Posting anonymously as an insider from their advertising org: this is probably a play to fill an enormous data gap they have. Due to historical reasons, there's actually no mapping between brands and who sells those brands--that database literally doesn't exist, and without that data, their advertising offerings suffer. This move will allow them to rectify a data gap, and expand their digital advertising program by allowing them to more accurately understand and measure the relationship between advertisers, products, and brands.