Location Weekly: Google Maps Update; NextNav’s $120M Round for Geolocation Services
The Location-Based Marketing Association covers Home Depot piloting kiosks from Slyce to locate products in store, Google updating Maps with tips, transit, and AR, Air Canada enabling customers to use PayPal, NextNav raising $120M for 3D geolocation services in U.S., Korea’s Lotte going hi-tech to steal customers from e-commerce, and India’s NavIC possibly one day replacing GPS.
“Alexa, Order Pizza!” How Voice Ordering Will Impact Restaurants
The numbers suggest consumers might be ready to start ordering food and beverages via voice, and voice shopping via at-home smart speakers is projected to reach $40 million in revenue by 2022. In 2020, we’ll see consumers leveraging this technology at a growing rate. In advance of this increase in adoption, restaurants will need to ensure they will be compatible with connected consumer devices.
In order to keep up with the likes of Dunkin’, Denny’s and Domino’s, restaurants of all sizes need to optimize their tech stacks and diversify their strategies.
The Risks and Rewards of Today’s Data Privacy Landscape
With media outlets like The New York Times working to educate consumers and legislators striving to protect consumers’ rights with the introduction of CCPA and GDPR, awareness of the possible costs of these privacy trade-offs is growing, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to understand the changing privacy landscape.
That’s why we commissioned a new Privacy Report from Wakefield Research, asking both consumers and marketers about how they feel about the risks and rewards of data practices today.
Garnering Love, Not Likes: Advertising on Instagram
One of the most noteworthy benefits of today’s digital advertising landscape is the variety that comes with testing and choosing which social media platforms resonate most with your brand. If you have decided Instagram is the clear winner for social advertising, keep the many pros and cons of the mobile-friendly platform in mind. This column tackles Instagram’s demographics, measurement essentials, and global thinking.
10 Ways To Provide a Cutting-Edge Retail Customer Experience
Delighting customers isn’t about getting one thing right; it’s about firing on all cylinders, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, to make an authentic connection with buyers to drive satisfaction and loyalty.
What does that look and feel like? Here are 10 examples of best practices that represent the state of the art in retail CX.
Location Weekly: Pinterest Experiments with AR; Zenreach Promotes Walk-Through Metric for O2O Marketing
In this 450th episode of Location Weekly, the cosmetics industry dominates the news. Pinterest is adding an AR make-up testing feature, and L’Oréal is getting personalized with the Perso app.
Atari is blending gaming and hotels, Zenreach is promoting a “walk-through” metric for online-to-offline marketing industry, Havas is partnering with Moving Walls for OOH measurement, and Google is partnering with Coconut Software for financial service reservations feature.
Email Monetization’s Place in the Changing Horizons of Digital Advertising
We all know that digital advertising isn’t going anywhere. When brands pull back on spending on social and display advertising, they’re putting more resources into other channels. Over the past year, email monetization has gotten the bulk of this attention.
Using AI to systematically select ads that appeal to a publisher’s recipients means brands aren’t wasting their budgets on readers who aren’t interested in their products, and publishers aren’t turning off their readers by running unappealing ads.
How VPNs May Undermine, Rather Than Protect, Your Data Privacy
Now that ISPs can access everything you do through the IoT, the level of privacy invasion has reached a staggering new high. You don’t need to look any further than the recent Telnet leak of over 500,000 passwords of IoT devices, routers, and servers to understand this.
This invasion of privacy, alongside the growing angst towards data collection activities of tech giants, has led many to seek safety in the world of virtual private networks. But research indicates VPNs are often insecure.
Protecting People, Not Just Data: What Consumers Trust by Industry Suggests About Privacy
Market research firms ranked second only to financial institutions on our trust index, with 52.7% confirming their trust in market research firms to protect their data, and 8.8% noting a strong trust in the same. Indeed, even though people arguably share similarly sensitive information on both social media sites and with researchers, they are 1.6 times more likely to trust researchers than social platforms.
Why is this? It’s because it is the duty and responsibility of market researchers to foster a relationship of trust by openly engaging people, diligently protecting their data and privacy, and fairly rewarding them for their participation — and it is because that mission is continuously reinforced and communicated.
Don’t Fix What’s Broken. Reinvent the Wheel with a Unified Measurement Framework
By facing the harsh truth that we need to lean into disruption – instead of patching up past approaches or creating inadequate work-arounds – our industry will build something better that helps us increase value in our marketing spend. Shifting to CMM would provide a framework to address the full business (not just marketing) needs, and help us all be ready to adapt through data-driven decision making. And when you can adapt, you can build competitive advantage, evolve, and thrive.
