News and Analysis

Retailers Leverage Omnichannel Strength to Launch Curated Marketplaces

As retailers like Macy’s start selling products from other brands via their own third-party marketplaces, there are questions about the cost-to-benefit ratio.

Back in Action: U.S. Consumers Lead the Return to In-Store Shopping

Surveying more than 12,000 shoppers, Mood Media found that 38% of consumers are shopping in-store more often now than two years ago, and 33% are shopping in-store at the same level.

Hyperlocology, mParticle Partner to Enable Localized Marketing for Franchise Brands

A new partnership between the multi-location advertising platform Hyperlocology and mParticle, a customer data platform, could have major implications for franchise brands.

Commentary

Location Weekly: Mark Michael, Warren Zenna, Pinterest Adds Shop Tabs Feature

In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association hosts Mark Michael of DevHub and Warren Zenna of Zenna Consulting. Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez also discuss Pinterest adding a new Shop tabs feature and Burger King encouraging kids to do math for free.

How Agencies and Advertisers Can Target Relevant Audiences During Covid-19

Since establishments have limited services to take-out, pick-up or delivery, advertisers are creating geofences where they know consumers are still going. Rather than using the actual footprint of a restaurant, advertisers can use custom polygons to include the pick-up area in the parking lot or the QSR’s drive-through area.

Getting creative to find restaurant audiences is just the tip of the iceberg, however. Even when large portions of the population are staying home, there are ways to find and advertise to audiences that are high-intent in a range of consumer categories. There are several commercial and public locations that you can target to help find audiences that are relevant to your clients and your campaigns. Below I detail optimal strategies for major categories of brick-and-mortar physical businesses.

The Largest 2020 Ecommerce Driver is Global Expansion

Ecommerce is now a staple in everyday life, so much so that Americans spent $154.5 billion online in the third quarter of 2019, according to a US Census estimate. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced business for the near future to be almost completely online. 

While this transition will take some getting used to, it also affords the opportunity to reach across conventional borders. We’ve moved beyond the novelty of being able to buy something online and receive it quickly. As we look to what the next 25 years have in store, continued success in the ecommerce world depends on superior customer experience — meeting customers where they are and when they need it most.

Latest Posts

Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Audience Segments Accessible via The Trade Desk

Having pivoted from a location-centric social app of sorts to a location intelligence platform, Foursquare has positioned itself well to offer brands attributable marketing success and verified data points at a time when concerns about both data quality and privacy are as widespread as ever. Foursquare says it throws out about 80% of the third-party data it consumes, an act intended to preserve the quality of its largely first-party data store.

Loyalty Solution Narvar Acquires Kronos Care, Expands in Europe

Customer engagement and loyalty solution Narvar, which has tripled in size over the last year, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of Kronos Care, a fellow customer engagement startup founded in just 2017. The move will help Narvar conquer the European market, bolstered by the local expertise of the Paris-based Kronos.

Kroger CEO Offers Closer Look at Grocery Giant’s Tech Innovation at NRF 2019

Among Kroger’s latest innovation is a partnership with online grocer Ocado. Kroger is licensing Ocado’s technology—the only grocer in the United States to do so—in order to benefit from its digital-native mastery of automated warehouse operations and on-demand delivery. The company will be expanding its number of warehouses powered by Ocado’s technology in 2019.

How Brands Will Select Key Partners in 2019: 5 Key Takeaways from Affiliate Summit West

Robert Glazer: This year’s Affiliate Summit West conference took place earlier this month in Las Vegas. And just like every year, performance marketing experts gathered to see some of the potential challenges and opportunities the space is likely to see in 2019. This year’s conference gave them plenty to chew on. There were five topics, in particular, that I found to be most important. Here’s a closer look at them.

Google Appears to Test Netflix-Like Personalization Score for Local Businesses

Just as Netflix displays match scores in the arena of entertainment, showing users a percentage indicating how likely they are to enjoy a new film or TV show, Google appears to be testing a feature that shows searchers how likely they are to enjoy a local business.

LBMA Vidcast: Square Goes Mobile SDK, Gimbal Buys UberMedia

On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association show: Square goes mobile SDK, Sinclair + Harman + SK Telecom, Gimbal buys UberMedia, AT&T and others to stop selling location data, LocusLabs partners with IndoorAtlas. Special Guests: Herve Utheza (Here Technologies) & Tom Kenney (Verve).

How Savvy Brands Are Getting Mobile Offers Into the Hands of Consumers

“For brick-and-mortar businesses, the focus on driving foot traffic through mobile couponing is even more important due to the convenience of online shopping. We see mobile coupon platforms becoming ubiquitous and affordable for even small businesses to create, design, and distribute their own coupons,” Katie Wilson, CEO of TapOnIt and a digital advertising veteran, tells our senior editor Stephanie Miles.

Trending Now: Brands Shifting Mobile Ad Budgets from Facebook to Google UAC

Brian Bowman: There’s an emerging trend in the advertising industry—for the first time, brands are shifting significant mobile advertising budgets from Facebook ads to Google Universal App Campaigns (UAC). While Facebook advertising has largely dominated mobile marketing budgets, this migration of budgets to Google’s platform has been a helpful shift to diversify risk tied to any single platform. Why is this shift happening now, and what does it mean for brands?

Urban Airship Acquires Accengage, Becomes World’s Largest Mobile Customer Engagement Company

Urban Airship, which serves Fortune 25 brands such as Adidas, BBC, and Vodafone, indicated that it would use the combined resources now at its disposal to expand the technical capabilities of its slate of mobile solutions. It will also take advantage of Accengage’s native expertise in the European market, particularly at a time when increased regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is underscoring the importance of strong policy and PR teams.

Google and Amazon Escalate Voice ‘Platform Wars’

Mike Boland: Any entity competing for local commerce—publishers, brands, ad-tech players—has a looming platform choice for voice. Like the platform wars between iOS and Android, it’s a matter of deciding where to apply finite resources and development muscle. Maybe the answer is “both” Google and Amazon. But for now, Google appears to have the lead.