News and Analysis
Yelp Report Measures Consumer Interest in Regional Brands
Cava, Scooter’s Coffee, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Habit Burger Grill, and Wawa are all regional retail brands that have higher consumer interest in some parts of the country than in others. And they’re gaining traction in those markets. According to the first-ever Yelp Fastest Growing Brands report, these “challenger” brands, while not industry leaders, are disrupting […]
AI and the Drive-Thru
The drive-thru was an innovation when it first appeared in 1921 at a place called The Pig Stand. Fast-forward to 1947, when the two-way speaker box debuted at In-N Out Burger. Car culture has always been popular in the U.S., and the pandemic accelerated the desire for consumers to stay in their cars while picking […]
Peak-a-Boo: Retail Apps See You
Do branded apps usage peak, after holidays, tentpole events, or other special occasions, for you? Airship, which helps brands optimize their mobile app experiences for customers, released research this month that shows the struggle is real for retailers trying to capture and sustain long-term value from app downloads during “peak” times of the year. Airship […]
Commentary
The Demise of Third-Party Cookies is CTV’s Opportunity to Shine
On January 4th, we finally reached the beginning of the end of third-party cookies (for real this time?) On that date, Google Chrome began removing 3rd party cookies from 1% of traffic. By the end of the year, 3rd party cookies will be completely eliminated from Chrome and opening a new opportunity for CTV. This […]
Navigating the Post-Cookie Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities for Brands
Google’s long-awaited post-cookie world is now here, with the company officially turning off cookies for 1% of Chrome users last month. The loss of third-party cookies means that brands will lose one of the most frequently used ways to identify potential target audiences on the open web. Post-cookie, brands will have to find different ways […]
The Privacy Arms Race May Kill Ad Tech
A dangerous digital advertising arms race is brewing as browser makers try to prevent cross-site tracking. The desire of digital ad companies to keep tracking users, despite browsers’ preventative privacy measures, is leading our industry down a hazardous path for users, browser makers, and ad tech. In an effort to protect user privacy, browsers are […]
Latest Posts
Voices Amplified: How Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules for Brand Accountability
Today, consumer voices can be magnified across channels with the click of a button. The power of the consumer is undergoing a seismic shift, providing both opportunities and challenges to businesses around the world as they rewrite the “rules” of brand accountability. Traditional online review sites are no longer the only medium to share opinions. […]
How NXTDRIVE’s Data Can Target without Cookies
When American Furniture Warehouse (AFW) wanted to expand its customer base in Texas and Arizona it turned to Vericast, a marketing technology and data company, whose NXTDRIVE™ customer data marketing platform (CDMP) was made available to retail marketers nationwide earlier this year. Using NXTDRIVE, AFW and Vericast were able to supplement and enrich the retailer’s […]
How to Find the Perfect Spot for Your Restaurant
A huge key to the success of MULO (multi-location) brands is knowing which cities, neighborhoods, streets (and even which side of the street) to put a location. Technology is now playing a huge role in distribution planning. Brands used to pick their locations using maps and a wide range of demographic data. They would also […]
One Location Wonder: MULO is Not for Everyone
Some MULO (multi-location) brands measure success by the number of locations they have. However, other retail, restaurant, and service businesses choose to remain small and mighty. Lisa Richards, Founder and CEO of RPZL (as in Rapunzel), falls into the second category. She has one location now but has found ways to scale creatively without adding […]
And the Oscar Goes to…
No, this isn’t a big reveal of the Oscar for the best of MULO (multi-location) advertising and media. No ad spending red carpet here. (But watch for our “Dozen” reports each month for key news highlights.) A recent article in Ad Age noted that ad spending on awards ceremonies is still a “star,” despite the […]
Caffeine and Commerce: MULO Coffee Perks
Starbucks and Dunkin may be the giant-size MULO (multi-location) players in the brew space (with 38K and 13K locations respectively). However, coffee is a staple of many consumers’ routines and represents a market size of close to $500B. Many regional and national players are heating up the field and coffee brands are offering a wide […]
Birdeye Social : Insights into Social Media Management
The significance of a robust social media presence cannot be overstated, particularly for multi-location brands aiming to connect with local audiences. Acknowledging the complexities of managing social media across diverse locations, Birdeye, a leading reputation and customer experience platform for local businesses, has just introduced Birdeye Social. With this move, the company is aiming to […]
BUST: Multi-Location Movie Theater Chains Struggle
With Oscar season around the corner, let’s examine the silver screen (or lack thereof). A 100-year-old movie theater MULO (multi-location) operation just declared bankruptcy. Founded in the day of silent films, Metropolitan Theaters has 16 theaters and 87 screens, including two IMAX auditoriums in California, Colorado, and Utah. The pandemic and the rise of the […]
As Cookies Crumble, Lotame Launches Solution to Help Digital Marketers
In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, the ability to harness and utilize data effectively is becoming even more important. Lotame has taken a significant step forward in enabling data collaboration with the launch of Lotame Collaborate and Lotame Onboarding. These innovative solutions, available through their data collaboration platform, Spherical, promise to change how digital […]
BOOM: Industrious Brings Hospitality to Work
This year, about 5M people will use co-working spaces as their offices and meeting places. The concept of shared space has expanded to include podcasting and warehousing/shipping. The concept of co-working is about 30 years old and it is now a cornerstone of the “sharing economy.” As the media was filled with stories of WeWork’s […]
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