News Archives - Locala

5 Advertising Tips for Increased Growth for Auto Brands

Let’s talk about a shifting trend in the auto industry: the average visits to auto dealerships have never been lower. In fact, did you know that the average US auto buyer is only visiting 1.9 car dealerships when shopping for a new vehicle? At Locala, we know it’s a challenging landscape out there, and to navigate this competitive market auto brands need precise and scalable media strategies to not only attract fresh consumers but also nurture lasting customer loyalty. To help, we’ve compiled five best practices for auto brands to achieve long term growth in 2024 and beyond. Ready to dive in?

1. Optimizing Attention & Reach

In a world where ads are everywhere, capturing and retaining consumer attention is more challenging than ever. That’s why establishing a strong brand presence through local, upper-funnel strategies is crucial for any auto brand looking to stand out from the crowd. Our latest strategic partnership with DoubleVerify allows us to combine advanced Attention metrics with Locala’s unique offerings like affinity insights and precise audience segments so advertisers can significantly enhance their campaign performance and media quality.

By optimizing for user attention, we not only increase brand visibility but also set the stage for future conversion tactics. This helps brands make meaningful connections with potential car buyers and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

2. Dealership-Based DOOH Planning

Traditional approaches to Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) planning often cast a wide net with broad targeting, but at Locala, we believe precision is paramount. By overlaying our advanced affinity audiences into the DOOH planning process, we help auto brands pinpoint panel locations where car buyers are most likely to convert with a given brand. By using advanced audiences in the DOOH planning process, we are able to help brands move beyond broad targeting to reach the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

3. Last-Mile Tactics

The path to purchase for auto buyers is filled with many touch points across various channels. With so many steps to the funnel, it’s crucial that brands are seamlessly guiding them through their purchase journey. By combining mobile and DOOH advertising, Locala creates a ‘last mile companion’ that extends DOOH reach and engages buyers wherever they are.

Additionally, personalized retargeting helps to reinforce brand messages, ensuring that potential buyers stay engaged even after they’ve left the dealership. Taking things a step further, our Store Navigator format simplifies and enhances the overall customer experience by providing creative that directs users to the nearest auto dealership. This helps auto brands deliver a seamless and personalized journey from initial awareness to dealership visit.

4. Dynamic Inventory-Based Ads

As auto brands gear up for national campaigns, it’s critical to remember the significance of engaging local consumers. This entails having a deep understanding of the local markets and audience preferences of a consumer in a given area.

Locala’s Dynamic Creative ensures that messaging is tailored with the available stock at individual dealerships. And by promoting second-hand and discounted models customized to each dealership’s current inventory, we can enhance the impact of advertising campaigns and drive more qualified leads. In essence, delivering personalized ads that caters not only to the local dealerships but also the buyer, results in a higher return on investment.

5. Boosting Customer Lifetime Value

In the automotive industry, the relationship with a customer doesn’t end after the initial purchase. Continuing to nurture the consumer relationship is essential for maximizing the lifetime value of each customer and driving long-term success. Using data-driven insights, we help brands retarget past buyers with personalized offers for service and maintenance upgrades. By transforming single sales into ongoing service engagements, we foster customer loyalty and build lasting relationships that turn customers into brand advocates.

How Brands like Hyundai and Audi use Location-Based Advertising

Now, let’s talk about real-life use cases! How have other leading auto brands used location-based advertising to drive growth?

Hyundai developed a multi-location advertising strategy based on 17 activations spread over the year to support 202 dealerships across the country. Using affinity audiences, personalized retargeting, and ads that resonated at the local level, Locala was able to drive 49K visits to Hyundai dealerships resulting in a 23% uplift in footfall. This campaign received the GOLD award in the “Mobile-to-store” category in March 2023 awarded by Les Cas d’Or in partnership with Alliance Digitale.
Audi leveraged an omnichannel strategy to increase foot traffic to a selection of 144 dealerships spread over 3 regions. Locala used affinity insights to increase awareness among the right consumers, and then retargeted them across mobile and audio to drive them down the funnel. This resulted in over 10K visits to the dealership and a x6 uplift in footfall.

To learn more about how other automotive brands are leveraging location intelligence and consumer insights to power their media strategies, contact us now!

Driving Store Traffic with Omnichannel,
Location-Based Audience Targeting

In the realm of digital marketing Locala sets itself apart with a unique approach that fuses mobility data with rich audience insights. This allows brands to not only to identify an audience but connect with the most valuable consumers in the areas where they’re most likely to be reached.

Guiding You to Identify Valuable Audiences

Locala identifies your most valuable audience. Our data-centric approach dives deep into audience targeting insights and consumer mobility patterns to identify your ideal customer profile.

By focusing on those with the greatest likelihood to interact and engage with your brand at every stage of the customer journey, we ensure that your advertising resonates and converts.

Our capabilities go beyond basic targeting, allowing brands to activate Competitors Conquesting : Strategically targeting customers of competing brands, turning potential competitors’ customers into clients, and casual clients into brand loyalists.

Boosting Impact with Location Intelligence

Locala harnesses the power of location intelligence to strategically deploy advertisements, ensuring they strike with maximum relevance and impact. We place your brand’s message where your audience is most likely to see it and at a moment they’re most ready to receive it. Our location-based targeting considers not just geographic positions but integrates the context of your audience’s current situation, profile, and behavior.

This strategic approach boosts the likelihood of consumers taking the action to visit your store, effectively turning passerby traffic into potential customers.

Optimizing DOOH Planning: Selecting Panels in Prime Areas

Locala’s platform ensures that we handpick only DOOH panels located in areas identified as having high potential for impact.

By focusing our placements in zones that promise the greatest ROAS, we not only enhance the visibility of your campaigns but also amplify the end results

For instance, leveraging in-store screens for last-meter marketing efforts, Locala ensures your message is the final nudge customers need as they make purchase decisions.

Combining DOOH and Mobile to maximize impact

Locala blends DOOH activations with mobile marketing strategies that enhance each other:

Strengthen reach in areas lacking DOOH panels for thorough audience engagement.
Deploy immersive and personalized mobile experiences to engage potential customers
Retarget consumers on their mobile devices after they interact with our DOOH ads, strengthening the CTA and directing them to your nearest store

This multi-channel approach amplifies the effectiveness of our Drive to Store campaigns, creating a cohesive consumer journey from digital engagement to in-store experience.

Enriching Customer Engagement with Post-sales Insights

Locala’s post-sales insights are designed to offer brands a detailed understanding of their campaigns’ effectiveness and the behaviors of their customers.

Panel-Level Analytics: Offering granular data on the performance of individual DOOH panels and mobile ad placements.
Attribution Modeling: Understanding the direct impact of marketing efforts on sales and foot traffic, for each channel.
Audience Insights: Gaining a deeper understanding of who responded to your campaigns, including demographic breakdowns, interests, and behaviors, to tailor future messaging.

Driving Real Results

We’ve helped brands achieve significant increases in foot traffic and sales by leveraging omnichannel activations, encompassing DOOH and mobile.

For example, a recent campaign for Levi’s experienced a 65% traffic uplift, with a total of 15K in-store visits, thanks to our targeted DOOH and mobile efforts that led to a 15% increase in the intent to purchase among both Parents and Students audience segments.

Want to know more about our Location Based Targeting capabilities and Omnichannel Solutions ? Contact us now.

Precision in Audience Discovery:
Maximizing Campaign Effectiveness
with Location Intelligence

With shifting consumer behaviors and highly nuanced preferences, a one-size-fits-all approach to audience targeting is no longer an effective way to maximize advertising campaigns. As marketers aim to bring more precision to their media strategies, understanding who and where their target audiences are has never been more important. At Locala, we recognize the pivotal role that accurate audience insights play in pinpointing the right consumers, with the right messaging, in the right locations. Let’s delve deeper into some pivotal axes of audience discovery powered by our insights and planning solutions.

Discovering Audience Potential Based on Socio-Demographic Profiles

Locala’s Audience Explorer feature allows advertisers to delve into consumer potential based on specific socio-demographic criteria. By leveraging location-based, socio-demographic insights, brands can identify areas where their target audience is most highly concentrated, ultimately pinpointing locations that are primed for engagement.

Taking things a step further, advertisers can then start to refine their main personas at the local level. With these insights in hand, marketers can craft tailored creative messaging designed to resonate with specific groups of consumers. This enables brands to address their core markets with efficient marketing strategies designed to increase engagement and deliver return on investment.

Discovering Audience Potential Based on Brand Affinity

Dynamic Commerce Areas (DCA) is a cornerstone of our audience capabilities, going beyond traditional demographics to identify the business potential for a given brand in any market. Our DCA insights analysis serves as a potent tool for discovering audience potential based on brand affinity.

By interpreting affinity metrics within DCA, advertisers gain unprecedented insights into the preferences and loyalties of consumers towards specific brands at the hyperlocal level. These granular insights allow advertisers to identify pockets of consumers with a heightened affinity for particular brands within specific geographic areas.

For instance, imagine pinpointing consumers with a strong affinity for McDonald’s across 9 zip codes, reaching a staggering 459K potential customers. Conversely, to support conquesting efforts, brands can identify and target consumers who have high affinities towards their competitors. This allows marketers to eliminate wasteful spending by connecting with their most qualified audiences with messaging tailored to the consumer.

Audience Precision: The Path to Campaign Success

By unlocking consumer insights surrounding socio-demographics and affinity, advertisers gain a comprehensive understanding of their target audiences at a hyperlocal level. Armed with this knowledge, advertisers can plan more precise and effective ad campaigns that resonate with consumers on a personal level, driving meaningful interactions and ultimately, conversions.

As more and more marketers are tasked with bringing precision to their media strategies, understanding the intricacies of their target audiences’ demographics, behaviors, and brand affinities is key. At Locala, we recognize the pivotal role that accurate audience insights play in this process, and using advanced, location-based data, we’ve been able to help marketers unlock new advertising opportunities and deliver return on investment for their brands.

Want to learn more about Locala’s audience discovery capabilities? Contact us now.

Locala joins forces with NooS
to launch the Digital Clean up Challenge

Locala is happy to share its latest Digital Clean Up initiative as part of its commitment to make a positive impact on the environment.

Launched in partnership with NooS, the “Digital Clean Up Challenge” aims to raise awareness about digital pollution and inspire sustainable digital practices. This campaign is taking place at a time when the pollution produced by digital activities is getting increased attention for its negative impact on the environment. In this context, the goal is to reduce Locala’s digital footprint and set an example for the industry and community.

How does it work?
The Digital Clean Up Challenge is a month-long campaign raising awareness about digital sobriety by encouraging team members to take part in different challenges. Their collective actions unlock contributions to a featured NGO. The Plastic Odyssey Development has been selected by NooS as the recipient of Locala’s donation as part of this challenge. The NGO supports plastic recyclers by providing technical assistance, training, and guidance on business models.

Locala’s RSE Engagement in Sustainability
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of Locala’s business approach fundamental pillars, with a focus on making a positive impact on communities. With a commitment to measure the impact of its economic, environmental, and social activities, Locala actively supports the UN Global Compact and adheres to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Locala’s Initiatives for the Planet
Locala has been actively involved in raising awareness among employees about environmental issues in the digital industry and encourages Localers to take part in local and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Ecoride by Locala

On June 8th, Locala hosted an exciting event called Eco Ride by Locala, which celebrated the eco-responsible initiative of cycling while supporting the preservation of the French forest and its biodiversity. This event, piggybacking on the UN’s World Bicycle Day, brought together 20 enthusiastic participants who volunteered to ride for a reliable mode of transport and adventure.

The Eco Ride offered a challenge accessible to all, whether riding a classic road bike or opting for a softer option with an electric bike. The goal was to not only enjoy the picturesque surroundings but also contribute to a sustainable cause. For every 100 kilometers cycled during the event, donations were made to finance tree planting through the Locala x EcoTree partnership.

Jean-François Coutanceau, in charge of the project, noted that “Over the course of the day, the participants collectively rode more than 1000 kilometers, showcasing their support for this eco-friendly initiative. Their efforts will make a difference in preserving the environment and promoting sustainable practices”.

Locala’s RSE Engagement in Sustainability

At Locala, we believe that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a fundamental pillar of our business approach, aiming to make a positive impact on communities. With a commitment to measuring the impact of their economic, environmental, and social activities, Locala actively supports the UN Global Compact and adheres to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Locala’s Initiatives for the Planet

Locala has been actively involved in raising awareness among employees about environmental issues in the digital industry and encourages Localers to take part in local and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

By collaborating with Ecotree, Locala contributes to the preservation and promotion of vibrant forests across Europe, ensuring the sequestration of CO2 and credible carbon removals.

The Power of Location and Mobility Data for Optimal DOOH Marketing

In the ever-evolving marketing landscape, businesses are always looking for ways to more effectively connect with their target consumers. With the rise of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising, new and innovative techniques for audience targeting have emerged. One that has quickly gained traction and adoption among the advertising industry is the use of location and mobility data.

Location data reveals where consumers are, while mobility data paints a picture of their movement patterns. Together, they form a potent combination that empowers marketers to select the most impactful DOOH panels that will reach the right audiences.

Leveraging Location and Mobility Data for Audience Targeting

Let’s illustrate this concept with an example. Suppose you’re a car manufacturer looking to target a specific demographic – let’s say, 30-40-year-old urban professionals. By overlaying location data (which can indicate areas with a high density of this demographic) with available DOOH panels, you can select the ones that are most likely to reach your audience. Simply put, mobility data helps you optimize your DOOH panel selection based on real, actionable insights.

The Role of Location Data in Measuring DOOH Impact

The power of location data goes beyond just precise audience targeting. It’s also a strategic asset for gauging the effectiveness of a DOOH activation. By analyzing the changes in in-store traffic patterns before and after a DOOH campaign, businesses can measure the impact of their campaigns on driving visits. This is especially useful for companies with physical locations.
Moreover, mobility data can fuel attribution engine technology, which helps brands optimize their DOOH activations and overall media mix by considering in-store traffic insights. This essentially allows for an accurate measure of the return on investment for each marketing channel, helping businesses to allocate resources more efficiently.

Choosing the Right Partner for Your Data-Driven Strategy

Locala, with its extensive database of over 300 million US users, is designed to support brands in their data-driven omnichannel marketing strategy. With its rich data sources and industry expertise, Locala can help you not only reach, but resonate with your target audience, making your marketing investments more effective and impactful.
The future of DOOH marketing lies in leveraging location and mobility data for better targeting, measurement, and optimization. This data-driven approach promises to revolutionize the DOOH landscape, helping brands connect with audiences in a more relevant and meaningful way.

Miele chooses Locala and PHD for their drive-to-store campaign “For a Better Future”

Translated from Italian. Original version available here.

“You have chosen to be sustainable. Now keep doing it” – In February this year, Miele was at the center of an omnichannel advertising project dedicated to laundry line products (washing machines, dryers, and/or washer-dryers) and a promo created in collaboration with DaunenStep.

From February 16 to 28, by purchasing a Miele low-impact appliance, customers could obtain a quilt or a gift card from the famous household linen brand.

In addition to the drive-to-store campaign, Miele chose to activate digital and radio ads, from January 30.

Locala put its 360° expertise at the service of the campaign objectives, from reaching Miele’s target audience to generating visits within the 81 selected retailer stores.

Given the need to work in a localized way on different POIs, PHD – Omnicom Media Group’s media, communications, and marketing agency – selected a player whose technology could give the right visibility to meet the client’s needs in the various regions involved. The agency was also looking for a partner with in-depth reporting capabilities to produce insights that could help implement different future marketing strategies.

By implementing an efficient mobile strategy, Locala reached the target audience (adult +30 yo) in close proximity to Miele stores (shoppers located within 15 minutes walking distance or 30 minutes driving distance).

In addition, Locala’s proprietary DSP, Fusio, made it possible to target high-spending households characterized by interests akin to the Miele’s brand: high-tech and design lovers.

In less than a month (from February 8 to 26), Locala’s campaign achieved the following results: increasing in-store visits by 11% and incremental visits by 13% compared to a previous drive-to-store activation done for Miele (January-March 2022).

Footfall uplift also achieved a higher score than before, 63% (+2 pts) with a visit rate of 0.90%.
Finally, the cost per total visit achieved a 49% optimization over the lowest range benchmark on industry and product type.

On the flip side, the effectiveness of Locala’s technology also made it possible to monitor and collect very detailed insights on the performance of individual stores on a regional basis and according to socio-demographic criteria.

Stores in the Italian region of Campania generated 33% of total visits, making the region the best-performing region in terms of number of visits.

While in Puglia area, stores ranked second in terms of number of visits, achieving an optimized cost per visit of 45% compared to the total cost per visit of the campaign.

In addition, the 22 stores distributed in the following areas Emilia Romagna, Marche, and Puglia recorded 35 % of total visits.

“The mobile strategy has now become an integral part of Miele’s omnichannel campaigns because it allows us to reach our target consumers near defined POIs thus optimizing drive-to-store campaigns. Locala’s technology and support have proven useful not only in the planning phase with PHD, but also by providing insights regarding online and offline consumer behaviors related to individual stores that are very meaningful to us and to our partners who have been able to test the potential of this solution.“

Andrea Scroccaro – Head of Marketing Communication at Miele Italia

“We are delighted that Miele and PHD have once again chosen to partner with us. I am extremely pleased with how the entire Locala team has demonstrated effectiveness and efficiency that made these results possible, obviously supported by technology that is unparalleled in the world of omnichannel campaign strategies.”

Benvenuto Alfieri – Italy Country Manager at Locala

“The four-handed collaboration we had with the PHD team allowed us to set up a strategy that best met the needs and KPIs of the Miele client. The results obtained confirm the importance of the implementation of tailor-made strategies, which Locala can provide with pre-campaign analysis and post-campaign insights, allowing the optimization of projects in the future as well.”

Daria D’Addazio – Sales Director of Locala Italy

About Locala

Locala is the world’s leading commerce media platform, leveraging consumer insights and location data to increase brand awareness, drive consumers to store, and deliver smarter business outcomes. Our proprietary technology enables local advertising and insights at scale, all while meeting the highest user privacy standards in the industry.

About PHD

PHD is the media, communications, and marketing agency known worldwide for its ability to innovate in planning and buying across all traditional and emerging media channels.
Founded in London in 1990 as a media planning agency, PHD now has more than 6,500 employees working in more than 100 offices in 74 countries.
Built on a culture of thought leadership, innovation, and creativity, PHD is now one of the fastest-growing communications networks in the world.
Innovation and creativity are also fostered through Omni Studio – a global collaborative platform that draws strength from across the PHD network – and Omni – Omnicom’s insight and precision marketing platform. The network holds the title Media Network of the Year 2020 and 2021 at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, M&M Global’s Network of the Year 2020, EMEA Media Network of the Year 2021 at the Campaign Awards, and is currently in the top four positions of the Warc Media 100 ranking, which selects the world’s most awarded agencies.
In Italy PHD is active in two locations, Milan and Verona.
PHD is part of Omnicom Media Group, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC)

Increasing Foot Traffic to Luxury Automotive Dealerships

In 2022, the automotive industry faced a number of challenges – from increasing economic concerns to rising inflation and supply chain disruptions. In order to stay competitive, many brands have relied on their marketing strategies to help drive sales in what is an unusually tough market. In fact, this year, the automotive industry is expected to spend over $18 billion on digital advertising in the US alone, a 10% increase from the previous year.

At Locala, we’ve seen similar trends among our automotive customers. Our Commerce Media Platform has helped brands like Audi and Volkswagen leverage consumer insights and location data to grow brand awareness, drive consumers to store, and increase revenue. Most recently, we partnered with a luxury automotive OEM on a holiday campaign who was looking to drive Hispanic audiences to their dealerships in key regions. Read on below to find out which targeting tactics and channels helped drive increased foot traffic to their dealerships!

The Client

A leading automotive luxury OEM wanted to launch a holiday DOOH campaign that would reach hispanic audiences within close proximity to their dealerships within the Miami, NYC and LA markets.

The Strategy

Dynamic Commerce Areas
In order to drive foot traffic to the top OEM dealerships, Locala leveraged its location intelligence planning tool, which strategically targeted DOOH panels within high-concentration Hispanic areas in Miami, NYC, and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles

Miami

New York

DOOH + Mobile
Locala implemented a multi-channel campaign across DOOH and Mobile, with custom creative specifically targeted to hispanic audiences.

The Results

Through a location-first targeting approach and a multi-channel activation strategy, Locala was able to greatly increase visitation rates to the brands top dealerships:

0.11% Visitation Rate
2K+ Visits
$21.58 CPV

Overall, Locala was able to create a highly effective campaign that reaches the client’s target audience at the right time, on the right channel, in the right place.

If you’re interested in learning how location intelligence might work for you, reach out to our team using the form below!

Locala Launches New Retail Analytics Features For Smarter Business Outcomes

More and more, marketers are facing challenges when it comes to identifying and reaching the best audiences that will ensure the highest return on investment for their brands. Between new privacy regulations, and a lack of effective attribution and measurement reporting, many are left wondering – are my campaigns actually working?

To address those industry challenges, Locala created Retail Analytics – a location intelligence platform that offers detailed insights into consumer shopping behavior at both national and local levels. With Retail Analytics, advertisers can analyze and track store visits, footfall trends, competitor cross-visitation metrics, and more, all while meeting the highest user privacy standards in the industry.

We’re excited to share the new enhancements to our platform that will help provide even more granularity and omnichannel insights for our customers advertising campaigns.

Here’s what’s new

1/ Enhanced geo-targeting.

Using the score function, you can easily remove unnecessary low areas of concentration and identify key zip codes to target. This will enable you to effectively target the right areas, and increase your client’s ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

2/Targeting the best zip code for DOOH panel placements.

Our latest release includes new capabilities for geotargeting export and DOOH export, which allow you to extract top-ranking zip codes and DOOH panels within a designated area based on socio-demographic data and DOOH-specific criteria. This feature will help you identify the most valuable inventory for activation, and allocate your budget more effectively.

