News and Analysis
57% of Consumers Want Brands to “Get Personal” on Streaming Media
Despite the often negative buzz about consumer privacy and the ubiquity of shopping and dining data, a new study revealed that most U.S. consumers (57%) prefer personalized ads to mass marketing when they’re watching streaming media. The study was done by Moloco, a machine-learning company. As advertising on streaming media has become more common, opportunities […]
The MULO Dozen: June Brands in Review
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?
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 […]
Commentary
Refocusing the Contextual Advertising Conversation on Outcomes
It’s time to stop getting hung up in the jargon. Instead, let’s talk about what really matters to marketers: outcomes and how to secure them.
Location-Based Marketing Association: Uber Launches In-App Entertainment Booking
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association discusses Uber launching in-app entertainment booking, AT&T using street lamps to ramp up 5G coverage, Narvar picking up returns from customers’ homes, and Area launching geo-location NFT platform.
The Evolution of Sponsorships in the Event Industry
What might the future bring with ads and sponsorships within the event industry? Plenty more innovation, whether the events are in person or hybrid. Maybe we’ll see a 10-second advertisement prior to a session starting — or a quick ad in between sessions.
Latest Posts
Google Fuels the Real-World Metaverse
Whether for entertainment (which can foster marketing use cases) or direct commerce, the real-world metaverse will have major implications for the next generation of online-to-offline marketing strategy.
Looking Into the Future of Cashierless Retail
Are the perceived privacy issues that go along with shopping in a cashierless environment causing retailers to hold back on adopting smart checkout technology?
Closing the Attribution Loop
While marketers cannot speak with every customer to learn about their journey, they can access those insights using the correct data. And that process starts with a fully closed attribution loop.
Chatbots Get Faster and Supply Helpful Data
Deploying chatbots effectively will require smarter, faster-learning chatbots. And that’s what Botco.ai is bringing to market with Instachat Builder, “a new product that accelerates AI chat deployment by allowing Botco.ai customers to directly train Botco.ai’s chatbot on any type of text information.”
CEO POV: It’s Our Job to Solve Marketing Measurement
The groundwork for this modern data-is-business strategy is a clearly defined approach to metadata management across the whole data-driven organization. And that can only be effective with executive buy-in.
Retailers Turn to AI to Combat Burnout, Decrease Merchandiser Workloads
As retailers look at getting more done and freeing up their staff to focus on high-value tasks, interest is growing in the use of AI to handle the mundane tasks that take up too much of a merchandiser’s time — like fixing typos on e-commerce websites and researching underperforming product categories. Retailers are also using AI to flag when new products show signs of being more popular than expected, so merchandisers can act quickly and notch strategic wins.
Location-Based Marketing Association: Kalibrate Partners with Near on Location Intelligence
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Best Buy teaming up with Pokemon Go, Taiwan’s FamilyMart launching a convenience store on wheels, Baidu getting China’s first autonomous robotaxi license, and Kalibrate partnering with Near on location intelligence.
TikTok Jumps into Local Events
For multi-location marketers, TikTok’s foray into events, and its increasing role as a destination for local discovery, portend that the platform is joining Facebook and other forums as a key place to connect online with local shoppers. TikTok can’t be ignored as an online-to-offline marketing channel.
How Retailers Are Using Pop-Ups to Drive Customers In-Store
One pillar of most in-store marketing strategies is to transform shopping into a share-worthy experience. This, retailers bet, is a way to make hitting stores worth it when Amazon is only ever a click away. Pop-ups are one iteration of that strategy.
5 Retailers Using Live Shopping to Boost Back-to-School Sales
Meta will reportedly shut down its live shopping feature on Facebook in October, but that doesn’t mean the concept of live shopping is dead. Across the retail marketing space, multi-location retailers are investing in live-stream content as a way to leverage the popularity of social media and engage with Gen Z consumers this back-to-school shopping season.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem