Kristen McLean

VP, Client Insights, U.S Book & Entertainment

Kristen McLean is the Vice President of Client insights, and the leader of the Circana Entertainment Knowledge Group, a thought leadership collective within the global entertainment vertical. It covers toys, books, video games, juvenile products, and media entertainment.

McLean is also the Industry Advisor for US Toys and is a widely recognized expert in licensing and cross-entertainment consumer behavior. She works with a range of Circana’s largest manufacturers, retailers, and media clients to uncover key cultural trends. Her expertise, combined with Circana’s global view of more than 20 industries, helps the world’s leading entertainment companies drive strategic decision-making and understand today’s quickly evolving consumer.

Kristen McLean

60

EMEA Demand Signals Report: Unlock CPG, Consumer Behavior Insights

Monitoring macroeconomic impacts on volume, price, and other aspects of the EU6 CPG industry.

1 Oct 2026

Tags

99

Shoppers swap alcohol for new generation of healthier drinks as booze loses its bottle but beverage...

Alcohol has been declining in popularity in the five or six years since the pandemic and this has now led to a wider range of alternatives and healthier products, which give us much more choice about what we drink at home and when we socialise.

1 Oct 2026

Tags

59

The Produce Path: Challenges and Opportunities at a Time of Disruption

Produce is facing a pivotal moment as food safety concerns, economic pressure, and shifting shopper habits reshape demand across retail and foodservice. Trust, value, convenience, and health trends are creating both near-term disruption and longer-term opportunities for the industry.

1 Oct 2026

Tags

164

AI, Measured: The Shift and Strategies that Win

AI agents are starting to make the buying decision itself, reshaping discovery, brand visibility, and retail power dynamics faster than most CPG and retail players are prepared for.

30 Sept 2026

Tags

90

The Agentic AI Shift and Strategies That Win

With more than two-thirds consumers now using generative AI to explore and choose products, and AI agents dramatically narrowing the digital shelf, brands and retailers must now earn selection from both people and algorithms. Circana’s experts explore where consumer trust truly stands, what shoppers expect from AI assistants, and the strategic levers that separate category leaders from those left off the shortlist.

30 Sept 2026

Tags

142

Category Management Under Pressure: How AI Helps Teams Prioritize the Right Opportunities

Category management teams get more signals than they can act on. The job is picking the two or three that will move the category before the next buyer meeting. Continuous monitoring across retailer point-of-sale, shopper and competitive data surfaces assortment gaps, white space and price or pack gaps as they appear, so the recommendation is ready before the meeting is.

29 Sept 2026

Tags

332

A Seasonal “Boo-st”: How Halloween 2026 Is Shaping Up Across Categories

Spooky season has arrived. With it comes a cauldron of swirling consumer behaviors and opportunities for brands, retailers, foodservice operators, and others with Halloween-themed offerings. Halloween remains a major holiday for many consumers, with Circana data showing that about one-half of families in the U.S. plan to celebrate the occasion.

28 Sept 2026

Tags

18485

Demand Signals Report: Unlock CPG, Consumer Behavior Insights

Monitoring macroeconomic impacts on volume, price, and other aspects of the U.S. CPG industry.

25 Sept 2026

Tags

63

Competing through Disruption: The Australia Foodservice Perspective

How Value, Control, and Convenience Are Reshaping Consumer Behavior — and What the Industry Must Do Next

25 Sept 2026

Tags

97

Holiday 2026 Media Planning: Where to Spend and How to Measure the Season

Holiday 2026 media planning is the work of deciding how early to spend, which channels to fund, and how to measure a season that no longer starts at Thanksgiving. This on-demand Circana session, recorded in September, 2026, is for brand managers, media directors, category managers and insights leads who own holiday spend or the forecast it is graded against.

24 Sept 2026

Tags

375

Circana Forecasts U.S. Home Market Growth as Consumers Invest in Products That Help Them Save Money...

Eating at home, replacement demand, and everyday convenience are fueling home-product growth, with the market expected to exceed $45.6 billion by 2028

24 Sept 2026

Tags

291

Circana 2026 Holiday Media Report Reveals How Advertisers Can Act on Demand Before Purchase

New Circana report offers holiday advertising strategy insights for brands, retailers, and media advertisers navigating earlier demand, social commerce, AI-assisted shopping, and connected measurement

23 Sept 2026

Tags

353

Kids Are Back in School. Their Shopping Isn’t Done Yet.

Circana data shows consumers delaying back-to-school purchases and spending later into the season as they carefully balance budgets, value, and brand preferences.

22 Sept 2026

Tags

435

‘Deceptive calm’ in Europe’s €361 billion foodservice market masks major generational shifts,...

Spend continues to grow, visits have moved marginally and consumers are still eating out. However, that apparent stability is deceptive as behaviours across generations evolve.

21 Sept 2026

Tags

623

How Advertisers Should Prepare for Holiday 2026: Five Trends and a Media Playbook

Holiday 2026 will be shaped by earlier shopping, social commerce, creator influence, and AI-assisted discovery. Nearly half of consumers browsed before Thanksgiving in 2025, while shoppers increasingly discover and buy products through social platforms and creator content. Advertisers should start media earlier, invest in discovery channels, prepare product data for AI shopping assistants, and measure business outcomes across retail media, ecommerce, in-store, and creator ecosystems.

17 Sept 2026

Tags

313

Spot Risks and Opportunities the Moments They Emerge in the New AI Path to Purchase

Insights and analytics leaders face a growing need to deliver faster, sharper decisions, and the traditional reporting cycle can no longer keep pace. Circana's Liquid AI digital intelligence platform gives these leaders a decisive edge: reducing chokepoints, swiftly surfacing what matters, and freeing their teams to focus on the high-impact work that moves the business forward.

16 Sept 2026

Tags

711

Circana Enhances Unify+ with AI-Powered Analysis Builder for Faster, More Intuitive Reporting

Redesigned authoring experience in the Unify+ solution generates presentation-ready charts and written insight summaries, with export to PowerPoint, Excel and PDF

15 Sept 2026

Tags

3025

Top 10 Movies

Circana's official monthly and year-to-date rankings of the top 10 best-selling DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Updated regularly — see which titles are leading physical media sales in 2026.

14 Sept 2026

Tags

5

Responsible AI in 2026: Key Considerations for Emerging Brands

CPG brands are leaning into AI in a hard way. AI can help brands learn how to read demand, set prices, and decide where to compete for shelf space, among other things. But speed without responsibility creates risk, and for small and emerging brands, that risk can be costly. As consumer behavior fragments with habits shifting by channel, season, and region, and with growing expectations around convenience, scaling brands operate in an environment focused on immediacy and value. At the same...

14 Sept 2026

Tags

865

As Spending Tightens, Consumers Choose What They Need and What They Love, Reports Circana

August retail sales rose 0.8%, but unit demand fell 1.7% as increasingly selective shoppers focused spending on purchases they deem truly worth it.

14 Sept 2026

Tags

Kristen McLean

Recent Posts from

Kristen McLean

60

99

59

164

90

142

332

18485

63

97

375

291

353

435

623

313

711

3025

5

865

Grow Faster.
Dream Bigger.
Explore Liquid Data Go