News and Analysis
Self-Checkout Grows Up (and Sometimes Phases Out)
As the cost of labor skyrockets (especially in California) and the size of the qualified talent pool shrinks for MULO (multi-location) brands, retailers and restaurants are looking for ways to automate and streamline all aspects of their operations. Self-checkout was introduced in the 1980s but didn’t take off and proliferate until 2001. Since their mass roll-out, […]
Another ‘Tainment Category Sprouts Up
You’ve likely heard of eatertainment and sportstainment. But a new category of ‘tainment is out in the field — agritainment! A huge complex in Arizona (on the site of a family farm) has been converted into a space where people can eat, learn about farming, participate in fun activities, and pick fruits and vegetables in season. […]
City Mattress Rests Easy with Agital
Just because it’s called City Mattress doesn’t mean it’s off-limits to suburbanites or dwellers of the exurbs. At least that’s if performance-marketing agency Agital has anything to say about it. The agency developed a cross-channel marketing strategy to drive foot traffic to physical stores by using the brand’s existing customer data bases for its 30+ […]
Commentary
The Growth of Visual Search
Claire Carlile, in a recent post on visual search that contains useful tips for local businesses, shows us that Google is now making it possible to conduct a search that starts and ends with images. Her example search is conducted using Google Lens, where an image of a Sony headphones package is the “query” that produces a local pack result replete with its own images. This may or may not be the future of search, but it’s highly representative of the visual-first orientation that Google is embracing to a growing degree.
How Brands Can Better Serve Increasingly Elastic Customers
One of the many things the pandemic has demonstrated is the elasticity of consumers – they’ll continue to consume and ‘snap back’ to their preferred methods, albeit with some new expectations. This is what businesses need to know about the elastic consumer and how they can shift practices to best serve their customers in 2022.
Latest Posts
Retailers Build Internal Infrastructure to Optimize In-Store Advertising
Target, Kroger, Walmart, AT&T, and even the coffee giant Starbucks are all investing in audio out-of-home advertising as a way to direct traffic to existing kiosks inside brick-and-mortar stores. For Starbucks, which is ramping up to allow for mobile ordering at kiosks in more than 1,300 Target stores across the country, the investment in AOOH is especially pronounced.
Location-Based Marketing Association: Panera Bread Tests CarPlay in the Drive-Thru
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers REVLAB Technology rolling out its Campus Safe panic button, the Minnesota Twins partnering with ARound for virtual experiences, Panera Bread testing CarPlay in the drive-thru, and Cerence launching a new solution to make any car smart.
Streets Ahead: Google Chat, and Instagram Reels