News and Analysis
DIY Franchising: The Platform for Scaling SMBs
Over the past decade, platform and SaaS companies have emerged that enable a wide range of businesses to “plug and play” rather than create from scratch. Although franchise consultants and associations abound, Gregory Ugwi took a page from companies like LegalZoom and offers small businesses a wide range of easy-to-access professional help when they are […]
GroupM, Incremental Partner on Neutral RMN Solutions
Fragmentation and poor measurement create a ton of inefficiencies for clients and agencies trying to plan and optimize retail-media investments. To address this issue, GroupM has expanded its retail (aka commerce) media offering and formed a partnership with Incremental, which provides neutral retail media solutions. The announcement was made on June 17 at the Cannes […]
Leap-ing Into a New Retail Model: An Interview With Amish Tolia
We’ve all seen founders with great ideas and/or products take the big step to brick-and-mortar stores and then crash and burn due to various factors. Amish Tolia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Leap, a company that has disrupted the traditional commercial broker/landlord/tenant model for retail brands. Tolia founded the company about six years ago […]
Commentary
Connecting Retail Media Networks with Custom Audiences
Retail media networks (RMNs) are becoming a dominant force in the advertising world, propelled by the valuable first-party data they generate. This rise, however, also presents unintended challenges: the creation of walls around this data to protect consumer privacy and the retailer’s competitive advantage, resulting in a fragmented view of consumers. While safeguarding privacy is […]
How Generative AI is Propelling Local Advertising
The digital advertising landscape has never been more dynamic or more complex. As small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) grapple with these changes and challenges, they also face opportunities for growth. Generative AI technologies are empowering marketers with intuitive, powerful, and personalized advertising strategies, helping them to save time and effort and compete like never before. […]
How AI Is Transforming Phone Calls Into Data
“This call may be recorded for training and quality purposes” We’ve all heard a version of this ubiquitous message a thousand times. Chances are we don’t even notice it any more due to a form of audio “ad blindness”. Still, if we stop and think about it, interesting questions arise. What are these recordings actually […]
Latest Posts
DIY Franchising: The Platform for Scaling SMBs
Over the past decade, platform and SaaS companies have emerged that enable a wide range of businesses to “plug and play” rather than create from scratch. Although franchise consultants and associations abound, Gregory Ugwi took a page from companies like LegalZoom and offers small businesses a wide range of easy-to-access professional help when they are […]
GroupM, Incremental Partner on Neutral RMN Solutions
Fragmentation and poor measurement create a ton of inefficiencies for clients and agencies trying to plan and optimize retail-media investments. To address this issue, GroupM has expanded its retail (aka commerce) media offering and formed a partnership with Incremental, which provides neutral retail media solutions. The announcement was made on June 17 at the Cannes […]
Leap-ing Into a New Retail Model: An Interview With Amish Tolia
We’ve all seen founders with great ideas and/or products take the big step to brick-and-mortar stores and then crash and burn due to various factors. Amish Tolia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Leap, a company that has disrupted the traditional commercial broker/landlord/tenant model for retail brands. Tolia founded the company about six years ago […]
How to Pick the “Right” Retail Media: A Perspective from Skai
Nich Weinheimer is the EVP of Strategy at Skai, an omnichannel advertising platform focused on walled garden media. These networks (walled garden media) are their own ecosystem and keep their customer data close. As reported recently, major MULO (multi-location) retailers are taking a page from the Google and Amazon playbook and developing their own advertising ecosystems. […]
Retail Media – Enabling Brands to Shift to an Audience-first Mindset
While retail media can trace its history back decades to humble in-store signage, cardboard cutout displays, and sampling tables, the retail media networks of 2024 are some of the most advanced advertising channels ever created. And with this sector forecast to hit a staggering $140bn ad spend worldwide this year, it has yet to fully […]
Placer.ai and TapClicks Partner for Deeper Marketing Analytics
Placer.ai, the leader in location analytics, and TapClicks, the leading provider of Smart Marketing solutions, have partnered to integrate real-time foot traffic data into TapClicks’ omni-channel reporting platform. This collaboration advances the ability for marketers to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior and thereby more conclusively prove the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. In conversation with […]
RM + AI = $$ (Retail Media Gets Smarter)
RM = retail media. It’s booming now as retailers, airlines, and restaurants launch their networks to enable in- and out-of-store marketing to consumers and prospects. AI = artificial intelligence (of course). MULO (multi-location) brands can have huge amounts of data and numerous ways to monitor in-store behavior, but if they’re not using automation to inform advertising […]
MULO Brands With Soul: A New Mini-Series
The term “soul” is all relative. Many MULO (multi-location) brands today aim to stay in business and thrive. They incorporate new technologies into their operations, aim to hire and retain competent and loyal employees and ensure they are selling/serving the products/foods/services that today’s consumers want (and that their marketing is well-targeted and cost-effective). So, where […]
BOOM: Retail is Rising!
Shopping center occupancy rates have dropped for the first time in a decade. According to Cushman & Wakefield, the retail vacancy rate is 5.4%, as reported in the New York Times. The article goes on to report on new and expanded shopping centers and malls throughout the U.S. This is consistent with a recent Street Fight […]
Building Brand Trust Is Multi-Dimensional
In this post-truth era, when the public trust has eroded around news sources, government, healthcare institutions, and myriad other pillars of society, trust and authenticity are difficult to establish. Now add a layer of brand verticals. What happens to brand trust? Vevo, MAGNA, and media agency Initiative conducted a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers this […]
Connecting Retail Media Networks with Custom Audiences