Leveraging location intelligence to target the best audience, activate the most effective channel, and measure results has never been easier!

To learn more about our Retail Analytics features and other advertising solutions, please contact us today.

Say goodbye to radius targeting, and hello to travel time

Article by Pierre-Emmanuel Padiou

The topic of geomarketing is steadily gaining traction, especially as advertisers are looking for inexpensive, easy, and reliable targeting solutions.

Users are no longer searching for locations based on distance, but on the maximum travel time it will take them to get there. Picture this: You are looking for a place to eat near your office. As a user you want to be able to select one that requires no more than a 15-minute driving distance, instead of knowing that this location is 2.3 miles away.

Luckily, at Locala six years ago we developed a core technology to help: Isochrone Targeting. This technology effectively targets areas based on driving or walking time around your location(s). As we are privacy compliant, you can target and scale the right audience at a local level!

Guess who started to highlight a similar feature: Google. If you’re searching for hotels in Google Maps, you will notice you can now choose one based on travel time. Now is the time for marketers, and advertisers to invest in a similar approach. Why? If users are venturing to locations with travel time in mind, you will need to capture and reach these high-potential consumers that are outside of a traditional radius.

Are you interested in learning more about how our commerce media platform can help your brand reach more consumers and drive business growth?

The Importance of Data Privacy Compliance at Locala

“Privacy will always be a big factor that will help business growth and it will be done in a beneficial way that both helps the consumer and the brands and inevitably the economy. If you put privacy first, and then work with your brands to connect with those consumers, you’ll grow.”

Locala’s Managing Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Americas Ed Silhan. LinkedIn interview

As a commerce media solution that uses location data to help brands drive business to their stores, privacy is at the core of everything we do. We strongly believe that a consumer’s essential right to privacy shouldn’t prevent them from discovering your brand. Simply put, our approach is not focused on individual data but on the analysis of aggregated mobility trends within a commerce area.

In this post, we answer the most commonly asked questions about our data use based on this approach.

What type of data do we use?

We mainly collect GPS and IDFA information from phones and tablets.

Locala was founded 11 years ago in France, the birthplace of GDPR, often described as the toughest privacy and security law in the world. Our compliance with this European data privacy regulatory framework requires us to only use data obtained through opt-in. It is worth noting that our processing system automatically filters out personal data that was not obtained through opt-in for a specific use.

Once the data we collect has served its purpose, it is aggregated and we discard all personal information.

How can you activate efficient geotargeting ad campaigns without tracking devices?

We are not interested in device-centric data as our approach is based on point of interests analysis (work site, store, venue, etc..). We use census block analysis, which is the most commonly used statistical method for mapping specific trends within a specific area. While this method requires precise information regarding the boundaries of the location defined, it allows us to avoid tracking individual devices.

How can you give relevant insights to brands without relying on individual data?

While most advertisers relying on geotargeting gather a significant amount of data to guide brands, our 10 years of experience as a leader in drive-to-store campaigns allows us to adopt a reverse approach using brand needs as the starting point. We first identify the needs of the brands we serve and then only use a small amount of data to help them drive growth.

How has data privacy regulation impacted your technology?

Because we only need a small amount of data to produce valuable insights, our technology has not been impacted by recent data regulations like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT). As we look towards an increasingly privacy-first environment, our approach is based on developing technology that is more and more reliable while using less and less individual data.

Do you want to learn more about how our privacy-first solution can help your business grow? Contact us today!

Ed Silhan Appointed Managing Director & CRO, Americas

Industry veteran, and current Chief Revenue Officer, Ed Silhan, expands his role to fuel company growth across the US, Canada, and Latin America.

New York, New York, June 30, 2022 – As part of Locala’s commitment to continued expansion of the award-winning drive-to-store platform, CEO and Founder, Christophe Collet announced the promotion of Ed Silhan to Managing Director & CRO, Americas effective July 1, 2022. “Since joining Locala in 2018 as Chief Revenue Officer, Ed has been instrumental in building and leading our sales efforts throughout the region,” commented Mr. Collet, “and I know he is the right person to help take Locala to the next level.”

Prior to joining Locala, Mr. Silhan held senior leadership positions at industry powerhouses including eBay, PayPal, SITO mobile, and Meredith Corporation. His track record of building strong client relationships and driving incremental business through his vast network of industry contacts was key to fueling Locala’s expansion into the US market.

“I am honored to be part of such an incredible team, and I look forward to working together with Christophe, as well as our talented sales and operations teams in the US, Canada, and Latin America, to bring Locala’s drive-to-store platform to even more brands. We’ve got an exciting future ahead of us here!” said Mr. Silhan.

About Locala
Trusted for more than a decade by the world’s top retailers, restaurants and auto brands, Locala is the recognized leader in driving consumers to stores and measuring the results. Locala’s powerful and complete suite of digital marketing tools provides unmatched visibility into shoppers and competitors while delivering complete control over where and when brands can reach high-potential consumers and drive them to buy. Founded in 2012, the company has offices in the United States, France, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and the UAE.

Even Amazon Agrees: Shoppers Prefer Physical Stores

Online retail sales have been steadily increasing since Amazon first launched their book selling website in 1995, but despite many predictions to the contrary, the physical store still reigns supreme, with over 85% of retail sales being conducted in person. Despite Amazon’s incredible market share of eCommerce sales, the online store accounts for just 1% of total retail sales. This week Amazon is doubling down on the continued endurance of physical stores with the appointment of Doug Harrington, CEO, Worldwide Amazon Stores.

In addition to over 500 Whole Foods Markets, Amazon’s physical stores include Amazon Go convenience stores, Amazon Books stores, Amazon 4-Star outlets, as well as Amazon Pop-Up locations. And in May, Amazon launched its first-ever Amazon Style store in Glendale, California, where customers can browse apparel and accessories on display in the massive, glass-walled storefront (that is fueled by the even more massive Amazon warehouse behind it).

What does this mean for other location-based retailers? The high-tech features that Amazon has implemented, and continues to evolve in their physical stores, should definitely be on the watch list for other retailers hoping to compete against the retail giant. Features like room-ready alerts to your mobile phone when your dressing room is ready, browsing the Amazon website and sending items directly to your dressing room, self-service checkout stations, and buy online – pick up in store, are just some of the shopping experiences that consumers are starting to expect.

Locala’s Commitment to Corporate Social and Ethical Responsibility

Building on the steps that Locala, formerly Locala, has taken to reduce its carbon footprint and create an environment of diversity and inclusion, Locala has announced a continued commitment to engage employees in carrying out our mission. “As our company grows, so does our commitment to operating in a socially and ethically responsible manner by further solidifying and organizing our sustainability and diversity initiatives. We are thrilled to have had such an overwhelming response by our employees around the world to help support these causes,” commented Christophe Collet, CEO.

