News and Analysis

Stirista Acquires Customer Portfolios

Stirista Acquires Customer Portfolios, a Strategic Lifecycle Marketing Provider

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While many martech firms are retracting in 2023, Stirista is looking at expansion. The data-driven marketing company is acquiring Customer Portfolios, a Boston-based strategic lifecycle marketing provider, in a bid to bolster its customer acquisition marketing solutions with an integrated first-party data platform. “We are thrilled to welcome the talented team at Customer Portfolios to […]

Which Pandemic-Driven Retail Trends Are Here to Stay?

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Many of the changes to retail shopping that took place during the pandemic-era were transient. Demand for curbside pickup and contactless delivery, for example, peaked in 2020 and 2021.  Other changes in retail trends have been more permanent.  Across the country, retailers are continuing to see surging interest in mobile shopping and contactless payments.  Fifty-percent […]

E-commerce Retailers Need To Address Shoppers’ Rising Security Concerns

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Online retailers and brands face a challenging environment as inflation makes shoppers more price-sensitive and increasingly willing to switch brands. E-commerce growth has also slowed somewhat since the early-pandemic boom, and online shoppers’ concerns about payment fraud, scams, and data protection have grown. More than half of consumers in the State of Consumer Attitudes on […]

Commentary

Ad Tech and Privacy

How Privacy Will Upend Advertising in 2021

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Of course, if mobile numbers are adopted as a universal ID, Apple, Google, and Facebook won’t get their way. They will not go down quickly and will likely continue to bury email IDs as a viable solution. We’ll see the entire industry disrupted as each of the powerhouses marches forward with their plans to own the future of privacy, ensuring they monetize the very thing they are touting to protect.

3 Changes in CTV That Will Endure in 2021

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While this year has seen so much change in TV, I expect even more next year, especially given that there is so much uncertainty related to Covid-19. With that in mind, here are three CTV predictions for 2021 and the ways they stand to impact the industry. 

Contactless Pay Is the Next Big Pivot in Retail CX

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Remember when Amazon launched Prime? The entire retail customer experience (CX) changed overnight — for everyone. The bookseller-turned-everything-seller suddenly offered low prices and fast and free delivery, leading traditional retailers to pivot drastically to keep up with their mega-competitor.  

But sometimes, unexpected CX overhauls are a good thing — especially when competitors have to pivot, too.  

Latest Posts

Mobile Commerce Bounces Back

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Companies investing in existing user engagement are smart to do so. According to mobile monetization and marketing company ironSource, the average global cost to acquire a single paid install from an individual user in 2020 is $2.24 — which adds up quickly when you start to scale into thousands or hundreds of thousands of users.

So, while it’s important to keep spending on acquisition, retention and retargeting, informed by smart audience segmentation, are perhaps even more essential to ensuring app marketers are monetizing all of their users. 

Cannabis CBD

Cannabis Businesses Are Running More Geofenced Campaigns. Here’s Why

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While geofenced campaigns and foot traffic attribution are old hat for mainstream brands, they represent a new frontier for cannabis businesses.

Despite widespread legalization in many states, the cannabis industry has been shut out from many of the most effective marketing and advertising strategies. In some cases, those restrictions come in the form of strict state and federal laws. In other cases, it’s simply due to a lack of ad tech platforms willing to accept their campaigns.

But times are changing, and new doors are opening up to businesses in the cannabis industry.

Ridesharing Inches Forward as Industry Looks for New Path

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Years of rising demand for ridesharing services came to a full stop this spring, as coronavirus spread and communities across the globe were put under lockdown. Now, as ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft begin inching their way forward toward a new normal, they’re looking at how to adapt to the completely new environment in which they find themselves.

The Fight Against Facial Recognition Tech

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Microsoft and Amazon suspended their sales of facial recognition technology to police departments in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against police brutality. IBM went even further, ceasing its research on the subject altogether.

It might be clever and intuitive, but facial recognition technology is highly invasive. Little wonder, then, that across the world, people are joining the fight against its implementation.

Data Enrichment, Your Business, and Your Career

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Creating great customer experiences is ultimately what matters most, and this requires a single customer view and data enrichment techniques for a deep understanding of your customer. Organizations that rely on only first-party data are at a disadvantage. They risk missing out on valuable new information as time passes. For example, did your customer just move to a new state or buy a new home? 

How Connected TV Ads Help SMBs Recover from Crisis

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One medium that will be especially helpful in the recovery is connected TV (CTV). About three-quarters of households own connected TVs, so SMBs can easily reach the public through this ad-supported medium as life returns to normal.

There are many opportunities to excel both in the current and post-pandemic marketing landscape, but businesses will only be able to take advantage of them if they intelligently create demand. Because of this, SMBs should use audience and measurement data to inform their CTV advertising strategies as markets reopen.

Location Weekly: Pinterest Dives into Visual Commerce

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In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association hosts Senior IT Manager of Mall of America, Patrick Wand.

The team also covers Incognia launching in US with its location behavior biometrics platform, Liquid Core Gum Co. installing Space Station touch-free gum dispensers, and Pinterest letting its users shop with their cameras.

Why Consumers Want Coupons — And What Kind They Value Most

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Amid ongoing reports of consumer fatigue with coupons and declining coupon redemption rates, there is a ray of hope for retailers—mobile coupons. While consumers have a wide range of preferences in terms of their mobile engagement, CodeBroker’s mobile consumer research, based on input from more than 1,500 consumers around the country, offers one takeaway that applies to the masses: Mobile couponing works. There are a variety of reasons that this is the case.

Heard on the Street, Episode 52: Localizing Print Advertising

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Digital gets all the attention these days. And rightly so: it legitimately has more robust capability to do things like target audiences and measure results. But we often forget that print media still holds advantages like premium status and deeper engagement.

The ideal approach in advertising is to cherry-pick the best of both worlds. This is where MNI Targeted Media, with a specialty in premium print channels like magazines coupled with targeting expertise, stakes its claim to relevance. MNI director of planning and strategy, Tommy Shaw, joins us on the latest episode of Heard on the Street (listen above).

The Changes Mobile Publishers Must Make during the Economic Recovery

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As we modify stay-at-home orders, the news is mixed for mobile publishers. Content consumption during quarantine rose as much as 80%. But advertising has suffered — 38% of advertisers halted all advertising, while 45% paused mid-campaign. It’s an ugly paradox — consumers value their mobile devices more than ever, but publishers are struggling to monetize that value.

Here’s how mobile publishers should prepare for the uncertain road ahead.