News and Analysis

The Paddy Box: For the Irish People in Your Life

The Paddy Box: For the Irish People in Your Life

Share this:

Not many people know the origins of the word “paddy,” as it relates to Irish heritage, and its use has a complicated history. In Ireland, “Paddy” is a nickname for Patrick (Ireland’s patron saint). The Irish name for Patrick is Pádraic or Pádraig, hence why you wish someone a happy St. Paddy’s day (not St. […]

Boutique Health & Wellness: The Birth and Expansion of Stretch Zone

Share this:

As the population ages and becomes more health-conscious, a new retail category is emerging — specialty storefront wellness. We’ll cover other multi-location brands in high-growth industries and category creators in the months ahead. Wellness is a $450B category and is rapidly accelerating. Multi-location retailers are picking up on that and launching products and brands that […]

Report: Higher Income Adults Drive Podcasting Growth

Report: Higher Income Adults Drive Podcasting Growth

Share this:

What makes podcast listeners so loyal to the brands that advertise on their favorite shows, and how does that sense of loyalty translate to real world sales? Those were just a few of the questions asked by the customer experience platform DISQO in its new report, released last week. As the podcast landscape evolves, brands and […]

Commentary

Post-Third-Party Cookie Advertising and Experiences

Share this:

Companies will still need to provide an equivalent user experience to the unknown visitors or risk driving them away. They will need to find incentives to drive authentication and opt-ins; additionally, they will need to create a brand experience that is broadly accessible in lieu of today’s personalized approaches that rely on third-party data insights.

Ad Tech and Privacy

How Privacy Will Upend Advertising in 2021

Share this:

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

Share this:

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. 

Latest Posts

Influencer Marketing Stands Out during Pandemic

Share this:

Covid-19 is capable of producing a special kind of advertising fatigue in which consumers tire of receiving a maelstrom of indistinguishable messages from brands: This is an especially uncertain time. Here are the precautions we’re taking. This is what we’re doing to help out.

It’s not that these messages aren’t necessary, especially as they relate to safety precautions. The fatigue comes from the unrelenting sameness and impersonal character of the content. That’s where influencer marketers can prove to be a brand’s special weapon, and a new report by influencer marketing platform Linqia suggests marketers are capitalizing on the channel.

How to Solve the Franchise PPC Cannibalization Problem

Share this:

Working with dozens of franchise brands, it’s been interesting to see how digital teams have structured their national pay-per-click (PPC) programs. Actually, maybe “interesting” isn’t the right word. It’s more so concerning. Many are so narrowly focused only on their national campaigns, they’re aloof when it comes to the local campaigns their franchisees are running. If corporate marketing teams are running digital campaigns on behalf of local franchises, they’re likely not set up and optimized in such a way where they’re being given enough TLC to drive meaningful results at the local level. While some brands get it right, many others have failed miserably. 

The ideal scenario is executing local store PPC correctly alongside and in cooperation with national programs and gleaning insights from the data on one program to benefit the other in a symbiotic fashion.

App-ads.txt is an Anti-Fraud Tool, but for Publishers, it’s Really About Revenue

Share this:

The IAB hasn’t mandated the adoption of app-ads.txt. In other words, it’s still the Wild West out there when it comes to fraud. But even the publishers that have done the right thing by adopting app-ads.txt have gotten the wrong message about the tool because it’s been presented entirely as a compliance matter. As a result, many mobile publishers treat app-ads.txt as a perfunctory anti-fraud measure that they can “set and forget.”

The Video Ad Market’s Challenges and Future

Share this:

Short-form video platform Quibi drew a slew of mainstream headlines beyond advertising trade publications for far underperforming expectations. The platform’s execs blamed its relative failure on coronavirus. 

While coronavirus alone may not explain the fate of Quibi, the virus and related drops in economic and social activity have left the video ad market in a paradoxical state. Viewership is up; ad demand is down. To explain the state of the market and where it’s headed, Tal Chalozin, CTO and co-founder of video ad platform Innovid, spoke to Street Fight.

How Restaurants Can Capture More Customer Demand With Email

Share this:

Email is often the primary channel for restaurants to stay in touch with customers and let them know about changes. When email is done right, there are many small ways restaurants can use it to personalize messaging, drive more engagement, and make their lives easier with scalable best practices.

Heard on the Street, Episode 53: Pioneering Audio Out-of-Home

Share this:

We’ve all heard of out-of-home advertising: staples such as billboards and subway ads. Audio is one of the oldest forms of advertising, from terrestrial radio to pandora. Shopper marketing has been around for decades to steer in-store shoppers with last-mile messaging.

These are all common staples of local advertising. But combine them, and you may have something interesting. This combination of OOH, audio, and shopper marketing is what Vibenomics calls audio out-of-home. It gives retailers a way to more intelligently monetize the soundwave inventory in their locations through targeted messaging.

6 Ways To Use Hyperlocal Data To Rebuild in the Covid-19 Economy

Share this:

Location is a prime indicator of our interests, purchase habits, and daily behaviors. Where we go defines who we are, and in the Covid-19 world, location continues to tell that story, even if the story has changed for many of us as we practice social distancing.

Marketers continue to command vast data sets for campaign targeting. Here are six data sets, powered by location behaviors, that marketers can use to build awareness, generate leads, and drive sales.

Location Data Firm Unacast Generates Hyperlocal Covid Recovery Metrics

Share this:

Location data and analytics firm Unacast is hoping its new recovery analytics tool might guide businesses through this chaotic time. The interactive tool allows retail operations professionals, real estate developers, and property management companies to drill down to the census block level to get visibility into real-world economic recovery scenarios and plan for future investments.

Using data that compares real-time public behavior in the current environment to pre-Covid time periods, businesses can estimate recovery rates and more accurately plan for future reopenings.

GMB Insights Predict a Slow Path to Recovery

Share this:

Last month, we shared the results of a study of consumer behavior in the first phase of the pandemic. The study based its findings on analysis of Google My Business Insights data for multi-location brands whose online presence is managed by Brandify, covering some 16 different business categories.

Today, we’re updating that study with data from the month of May — data that demonstrates clear evidence that consumers are returning to stores and other places of business that were hard hit by the shutdown. Our findings show, however, that recovery for suffering businesses may take quite a long time. And by contrast, some businesses for whom the pandemic resulted in a boom in activity are still showing remarkably high consumer traffic.

4 Ways Retailers Can Navigate A Post-Covid-19 World

Share this:

Brands are also facing unprecedented demand for online orders. For example, retailers within Radial’s network witnessed a 70% increase in orders in April 2020 compared to their order volumes in April 2019. As shopping habits continue evolving in the wake of Covid-19, omnichannel options will be imperative for business continuity.

Retailers are finding that developing an omnichannel experience for shoppers is no longer a modern, unique competitive strategy. It’s now a requirement for any retailer looking to power through what the unforeseeable future has in store. Here are four essential Covid-19-era strategies.