Our Planet: Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
In 2021, Locala received Bronze Status according to the EcoVadis scorecard. EcoVadis is an online platform that assesses individual company ESG and sustainability performance. Our goal for this year is to raise our rating to Silver Status through the following initiatives:

Set clear policies on environment, social, and governance
Conduct a third-party global audit
Publish our CSR commitments publicly
Create a marketing and social strategy to ensure transparency with our suppliers, clients, and the broader world
Sign the climate pledge & monitor our progress
Benchmark our carbon report against competitors in our industry
Commit to credible carbon offset targets

Locala has been making tremendous progress on these initiatives including:

Commitment to invest $100K in sustainability initiatives
Offset 200 tons of carbon through our long-term partnership with NOOS & Ecotree, planting over 17,000 trees across the world since 2019
Our office buildings in Paris, Marseille & Miami were all low-energy consumption centers.
Increased staff recycling to 75% participation through our Greenquest initiative

Our People: Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
As a global company with employees from all over the world, Locala is committed to creating a workplace where all are welcome and our differences are celebrated. Our goal in bringing diversity and inclusion to the forefront of our workplace is to:

Value, encourage and support a diverse workforce
Champion career and professional growth
Create a productive work environment free of harassment
Give back and support our local communities

Together, the 30+ volunteers of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI) committee created a mission statement centered around educating and celebrating the different backgrounds that represent our work community.

2022 DEI committee initiatives will include:

Internal Trainings: Inclusion, Equity & Unconscious Bias
Convening a subcommittee to audit external branding on a quarterly basis
Global Speaker Events

Leveraging Technology and Real Time to Generate In-Store Traffic

With the hybridization of consumption modes accelerated by Covid, stores must rethink their strategy to generate traffic. This is what Locala helps them do, as founder and CEO, Christophe Collet, explains.

What is Locala’s mission and what are its solutions?

For more than 10 years, Locala has been a leader in the drive-to-store market. We believe that the store is not only a place to sell, but also a place to connect with people and our mission is to drive as much traffic as possible to restaurants, stores and car dealerships.

We are a drive-to-store platform, whose sole purpose is to maximize real-time traffic to the point of sale and therefore revenue for our clients. To do this, our advanced algorithms optimize four dimensions in real time. Our technology defines the dynamic catchment area of each store, identifies the audiences most likely to come into the store and determines the best media to engage them – because every consumer behavior is different – and finally, we define the most appropriate advertising format. Our technology is able to create marketing campaigns with a single measure of effectiveness, the in-store visit.

How do you help companies adapt to the new post-Covid model?

The customer journey and consumption is no longer only digital or in-store, but has evolved to both at the same time. We help our clients understand and leverage this hybridization, identifying the right targets, in the optimal areas with the best message on the best medium. Our technology produces insights that help brands understand their catchment area, market share, competitive landscape, etc. If they are launching a new service, such as click and collect, we are able to help them through this transition by letting the right people know about the service. We also enable our clients to track geo-behavioral trends in real time at the store level and thus increase their knowledge of the customer and the competition.

In this post-Covid world, we have seen a growing shift in shopper habits. With our geolocation data, we’re seeing customers go back to the office, expanding their shopping opportunities beyond their home catchment area, but also through schools, offices and more. And we’re able to reach them with the right message wherever they are.

How has Locala evolved with the market in its 10 years of existence?

Locala has been used by more than 600 major brands worldwide for 10 years because we have been able to anticipate both technological and regulatory changes. For example, we have always focused on consumer data protection, and we only apply our technology to people who have consented to receive targeted, location-based advertising. We have evolved to adapt to new consumer habits, using the latest technology. This allows our clients to take advantage of the hybridization of the customer journey, in real time, which is a real technological breakthrough because it allows them to test new products or services, launch them quickly and know right away what the impact on their ROI is.

Originally posted on BMF Business

S4M is now Locala

Global Rebrand Announcement

We started Locala in 2012 with a single goal – create the best platform the world has ever seen for driving consumers to stores and proving the results. Ten years later, the top retailers, restaurant chains, and, auto dealerships from around the world look to us as their go-to partner for driving foot traffic to their brick and mortar locations, and digital traffic to their eCommerce stores.

The reason? Our data never sleeps, and our machine learning has been continuously optimizing since our launch, driving results that are 2-10X the competition. This is why in 2022 we are taking yet another huge leap. To celebrate our company’s 10 year anniversary, we at Locala are reinventing ourselves all over again.

We are doubling down on our commitment to supporting location-based businesses….by becoming Locala.

Changing our name to Locala cements our focus on leading innovation, discovery, performance, and service for businesses that are the backbones of our communities, our families, and our day-to-day lives.
We are so very excited about this change and what it means for the future. Our promise to all of you is that we will continue to work tirelessly in order to help you reach your goals.
Here’s to another amazing ten years!

The impact of Apple’s iOS App Tracking Transparency on Locala clients

As a largely responsible, self-regulated sector, the AdTech industry has regularly taken a mindful stance on data collection and consumer privacy throughout its existence. With the launch of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT) in iOS 14.5 and continuation in iOS 15, Apple has used their vertical integration of hardware and software to limit access to anonymized consumer data, and thus creating doubt in the minds of some as to their ability to continue activation and measurement activities similar to years past.

At Locala, we’ve been preparing for this update for some time as one of our most important priorities is to minimize any impact on our clients’ and partners’ business operations. Our mission is to empower our clients with impactful campaigns so they can drive their customers to stores, dealerships and restaurants and accurately measure the ROI.

The impact

Our July in-house impact study has shown we have not experienced any significant trend change related to iOS / ATT, whether it be op-in and opt-out rates, localization or audience targeting. Our reporting reliability, measurement accuracy (whether in-house or through our trusted partners) and targeting capabilities remain unchanged. This was proven throughout the latest campaigns we’ve run this summer.

Our teams have summarized the system impacts with the following important updates:

Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency has not impacted our offerings in any way.
Our ability to identify consumers and drive them to stores has not been impacted.
The industry-leading scalability of our campaigns has not been impacted.
Our ability to provide accurate and actionable reporting has not been impacted.

The bigger picture

Methodologies change as practices evolve, but core principles remain. We’re facing profound industry changes, and we must meet them through technical and structural evolution. At Locala, we have always been ahead of the game with our methodology, which allows us to anticipate and meet industry needs successfully. As a matter of fact, our product team has developed our very own extrapolation methodology, based on scientific principles, to ensure we are giving retailers an accurate view of their campaign results.

This extrapolation algorithm allows us to estimate the total number of visits generated by a campaign, including those that were not seen by the footfall measurer but did happen. It also gives us additional insights to help advertisers better assess the impact of their campaigns on business KPIs, and addresses potential data volume diminutions we could face in the future.

Our extrapolation methodology relies on complex statistical models and uses capture-recapture sampling, the reference methodology used in biology to estimate the size of animal populations.

What’s next?

At this stage, no one can fully predict how the ATT framework will affect the advertising industry in the long run, but we are closely monitoring the situation to continue delivering outstanding performance and addressing any concerns our clients and partners might have. While the industry as a whole should expect some disruption, we are confident Locala’s technology can and will be successful in this new ecosystem.

We’re standing together with Belgium to help flood victims

Nearly two weeks after unprecedented rains have hit several regions across Europe, Belgium is slowly recovering and rebuilding what has been devastated. In this very difficult and painful time, Locala’s thoughts and prayers are with the families of those victims and all in Belgium who have been affected by this catastrophe.

At Locala, we want to do our bit to support the Belgian community and help those people who have been struck by the floods get back on their feet. We want to leverage our technology and capabilities and use the power of advertising as a force for good. Advertising does not only sell, it can also help in times of need. This is why we’re partnering with the Belgian Red Cross to broadcast a nationwide advertising campaign to collect donations – pro bono.

There is a great need for financial support to allow humanitarian organizations in the field to work quickly and efficiently to save lives, get everyone to safety and begin cleaning up and removing debris. Every little bit counts, and if we all stand together, we can make this situation a little easier for the people who are now faced with the challenge of rebuilding their whole lives after having lost everything. Together, we can make a difference.

