News and Analysis
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
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
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
How Balanced Is Your 2023 Marketing Portfolio?
As you finalize your 2023 strategy, keep in mind that you’ll need to balance your media investments like a financial portfolio — a strong position in performance marketing requires an offset in brand and demand building and vice versa.
Navigating Economic Uncertainty: Follow the Ad Spend Trends and Stay Flexible
2022 continued the (sometimes unpleasant) pattern of being an unprecedented year in many ways for the advertising industry. As a result, here are a few considerations that marketers, publishers, and agencies should pay close attention to in 2023.
The 3 C’s at the Foundation of Successful Agencies
Here are three C’s (and no, we’re not talking about third-party cookies!) to focus on to position your agency for long-term success.
Latest Posts
BUST: A Hard Landing as Soft Surroundings Files for Bankruptcy
Here we go again…another beloved retailer shutters its brick-and-mortar operations. Soft Surroundings filed for bankruptcy this week. This MULO (multi-location) women’s clothing brand once had 80 locations physical locations (reduced to 44) and is now shuttering all of them. The company, which released its first catalog in 1999, also sold home goods and accessories. However, […]
Captify, Adform Partnership Creates First End-to-End Contextual Activation
A new partnership between the search intelligence firm Captify and Adform, a programmatic platform, is creating an industry-first end-to-end contextual activation that bypasses the need for cookie identifiers. The collaboration between the Captify and Adform enables privacy-first, audience-based programmatic buying for marketers, opening the door to greater scale across inventory pathways, which are often deprioritized […]
Touchdown! How MULO Brands Score During Football Season
Many retailers and restaurants already have their eyes on the December holidays and are filling the shelves with pumpkin spice everything and costumes. We understand that huge MULO (multi-location) chains have planned their inventory and marketing campaigns months in advance. Advertising, licensing deals, and other NFL football properties add a whopping $5B to the U.S. […]
5 Consumer-Permissioned Data Platforms to Watch
The concept of data privacy has taken center stage in 2023. As consumers grow more aware of the value of their personal information — and the potential risks associated with its misuse — a new paradigm that places power back into the hands of individuals is beginning to emerge. Consumer-permissioned data platforms are at the […]
Generative AI is Revolutionizing SMB Marketing, But Creating New Data Privacy Challenges
The AI revolution has just begun, and small business owners are already reaping the rewards. Ninety-one percent of SMBs currently using AI say the technology has made their businesses more successful, but Scorpion Chief Data Scientist Matt Bentley believes the greatest benefit to generative AI is below the surface, and not yet realized by many […]
LOMA Wants to Fund Hyperlocal Marketing
Alex Nocifera is the founder and CEO of LOMA, which launched in market this past July. Backed by top Los Angeles-based venture funds, Wavemaker, Slauson, and Impulsum, LOMA stands for “local marketing” and is an always-on, data-driven platform that has raised more than $2 million in a pre-seed venture-capital round. LOMA’s equity dollars help businesses […]
Retail Media Networks – Opportunity vs. Reality
Retail media networks have grown in popularity amid the growing emphasis on ROI across today’s complex consumer purchase journeys and recent restrictions on third-party cookie usage. Many advertisers are eager to take advantage of retail media’s unique targeting opportunities. These include a blend of online and offline data gleaned from retailers themselves and available within […]
Retailers Revolutionize Store Location Selection with Geospatial Intelligence
It’s a tale as old as time. A retailer picks a storefront, leases a building, and renovates a space — only to discover that the location itself is a dud. Maybe there isn’t enough foot traffic, or parking is too difficult. Or maybe shoppers in the neighborhood just aren’t interested in buying whatever products the […]
StoreConnect, a Trailblazing Force in E-commerce, Raises $9 Million
E-commerce has come into focus as a critical solution — sometimes the only solution — for small and mid-size businesses that want to sell outside their physical stores and collect insights into consumer behavior. Given the important role that online sales now play in local commerce, it’s no surprise that firms focused on the e-commerce […]
Search Fails May Cost Retailers as Much as $13.8B in Sales This Holiday Season
MULO (multi-location) retailers struggle to compete with Amazon, the online giant. But they are never going to win that battle if they don’t focus on search for the holiday season. A new study by Nosto reveals that as much as $13.8B in sales may be lost on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) because when consumers […]
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