News and Analysis
2025 Social Media Playbook: Authenticity, Originality, and Community-Driven Engagement
The era of trend-chasing is over. According to the newly released 2025 Sprout Social Index™, consumers are reshaping their expectations for brand behavior on social media. The verdict? Authenticity, originality, and personalized connections are no longer optional—they’re essential. This shift is more than a passing phase. As Rachael Goulet, Director of Social Media at Sprout […]
Walmart Credits In-Person Retail for Its Growth, and It’s Not Alone
Walmart’s Q3 earnings call revealed something interesting: Walmart places much of its recent revenue growth and success on in-person shopping. “In-store volumes grew, pickup from store grew faster, and delivery from store grew even faster than that,” the company wrote about its U.S. locations. The growth of in-store shopping in an era of e-commerce accessibility […]
The MULO Dozen: December in Review
What a year we had! MULO (multi-location) retailers, restaurants, and service businesses have BOOMed and BUSTed, the C-suites have seen many changes, and consumers continue to shop, research, and spend both in-store and online. They are compelled to find places and products via local search, as well as by social media pundits, retail ad networks, […]
Commentary
Lessons from the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season
As 2023 gets into full gear, we should look at the key trends and factors persisting and fueling growth into the next holiday season peak, which will arrive before we know it. Retailers and brands planning for upcoming quarters should remember these lessons from the 2022 holiday e-commerce shopping season:
5 Martech Trends That Will Define 2023
As the US follows in the EU’s footsteps, privacy regulations will only play a larger role in marketing in 2023. While the GDPR is still the strongest privacy regulation to date, we will see an increasing number of regulations in the U.S. The best marketers are agile and should be using the coming year to make preparations for the loss of third-party cookies. One thing is clear: decisions must be strategic, privacy-centric, and backed by data.
Latest Posts
Finance Lobby and Placer.ai Partner to Elevate Data-Driven Insights
In a move aimed at reshaping the landscape of commercial real estate financing, Finance Lobby recently announced a strategic partnership with Placer.ai, the leading location data platform. This alliance signifies a monumental step for both organizations and underscores their shared commitment to revolutionizing the industry. Unlocking New Horizons For Finance Lobby users, this integration ushers […]
Deft CEO: the State of SEO and Search Advertising
The team at Deft has some controversial takes on the state of SEO and search advertising. From the beginning, the company was founded on the belief that e-commerce is the most over-SEO’d and over-advertised search category — and the problem is only getting worse, as both Amazon and Google continue to make money by keeping […]
Hail Caesars Republic: Talking to Ryan Kirby about MULO Hotel Expansion
Many hotel companies now have different brands within their brand, offering various price points and experiences underneath their multi-location (MULO) umbrella. You may have thought of Caesars as just a casino experience in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, with giant statues and endless slots and tables. But Caesars is about to open its second non-gaming resort […]
The Cookie Is Crumbling: Americans Demand Better Privacy, Transparency, and Control
The ongoing debate surrounding the death of the cookie has prompted leaders in ad tech to reevaluate modern advertising practices and search for more privacy-conscious and user-friendly alternatives. Users are demanding greater privacy — including transparency, choice, and control over how their data is used. In addition, Apple has diminished the retargeting connection through IDFA, […]
The MULO Dozen: October Brands in Review
Last month, we launched this new section, recapping some of the highlights across MULO (multi-location) brands — retailers, restaurants, c-stores, service businesses, and any other establishment that have multiple locations (or aspires to scale to that level), as well as the agencies that help them flourish. We cover: INNOVATION: Here are the brands that are […]
Study Reveals What Drives Attention From CTV Ads
We know that attention is a critical metric for advertising, especially on channels like connected TV (CTV), where advertisers are not only trying to reach their target audiences, but also to engage them to drive real business outcomes. We also know that it’s incredibly difficult to determine what, exactly, drives more attention from CTV ads. […]
Madison Avenue Needs to Think About a .1 Mile Radius
Madison Avenue has long been code for the advertising industry. But, as we know, most agencies are no longer located on that iconic street. In fact, some agencies don’t even have physical offices these days. That doesn’t mean agencies no longer need to think about location! Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Locations are more important […]
Local Advertisers Navigate Looming Surge in Political Ads Pricing
As the global economy braces itself for the possibility of a recession, some sectors are standing out with surprising resilience. Driven largely by the anticipation of enormous spending on political ads in the coming year, local advertising in the U.S. is expected to increase by 8.6%. That puts anticipated revenue across all media in the […]
tvScientific CEO: Netflix Could Learn from Google+ and Facebook
Netflix’s Q3 earnings are in, along with a rise in subscribers since July, price hikes for all types of them, and a jump in share price. Now, it remains to be seen whether the streaming service can scale its ad-supported ambitions. Jason Fairchild, co-founder and CEO of tvScientific, thinks the company still has work to do […]
Digital Disinformation Reaches a Fever Pitch, Social Media Execs Weigh In
Less than a week has passed since Meta and TikTok were ordered by the European Commission to provide details on the steps each company has taken to prevent the spread of misinformation during the Israel-Hamas conflict, and rather than simmering down, the debate over disinformation on social media is only getting hotter. X—the platform formerly […]
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