News and Analysis
Will Measurement Currency Be the Biggest Topic at This Season’s Ad Upfronts?
With 2023’s TV upfronts just weeks away, major media companies and advertisers are gearing up for a new type of debate. While networks promote their streaming services and fan-favorite shows in live stage presentations and one-on-one meetings, brands are asking more questions about measurement currency and the complexities that come with having multiple networks using their […]
Bombora Report: OOH Spending Surged in Q1
During flush times, brand marketers spend generously on advertising, and their agency partners have the luxury of asking themselves how to do more (ads) with more (money). With all the layoffs in the tech and entertainment industries these past few months, how to do more with less becomes the main question. Bombora seeks to provide answers, […]
Vivvix Chief: Predictable Linear Ad Mechanisms in Decline
In the crowded advertising intelligence space, there’s a few ways for a startup to gain attention. One way is by introducing new technology, or utilizing AI in a way that impresses jaded brand marketers and agency leads. Other popular approaches are to build relationships with key decision-makers or bring on experienced leadership who can lend […]
Commentary
Customer Experience is Your Best Marketing Tool
Providing an outstanding customer experience can be your most powerful and cost-efficient marketing strategy. In a business world where dozens of other companies sell the same products and services as you do, creating an environment where customers enjoy dealing with your company will help your brand stand out from the rest.
Respecting Data Privacy while Boosting Business
The concept of being relevant while not being intrusive is not mutually exclusive. Certain brands have been able to master this delicate balance. One such brand is Apple. Apple knows that I have an iPhone 12, but they aren’t chasing me on all corners of the internet trying to sell me accessories, or worse, another iPhone. However, when I go to the Apple Store app, it has all my devices connected to my Apple ID, creating a curated list of relevant products. This is a masterclass in being relevant without being intrusive.
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The Value of Audience Intelligence Extends Beyond Media—and That’s a Good Thing for Agencies
The trend toward brand in-housing of media operations has been a growing challenge for agencies for more than a decade now. As of this time last year, 91% of brands reported having moved at least a part of their digital marketing operations in-house. Many agencies have had to address the question: How do we stay relevant in an age of direct-to-consumer strategies and increasing automation of media execution?
As we enter the next era of audience intelligence, today’s agencies have a new opportunity to refine their value proposition to clients and reclaim their roles as strategic advisors, all by leveraging the same strengths and tools that once defined their roles as invaluable media partners. Let’s look at how agencies can help brands extend the promise of audience intelligence beyond optimizing their media plans.
How Brick-and-Mortars Move Forward
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed brick-and-mortar business, possibly forever. Peter Paine, former eBay and Walmart executive and now head of retail partnerships in the Americas for Cover Genius, checked in with Street Fight to share the strategies physical businesses large and small should prioritize to prepare for the near- and long-term future.
Heard on the Street, Episode 50: Reinventing Out-of-Home Advertising
When most people hear the term “out-of-home” advertising (OOH), they think of old-school billboards and bus kiosks. Those are still staples of the category, but its growth and innovation are being defined by other approaches at the intersection of physical media and digital targeting.
“People instantaneously think billboards, but it literally can be wrapping a ferry going to a music festival for a brand and throwing a party on said ferry,” said Quan Media Group Founder & CEO Brian Rappaport on the latest episode of Street Fight’s Heard on the Street podcast (listen above). “If you do out-of-home the right way as a brand, you’re going to hit that audience you’re looking to hit. That’s the challenge for me: finding the right fit for so many of the unique brands I work with because really none are the same.”
Contactless Commerce Is Suddenly Mission-Critical in Every Retail Category
The phrase “by any means necessary” is fast becoming retail’s new mantra. The same industry that is typically viewed as cautious and conservative is moving really quickly. More quickly than I have seen in my 35 years in the industry. And where is the industry moving most quickly? Toward something we now call “contactless commerce.”
Shoppers around the world are afraid. They’re guarded, and they are wary of any contact with any strangers. They don’t want you to come near them. In response, retailers in every category are absolutely scrambling to remove human contact from the shopping journey.
Augmented Reality for Ecommerce: the Why and the How
According to Gartner, in 2020 100 million customers will shop in augmented reality, both online and in-store. With these numbers in mind, it’s about time to jump on the AR bandwagon and start reaping the benefits of stellar customer engagement, improved conversion rates, and wider reach.
Playing the Long-Game with Today’s Low CPMs
As companies try to strike the right advertising tone given the global pandemic, it is apparent consumers are getting hit with the same messaging over and over — albeit from completely different brands: ‘Now more than ever’… ‘In these uncertain times’…. ‘The safety and comfort of home’… ‘We’re here to help’… ‘We’ll get through this together’…
It seems the same playbook for how to engage customers during this time leaked to every team. So how can brands break away from the ‘hipster conundrum’ (trying to be genuine and unique while everyone else floods the market with the same message and approach)?
Affiliate Marketing Strategies to Help You Through Covid-19
In the affiliate marketing ecosystem, brands partner with bloggers, influencers, publishers, even other brands to promote their products or services. By only paying for sales, leads, or new customers that their partners deliver, affiliate marketing allows brands to efficiently scale while optimizing their return on ad spend and cost per action (CPA).
Brands with creative and agile affiliate programs are the ones who will have loyal customers and partners long after this global crisis is over. With that in mind, here are some ways brands are adjusting their affiliate marketing strategies in the time of Covid-19.
As States Reopen, Conversion Patterns Point to Early Programmatic Recovery
The data that Goodway Group uncovered suggests that some marketers have begun to increase spend and re-enter the programmatic marketplace. Additionally, when looking at the regional level, the Goodway Group’s Benjamin Diesbach and his team are seeing that CPMs in many of the hardest-hit states have bottomed out, and they are starting to move closer to previous levels.
The impact on certain states reopening is still being felt, and while medium-to-longer-term dynamics remain volatile, Diesbach is seeing early short-term signs of programmatic marketplace recovery.
Location Weekly: Reveal Mobile Raises Fresh Funding
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association hosts two new guests: Denise McKenzie, director of the Benchmark Initiative at Geovation, and Walter Geer III, SVP, Group Creative Director, at TBWA/WorldHealth.
The team also covers Reveal Mobile being awarded a patent and raising fresh funding as well as EQ Works partnering with Opta Information to use location data for the insurance industry.
Can Local Commerce and Tech Work From Home?
I’ve worked from a home office since 2002. Forced into it — and initially opposed due to unfamiliarity — I didn’t like the isolation. But after acclimating, I became more productive, happier, and healthier than in any previous office job. Now, 18 years later, I may never go back.
One question is if that same realization will sink into corporate ranks now forced to #WFH. Could adjusting to working from home be a silver lining for some industries? In being forced to try new ways of doing business, could we discover habits that work better than older conventions? How might this principle play out in local businesses?
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