News and Analysis
BUST: A Hard Landing as Soft Surroundings Files for Bankruptcy
Here we go again…another beloved retailer shutters its brick-and-mortar operations. Soft Surroundings filed for bankruptcy this week. This MULO (multi-location) women’s clothing brand once had 80 locations physical locations (reduced to 44) and is now shuttering all of them. The company, which released its first catalog in 1999, also sold home goods and accessories. However, […]
Captify, Adform Partnership Creates First End-to-End Contextual Activation
A new partnership between the search intelligence firm Captify and Adform, a programmatic platform, is creating an industry-first end-to-end contextual activation that bypasses the need for cookie identifiers. The collaboration between the Captify and Adform enables privacy-first, audience-based programmatic buying for marketers, opening the door to greater scale across inventory pathways, which are often deprioritized […]
5 Consumer-Permissioned Data Platforms to Watch
The concept of data privacy has taken center stage in 2023. As consumers grow more aware of the value of their personal information — and the potential risks associated with its misuse — a new paradigm that places power back into the hands of individuals is beginning to emerge. Consumer-permissioned data platforms are at the […]
Commentary
The Data Balance: How to Deliver Privacy and Personalization
It’s possible for merchants to provide personalization alongside customer data privacy—in fact, it’s a must for businesses that want to retain customer trust and remain viable. In order to balance using data for personalization with respecting customers’ privacy, it’s important to first understand the current consumer data and privacy landscape.
Latest Posts
Brands Turn to Zero-Party Data Amid Privacy Restrictions
Tighter privacy restrictions are leading brand marketers to consider data collection opportunities they may have overlooked in the past, including some zero-party data collection methods that involve partnerships with subscription box companies and legacy media publishers. Unlike first-party data, which involves a company collecting insights about a customer or user, zero-party data is information that the customer or user proactively hands over to the brand.
SMBs Scramble to Capitalize on an Early Amazon Prime Day
Small and mid-size businesses saw record-breaking sales during Amazon’s Prime Day in 2020, with an increase of nearly 60% year-over-year. But with so much of the retail space currently in transition and an early Prime Day on the horizon, SMBs are scrambling to ensure they can take advantage of the corporate holiday this year.
What Brands Can Do When the Cookie Crumbles
As third-party cookies are phased out, brands will have to stay nimble to weather the transition successfully. It’s a good idea to shift focus to contextual marketing and build up first-party data now. Keep an eye on better alternatives like Unified ID 2.0, and watch how agencies are adapting. That way, you’ll be ready when the cookie crumbles.
Swiftly Closes the Online-to-Offline Loop for Grocers and CPGs
Swiftly co-founder and CTO Sean Turner told me his company wants to be the “Google analytics for brick-and-mortar,” helping retailers, especially grocers, and consumer-packed goods brands not only sell and market their products online but also measure how both online and physical channels are performing.
What is Omnichannel Video? And Why Is Now the Time to Tackle It?
Marketers have become familiar with omnichannel commerce, which brings mobile, desktop, and physical commerce experiences together so that the consumer can hop from one to the other without logistical setbacks. Omnichannel video means aligning an advertiser’s video strategy so that messages take advantage of the device they’re on and complement each other across channels.
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