News and Analysis
BOOM: Hear This! An Interview with Dean Pappous, President of HearingLife
We are probably all familiar with MULO (multi-location) eyewear businesses like LensCrafters (900+ locations), Sunglass Hut (1,500 U.S. stores), and Warby Parker (200 locations and a booming online business). But people like Dean Pappous, believe our ears are every bit as critical as our eyes, especially as we age. Hearing loss doesn’t just impact older […]
Innovid Launches Cookieless Solution to Increase Conversion Rate Accuracy
As marketers prepare for the loss of third-party cookies, digital advertising vendors are rolling out alternative solutions at a faster clip. The latest product release comes from Innovid, the independent advertising and analytics platform, which just announced a new cookieless cross-device product that can match multiple devices to user interactions, with the goal of increasing […]
Cost of Ad Buys Rises Ahead of ‘24 Presidential Race
Advertising wars are already heating up in the 2024 presidential race, but increasing costs for ad buys on television and social media are leading some marketing strategists to reevaluate their approach. According to a new analysis by Keen Decision Systems, a marketing insights firm, that approach — to change course, and pull back from channels […]
Commentary
4 Things to Consider When Choosing a Universal ID
Preparing for a cookieless future means getting on board with Universal IDs — there are many in the space and in the spirit of the open web, you’ll likely be working with a number of them by the end of the year. The choices that you make at this point are important, as these are long-term relationships with meaningful impact on the bottom line. So, be thorough — while there are many Universal IDs to choose from, they’re far from the same. The countdown to the demise of third-party cookies is minutes away from midnight, so start your evaluation now to ensure you don’t rush into a poor decision.
LBMA: Can FLoCs Replace the Third-Party Cookie?
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Google’s FLoCs as an alternative to the disappearing third-party cookie, the AR platform Beerscans turning beer labels into augmented reality experiences, Krispy Kreme offering free donuts to encourage vaccination, and GroundTruth acquiring Addy.
Augment My Town: Local’s Next Turf Battle
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.
Latest Posts
This E-commerce Startup Is Helping DTC Brands Navigate the Pandemic
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
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
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.
What First-Party Data Can and Can’t Do For Agencies
Make no mistake, first-party data will play a critical role in the future of marketing, as it always has. But agencies as trusted advisors, and the industry overall, need to be realistic about what first-party data can and can’t do for clients, especially in the face of a global pandemic that has upended everything we thought we knew about consumer behavior.
Managing a Remote Team: 3 Tips From a Cool Manager
Striving to be a cool manager in the workplace is one thing, but managing a remote team in a global pandemic presents a whole new set of challenges that none of us had ever experienced before. Your team may face distractions when working from home, technical difficulties with video calls, a poor internet connection, among other unusual challenges.
When confronted with these issues, it can be hard to hold your team accountable and maintain positive relationships in the same ways you did previously. But as a manager, it’s your time to step up to the challenge, reassess your leadership strategy, and keep your cool while navigating the new normal.
Has Covid Killed the Single-Day Sale?
Limited-time offers and one-day sales are a mainstay of the holiday shopping season. But this year is unlike any other, and retailers are taking a different approach.
With Covid-19 restrictions limiting the number of customers who can be inside a store at any given time, retailers are looking at extending the shopping season to accommodate socially distant crowds.
Brands Are Struggling with Customer Loyalty in 2020. Here’s Why
The pandemic has sparked changes in consumer behavior. Some changes are predictable, like people stocking up on toilet paper when lockdown orders first went into effect.
But other changes occurring over the past seven months have been more slight and easier to miss. Now, with the holiday shopping season getting into full swing, brands are discovering that these minor shifts in consumer behavior have the potential to wreak havoc on their seasonal marketing strategies.
Location Weekly: Realworld Launches Adfindr for Local Ads
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Merrell using voice and location to highlight nearby trails, Burger King’s Scary Places, Foursquare’s Marsbot for AirPods, Realworld launching Adfindr, and a new case study from Oriient on indoor positioning.
3 Reasons Why Marketers Should Care About False App Reviews
Most apps live on Apple’s App Store — home to nearly two million apps and access to 100 million iPhone users. Once a brand joins these ranks, there’s one goal: Drive positive ratings that entice more users to download and try the app. High ratings are critical for app visibility, as a higher rating has a strong correlation to trial, and Apple ranks those with more positive ratings and reviews higher than apps with negative ones.
But this ratings system can be manipulated to create false app ratings and skew scores, and that’s a bigger problem for marketers than they may realize.
Accelerated Digital Transformation Levels Playing Field for Local Businesses
As local businesses and SMBs adjust to their new realities, digital transformation initiatives have surged — namely in the form of pivoting to e-commerce selling and delivery models. Why? It’s no secret that online sales have taken the lead across the business landscape during Covid-19, and that is likely to continue.
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem