News and Analysis

New Partnership Promises Boost to Retail Media Networks

New Partnership Promises Boost to Retail Media Networks

Just when we thought it was safe for the ad-tech industry to rest on its analytics and measuring prowess two decades into the 21st century, it turns out new levels of sophistication are being reached by retail media networks. Take the measurement of foot traffic into physical spaces such as retail, hospitality, and real estate. […]

Emodo Study - More Publishers Explore Incremental Revenue Streams

Emodo Study – More Publishers Explore Incremental Revenue Streams

With third-party cookies on their way out, has audience attention surpassed identity as the top concern for publishers? According to a new report by Emodo, Ericsson’s mobile ad tech business, the answer is a resounding yes. Polling top decision-makers in publishing from across the U.S. and the U.K., Emodo’s research arm, Emodo Institute, found that […]

Holiday Cheer: 7 Predictions for MULO Retailers

Holiday Cheer: 7 Predictions for MULO Retailers

Although we’re still sporting flip-flops and lounging on the beach, the winter holidays will soon be upon us. Multi-location (MULO) retailers have already bought their merchandise for their physical and digital shelves, and agencies have pitched and sold ad campaigns. So, we’re skipping back-to-school shopping, Halloween trends, and Thanksgiving meal specials and heading into the […]

Commentary

Reveal Mobile Logs a Patent on “Custom Tagging”

In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Safegraph raising $45M, the bLinkup app providing Covid safety ratings on bars and restaurants, Reveal Mobile receiving a patent on “custom tagging,” and Apple dropping a hint at wearable tech with a new patent of its own.

Google’s Ad Changes: The King Just Built a Moat Around His Castle

The initial frenzy over Google’s news regarding its latest privacy updates has abated, and now it’s time to really think about what it means – for Google, for brands, and for the industry as a whole.

As governments have lit a fire under brands and consumers have become more data-conscious, the future of marketing and advertising is unfolding before us. Let’s take a dive into what it all really signifies.

Brand Marketing 2.0: Brand is Back, But Expectations Have Changed

The allure of immediately seeing metrics like clicks, downloads, or form completions outweighed instincts to make investments that pay dividends over the longer term. No longer.

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How Small Businesses Can Conquer E-Commerce for the Holidays

As the pandemic continues, consumers are shifting their expectations of brands as well. They don’t just want coupons in their email anymore, they expect an intuitive browsing and checkout process, accurate inventory and out-of-stock notifications, curbside delivery, and fast shipping.

E-commerce is already a must-have, and small businesses who understand this and take steps to offer their customers a way to buy online will create a memorable experience, more long-term loyalty, and ultimately more sales this holiday season.

Mobile Ad Network Vungle Acquires Mobile Ad Platform AlgoLift

Vungle helps mobile app developers monetize their apps through advertising and connects advertisers with mobile app media. The AlgoLift purchase will help Vungle’s advertisers better solve for attribution and optimize in-app ad spend.

Facebook, Holocaust Denial, and the Refusal of Politics

Facebook’s long-term refusal to strike down Holocaust-denial content is not a problem specific to Facebook. It’s not a decision limited to Zuckerberg or a few feckless executives. The problem is not even limited to tech.

Facebook’s purported refusal of politics — its reluctance to accept that it has always been a political actor and that its content-moderation policies and algorithms have real-world effects on what people believe and what they do, up to and including acts of physical violence as in Myanmar — is a structural feature of shareholder capitalism. A content ecosystem whose leaders are so timid as to let Holocaust denial flourish is the logical result of an approach to management that views its only responsibility as minimizing costs and maximizing market capitalization.

How In-House Agencies Can Provide Value During and After Covid-19

When asked what the most critical resources for producing ads post Covid-19 were, 55% of ANA members said in-house teams, as compared to 42% for other internal teams and 26% for external agencies.

In many respects, Covid just accelerated the already impressive growth of in-housing. Moving forward, these teams’ proximity to the business and growing strategic importance mean they are in a good position to deliver greater value to their organizations in three critical ways.

CCPA’s Impact: Businesses Prepare for Fall Surge in Data Subject Requests

In a customer set with more than 16 million consumer records — with consumer records being defined as a single, individual record associated with a unique email address within a database — DataGrail found that people are largely taking action to control their privacy by exercising rights provided by the CCPA.

Consumers opt-out of their personal information being sold “most” of the time, and deletion requests make up 31% of all data subject requests. Twenty-one percent of consumers have accessed their data thanks to the new regulations.

Here’s Why October Is the Perfect Time to Pressure-Test Holiday Strategies

With consumers still spending – and their evolving shopping preferences and behaviors becoming increasingly clear for Halloween and beyond – October presents a prime opportunity for retailers to pressure-test and refine their holiday 2020 strategies. 

Here are three considerations as we enter one of the most critical quarters in retail’s history.

Location Weekly: BMW Geo-Fencing, Gimbal Acquiring TrueX, Amazon One Payments

In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers BMW geo-fencing E-Drive zones, IKEA’s “Buy With Time” campaign in Dubai, Gimbal acquiring TrueX from Disney, and Amazon One letting you pay with a wave of your hand.

Self-Serve Restaurant Ordering in a Post-Covid World

We expect to see a continued rise in touchless retail shopping and contactless transactions à la Amazon Go Stores.

But one of the less-discussed technologies in the Covid-advantaged bucket is self-serve mobile restaurant ordering. The idea is that ordering and paying from your table can reduce server interaction — which has Covid and non-Covid benefits considering it can save diners’ lives and their time.

Putting Context Over Coordinates with New Location Encoding Standard

Context over coordinates. That’s the premise behind a new standard universal location ID called Placekey, which launches publicly today.

By offering a standard for identifying any physical place, the team behind Placekey is betting that advertisers and other data scientists will have an easier time joining disparate datasets and unlocking deeper insights. The platform was developed by SafeGraph, and it’s already been endorsed by heavy-hitters such as Esri, CARTO, Billups, Skyhook, and Nielsen.

How Marketers Should Prepare for an Abnormal Holiday Season

Marketers overuse the word “unique,” but the adjective actually applies to this year’s holiday season. Consumer-facing brands and retailers have not faced such an adverse economic environment for more than a decade, and they have never grappled with a Q4 in which driving customers to their stores came with daily, life-or-death stakes.

I spoke to Michele Marzan, chief strategy officer at MainAd, about these holidays’ unprecedented challenges and unexpected opportunities.