E-Commerce Trends to Watch This Year
The answer to solving the personalization dilemma lies in data. Retailers that are able to both harness and analyze data will be able to make the calculated decisions to improve their customer experience and give shoppers the personalized process they desire. However, only 27% of global retail and wholesale purchase influencers say that improving the use of data insights is currently a top priority. Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help dissect the data retailers receive, but it starts with the desire and capability of getting smarter about customer experience.
LBMA Presents Location Weekly: Placer.ai Raises $12M; X-Mode Acquires Assets of Location Sciences
On this edition of Location Weekly from the Location-Based Marketing Association: X-Mode acquiring the assets of Location Sciences, Placer.ai raising $12M, Stasher getting $2.5M to help travelers stow their luggage, MGI acquiring Verve, Kroger launching a new lab on digital grocery innovation, and H&M launching pay later with Klarna in the US.
Capitalizing on the Big Game Buzz on a Shoestring Budget
Iconic moments in Super Bowl history like Oreo’s ‘Dunk in the Dark’ Tweet prove that ads are no longer the only path for creating noise. Smart businesses can capitalize on the game with strategic social content but should not over-rely on it. Instagram and Facebook are notorious for outages during big moments such as Thanksgiving Day in 2019. Twitter has also experienced its fair share of downtime, with outages across platforms lasting as long as 24 hours.
Instead of zeroing in exclusively on social channels, why not deliver a one-two punch by also serving up relevant content on your business’ blog and website? Here are a few tips to maximize content across marketing channels.
Turn Your Side Hustle into a Booming Startup
Finding success in a side hustle is exciting, and turning it into a profitable startup is even more so. You’ll hit a few roadblocks when starting out — everyone does! Figuring out where to target your audience and recognizing the appropriate time to hire help are crucial to overcoming them.
Though you may see burnout as an inevitable side effect to side hustling, it doesn’t have to be. Protect your energy and maintain perspective on the overarching goals you want to accomplish. It may require more than a typical nine-to-five, but entrepreneurs who remain digitally active and seek inspiration and support from their industry peers will find a rewarding career.
VR is the Next Commerce Frontier. Strap on Your Headset
An unfamiliar sight has emerged among the familiar photos of family gatherings posted to social media this holiday season: people wearing next-generation virtual reality devices. Between the turkey and pie courses, grandma strapped on a headset and jumped into a futuristic reality.
Thanks to rapidly evolving technology, lower prices, and the support of 5G networks, this uncommon sight may soon become a common experience. While just 11% of Americans reported owning VR technology in 2018, VR hardware and software sales are expected to skyrocket 587% to $5.5 billion by 2023, up from an estimated $800 million last year.
The move from tethered to standalone VR stands to change the way users connect with every aspect of the world — including e-commerce.
Video Trends For 2020 All Consumer-Facing Brands Need To Know
Video is already an effective and established form of content for consumer-facing brands. But as a content format, it has undergone dramatic developments in recent years, changes that look set to continue in 2020. The new year will feature more personalized videos, long-form experimentation, 360-degree footage, and shoppable images.
Read on to learn more about the video trends for 2020 your brand needs to know.
LBMA Presents Location Weekly: Google Buys Pointy; TourByLocal Nabs $25M
We start off with TourByLocal getting $25M to match tourists with 4,000 guides in 162 countries, Albertsons launching Pinterest-Powered In-Store mobile recipes, and Google buying Pointy to boost brick&mortar retail.
After the Worldline interview from NRF, we continue with news from our two member companies: Gimbal giving mobile users control over their location data and Delta reducing travel stress with updated app features.
OTT Will Transform How Local Businesses Connect with Their Customers
When looking out into 2020 through a local media lens, advertisers trying to reach hyper-local audiences will continue to lean in and adopt more digital and over-the-top practices. No longer will businesses consider OTT an add-on to their media plans; rather, it will become the centerpiece to reach local audiences who are turning to free streaming services and apps to watch news and entertainment.
Here are our four top predictions for 2020.
Three Essential Steps toward Omnichannel Success
Consumers have limited time, detectable habits, and preferences about how they interact with brands. Marketers have become increasingly empowered to know and respond to these preferences on all channels.
As brands leverage opportunities offered by omnichannel marketing and further embrace the technology that unlocks each channel’s capabilities and insights, they will give customers the personal experiences they crave. Beginning the journey toward true omnichannel can be daunting, but the immense value it creates for both customers and brands far outweighs the rethinking, reinvention, and innovations it demands.
Risks to Consider When Using Public Wi-Fi
The next time you stop somewhere to grab a coffee, you should think twice before taking out your phone and looking for available networks. Public Wi-Fi may be a strong positive overall, but there are dangers inherent to using it, and you need to be aware of them. That’s why we’re going to cover them in this piece — so let’s run through them.