Click here to donate

People who want to give financial help can also do so on the account number BE70 0000 0000 2525.

Special Red Cross psychosocial support volunteers can be reached at 105 to help the people who have suffered from this traumatic episode, both financially and psychologically.

The Red Cross continues to intensify its actions and has set up food trucks throughout the country to address the needs of those affected.

Locala launches its very first Retail Insights Barometer

There’s no denying it, the retail revolution is underway! Whether it’s from a digital or societal perspective, the industry is facing some profound changes that have been accelerated by the health crisis we are going through today. If digital-savvy consumers already wanted to regain control of their purchases before the crisis, helped by technology and its many applications, this desire to give meaning back to their consumption has intensified today and implies many in-depth transformations for retailers.

At Locala, we want to help retailers drive more customers to stores, dealerships and restaurants by delivering outstanding advertising campaigns. This is why we’re launching the “Retail Insights” barometer, where we will be analyzing the trends that are reshaping the market through an in-depth study. It will consist of a trend book highlighting the 15 major developments that are shaking up the retail industry today and a quantitative and qualitative B-to-B section that will be unveiled later on this fall.

To give you a preview of what’s to come, discover these 6 major trends, taken from our Retail Insights barometer:

Pre-order your copy today!

Grand reopening – Belgium welcomes customers back to stores

2020 was the most unpredictable year most retailers have ever seen. But one thing is for sure, after long months of successive lockdowns, closed shops and social distancing, customers are ready, willing and able to hit their favorite spots.

And today, the wait is finally over! Starting this week, Belgium will begin easing coronavirus restrictions in a bid to go back to normal and kick-start recovery. This is fantastic news for non-essential businesses such as fashion outlets, hairdressers, bars and restaurants, who saw their foot traffic decrease by 40% year-on-year because of the pandemic (COMEOS).

As we enter a phase where brands and retailers will welcome customers eager to go back to stores, this is prime time for you to re-engage with your audience on all levels and get them through your doors. Drive-to-store advertising is the perfect way for you to do so (yes it is, we wrote a whole handbook about that).

At Locala, we’re here to help your brand succeed. We want to see busy stores, popular restaurants and thriving car dealerships. By using Fusio, our drive-to-store platform, you can:

Be top-of-mind for customers thanks to our proprietary and impactful ad formats.
Reconnect with your audience through effective affinity targeting, granular audience clusters, and precise geotargeting.
Get all the support you need with our campaign management tools.

Look at the results major brands like Volkswagen, Brico & BricoPlanit and Dr. Oetker achieved from running a drive-to-store campaign with Locala.

Get in touch with us to see how we can help you drive customers back to your stores, dealerships and restaurants.

Locala makes the French Tech 120 for second year running

Every year, French Tech 120 selects 120 promising French start-ups with the potential of becoming global technology leaders. We’re very proud to have made the cut for the second year in a row, which is a fantastic recognition of our drive-to-store technology.

Following a strange 2020, featuring in this list is even more meaningful. It is solid proof of the effectiveness of our platform and the strong foothold we’ve established in France. Our expansion into key European markets, as well as the US and Asia, has no doubt contributed to make us stand out among the hundreds of hopefuls for this 2021 edition. The awards we won throughout 2020 probably played in our favor too. Among them were: FrenchWeb’s FW500, Adweek’s Fastest Growing Solution Providers, The Drum Digital Advertising Awards, the MarTech Breakthrough Awards and the OMMA Awards.

We would not have achieved this without the work of our outstanding team and our award-winning drive-to-store technology, which have made Locala the worldwide leading platform it is today.

Congratulations to all the companies who have made it into this edition! Here’s to a year filled with new opportunities.

Plan your drive-to-store campaigns with our new location intelligence tool

Whether you are starting your drive-to-store advertising journey or you are seasoned in increasing your store traffic, there’s one thing that is true: you need data to make the right decisions.

In this case, you need visitation data for the stores where you are running campaigns to understand the impact across the board. But you need more than the number of visits coming from your campaign, you need the total number of visits for each store. Collect this data over time and you’ve got a solid understanding of the visitation patterns that govern each POI.

Our new location intelligence tool, Retail Analytics, allows you to do just that and it presents your data in a series of useful graphs and charts. The insights come divided in two sections: store network level and individual store level, to make sure you have your big picture data as well as your granular information per store.

At the network level you’ll want to look at overarching patterns and trends that change with time:

Top and bottom performing stores

Identify which ones could benefit from additional spend, or if a particular strategy has managed to push your store performance to the top tier.

Total and average number of visits per day

Two quick metrics to understand if your campaigns are having the desired effect.

Weekly and monthly visitation trends

An easy way to check your overall performance or to test drive-to-store campaigns and other media promotions in a few stores and understand the impact before launching to additional locations.

When you’re looking at how each store is performing:

Week on week visits comparison

A great way to see the impact at the store level is to focus on whether this trend is going up or down.

Armed with the power these insights give you, you’ll be able to:

Increase traffic across the board by identifying stores that could benefit from running additional activities.
Test your promotional activities and understand what worked well so that it can be repeated in other stores.
Make sure your ad spend is effective when you compare footfall disparities of stores with heavy ad spend vs smaller budgets.
Anticipate demand and improve the in-store customer experience by making sure your logistics and operations are ready to handle the influx of store traffic.

This tool is part of our commitment to help retailers increase their in store foot traffic. Thanks to it, we are able to provide data beyond their campaign performance that truly helps them see the big picture and understand how to best approach their drive-to-store activities.

If you are interested in learning more about this new solution or drive-to-store in general, get in touch.

Locala General Counsel Thomas Adhumeau appointed Chair of IAB Europe’s TCF DPA Outreach Working Group

IAB Europe has appointed Locala’s General Counsel Thomas Adhumeau chair of their TCF DPA outreach working group, as the body seeks formal approval of its Transparency and Consent Framework.

The DPA Outreach Working Group was set up by the TCF steering group to raise awareness and understanding of the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework among data protection authorities across Europe and in the UK.

The goal of the working group is to ensure the industry is able to engage with data protection authorities when necessary to address their questions and/or concerns with respect to the Framework. Any feedback received from data protection authorities is then shared with the Steering Group for further discussion. The aim is to continue to improve the TCF, so it can become an even better GDPR compliance tool for the advertising industry.

“I am pleased to be chairing the DPA outreach working group. We have a lot on our plate as data protection authorities across Europe release their guidelines outlining what they expect from the online advertising industry in terms of GDPR compliance. Formal approval of the TCF as a GDPR transnational Code of Conduct remains the goal. It’ll be a lot of work, but we are determined to make that happen”, shared Thomas Adhumeau.

Vice Chair was named as Paula Ortiz, Director of Legal and Institutional Affairs at IAB Spain.

For more information on the DPA outreach working group visit the IAB website.

Locala launches ‘Proximity by Locala’ to boost retailers’ local growth in France

[vc_row][/vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With shops, car dealerships and restaurants reopening for business in France, customers are more willing to spend than ever. But brick-and-mortar stores still have it tough, so we want to make sure they have the most successful ad campaigns possible to bring customers back through their doors.

At Locala, we know that local business matters. That’s why we’ve launched Proximity by Locala in France – a new omnichannel offer designed to help local retailers succeed.

Using unique local market data from an exclusive relationship with France Pub, Proximity by Locala delivers retailers insights into how to effectively plan and activate their omnichannel advertising spend, region by region and store by store.

