News and Analysis
Why is Waffle House So Successful? An FSR Conversation with Danny Klein
Danny Klein is the Editorial Director of FSR (full-service restaurant), a media company covering the food industry. A recent study on the top brands in the FSR world has implications for any MULO (multi-location) brand—restaurants, retailers, and service businesses. The study, created in partnership with Datassential, ranks the brands based on their number of units. The […]
AI in Advertising, According to Criteo
Romain Lerallut, VP of Engineering at Criteo, believes that AI will play a fundamental role in advertising for MULO (multi-location) brands. Enabling marketers to “speak” directly to consumers at all stages of the decision-making and purchase process, AI will not only result in more effective campaigns but also save companies advertising dollars and resources. What […]
Pharma, Healthcare Brands Optimistic about Tech and Its Impact on Media Spending
Media spending by big pharma and other healthcare brands is getting better all the time this year. New findings from Mediaocean’s 2024 H2 Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Market Report, based on surveys conducted via Tech Validate in July 2024, say so. The report references data collected from a specific subset of 151 leading pharmaceutical and healthcare […]
Commentary
TikTok Raises its Local Game
TikTok continues to feel around and test features as it establishes itself as a social media powerhouse. It’s much earlier in that journey than incumbents like Instagram and Twitter, so we continue to see rapid-fire feature launches and trials. And like the above players, some of these are local in nature.
Latest Posts
BUST: Walk-In Weight Loss Jenny Craig Trims Down (and Disappears?)
Jenny Craig once had more than 600 locations and nearly $500M in revenue. But, like many industries, digital communications have been part of its downfall. The company announced this week that, after 40 years, they are shuttering all their locations. What are the factors that precipitated the massive change? New solutions for weight loss are […]
Data Waste Is Putting Retail Loyalty at Risk — Here’s Why
Retail marketers are grappling with plenty of challenges in 2023. Data waste isn’t one of them. For most marketers, data wastage is at the bottom of the list in terms of global importance, far below issues like evolving privacy regulations and the looming death of third-party cookies. Treasure Data’s Zack Wenthe thinks that’s a mistake. […]
Consumers Continue to Spend with Department Store Brands
When Commerce Signals, a TransUnion company that provides credit and debit card insights for retail, restaurants, and entertainment, discovered that department store brands TJ Maxx, Kohls, Nordstrom, and Bergdorf Goodman took market share from the likes of Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, and Saks, Nick Mangiapane was not surprised. “That’s exactly the kind of question that Commerce […]
With Google Cloud’s BigQuery , Habu Makes Data Collaboration Safer
By all indications, data clean rooms have gone mainstream. Eighty percent of advertisers that spend more than $1 billion annually on media are expected to use data clean rooms this year, according to IAB, but interoperability and high costs are still proving to be a challenge, and no single developer of data clean room software […]
Airship Uses OpenAI to Enable Localized Content in Different Languages
App-customer retention rates just got a little easier to achieve if one tech company has its way. Airship, which puts the user experience at the center of the branded-app ecosystem and has powered trillions of mobile app interactions for thousands of global brands, has made some upgrades to its own technology. For the first time […]
BUST: The Very Public Demise of Bed Bath & Beyond
Who will remember the brand Bed Bath & Beyond in a few years, and what will they say? Only time will tell, but in the interim, the retail media has had no fodder shortage over the past few weeks, dissecting how and why this iconic multi-location brand declined and ultimately declared bankruptcy. Monday morning quarterbacks […]
Connected TV Ad Measurement Tools That Link Data to Identity
Connected TV advertising has become increasingly popular in recent years, as more people cut the cord and turn to streaming services for all-things entertainment. However, measuring the effectiveness of CTV ads and attributing their impact to business outcomes has continued to challenge agencies and advertisers. Advertising with CTV and streaming increased 57% in 2021, to […]
KNIME Helps Improve Margins, Effectiveness for Brands
Retail and CPG leaders strategically use data to drive profitability. KNIME, an open-source data analytics platform, has helped numerous retailers to forecast inventory and stock requirements to optimize SKUs and reduce costs. Its data science set of tools has an interface easy enough for beginners and powerful enough for experienced users. It has also enabled […]
Where’s the Beef? Multi-Location Steakhouses Moove Forward
Despite the popularity of plant-based meat alternatives, the steakhouse category is far from dead. This week, Olive Garden owner Darden dropped a sizzling $715M to buy the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse chain, comprising 150 locations and generating $505M last year. It joins multi-location steakhouses Eddie V’s (29 locations) and the Capital Grill (65 locations) in Darden’s […]
Direct Mail is Having a Moment. Incorporate it Into Your Mix
Snail mail never really died. It just went back into its shell during the digital advertising boom. During the pandemic, letter-writing and sending cards became popular. Beyond that, however, multi-location brands are seeing that the good old-fashioned postcard or direct mail may have value. In fact, 58% of marketers have more marketing budget allocated to […]
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