Ryan Pintado-Vertner @ Smoketown
How Do We Unlock Massive Demand For Regenerative?
On this episode, Anthony and Kyle speak with Ryan Pintado-Vertner, the Founder and CEO of Smoketown. Smoketown is a boutique brand consultancy that helps visionaries, mission-driven brands, and nonprofits maximize their growth and positive impact. The firm is supporting regenerative agriculture with their recently released white paper: Unlocking Demand for Regenerative - A Crowdsourced Blueprint for Accelerating Consumer Demand for Regenerative Agriculture.
Activism → Big CPG → Smoketown
“This quote from Martin Luther King Junior really spoke to me when I was young. He said, ‘the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ That's what I'm about.” - Ryan
Ryan began his career in the nonprofit sector, dedicating himself to activism and social justice. While the work was deeply rewarding, the intensity led to burnout, prompting Ryan to reevaluate his path. His search for a new way to create impact sparked an interest in social enterprises, inspiring him to pursue an MBA.
During his MBA program, Ryan discovered a passion for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Over the next 14 years, he honed his expertise at major companies like Clorox, specializing in brand management and innovation strategy. This experience gave him a profound appreciation for understanding consumers and the vital role brands play in their lives.
In 2018, Ryan founded Smoketown with a clear mission: to merge the best practices of big CPG with the agility of startups. His goal was to empower mission-driven brands to make smarter marketing and innovation decisions.
Learning & Serving
Ryan’s introduction to regenerative agriculture came through his involvement with regenerative-focused investment funds such as Flock and Trailhead Capital. While on his regenerative learning journey speaking with experts, reading reports, and listening to podcasts he also realized how well “regeneration” aligns with his longtime interest in social justice and overall spiritual beliefs.
As Ryan engaged with the regenerative community he noticed a recurring challenge: siloed knowledge. Insights and lessons were scattered across brands and organizations. Even more, brands had limited capacity to conduct research and publications. Ryan decided Smoketown could relieve that burden and develop a white paper to share collective knowledge that would advance the regenerative movement.
“The spirit of the report was based on asking - how can we take the burden off of a lot of folks, listen very intentionally, distill that down into a document, and then release that as a bit of collective wisdom?” - Ryan
The Major Takeaways
Before diving into the details of the report Ryan shares a few “lightbulb moments” from the process of interviewing over 20 brand marketing leaders and regen stakeholders. First, he highlights that consumer altruism has its limits. Sustainability messaging, while important, does not resonate deeply enough with most consumers to drive meaningful action. Instead, brands must appeal to self-interest, emphasizing benefits like health, nutrition, and taste.
Second, he emphasizes that regeneration needs a unified voice and more collaboration. The organic movement was successful, but it also took decades to build momentum. Earlier collaboration across stakeholders can accelerate the pace. Anthony adds that what the movement needs are two parallel and simultaneous initiatives: 1) collective efforts to promote unified messaging to grow regenerative awareness and 2) individual brand strategies that highlight outcomes consumers care about, like nutrient density and taste.
The Blueprint
Ryan then breaks down the four elements highlighted in the white paper that will unlock demand for regenerative products:
#1 Increase consumer empathy: The regenerative community lacks a deep understanding of consumer motivations. Smoketown recommends:
Sharing existing consumer research to amplify insights already uncovered.
Commissioning new studies to bridge knowledge gaps.
Aggregating insights to develop actionable strategies.
“We actually are all better off if we collectivize knowledge [[on consumer interests]] because then every brand can climb its learning curve more efficiently and build this space better together.” - Ryan
#2 Refine the messaging frame: The current focus on sustainability isn’t enough. Brands need to align their messaging with consumer priorities like taste and health. The emerging link between soil health and nutrient density offers a compelling narrative:
Healthy soil produces healthier, tastier food—a message consumers can intuitively grasp.
The regenerative movement as a whole should promote the benefits of healthy soil since individual brands face challenges related to nutritional claims on indiovudal products.
#3 Double down on loyalty and share of wallet: High-level awareness campaigns are expensive and risky for individual brands. Instead, brands should:
Focus on converting existing customers and regen-curious consumers through targeted, middle-funnel tactics.
Collaborate across brands to cross-promote regenerative products, maximizing share of wallet among existing, aligned consumers.
#4 Boldly Collaborate for Big Awareness: Creating a cultural shift requires bold, collective action. Ideas include:
A multi-year, multi-brand campaign akin to “Got Milk?” - Maybe, “Got Regeneration?”
Retailer-driven awareness efforts, such as in-store signage highlighting regenerative products.
In-person experiences to engage consumers directly, activating their senses and emotions.
50% Market Share For Regen
Ryan re-emphasizes the urgent need for more consumer research and brand collaboration. He suggests starting with more organic partnerships – brands with similar target customers or products that pair well together can more easily partner on cross-promotion.
Ryan also reiterates his belief in the power of nutrient data and a cohesive, large campaign promoting the health benefits of regenerative products.
“The level of data necessary to unlock nutrient claims is a heavy lift and it is also the holy grail. Figuring out how to get that done on a reasonable time frame and in a way that's actionable… that’s a tremendous opportunity that would be a short path to 50% market share.” - Ryan
This ReGen Recap was written by Katey Finnegan
You can check out the full episode with Ryan Pintado-Vertner HERE
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