The data provides retailers with strategic insights to tailor OOH, radio, leafleting and digital advertising plans to deliver the most effective strategy for each unique location, taking into account regional variations, mobility patterns and government restrictions. The digital advertising elements of these recommendations are activated through Fusio, our drive-to-store platform.

This new offer forms part of Locala’s broader drive-to-store offering, which has expanded beyond mobile, enabling brands to activate display, video, audio and OOH, with the goal of driving more customers into local French stores.

Proximity by Locala gives impactful insights into how to effectively plan and activate omnichannel advertising. Understanding local purchasing behavior, shopping habits and media channel impact is key for brands to tailor the right strategy and deliver the most effective campaign for each store location.[/vc_column_text][cm_button text=”Learn more about Proximity by Locala” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fgo.s4m.io%2Ffr%2FLocala-lance-proximity-pour-accompagner-la-croissance-locale-des-retailers%3Futm_source%3Dhs_email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26_hsenc%3Dp2ANqtz-_n6b3AeTjt5I5JMSr4ro9xAkgmXyp4wXqJ3qJe0cr8I1MoBrz5aRqWwjJVcP2Wi_Tb1JTq||target:%20_blank|” alignment=”text-center”]

What you need to know about the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework v2.0

With only three weeks left until the IAB’s TCF switches to v2.0, the digital advertising industry is putting the finishing touches to their policies to effectively deliver this collective vision.

This second iteration of the framework enables users to opt in or out of advertising targeting under GDPR. With TCF v2.0, consumers can grant or withhold consent and exercise their right to object to their data being processed. It’s a step up from the first framework that allows users more control over their personal data.

The IAB’s TCF v2.0 was officially approved by IAB Europe members in August 2019. Locala has been preparing for it from day one and we’re pleased to say that, thanks to the hard work of our product, legal and partnerships teams, we now fully support this second version of the IAB’s TCF. Locala has been involved from the very start to help deliver this vision, working on its development as part of the IAB Europe’s TCF Steering Group, as well as other working groups such as the Policy and DPA outreach groups.

Fusio, our drive-to-store platform, has supported v2.0 since early April, ahead of the IAB’s August 15 deadline. This means Locala now benefits from users directly opting into geolocation data, ensuring all advertising is user-friendly and transparent without impacting clients.

The IAB’s TCF v2.0 is a real asset for the industry. With enhanced transparency for users and greater control and flexibility for publishers, we’re convinced this new version will bring more choice and transparency to users and we’re already working with the IAB on a potential v3.0.

To learn more about TCF v2.0, visit the IAB Europe’s website.

This article was written by Thomas Adhumeau, General Counsel at Locala.

Locala commits to the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework v2.0

The IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework 2.0 was rolled out at the end of April. Locala fully committed to the scheme and supported V2 from April 1.

“TCF v2.0 enables consumers to grant or withhold consent and also exercise their ‘right to object’ to data being processed. Consumers also gain more control over whether and how vendors may use certain features of data processing, for example, the use of precise geolocation.” – IAB Europe

Since the announcement of TCF V2 Locala has been involved in its development through the IAB Europe’s TCF Steering Group, as well as other working groups such as the Policy and DPA outreach groups. We are convinced this new version from the IAB will bring more user choice and transparency to users.

Locala has been supporting V2 since April 1 and fine-tuned the way Fusio, our drive-to-store platform, responds to the new signals received. By the end of April we fully supported both V1 and V2, and we will start deprecating V1 when it is no longer in use by our publisher partners (which is currently due to occur by June 30^th). For those using our self-serve platform, there has been no change in campaign set-up or delivery.

We are aware that the Coronavirus may mean it is not possible for our partners to dedicate the necessary resources needed to fully implement V2 to the current deadline, so we are considering extending our deprecation date to ensure everyone is able to complete the work.

For more information on TCF V2.0 visit the IAB Europe website.

Locala launches green initiative to help neutralize carbon emissions

Locala announced today a brand-new green initiative to help remove carbon emissions generated by its drive-to-store campaigns. In a long-term partnership with sustainable forestry company EcoTree, Locala will plant new forests to help offset the impact advertising campaigns have on the environment.

From today, every advertising campaign run through Locala’s drive-to-store platform will have its carbon footprint reduced through the planting of trees. At current estimate, direct emissions from campaigns run by Locala equate to around 168 tons of CO2 each year. That means more than 5,000 trees would be planted in 2020 to help offset these emissions, with the number increasing as the business grows.

“This green initiative goes beyond a one-off purchase of trees, this is a future-facing commitment meaning our business will only offer advertising that is sustainable for our planet” said Locala CEO Christophe Collet.

“Our clients are taking steps to deliver planet-friendly products and services, reducing the impact their activities have on the environment” Collet added. “We want to support brands to reach those goals by delivering advertising that is good for advertisers, good for people and good for the planet”.

“This partnership is born in the particular context of the pandemic, which is a wake up call for us all to build a better world, where our human activities are carried out with the desire to take better care of the environment. EcoTree allows us to work towards our objective of offering sustainable advertising, and to bring our clients along in this great challenge.“ Baudouin Vercken, co-founder of EcoTree

This is an employee-led initiative, started by Locala’s employees, who voted to support green initiatives throughout 2019, and has already begun with the planting of 300 trees in partnership with EcoTree in France.

Locala France to donate 10% of its revenue to national hospitals to fight COVID-19

We’re pleased to announce that, faced with this unprecedented crisis, our French office is rallying around the country’s health professionals and will donate 10% April revenue to the Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris – Hôpitaux de France to help them fight against this pandemic. The foundation aims to improve the quality of life of the children, teenagers and elderly who are in hospital, and plays a key role in the national effort to overcome COVID-19.

For each advertising campaign we’ll be running, we’ll dedicate 10% of its allocated budget to this initiative – without any impact on the volume or the quality of our activations for brands.

This health crisis affects us all, and we all have a role to play to prevent its spread. Never has it been more important to help each other and to stick together. The next few weeks will be decisive, and we’re proud to contribute to the common effort to overcome this pandemic.

Locala named one of France’s top tech companies by French Tech 120

We’re proud to have been selected in the French Tech 120, a program dedicated to French start-ups capable of becoming worldwide technology leaders. Our inclusion in the list is a ringing endorsement of our drive-to-store platform and underlines the potential of our business.

The solid foundations we’ve built in the French market and our worldwide expansion into the rest of Europe, US and Asia, have helped us stand out among the hundreds of companies who applied to be part of 2020’s French Tech 120.

We owe this recognition to our outstanding worldwide team and award-winning drive-to-store technology, which have made Locala the global leader it is today.

Congratulations to all the companies selected for this edition! We can’t wait to see what else 2020 has in store.

Locala is in FrenchWeb’s FW500 ranking

We’re delighted to have been awarded the 75th position in Frenchweb’s FW500 – a list of the most dynamic companies in French tech. We’ve been shortlisted four years in a row now and couldn’t be prouder. This ranking showcases an industry in full swing, and being part of it makes us incredibly happy.

Over the last five years, we’ve spread our wings abroad and opened offices in the US, Canada, the UK, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Singapore. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing and we’ve encountered some local market challenges along the way. But the solid foundations we’ve built in the competitive French market and our team of digital advertising experts have allowed us to build a worldwide award-winning company.

Being ranked in the top 100 companies for three consecutive years is a strong endorsement of our outstanding team and drive-to-store technology, which have made Locala a global leader.

