News and Analysis

5 Reasons the Media Ignores (or Trashes) Your Brand Street Fight

5 Reasons the Media Ignores (or Trashes) Your Brand

As someone who has sat on “both sides of the desk” (as a marketer and now a research analyst, trend spotter, and content creator), I have a unique perspective on media exposure. The right press — online, conventional, or some combination — feeds your public image when consumers search for your brand. What MULO (multi-location) […]

Report: Consumers Have Less Debt, More Uncertainty Street Fight

Report: Consumers Have Less Debt, More Uncertainty

The good news is that almost one-third of American adults are debt-free. The less good news is that inflation is on the uptick, and they’re worried about healthcare costs, and poor leadership and government fraud—with 42% of respondents giving equal weight to each issue. Nevertheless, according to Resonate’s Spring 2025 Outlook Consumer Trends Report, U.S. […]

Why Disney Gets Phygital Right Street Fight

Why Disney Gets Phygital Right

First, you’ll hear a lot of the term “phygital” (the convergence of physical and digital) throughout 2025. It’s the theme of our Street Fight LIVE Summit on September 18th. Although the term itself has been around for years, technology and devices have finally caught up to the word. Consumers expect brands to know them as […]

Commentary

The Next Big Change for Brands: Digital Trust

Data privacy and consumer trust are key priorities for multi-location brands, users, and the U.S. government. On January 1, the California Privacy Rights Act was put into effect, a solid sign that federal privacy laws may be in the near future in the U.S. In fact, a recent McKinsey report explored the topic of “Digital […]

Mult-location brands and customer experience

How Multi-Location Brands Can Improve Customer Experience

According to recent reports, 43.5% of brands agreed that positive CX is a critical differentiator when it comes to getting an edge on the competition. Creating positive customer experiences seems like a no-brainer, but in reality bridging the CX perception gap between customer service, marketing, and sales teams and potentially 10s or 100s of store […]

Contextual and Native Come Together to Help Advertisers Win the Open Web

Contextual and Native Come Together to Help Advertisers Win the Open Web

Both contextual and native take a natural and intuitive approach, rather than a disruptive and distracting one. If a seamless experience is the goal, context may even be a more appropriate mode for targeting native campaigns than third-party cookie targeting ever was.

Latest Posts

How Retailers are Keeping the Grinch from Stealing This Holiday Season

Sadly, it’s not just the Grinch ruining the holidays for many retailers. It’s thievery. Last year, about $112B was lost to various types of retail crime, including shoplifting, flash mobs, and organized crime. Technologies, including AI-based video at point-of-sale,  sensory heat maps, cash automation technology, and autonomous security robots, are helping retailers prevent, spot, and […]

What’s Entertainment? Agency VP Nick Dan-Bergman Reveals New Research

LaneTerralever, a full-service marketing and digital experience agency that works with a wide range of attractions and entertainment destinations (as well as the gaming industry), just completed a research report that provides insights into what today’s consumer is looking for in location-based entertainment and experiences. We don’t typically think of attractions (like amusement parks or […]

What Google At Peak Search Means for Marketers

For Q3 2023 earnings, Google reported a shortfall on cloud revenue and that their US core advertising / search business over delivered to make up part of the difference. So how has Google become this dependent on non-advertising revenue streams to achieve future growth targets and how much longer can they go back to the […]

Keep an Eye on C-Stores (Both on and Off the Road!)

As we’ve previously covered, the traditional C-stores (convenience store) used to be that corner deli where you could pick up snacks, soft drinks, or smokes or the stop along the highway where you gassed up, took a hygiene break and grabbed something sugary to tide you over on the road. Consumers are starting to head […]

BrightLocal Report : How Consumers Find Local Businesses

When business owners and marketers need to ensure their business information is correct and consistent for thousands of locations, they might do well to first consult the BrightLocal Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 for guidance. To Sammy Paget, Content Marketing Manager at BrightLocal, trust is at the heart of a high level of […]

Measuring the Return on SEO: ROSS and the Future of Organic Search

Measuring the Return on SEO: ROSS and the Future of Organic Search

There’s an irony at the heart of organic search. For users, searching is one of the most natural, rapid, and reliable digital experiences one can have. You ask questions and expect the best answers in return—instantly. For users, a search could not be simpler. For brands, however, it’s been a little more complicated. Historically, it’s […]

Samba TV : Voters Becoming Harder to Reach with Political Advertising

Samba TV : Voters Becoming Harder to Reach with Political Advertising

A recently released report from Samba TV and global research firm HarrisX predicts that voting blocks in the Gen Z and Millennials cohorts will be very hard to reach with political advertising next year. The Guide to Political Advertising: 2024 Report, the culmination of an analysis from a survey and proprietary data from Samba TV, […]

Steak & Ale Makes a Brand Comeback

Steak & Ale Makes a Brand Comeback

We’ve written before about “nostalgia” brands and those franchise businesses that have survived 50+ years.  Steak & Ale would seem to fit right in there. Steakhouses are alive and well despite the surge in plant-based dining! So we weren’t totally shocked that Steak & Ale, a business created in 1966, is priming (pun intended) for […]

Unlocking Marketing Success: The Power of ID Resolution

Unlocking Marketing Success: The Power of ID Resolution

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, the customer journey takes center stage as brands strive to craft compelling marketing and advertising campaigns. However, the abundance of customer data, often scattered across various identifiers like web browsers, mobile apps, and in-store interactions, poses a significant challenge Without the right tools and systems in place, this data fragmentation […]

Marketing Lessons from Build-A-Bear

BOOM: Lessons from Build-A-Bear

Stuffed bears have been around since 1903 and became a multi-million dollar business. Despite the popularity of electronic gadgets, VR, AR, and AI, the simple toy lives on! In fact, according to a recent Retail Dive article, Build-A-Bear is on the upswing and has major deals with big brands like Marvel, the NFL, Disney, and […]