News and Analysis

Fire Sale: How Multi-Location Businesses Should Handle Downturns and Fails

Fire Sale: How Multi-Location Businesses Should Handle Downturns and Fails

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This year alone, more than 2,000 retail locations have closed. The major casualties include Party City, Jenny Craig, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Some multi-location restaurants are also slimming down, shuttering locations in markets that aren’t performing well. That doesn’t necessarily mean the beginning of the end for the brands. They may simply reduce expenses to […]

What's New at the Drive-Thru?

What’s New at the Drive-Thru?

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We spend the equivalent of 4.3 years of our lives in our cars. Multi-location restaurants and retailers have known this for quite some time and introduced the drive-thru decades ago. Although the exact date of the first-ever drive-up window is fiercely debated, sources indicate that banks introduced the concept in the early 1920s. The drive-thru […]

Brand Safety Risk of Advertising with Legacy Publishers

Debate – Brand Safety Risk of Advertising with Legacy Publishers

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Does legitimate news, published by reputable organizations, pose a brand safety risk for brand advertisers? For nearly half of advertisers, the answer is yes.    According to new data from Advertiser Perceptions, just 53% of advertisers believe that legitimate news does not pose a significant brand safety risk. For others, there is concern that having […]

Commentary

The Case for Internet Tracking

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What does Apple’s IDFA change really mean for consumers? It will undermine personalization, make it harder for SMBs to compete, and upend free services.

Snap Acquires StreetCred, IsWhere Partners with Huawei

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Snap acquiring StreetCred, Refinery Lab bringing Mobilosoft to the U.S., Hypertrack announcing a location-based software suite for the gig market, and IsWhere partnering with HUAWEI cloud.

How Will Retail Redefine Itself in the ’20s?

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This post is the latest in our “Disrupting Retail” series. It’s our editorial focus for the month of February, and you can see the rest of the series here.  One positive phenomenon of the Covid era has been accelerated digital transformation in traditional sectors. This could be a blessing in disguise, as sectors like retail could […]

Latest Posts

App Data, Privacy, and the IDFA Armageddon: Industry Leaders’ Takes

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As an industry, we must embrace the new rules of iOS14 and create a sustainable future for both app developers and advertisers. I believe we can all agree that user consent is important for any app that monetizes through advertising. Also, there are options to provide user-level attribution and necessary data for performance advertising within Apple’s acceptable framework. I’d encourage all publishers to talk to Apple and seek clarification on process and end-user consent along with the use of IDFVs & SKAdNetwork product road map, etc. 

I expect that publishers will aggressively move to optimize their sign-up funnels to maximize consent or live with campaign-only-level metrics and lose end-user targeting. If you’d like to continue to optimize towards ROAS, we encourage you to think of privacy consent as a step in the UA conversion funnel necessary to show targeted ads to consumers.

Waze Rolls Out Contactless Payments at the Pump

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More than half of Americans say they’re concerned about touching cash during the Covid pandemic, and 60% say they plan to use so-called touchless payments in the future. Google’s Waze is leaning into the shift with a new integration and partnership that will enable contactless payments at the gas pump for drivers all across the country.

Location Weekly: Neustar Launches Post-Cookie Measurement with Fabrick

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Neustar launching post-cookie measurement with Fabrick, Apple acquiring Mobeewave, United Airlines using a chatbot to ease Covid-19 concerns, and Amazon and Simon Properties endeavoring to transform shopping malls.

Consumers’ Number-One Holiday Shopping Incentive

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Don’t think about the price tag. Think about how you’re going to deliver the merchandise.

That is what is on consumers’ minds as they think about upcoming holiday shopping, according to a survey of 17,000 US consumers by shopping rewards app company Shopkick. Last year, consumers’ number-one incentive was low prices. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, 54% said their number-one priority is free shipping.

How the E-Commerce Wave Is Helping SMBs Increase Revenue

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For many of the small businesses that have stayed afloat so far, e-commerce has become the new focus. A quarter of brick-and-mortar retail businesses surveyed in June said they’ve already added an e-commerce channel to their operations this year. Retail SMBs either want a piece of the growing pie that is e-commerce sales in 2020, or they’ve realized they won’t survive without an online sales component.

Whatever the motivation, the uptick in e-commerce sales has set the stage for SMBs to start boosting their revenue. And to complement the current market conditions, the rise of no-code tools is making online retail success more accessible than ever to SMBs. These solutions are proving to be the surfboard that helps small businesses successfully ride that e-commerce wave.

Why You Should Be Using Video Marketing To Connect with Local Audiences

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One report from Cisco found that by 2022, internet videos will make up over 82% of all consumer online traffic. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down video production and demand somewhat, it still remains a perfectly viable marketing channel. 

People are simply more likely to watch a video than read a blog. By looking at key pillars of online video production as well as what’s worked for other companies, you, too, can develop a stellar strategy. 

Consumer Sentiment Is Shifting Quickly. Here’s How Businesses Are Keeping Up

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The same mobile chat-based technologies that brands like Jagermeister and Snapchat have used to access focus groups on demand are now being used to help small to mid-size businesses access the same research capabilities. Using mobile chat-based applications, SMBs can generate authentic consumer insights in real-time, which makes it easier to foster community engagement during a time when businesses are struggling to reach their customers.

7 Order-Ahead Platforms for QSRs

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According to a report by Dragontail Systems, 53% of people say they prefer carry-out and delivery during the pandemic. To keep pace with that demand, restaurants are investing more heavily in technology platforms that enhance end-to-end kitchen operations.

Here are seven platforms that restaurants can use to manage online orders and streamline their takeout operations during Covid-19.

Leveraging Cannabis Consumer Data is the Key to Mainstream Acceptance

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Thanks to the industry’s meteoric growth and coronavirus-era essential status in many states, cannabis consumers have emerged as one of the most coveted marketing segments, driving even more engagement in data collection and presentation. A rising tide lifts all boats – and data is a powerful tide that can help raise the industry to mainstream acceptance.

Data may be the ticket to legalization, too, if leveraged in a way that considers how this lucrative information can be used by mainstream companies. As cannabis data begins to resemble data from other industries, it is our responsibility as industry leaders to collectively leverage this data and allow legal cannabis to flourish and emerge as a truly established industry.

Location Weekly: Burberry and Tencent Partner for World’s First Social Media-Infused Store

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Burberry teaming with Tencent for the world’s first social store, Voxel51 helping to keep stores healthy, Popeyes helping people to “autocorrect” their dinner plans, Foodpanda using traffic and weather data in a DOOH programmatic campaign, and Tapad and Reveal Mobile partnering to launch new audience and attribution capabilities for ad buyers.