News and Analysis

CTV Advertising Spending Holds Lessons for Brands

Basis Technologies provides cloud-based workflow automation and business intelligence software for marketing and advertising. The company focuses on media strategies and outcomes and also has worked with political campaigns and organizations of all sizes. Local and state legislative races and gubernatorial, senate, and national advocacy organizations have used Basis for 15 years, including for 2022 […]

Will Measurement Currency be the Biggest Topic at This Season's Ad Upfronts

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

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, […]

Commentary

Managing a Remote Team: 3 Tips From a Cool Manager

Striving to be a cool manager in the workplace is one thing, but managing a remote team in a global pandemic presents a whole new set of challenges that none of us had ever experienced before. Your team may face distractions when working from home, technical difficulties with video calls, a poor internet connection, among other unusual challenges. 

When confronted with these issues, it can be hard to hold your team accountable and maintain positive relationships in the same ways you did previously. But as a manager, it’s your time to step up to the challenge, reassess your leadership strategy, and keep your cool while navigating the new normal.

Location Weekly: Realworld Launches Adfindr for Local Ads

In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Merrell using voice and location to highlight nearby trails, Burger King’s Scary Places, Foursquare’s Marsbot for AirPods, Realworld launching Adfindr, and a new case study from Oriient on indoor positioning.

3 Reasons Why Marketers Should Care About False App Reviews

Most apps live on Apple’s App Store — home to nearly two million apps and access to 100 million iPhone users. Once a brand joins these ranks, there’s one goal: Drive positive ratings that entice more users to download and try the app. High ratings are critical for app visibility, as a higher rating has a strong correlation to trial, and Apple ranks those with more positive ratings and reviews higher than apps with negative ones.   

But this ratings system can be manipulated to create false app ratings and skew scores, and that’s a bigger problem for marketers than they may realize. 

Latest Posts

Do Cashierless Stores Present a Privacy Risk to Consumers?

Amazon’s convenience stores rely heavily on location technology to track consumers’ movements inside buildings. Cameras analyze shopping behaviors, strategically placed microphones listen to conversations, and information about consumers’ shopping habits is stored in a central database that Amazon can reference for future operational and strategic planning.

“As cashierless stores take off, more and more personal and payment data will be transmitted through phones and mobiles devices and stored in cloud-based software platforms,” says Ruston Miles, chief strategy officer at Bluefin. “This means that hackers will have more network access to this data through vulnerable providers and merchants.”

Capitalizing on the Big Game Buzz on a Shoestring Budget

Iconic moments in Super Bowl history like Oreo’s ‘Dunk in the Dark’ Tweet prove that ads are no longer the only path for creating noise. Smart businesses can capitalize on the game with strategic social content but should not over-rely on it. Instagram and Facebook are notorious for outages during big moments such as Thanksgiving Day in 2019. Twitter has also experienced its fair share of downtime, with outages across platforms lasting as long as 24 hours. 

Instead of zeroing in exclusively on social channels, why not deliver a one-two punch by also serving up relevant content on your business’ blog and website? Here are a few tips to maximize content across marketing channels.

Turn Your Side Hustle into a Booming Startup

Finding success in a side hustle is exciting, and turning it into a profitable startup is even more so. You’ll hit a few roadblocks when starting out — everyone does! Figuring out where to target your audience and recognizing the appropriate time to hire help are crucial to overcoming them.

Though you may see burnout as an inevitable side effect to side hustling, it doesn’t have to be. Protect your energy and maintain perspective on the overarching goals you want to accomplish. It may require more than a typical nine-to-five, but entrepreneurs who remain digitally active and seek inspiration and support from their industry peers will find a rewarding career.

Why and How Often Consumers Share Location Data

Location is among the types of data consumers are most likely to weigh disclosing based on the utility of the scenario. Asked about eight different types of data, including marital status, social security number, and physical address, a higher percentage of survey respondents said whether they’ll share location data “depends” on the situation than for any other category. It’s neither an automatic yes or no; companies need to make a case.

VR is the Next Commerce Frontier. Strap on Your Headset

An unfamiliar sight has emerged among the familiar photos of family gatherings posted to social media this holiday season: people wearing next-generation virtual reality devices. Between the turkey and pie courses, grandma strapped on a headset and jumped into a futuristic reality. 

Thanks to rapidly evolving technology, lower prices, and the support of 5G networks, this uncommon sight may soon become a common experience. While just 11% of Americans reported owning VR technology in 2018, VR hardware and software sales are expected to skyrocket 587% to $5.5 billion by 2023, up from an estimated $800 million last year.

The move from tethered to standalone VR stands to change the way users connect with every aspect of the world — including e-commerce. 

Video Trends For 2020 All Consumer-Facing Brands Need To Know

Video is already an effective and established form of content for consumer-facing brands. But as a content format, it has undergone dramatic developments in recent years, changes that look set to continue in 2020. The new year will feature more personalized videos, long-form experimentation, 360-degree footage, and shoppable images.

Read on to learn more about the video trends for 2020 your brand needs to know.

Back to Basics: Data Collection in the New Privacy Era

Some widely used marketing methods, like firmographics and psychographics, are coming to a halt as brands are forced to consider whether consumers actually want to receive their messages. In place of those practices, marketers are returning to older forms of data collection to once again create differentiated customer experiences, explains Dawn Colossi, chief marketing officer at the market research technology company FocusVision.

“I think with digital transformation came the notion that brand marketing didn’t matter as much because you could just target your audience,” says Colossi. “But with limitations on targeting and spamming, getting your brand known for things that customers care about—and this comes from understanding how they think and feel—will be crucial for marketers.”

LBMA Presents Location Weekly: Google Buys Pointy; TourByLocal Nabs $25M

We start off with TourByLocal getting $25M to match tourists with 4,000 guides in 162 countries, Albertsons launching Pinterest-Powered In-Store mobile recipes, and Google buying Pointy to boost brick&mortar retail.

After the Worldline interview from NRF, we continue with news from our two member companies: Gimbal giving mobile users control over their location data and Delta reducing travel stress with updated app features.

Mobile Marketing Firm Verve Acquired by Germany’s MGI

The companies underscored Verve’s location data-driven ability to drive prospective customers into brick-and-mortar stores, adding a cutting-edge ad tech capability to MGI’s suite of existing media solutions. Verve will also help the European enterprise increase its presence in North America.

online privacy

6 Privacy Tools for CCPA Compliance

With the clock ticking on full enforcement of CCPA, businesses are looking at how they can get into compliance—and fast. Technology vendors have been quick to step in and fill that void, launching integrated privacy management platforms with CCPA and the European Union’s GDPR in mind. Most of these platforms can be configured to specific privacy regulations, helping businesses automate their data collection practices and regularly performing risk assessments to determine whether they’re handling personal data correctly.

Here are six examples of tools that companies can use to ensure CCPA compliance.