News and Analysis
Sheeva.AI Turns Cars into Truly Mobile Devices
Watch out EZ-Pass, Sheeva.AI is coming for you. EZ-Pass is available in 17 states with approximately 35 million users. Sheeva.AI wants them all and more. Evgeny Klochikhin, CEO of Sheeva.AI, pointed out that the EZ-Pass transponders inside cars require state agencies or businesses to install hardware all along highways to enable a transaction at highway […]
Mastering Threads – 5 Brands with Winning Strategies for the Newest Social Platform
Less than one week after its public debut, Threads has already become the fastest-growing mobile app in history. More than 100 million users signed up for Meta’s new social platform in just the first five days — and now brand marketers are ready to get in on the action. While Threads looks nearly identical to […]
“Podcast Studio Near Me”: A Chat With Brian Howie Who is Bringing New Media to the MULO World
Multi-location (MULO) marketing services storefronts are nothing new. Brands offer printing and swag to small businesses and conference-goers, delivering flyers, brochures, posters, signage, and even tee shirts to consumers and companies. Companies like AlphaGraphics, Minuteman, Signarama, and Staples fulfill those needs. Custom Ink started as an online-only creative and production resource but now has multiple […]
Commentary
Growing Your Local Business While Keeping Consumer Privacy Top of Mind
Feeling overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of data privacy laws is understandable. But these issues are experienced by marketers throughout the country, and there are many resources available to help your business become compliant.
How Retailers Can Prepare Omnichannel Operations for Looming E-commerce Fatigue
The aim of clienteling is to increase customer loyalty and drive sales, while also increasing associate motivation by rewarding staffers for the resulting revenue uplifts.
The Pandemic Prompted a Programmatic DOOH Revolution. Here’s What Comes Next
Rather than stunting DOOH’s long-term growth, the pandemic instead led to DOOH becoming a more nimble and integrated part of advertisers’ overall media mixes.
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Location Weekly: Burger King and Wawa Innovate for Covid Era
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Wawa launching drive-through-only convenience stores, Waze launching contactless gas payments at Shell and Exxon Mobil, Burger King printing customer orders on face masks, and Heineken launching its “Star of the Summer” campaign at Tesco UK.
Who’s Afraid of CCPA? Steps Toward Ethical Data Collection
The marketing and advertising communities are inherently about data collection. They survey and track people’s online behaviors to uncover a deeper understanding of trending sentiments. Through this, the ultimate goal is to help marketers better target the right audiences with messaging that will resonate with them on the platforms they typically frequent.
While data privacy should be a given considering how central it is to the industries at hand, it’s often still seen as a challenge to overcome. So, where is the problem?
How Covid-19 Is Speeding Up OOH Advertising’s Digital Transformation
Some OOH media providers have already moved beyond the traditional real estate-based approach in which advertisers focus on a specific region or even choose specific billboard locations. Instead, they are using data and technology to target specific audiences and measure the impact of their campaigns. For the laggards, the pandemic is proving a catalyst for overdue change. Let’s consider why OOH’s audience-based future is closer than ever as well as what is next for the industry’s evolution.
Earnings Season Teases Retail’s Next Normal
Earnings results that rolled out from retail giants over the past week further demonstrate what our next normal will look like. Specifically, Walmart and Target both hit record numbers. This is partly a function of Covid-era circumstances, but it is also due to each retailer’s active e-commerce momentum.
The earnings validate consumer acclimation to digitally infused local shopping. What’s more, other retailers and down-market businesses will look to replicate this success. This can all therefore be viewed as a leading indicator for retail’s next normal.
Political Advertisers’ Impact on Brands
A recent report from eMarketer found that political ad spend will reach $6.89 billion in the 2019/2020 election period. This cycle’s spending is 63.3% higher than spend in the 2015/2016 season, showcasing a significant uptick in competition for brand marketers. That said, political advertisers are becoming savvier, expanding their breadth and scale into additional channels and further encroaching on brands’ digital bread and butter.
Here are a few ways political ad spend will impact brand marketers’ approach and how they can adjust their strategies so they don’t lose momentum in the coming months.
More Americans Are Using Delivery. The Change Is Here to Stay
Delivery has perhaps been the industry most clearly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. When physically going to brick-and-mortar stores became a life-or-death exercise, delivery, which had already grown under the rise of e-commerce, became an even more essential part of how local commerce functions.
Khaled Naim, co-founder and CEO of delivery software company Onfleet, touched on how delivery has changed in the past months, how long those changes will persist, and what technologies are fueling the widespread increase in deliveries.
Covid-19 and Retail Survival: The Online-Offline Imperative
Covid-19 has upended the way consumers buy products. But the pandemic is hardly the only factor accelerating the shift from in-person to online purchasing. This trend has, in fact, intensified over the last decade. With more than 9,000 store closures last year in a strong economy, physical retailers for some time have been trying to figure out how they can thrive (and in some cases survive) in an increasingly digital marketplace.
It’s therefore imperative that retailers (of all sizes) embrace a hybrid business model, where online and offline assets are more integrated. Covid-19 has only made this more apparent.
Consumer Concerns Shift from Covid-19 to Economic Uncertainty
Local businesses have been forced out of their comfort zone this summer as the economic impact of Covid-19 lingers and uncertainty persists into the final weeks of summer. With so many questions unanswered, businesses are searching for resources to help guide their decisions in marketing and general operations.
A number of martech firms are looking to fill the information void by launching their own Covid-19 resource centers and consumer data projects. The location-powered advertising and analytics firm Blis launched its own consumer sentiment tracker, with data from consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Australia.
Foursquare Uses Location Data to Increase Shopper Safety During Covid-19
Social distancing has become a new way of life, but in crowded metro areas, it’s not always possible to remain socially distant inside busy places like supermarkets and pharmacies. Shopping during off-peak periods is the best way to avoid crowds, but during the daytime hours, it’s anyone’s guess whether a particular store will be crowded or empty.
Foursquare thinks it has a solution.
Google My Business Search and Engagement Trends Define the Next Normal
With the addition of call data from DialogTech, we’ve been able to add an important new layer of insight to our examination of consumer sentiment in 2020.
The current report also adds two full months of new Google My Business data to our ongoing study. As you’ll see, the picture painted by the new data is one where consumers are continuing to limit their shopping activities in comparison with pre-pandemic trends, but have increased store visits and contacts significantly throughout the summer, likely with a focus on an expanded set of essential needs mixed with optimism about a return to normal.
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