News and Analysis
Brick & Mortar vs Flesh & Blood: An Interview with Ryan Serhant
Even if you’ve never seen “Million Dollar Listing,” you should know who Ryan Serhant is, especially if you’re involved with a multi-location brand. Serhant is the high-energy and visionary media personality successfully breaking almost every real estate marketing and sales rule. Serhant launched his brokerage company (called SERHANT, of course) in 2020. The company now […]
4 Ways Brand Marketers Should Harness ChatGPT — Or Risk Being Left Behind
Generative AI has taken the world of marketing, advertising, and technology by storm. In industries where speed and accuracy are essential, brand marketers are finding creative ways to use tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard to interact with consumers in conversational dialogue and personalize messaging at scale. According to a recent survey by Chief […]
How Retailers Can Improve Inventory Management in Real Time
Among other things, SymphonyAI is a SaaS company that enables retailers and convenience stores to see through the eyes of the customer regarding in-store products on shelves and improve inventory management. Using image capture from employee mobile devices, whether mobile phones, tablets, shelf cameras, ceiling cameras, or robots, both retailers and CPG companies use SymphonyAI’s […]
Commentary
How Privacy Will Change Digital Marketing This Year
The marketing industry finds itself facing the most significant disruption since the inception of digital: privacy changes, especially the end of third-party cookies. Google Chrome is inching closer to Deprecation Day for the third-party cookie, and though we still don’t know exactly when that is, the digital marketing industry is preparing to pivot in fundamental […]
3 Big Tech Predictions for 2021
Welcome to 2021: another year where everything will change faster than ever. Speed will define the year, as it did in 2020. Consumer behavior is rapidly shifting, and the big tech firms that define the e-commerce landscape are becoming more agile as a result. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google aren’t going to slow down even […]
Latest Posts
Why SMBs Are Flocking to Martech to Combat Covid Slump
The old way of doing business isn’t working anymore. As restaurants, retailers, and other businesses work to keep customers updated about shifting hours of operation and in-store social distancing requirements, they are opening up to outside-the-box ideas and becoming more comfortable trying location-targeted marketing platforms.
Data show that digital adoption among businesses and consumers jumped forward at least five years in the first eight weeks of the pandemic. Small restaurants and retailers are eagerly adopting the same tools now that they were hesitant to try back in 2019. That push is leading technology providers to expand their offerings and develop new tools for a growing market.
Mediaocean Acquires 4C Insights. What’s Next for Ad Tech?
The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing recession have forced tech vendors to step up their games and make a stronger case to advertisers as to why their products and services are essential amid tightening budgets. The year of Covid-19 is also fostering a favorable environment for mergers and acquisitions, as solo players team up to emerge stronger on the other side of a stormy season.
Last week, ad tech got a fresh acquisition, as Mediaocean acquired 4C Insights. I checked in with Aaron Goldman, CMO of 4C Insights, to find out what the acquisition portends for the two companies and how it matches up with broader trends in ad tech.
The All But Inevitable Outcome of the Facebook Advertiser Boycott
The boycott may yet exert some meaningful pressure on Facebook to change its ways, but that outcome is unlikely. This is partly due to the dynamics of the advertising market itself but also to the global scale of Facebook’s business and the essential role end consumers must play in any boycott. It’s worth examining each of these factors in turn.
Retail Prepares for a Covid-Inflected Holiday Season
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the shift from brick-and-mortar commerce to digital transactions. It has also forced brick-and-mortars resisting the hybridization of their own businesses to adopt digital methods, turning restaurants and apparel stores alike into both brick-and-mortar establishments and online sellers.
Against that backdrop, retail’s biggest quarter will present novel challenges this year. Retailers will need to optimize for online transactions and contend with fragmented national and global landscapes where it may be safe to go to stores in New York but not in Los Angeles.
Changing Behaviors Are Influencing Targeting Tactics
Online actions such as a person’s search history or the brands they like on social media platforms fall short in telling the full story of genuine consumer behavior. Offline behaviors, however, prove to be more indicative of a consumer’s likes, dislikes, and hobbies. During a time when people go fewer places, where they go tells us even more about who they are.
Coronavirus Boosts OTT Viewership and Opens New TV Ad Opportunities
To be sure, kids are not the only ones spending more time staring at the TV screen. The coronavirus has catalyzed a golden age for TV viewership and non-traditional formats such as over-the-top viewing in particular, said Sean Buckley, COO of global video advertising platform SpotX.
SpotX announced a strategic investment in CTV and OTT-focused ad serving platform SpringServe Monday. I checked in with Buckley to find out how the partnership will benefit both companies and how the coronavirus year has affected TV viewership as well as video advertising.
A Call for Brand Safety: Using OOH to take Ownership of Advertising Environment
Brands today are spending valuable time assessing and understanding the environments in which they exist and the communities they impact. I expect that more brands will turn to OOH as we move closer to the election; it is a one-of-a-kind medium that provides a safe platform to share messaging while fostering conversations and shaping a local environment.
Most importantly, the tangible IRL impact of OOH provides a level of authenticity that amplifies voice and connects with people as they safely enjoy some much-needed time outside of their homes.
Hyperlocal Device Targeting Should Be Part of Your Advertising Strategy
True hyperlocal advertising revolves around mobile location data. The intersection among time, place, device, and creative is the sweet spot that we’re aiming for here. By harnessing mobile location data, digital marketers can employ smarter audience targeting, deliver more timely and relevant ad messaging, generate more foot traffic, and measure the offline results of online marketing efforts.
If you’re looking to add location-based advertising to your digital marketing mix, here are some effective tactics that can help you boost in-store visits.
Can a Pandemic Inflect Local Commerce Tech? Part II
What about the tech adoption accelerants happening on the supply side? Tech giants who provide marketing and operational tools for local businesses have been in hyperdrive over the past few months to roll out new Covid-era features.
Here are three areas where we’re seeing the most activity … and where we could correspondingly see the most local business evolution.
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