Five questions with Jenny Stanley and GS1

July 2025

In regular Q&A sessions, Jenny Stanley, Managing Director at Appetite Creative explores the key challenges, trends and solutions facing experts from across the advertising and packaging industry. Asking five key questions per conversation, Jenny will look to learn more about her interviewee, their career, clients and give them a final word.

This interview is with Camilla Young, Programme Lead at GS1. 

1: Name one big achievement from your career? What are you most proud about achieving? 

One of my proudest achievements has been successfully navigating multiple career transitions – from HR to Commercial, and now into Digital Transformation and Coaching. Each shift required me to step outside my comfort zone, embrace uncertainty, and rebuild my expertise from the ground up. It takes huge amounts of courage and resilience to ‘begin again’, but it’s hugely life-affirming to prove to yourself that change is possible, and with the right mindset, you can adapt, grow, and thrive in entirely new spaces.

2: What are the questions you are most often asked by clients?

The most common questions I get are:

1. What’s the difference between a QR code and a QR code powered by GS1? 

Answer: QR codes powered by GS1 can hold much more data and go ‘beep’ at the till.

2. How do I get started?

Answer: talk to your solution provider about making your QR codes GS1 compliant.

3: What are the biggest challenges your clients are facing today?

Our retail members are currently grappling with so many challenges right now, from navigating inflationary pressures and shifting consumer behaviours, to aligning with complex regulatory demands like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Digital Product Passports (DPP). This creates huge challenges around data management.

4: What one improvement or change would you like to see the wider industry (advertising, packaging etc) to make in the next 12 months that will have a positive impact on the wider industry ecosystem? 

From consumers and regulators to brand owners and retailers, everyone wants to know more about the products they buy, sell or consume. By implementing the next generation of barcodes, brands can connect their products’ unique identity to multiple online sources of real-time information: transforming consumer engagement, enhancing ESG reporting, improving traceability and transparency up and down the supply chain, and much more beyond.

5: What’s the legacy you’d like to leave the industry?

The linear barcode has been used in retail for over 50 years, and my legacy is to transition the industry from that simple one-dimensional data carrier to a multi-functional QR code, powered by GS1 standards, that will lay the foundations for a new era of data transparency within retail.

Source: Appetite Creative

  Agency, Appetite Creative, Branding, Camilla Young, Colgate Palmolive, GS1, Jenny Stanley