News and Analysis
Survey: CTV Is the Channel to Watch for Advertising Dollars
The shift of advertising budgets from linear TV to CTV reflects the most significant consumer behavior this year, according to a report by Mediaocean, released on August 19. The omnichannel ad-media platform just released its 2024 H2 Market Report that looks at emerging consumer, media, and media-technology trends for the rest of the year, the […]
UGC and Marketing: Veronica Lin Shares Her Perspective
Today’s consumers are cynical when choosing MULO (multi-location) brands. They realize that most advertising and PR is created by brands and therefore potentially inauthentic. That’s where User Generated Content (UGC) plays a huge role in marketing today. “Content created by real people greatly sways purchasing choices across age groups, with 79% of individuals influenced by it and 93% […]
BOOM & BUST: C-Stores Thrive While D-Stores Die
The C in this case stands for convenience store (C-Store), and the D stands for department store (D-Store) — both critical outlets in the MULO (multi-location) retail ecosystem. Brick-and-mortar locations in many categories are still alive and well despite consumers’ penchant for online shopping. Yet, some types of MULO brands are performing much better than […]
Commentary
3 Ways to Battle Efficiency Headwinds in 2024
You don’t have to look too deep for significance there: measurement is tough right now (even for measurement companies), and fraud is rampant and stands to get worse as AI governance lags behind AI adoption. No matter how big your brand or what industry you’re in, efficiency is going to be a challenge in 2024. […]
A Marketer’s Guide to Transitioning from Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies are going away. Not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but in the months to come, marketers will come face-to-face with the reality of a new world of marketing measurement. Google appears to be committed to their complete blocking of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024, so marketers need to prepare […]
Embracing AI in Media and Advertising
History changes slowly and then overnight. A mere two years ago, the early publicly-available generative AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google looked like curiosities–intriguing but plagued by obvious limitations. Today these models have advanced so far and so fast that they are already well on their way to changing media and advertising forever. AI is […]
Latest Posts
Hooters Locations Go Bust, Along With Other MULO Restaurants
Sometimes, we writers can’t resist a great pun! (Hooters…bust…get it?). But now let’s get serious. Hooters is the latest MULO (multi-location) food chain to announce the closure of many locations. The sports bar just announced that it was closing underperforming stores (although they didn’t reveal an exact number). But just because a MULO restaurant brand closes […]
57% of Consumers Want Brands to “Get Personal” on Streaming Media
Despite the often negative buzz about consumer privacy and the ubiquity of shopping and dining data, a new study revealed that most U.S. consumers (57%) prefer personalized ads to mass marketing when they’re watching streaming media. The study was done by Moloco, a machine-learning company. As advertising on streaming media has become more common, opportunities […]
The MULO Dozen: June Brands in Review
In addition to our ongoing reporting about technology, creative innovations, and openings/closings in the MULO (multi-location) brand space, we publish this monthly quick-read summary of some of the developments at retailers, restaurants, and service brands. Whether you have just a few minutes or a few hours each month to track MULO trends for brands, Street […]
Apple’s ATT Privacy Crackdown, Strategies for Success in a Privacy-first Landscape
Three years have passed since Apple introduced its App Tracking Transparency (Apple’s ATT) privacy framework. Advertisers have faced numerous challenges since then, including a major shift in consumer behaviors due to a global pandemic, lingering macroeconomic challenges, and the potential implications of Google’s ever-changing cookie deprecation deadline. These issues have forced advertisers to adapt their […]
BUST: Why Do So Many Sports Stores Declare Bankruptcy?
Among the MULO (multi-location) sporting goods stores that filed for Chapter 11 during the past decade are: Mountain Sports (50 sporting goods and apparel stores in seven states under Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores brands) Olympic Sports (70 stores) Modell’s (153 stores) Sport Chalet (47 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah) Sports Authority […]
Amperity and the Power of First-Party Data
Amperity is a customer data platform that excels at helping brands unify and organize their first-party data using an average 30 different sources. Making sense of this data helps brand marketers understand when the same customer target shows up across disparate digital systems and lets them know the person is not three or four different […]
LOMA Platform Boosts Hyperlocal Marketing for Franchises
If LOMA knows anything, it’s how to support franchise businesses. Since launching last September with a $2 million pre-seed venture capital round, the data-driven platform is ready to take the next step in supporting local marketing efforts. (LOMA stands for “local marketing.”) In recent weeks, LOMA launched the first enterprise software platform for multi-location franchise […]
UNFI and Swiftly Bring State-of-the-Art Retail Marketing to the Grocery World
UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.) supplies 30K stores across North America, ranging from small three-store regional brands to huge brands like Whole Foods. The largest wholesale distributor to the U.S. and Canada specializes in groceries, frozen foods, produce, health and beauty products, deli items, and bakery items. But their scope isn’t limited to getting these […]
Placer.ai Releases 100 Retail and Dining Index
Placer.ai, a market intelligence platform, has released its Placer 100 Retail and Dining Index, which it plans to release monthly in order to provide an ongoing understanding of retail’s status, challenges, and potential for brands including Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Crunch Fitness, Warby Parker and other large retail chains. Location analytics including visit trends, trade […]
The Pause that Refreshes – How Ads During Paused Content Can Refresh in 2024
Imagine this: You’re going through the motions and you take a quick break. You reach for your Coca-Cola and take a sip – it’s exactly what you needed. It was a small pause from your routine that captured and revived you, a pause that refreshes. This was the catchy tagline that encapsulated Coca-Cola as a […]
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Intent, Context and Attention: 3 Signals Helping Brands See in the Dark