News and Analysis
MULO Brands With Soul August Pick: Sheetz
C-stores are a MULO (multi-location) brand category that often doesn’t get enough attention. Also known as convenience stores, the industry encompasses roadside retailers and neighborhood chains that we frequently rely on for last-minute grocery purchases, emergency items, and snacks/beverages. Given the transactional nature of these businesses, we don’t often consider them to have a “culture.” But Sheetz […]
Ad Costs and Spending are Both on the Rise, According to Skai Study
Omnichannel advertising platform Skai recently published its Q2 2024 Digital Marketing Quarterly Trends Report. It reveals topline growth numbers in retail media, paid search, and paid social were all positive, maintaining similar levels to those reported by Skai last quarter. The analysis found that advertisers paid more for clicks and impressions in Q2 2024, but […]
Latest Posts
Fire Sale: How Multi-Location Businesses Should Handle Downturns and Fails
This year alone, more than 2,000 retail locations have closed. The major casualties include Party City, Jenny Craig, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Some multi-location restaurants are also slimming down, shuttering locations in markets that aren’t performing well. That doesn’t necessarily mean the beginning of the end for the brands. They may simply reduce expenses to […]
What’s New at the Drive-Thru?
We spend the equivalent of 4.3 years of our lives in our cars. Multi-location restaurants and retailers have known this for quite some time and introduced the drive-thru decades ago. Although the exact date of the first-ever drive-up window is fiercely debated, sources indicate that banks introduced the concept in the early 1920s. The drive-thru […]
Debate – Brand Safety Risk of Advertising with Legacy Publishers
Does legitimate news, published by reputable organizations, pose a brand safety risk for brand advertisers? For nearly half of advertisers, the answer is yes. According to new data from Advertiser Perceptions, just 53% of advertisers believe that legitimate news does not pose a significant brand safety risk. For others, there is concern that having […]
What Does It Take to Succeed as a Retail Media Network?
The Retail media network is on the rise, with projections showing they could grow another 60% by 2027. While the concept has already taken hold among businesses in the retail and hospitality industries, it’s still relatively uncommon — and untested — within other verticals, like financial services and travel. What will it take to get […]
Publishers Clearing House Media Has a Trove of Clean Data
Publishers Clearing House (PCH) conjures images of sweepstakes winners being surprised with large-sum checks and bouquets of balloons. Since its founding in 1953 as a means to sell more magazine subscriptions via direct-mail promotion, PCH has evolved into a digital entertainment and commerce destination for millions of consumers in the United States, and one of […]
Tinuiti Sees Real Bright Spots in the Digital Ad Landscape
Tinuiti, the largest independent performance-marketing firm that measures across Streaming TV as well as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, has published “Q1 2023 Digital Ads Benchmark Report”. This report looks at trends across the digital ad landscape of paid search, paid social, digital marketplaces, and video and display advertising. Tinuiti has nearly $4 billion in digital […]
BOOM: Multi-location Target from 1902 to the Future
We have no shortage of companies that go BUST. Just in the past few days, we covered the demise of Bed Bath & Beyond and Jenny Craig. The failure of multi-location brands cannot be attributed just to digital options, consumer trend shifts, and bad hires or financial bets. More complex factors seem to go into […]
Survey – Consumer Buying Behavior Heavily Influenced by In-Store Digital Ads
Is the digitization of physical stores the next mega-trend in retail? That’s certainly the hope of Cooler Screens, the software technology company that powers in-store digital media and merchandising for retail. On the heels of an Insider Intelligence report showing that in-store retail media audiences are an average of 70% larger than digital audiences […]
Sleep on This! Mattress Firm sells for $4B
In a cash ($2.7B) and stock ($1.3B) transaction, Tempur Sealy International, Inc. just bought Mattress Firm, the largest multi-location retailer in the U.S. Despite massive changes in the sleep category, Mattress Firm still operates 2,300 brick-and-mortar locations in the U.S. According to a press statement, “[The acquisition will result in] 3,000 retail stores, 30 e-commerce […]
Adobe Survey: 53% of SMBs Plan to Revamp Websites in 2023
Digital marketing can provide small businesses with access to desirable buyers, and potentially level the playing field with larger competitors — but it comes at a price. The average small business spends 8% of its total revenue on marketing, which means that for every $100 in revenue the business brings in, $8 goes right back […]
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