News and Analysis

The MULO Dozen: June Brands in Review Street Fight

The MULO Dozen: June Brands in Review

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In addition to our ongoing reporting about technology, creative innovations, and openings/closings in the MULO (multi-location) brand space, we publish this monthly quick-read summary of some of the developments at retailers, restaurants, and service brands. Whether you have just a few minutes or a few hours each month to track MULO trends for brands, Street […]

BUST: Why Do So Many Sports Stores Declare Bankruptcy? Street Fight

BUST: Why Do So Many Sports Stores Declare Bankruptcy?

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Among the MULO (multi-location) sporting goods stores that filed for Chapter 11 during the past decade are: Mountain Sports (50 sporting goods and apparel stores in seven states under Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores brands) Olympic Sports (70 stores) Modell’s (153 stores) Sport Chalet (47 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah) Sports Authority […]

Amperity and the Power of First-Party Data Street Fight

Amperity and the Power of First-Party Data

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Amperity is a customer data platform that excels at helping brands unify and organize their first-party data using an average 30 different sources. Making sense of this data helps brand marketers understand when the same customer target shows up across disparate digital systems and lets them know the person is not three or four different […]

Commentary

Location-Based Marketing Association: Tapestri Paying Users for Location Data

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association talks about Hexagon acquiring Immersal to merge the physical and digital worlds, Tapestri paying users for sharing location data, Intel looking to use drones as mobile billboards, and Google’s new radar sensor possibly being used to drive DOOH.

Location-Based Marketing Association: Tommy Hilfiger’s Dive into AR

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association talks about Tommy Hilfiger launching AR experiences on Ocean Outdoor screens in London, Cadbury taking “mean tweets” and turning them into wrappers for Vegan chocolate bars, Wing delivering medicine and ice cream by drone, and Elevator company Schindler creates its own screen media network.

With Labor in Short Supply, Automation Can Improve the Customer Experience

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As shoppers return to physical stores, ongoing labor challenges are forcing retailers to cut down store hours and temporarily close locations. As these challenges persist — and to prepare for additional factors that may impact labor — retailers can turn to technology. What’s more, through automation, retailers can improve efficiency while still creating a positive customer experience.

Latest Posts

AI Can Bring the Fun Back to Advertising

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Long ago, the advertising industry lost its key ingredient — fun. With an overabundance of campaigns to optimize and oversee, marketers have no time to tap into the creativity or strategic thinking that persuaded many to pursue a career in the industry in the first place.

Survey: 59% of Retailers and Restaurant Chains Plan to Increase Investment in Location Tech

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The group found an industry on the precipice of major change. While most restaurant chains and retailers aren’t currently leveraging location data enterprise-wide, the survey found that executives are increasing their investments in location technology and expect to see the benefits of those efforts within months.

Thanx Loyalty 3.0

Thanx Expands Access to Enterprise-Grade Loyalty Programs

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Bespoke loyalty programs used to be reserved for the largest national brands. Restaurant chains like Pizza Hut, Chili’s, and Starbucks generated massive success as some of the first players in the industry to let customers earn and redeem rewards from their mobile phones. Now, the loyalty, CRM, and guest engagement platform Thanx is looking to bring those same high-end features to the broader business market.

virtual reality metaverse

Consumer Expectations Meet Marketing Reality in the Metaverse

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Meta shareholders have had it with the metaverse. When Mark Zuckerberg renewed his commitment to the project in an earnings call last week, Meta shares plunged 25%. For consumers, it’s a different story.

Google’s Latest Privacy Play Has Big Implications for the Open Web

Holiday E-Commerce: Google Focuses on Value

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With inflation high, markets struggling, and marketers widely doubling down on value, Google joined the trend, updating Shopping to emphasize deals and promotions.

How to Leverage Mobility Data to Bring Consumers Back In-Store

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Rising inflation is changing the way consumers shop and decreasing the number of trips people make to brick-and-mortar stores. While the change in behavior could be a stumbling block for some specialty retailers, it’s also providing brands with an opportunity to more effectively leverage mobility data to target consumers in ways that weren’t possible prior to the pandemic.

Data is the Key to Knowing What You Don’t Know About Consumers

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As businesses turn to what’s readily available to them, first-party data strategies have emerged as a powerful tool for understanding the buyer’s journey. But the challenge is effectively collecting, managing, and driving the most value from this data in order to understand both known and unknown consumers.

How Retailers and Brands Can Entice Gen Z

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Deals, mobile capabilities, and authenticity — these are some of the principles for attracting Gen Z shoppers. But how does the data support this common wisdom about enticing the youngest adult consumers? And what steps can brands and retailers take to win their dollars this holiday season?

Why Diverse Talent Is Key to Digital Advertising Success

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Advertisers need to speak to diverse audiences and adtech companies need to enable them to do so if the digital advertising industry is to be successful at its core goal: connecting advertisers with consumers to build relationships and drive business outcomes.

Brand Advertisers Hunting for Safe Spaces to Access Audience Targeting Information

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In the privacy-first era we now find ourselves in, brand advertisers are on the hunt for safe spaces to access audience targeting information. Data clean rooms should be an obvious solution for this — providing brands with secure environments to connect distributed data across multiple platforms and parties. In reality, though, data safe rooms are often under-utilized. In fact, according to research from Habu, more than half of marketing professionals say they have never used one.