News and Analysis
Retail Embraces Omnichannel for the Holidays
Rather than focusing on one platform or tool, retail brands are embracing everything necessary to engage with customers across multiple touchpoints. That could have a major impact on the way shoppers interact with their favorite brands in the coming weeks, and depending on the results, it could lead to changes in the way retail marketing is handled in 2021.
Retailers Unpack Black Friday Spending Data
Criteo analyzed commerce data from 1,005 retailers in the U.S. and 216 million transactions in the fourth quarter of 2020. In the process, they found that sales in the first three weeks of November were up 7% year-over-year in the U.S., indicating that Black Friday sales may have been down 5% because those purchases happened earlier this year than previously.
Adtech Firms Test New Concept with Autonomous Bot Delivery Campaign
While food delivery platforms like Postmates, DoorDash, and GrubHub have all launched no-contact options, they generally rely on human drivers leaving food on the ground outside people’s front doors. With the health risks and potential for mix-ups, it’s less than ideal.
A better solution might be the one being rolled out by Wrapify. Just this morning, the company announched the launch of a first-of-its-kind campaign that could take autonomous bot delivery to the next level.
Commentary
Not All Burrito Eaters Are the Same: Why Advertisers Need to Think Local
With the new wave of technology tools on the market, marketers can access detailed reporting to identify specific data points that are performing, or not performing, and then optimize their campaigns accordingly to improve results and curb wasted expenditure. Leveraging unstructured data for audience localization should be a top consideration.
Latest Posts
Are Website Builders the Next Big Growth Market in Local?
Website builders have been around almost as long as the internet itself. As you would expect, this is a busy market. Sitebuilderreport.com tracks 35 vendors. There are many more. Interestingly, only 4 of the 35 vendors get a good rating. Clearly, this is a large market that is ready for new and better solutions.
Google’s Next Local Conquest: Visual Search
Indoor mapping continues to be one of those “holy grail” topics in local. It picks up where GPS drops off, tracking consumers all the way to the cash register. The latest move comes from Google, with an approach that could leapfrog beacons by using the positioning capability already in your phone (or soon will be).
How Legacy Retailers Are Infusing Tech Into Brick-and-Mortar
Many brick-and-mortar retailers are finding more ways to integrate in-store experiences and ecommerce into their offerings — both to offset brick-and-mortar declines and to drive more foot traffic into their stores. It is a redefinition of a retail revolution that still has fighting power for the old retail guard.
Through This Ourglass, Watching TV in Public Is More Fun
“Making TV smarter” has been the mantra for many a failed startup over the years. I won’t tell the sad tale of AOL TV, which I helped build content for. That said, Ourglass is approaching things a little differently: targeting TV out-of-home and looking to make public experiences with the tube more fun and useful.
Street Fight Daily: Uber Fires Self-Driving Car Architect, Google Tests Personalized Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Fires Former Google Engineer at Heart of Self-Driving Dispute… Google Tests Personalized Search, Likely a Future Ad Targeting Weapon… How to Differentiate Among the Many Marketing Automation Companies…
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The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation