News and Analysis
Who is Today’s Franchisee?
The answer is, “It could be anyone!” Among the new breed of franchisee (in addition to celebrities and private equity firms) are what we call “corporate refugees.” Experienced business professionals are burning out and aging out of big businesses and seeking autonomy, ownership, and creativity; they seek ways to operate and scale businesses without some […]
Is Bankruptcy the New Normal for MULO Brands?
Over the past year, we’ve featured many articles about multi-location (MULO) brands that declared bankruptcy (BUSTs). But we’ve also seen brands emerge from bankruptcy, become part of other companies (like Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock), and/or change their business model to be online-only (as Lord & Taylor did with its iconic brand). Some other […]
Flying Fries: Autonomous Delivery Takes Off!
Imagine this… You use your phone to order your pizza or burger (or perhaps a t-shirt because you didn’t pack properly for the weather) from a remote location. Within the hour, a drone, driverless car, or other autonomous “thing” brings you your food and beverage or fashion statement. What was considered sci-fi a mere few […]
Commentary
Google Search and the Long Pandemic
As 2021 stretched on, with its vaccine controversies and mutating variants, we realized we were really just living through an indefinite phase in the middle of a long pandemic. Consumer habits, rather than getting back to normal, were settling in to a battle-weary pattern of compromise. It seemed unlikely that local search data would tell us much we didn’t already know. But it turns out the data tells a somewhat encouraging story.
How Augmented Reality Will Change the Way Brands Capture Consumer Attention
The smartphone camera and augmented reality are poised to usher in a new era of branding and advertising and will change the way brands capture consumer attention by expanding the user experience, increasing brand reach, and creating new forms of collectible content.
Putting Power Back in the Hands of Advertisers This Year
The time is ripe for advertisers to take control of their data to make more powerful connections with consumers while improving transparency, engagement, and ROI. As advertising decision makers demand more, the ecosystem is ready to challenge outdated approaches to data and attribution, a groundswell that is certain to achieve positive outcomes in the year to come.
Latest Posts
Integral Ad Science Brings Together Contextual Targeting and Measurement
Integral Ad Science announced this morning its Control Panel, a new product that will allow advertisers to plan, measure, and optimize contextual targeting campaigns in one place.
TruPresence Helps Multi-Location Marketers Audit SEO Across Locations
Let’s say you’re a marketer at Whole Foods corporate who is responsible for auditing SEO performance across hundreds or thousands of locations nationwide. How do you audit the performance of this given URL, which looks like just a part of Whole Foods’ website but essentially functions like the independent website of a local business? How do you swiftly audit hundreds or thousands of those pages?
What Amazon’s ‘Buy with Prime’ Expansion Means for Local Merchants
Buy with Prime could accelerate Amazon’s growth and merchant adoption of FBA. It could also lead to a shift in order fulfillment volume from the third-party logistics companies that many merchants currently use for order fulfillment over to FBA. That’s good news for Amazon but bad news for third-party logistics companies and post-purchase experience platforms working primarily with mid-size merchants.
Walmart, Snapchat, and Allrecipes Team Up on AR
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Walmart, Snapchat, and Allrecipes teaming up on AR lenses for healthy choices, Joann stores partnering with Radar for in-store mobile offers, HomeStart saving families from eviction by selling digital apartments in the Cornerstone metaverse, and Italian start-up VADO connecting vending machines to delivery apps like UberEats.
Reveal Mobile Launches OOH Measurement Platform
The location intelligence and geofencing marketing software company Reveal Mobile launched a self-service out of home measurement platform this morning. The platform delivers insights for “traditional, digital, place-based, programmatic, and moving OOH ad campaigns,” according to the company.
GumGum Partners with Xandr on Transparent Ad Solution
With growing demand for cookieless targeting solutions, the contextual-first global digital advertising platform GumGum announced a partnership with Xandr on an accredited cookieless solution for advertisers. Xandr now becomes the first major DSP to offer GumGum’s contextual intelligence technology, Verity, to allow brands to ensure their ads are placed in contextually relevant environments.
The Ongoing Challenge of Reputation Management for Multi-Location Brands
The good news is that the bar is relatively low for a brand to exceed the median reputation performance level of all multi-location businesses. The bad news is that brands are still struggling to implement comprehensive review response programs.
How Local Human-Driven Outreach is Helping Multi-Location Restaurants Grow Sales
Seeing first-hand the challenges that restaurants are facing as the founder and CEO of the digital marketing startup Field Day, Alex Nocifera recently rolled out a local subscription service that uses human-to-human connections to help restaurant brands manage local sales opportunities for catering. The program is primarily aimed at local franchise operators, offering last-mile marketing outreach to drive demand.
The Middle Ground on Personalization
What is the most viable critique of personalization, and what form should personalization take to provide real value to marketers and consumers?
5 Voice Marketing Platforms for Brands
More than 33 million consumers in the U.S. are expected to shop using a smart speaker in 2022, and 51% of online shoppers now use voice assistants to research products before they buy. With more consumers relying on Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri to search for local products and services, brands are looking at how to incorporate voice into their existing marketing strategies.
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