clients get a more complete view of their market without adding privacy risk." Goodway is piloting the partnership with selected clients ahead of a broader rollout across its client base in the near future. Goodway and Arima leadership will be discussing the work during Advertising Week New York, October 5-8. "Every one of our locations behaves like its own market, which makes national-level measurement close to useless for us," said Pat O'Toole, CMO, Unleashed Brands. "What Goodway and Arima are doing gives us a view of the customers we don't have yet, not just the ones already in our database, and it gets us there in days rather than months." ABOUT GOODWAY GROUP Goodway Group is an independent strategic connected commerce partner for retail, multi-location franchises, and CPG brands, connecting digital to in-store to drive incremental revenue. Independent and family-owned for more than 90 years, Goodway Group answers to its clients rather than to shareholders. Today the company is a fully remote team of around 400 people, working with brands including Bagel Brands, Publix, Benjamin Moore and Unleashed Brands. ABOUT ARIMA Arima is a data and software company specializing in bespoke synthetic datasets. Its flagship product, The Synthetic Society(TM), statistically represents the populations of Canada, Germany, the UK, and USA. Arima's synthetic datasets integrate census and demographic data, market research, mobility and location signals, and consumer purchase behavior to create representative models of real-world populations. Privacy-first by design, Arima enables organizations to understand and simulate consumers without using personally identifiable information. Arima partners with organizations to build sovereign synthetic datasets tailored to specific markets and audiences. These datasets combine an organization's first-party data with Arima's Synthetic Society(TM). Gartner projects that synthetic data will overshadow real data in AI models by 2030; Arima is positioning marketers ahead of that shift.

Publix names Goodway Group shopper marketing agency of record. Share via: Publix has selected Goodway Group, a connected commerce and digital media agency, as its exclusive shopper marketing agency of record for 2026. The partnership is designed to modernize Publix's retail media and shopper marketing strategies through data-driven, omnichannel campaigns. As part of the agreement, Goodway Group will oversee strategy, creative development and media execution for Publix's shopper marketing initiatives. The agency will focus on bridging the gap between digital discovery and in-store conversion, leveraging retail media data to deliver more personalized experiences for Publix customers. "Publix has long been a leader in customer service and brand loyalty, and we are honored to partner with them to evolve their shopper marketing and retail media capabilities," said Jay Friedman, CEO of Goodway Group. "Our goal is to create a seamless connection between the brand's digital touchpoints and the physical aisle, ensuring that every marketing dollar drives measurable value for both Publix and its brand partners." The move comes as Publix continues to scale its Publix 360 retail media network. By tapping Goodway Group, the retailer aims to provide consumer packaged goods (CPG) partners with more sophisticated targeting and closed-loop measurement tools, allowing brands to better understand the impact of their marketing spend on actual sales. "As the retail landscape becomes increasingly digital, it's critical that we provide our brand partners with the tools and expertise they need to reach our customers effectively," the company noted in the announcement. Goodway Group was chosen for its expertise in "connected commerce," an approach that integrates retail media, digital performance marketing and traditional shopper marketing into a unified strategy. The agency will work closely with Publix's internal marketing and retail media teams to execute the 2026 roadmap. Lakeland, Florida-based Publix Super Markets Inc. operates more than 1,380 stores across the Southeast and recently reported 2025 annual sales of about $60 billion. For more Publix Super Markets news, view its Publix Super Markets news page. The Shelby Report delivers complete grocery news and supermarket insights nationwide through the distribution of five monthly regional print and digital editions. Serving the retail food trade since 1967,... More by Shelby Team Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *