News and Analysis

Vistar Verify: DOOH Needs Quality Inventory Standards

Vistar Verify: DOOH Needs Quality Inventory Standards

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Vistar Media wants to help establish quality inventory standards for the DOOH market. To that end, it has launched Vistar Verify. The program creates a shared definition of quality inventory in the Vistar marketplace using manual and automated checks. The objective is to ensure inventory is represented accurately and meets a collective set of standards […]

Study: ‘Ghosting’ Customers Leads to $2.4 Billion Loss in Retail Sales

Study: ‘Ghosting’ Customers Leads to $2.4 Billion Loss in Retail Sales

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Even if you haven’t heard the term “ghosting” before, you’ve almost certainly experienced it.  Ghosting, or ending a relationship by suddenly withdrawing from all communication, is the exact opposite of what brand marketers are going for when they work to cultivate and deepen their relationships with customers. And yet, according to a new study, by […]

Google Third-Party Cookies, Adds LiveRamp to Data Clean Room Lineup

Google Third-Party Cookies, Adds LiveRamp to Data Clean Room Lineup

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One year.  That’s how long Google says publishers have to test — and raise any red flags on — the cookie alternatives in its Chrome Privacy Sandbox. In a recent announcement, Joey Trotz, director of product for Google’s Privacy Sandbox Ecosystems, all but guaranteed the company would finally be depreciating third-party cookies in the second half […]

Commentary

Augment My Town: Local’s Next Turf Battle

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AR fuses the digital and physical. So, could it assist in the vexing and longstanding challenge of closing the online/offline gap? We’re starting to see signals that it might. 

On-Page Content Differentiation: The Benefits of Location-based Messaging

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Content consists of more than just your copy block, though it’s a great place to start. Adding product information, featured collections, and highlighted services are all elements that enhance your on-page content strategy. Understanding what’s popular in that specific area and how customers are searching for your products or services in that area can help guide your content strategy to differentiation and success. Therefore, it is key to create content attuned to regional differences, or location.

The Covid-19 Pandemic at One Year: How Payments Have Changed Forever

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The payments industry will move forward from the seismic shifts in behavior we’ve seen to new puzzles: how to make a card top of wallet, how to expand the on-demand economy to new product groups, and how the Buy Now, Pay Later space evolves in time. But the changes we’ve seen will impact the course of the industry for years to come. How merchants and payment providers adapt to these changes will have a key part to play in how they recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Latest Posts

Why Savvy SMBs Are Focusing on the Post-Sale Experience

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Two-thirds of American adults say they plan to shop at more small businesses in the coming months, providing independent retailers with the perfect opportunity to turn those new customers into brand advocates.

Putting the strategy into action means capitalizing on what ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom sees as the biggest untapped opportunity for local retailers right now — the post-sale engagement.

How to Apply Digital Marketing Principles to Traditional Media Channels

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Traditional channels such as TV, radio, and OOH might have limitations on targeting when you compare them to digital channels, but I challenge everyone to think beyond the simplistic mass marketing vs 1:1 argument.  The scale and reach potential of these traditional channels is still massive, and by asking the right questions and changing your perspective to focus on what they can deliver, there most likely is a way to incorporate them effectively in your mix. 

Square and Adobe Spark Team Up to Give SMBs a Holiday Marketing Boost

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In addition to selecting three small businesses to receive a holiday marketing overhaul — pairing each up with local designers to modernize their brand marketing materials — Adobe Spark and Square are helping businesses digitize their shops to process transactions in a touch-free environment, utilizing mobile technology and QR codes. The firms have also announced a plan to give five small businesses a $10,000 media buy credit and a subscription to Adobe Spark Premium.

How Email Publishers Are Thriving and Adapting amid the Pandemic

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Over the past eight months, while so many channels have faltered, email publishing has flourished. Email open rates grew by 13% year-over-year between January and April, while conversion rates rose by 17%, peaking in March. Media companies have increased their email frequency significantly since the pandemic began, and retail email volume has risen as well.

Getting the Most Out of Email This Holiday Season

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Email, whether for acquiring or engaging with current customers, still remains one of the most effective and important ways to drive ROI — if marketers do it right. Consumers are already being inundated with email messages, sometimes multiple in a given day from the same vendors, so the more relevant the message, the better the return.

Here are some ways marketers can ensure that their email messages get to the right people at the right time to deliver the most revenue and build loyalty.

Covid-19 Will Make the Workplace a Privacy Hotspot

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More than a third of the 2,600 respondents in the survey said they want no relaxation of privacy laws due to the pandemic, 43% don’t want employers conducting medical checks and requesting health information, and nearly two-thirds don’t support disclosing information about infected individuals. While everyone wants to get back to business as usual, employers need to be careful that their efforts to monitor the health of employees and prevent the spread of the virus remain respectful of employee privacy and aren’t intrusive. 

Have Generational Shopping Habits Changed for Good?

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During the pandemic, we took a fresh look into generational shopping habits, surveying 2,000 UK and 2,000 US consumers to find out if and how Covid-19 and the measures taken to fight it had permanently altered shopping behavior. These findings reveal that shopping behaviors are converging across generations.

This E-commerce Startup Is Helping DTC Brands Navigate the Pandemic

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While other firms in the retail infrastructure and logistics space are struggling, Whitebox is closing on a Series B funding round of $18 million. CEO Marcus Startzel says timing has played a key role in his company’s success. Whitebox was focused on solving e-commerce challenges for brands before the pandemic began, but the opportunities to work with major brands to improve and automate the e-commerce process have only grown over the past few months.

Why Marketers Must Invest in Localized Media Strategies

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We’re seeing uneven recoveries in both localized Covid-19 outbreaks and economies across the nation. This unpredictability, coupled with new essential needs, supply chain disruptions, and business realities (stores closing, competition rising), have rendered previously effective marketing tactics virtually irrelevant. A ground-up, local approach can help brands and marketers solve for all these new challenges by reducing waste and delivering on those essentials that consumers need during these atypical times.  

The World Outside is Frightful—Drive Holiday Sales with Social Media Instead

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The challenges of driving holiday sales in 2020 do not signify the end of retail, as many sensationalized headlines would have you believe. This e-commerce-focused season is, however, a siren call to local retailers who have yet to take social media marketing seriously.

In the absence of typical frantic holiday shopping foot traffic, social media is a necessary part of holiday marking to effectively reach consumers who opt to stay inside.