Congrats to all those ranked in this edition! We’re looking forward to what 2020 has to bring.

Nous sommes très heureux d’occuper la 75ème position du classement FW500 de Frenchweb, qui liste les entreprises les plus dynamiques de la French Tech. Nous y figurons pour la quatrième année consécutive et nous en sommes on ne peut plus fiers. Ce classement met en valeur une French Tech qui bat son plein et dont nous sommes ravis de faire partie.

Ces cinq dernières années, nous avons déployé nos ailes à l’étranger et ouvert des bureaux aux Etats-Unis, au Canada, au Royaume-Uni, en Italie, en Espagne, en Belgique et à Singapour. Ça n’a pas toujours été une promenade de santé et nous avons dû faire face à quelques challenges dans les marchés locaux. Mais les bases solides que nous avons construites dans un marché français très concurrentiel et nos équipes d’experts de la publicité digitale nous ont permis de construire une entreprise primée à l’échelle mondiale.

S’inscrire dans le top 100 de ces entreprises trois années de suite représente une vraie reconnaissance de nos équipes et de notre technologie drive-to-store exceptionnelles, qui ont permis à Locala de devenir un leader mondial.

Toutes nos félicitations aux lauréats de cette édition ! Nous attendons avec impatience ce que 2020 nous réserve.

Locala – The Drive-to-Store Platform

At Locala, we firmly believe that marketers need full visibility of the incremental impact of their digital marketing strategy. To help them drive consumers to their stores, we have created the first and only advertising technology that connects brands to consumers by bridging the gap between digital advertising and the real-world.

Fusio by Locala, our proprietary machine-learning technology, gives them the power to maximize their media spend in real-time towards their most valuable business outcomes. This unified technology enables marketers to manage, measure, and optimize incremental visits in real-time to online and physical stores.

Locala is committed to transparency and full autonomy for its clients from online impressions until conversions.

Start measuring your ad spend against your business KPIs today. Discover what we do and join the adventure!

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/349402879″ align=”center”]

Locala is a finalist in four categories for The Drum MOMA 2018

Each year, The Drum Marketing on Mobile (MOMA) Awards puts a spotlight on the industry’s best campaigns from brands and agencies across mobile.

Locala helped Pernod Ricard deliver a mobile campaign across airports in the UK to drive consumers into Duty Free stores with real-time footfall visit measurements. This success campaign has been nominated four times in this year’s MOMA for the following categories:

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign/Strategy
Most Effective Programmatic Buying Mobile Campaign
Best Use of Location Based Services
Best Use of Data

This campaign integrated data from Factual to measure visits into shops and delivered overall store visits uplift by 70%. The Best Use of Location Based Services stood out for judges as one of the most competitive categories as the industry finds more sophisticated strategies to apply mobile location data in their campaigns.

Congratulations to all the finalists this and many thanks to Pernod Ricard for this outstanding campaign!

Locala is a finalist in four categories for The Drum MOMA 2018

Each year, The Drum Marketing on Mobile (MOMA) Awards puts a spotlight on the industry’s best campaigns from brands and agencies across mobile.

Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign/Strategy
Most Effective Programmatic Buying Mobile Campaign
Best Use of Location Based Services
Best Use of Data

Congratulations to all the finalists this and many thanks to Pernod Ricard for this outstanding campaign!

Advertiser’s Checklist for Mobile Campaigns this Holiday Season

The great debate app vs. browser?
Retailers are on a mission to reach consumers wherever they are. Mobile advertisers are still struggling with the uncertainty of the whether their campaigns should be concentrated on mobile browser or apps. Industry studies found that most online touchpoints happen on mobile-optimized websites and conversion rates on retailer apps are higher than on mobile-optimized web. This means advertisers need to be present everywhere on mobile, a combined and enforced strategy between browser and app inventories. If executed properly, brands can increase purchases and avoid abandoned shopping carts with personalised push notifications and promotions.

Mobile shoppers are going wallet-less
With the introduction of mobile and contactless payment methods to facilitate transactions, brands must adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. Considering the habits of the empowered mobile shopper, advertisers need not fall victim to the showrooming, but rather use this opportunity to drive more traffic into stores. With contactless card expected to double worldwide by 2021, smartphones will become more important than the physical wallet.

Omni-channel shoppers
Practicing both webrooming and showrooming are phenomena that are become the norm when it comes to shopping. This means that people are both shopping online then going into stores to make purchases, as well as checking out merchandise in-store then buying online. What this means for advertisers is that there is an imperative need to have a mobile presence despite the choice of conversion methods.

A global movement toward online
It’s clear: mobile-first shoppers are the future. Around the world, the stats continue to grow consumes become increasingly attached to their mobile devices. Adult consumers in the States are spending an average of 3 hours and 18 minutes on their mobiles this year. Advertisers cannot ignore all signs pointing towards this dominating channel for conversion.What’s more, young people and parents are paving the way to this mobile-first future. 50% of mobile-first Shoppers are between the age of 18–34 and, given that mobile is most parents’ life line, parents make up over 50% of Mobile-first Shoppers.

Best Practices for Travel Retail Mobile Campaigns

More than 60% of travelers are using mobile apps while traveling, presenting a tremendous opportunity for travel retail advertisers. Understanding travelers’ behavior is equally important to consider when developing efficient and hyper-personalized digital advertising strategies. Therefore, it is imperative for brands to develop a tailored digital strategy for this space, separate to the way they would target the everyday shopper.

Personalization is a must

Brands should start by focusing on scalable, one-to-one advertising when targeting mobile devices. The device language setting, network carrier and even the make and model of the device can be used to tailor mobile ads and deliver messages that are meaningful, relevant, and that leave a lasting impression to set brands apart from competitors and can achieve a click through rate that is triple that of non-personalized campaigns!

Incentivize brand messages with user-friendly engagements

It’s important to anticipate the needs of travelers when looking at their mobile devices. Given many travelers will be roaming, it’s wise to avoid using heavy creative ad formats. Airports are naturally a high-stress environment, so keeping the creative user-friendly and intuitive, like a coupon to redeem in-store with clear directions to the nearest store, will be more effective and useful for the user.

Get the context right, focus on location and timing

Mobile devices are extremely personal for users, so it’s imperative that brands avoid being intrusive or irrelevant. Geolocation enables brands to use more precise location data when targeting travelers, ensuring campaigns are reaching intended audiences, rather than simply those nearby. Most leisure travelers make plans after having already arrived at their destinations and reach for their mobile devices to research and book activities. Marketers must take into consideration that mobile, therefore, is the only digital channel by which brands can deliver ads with contextual location data.

Measure and track campaign performances & get the most out of your media spend

Travel retail advertisers must insist on real-time visibility into their campaign performances to get the most of ad spend budgets. Advertisers with full control on their campaign data can optimize their ad spending in real-time while the campaign is ongoing. Having post-campaign insights available means brands can re-target and engage with mobile users with sequential messaging or follow-up offers. Furthermore, centralizing all reporting on a unified platform to calculate the return on advertising spend (ROAS) from impression to conversion enables advertisers to know best how to optimize their mobile ad budgets.

Travel retail advertisers can take simple steps, including using mobile device IDs and obtaining campaign metrics in real time and moving to 100% in-app advertising, brands can drive even more traffic from the airport gate into stores and measure the success of their campaigns in real time.

The full article was published by the Moodie Davitt Report, find the complete e-zine here, or download the PDF of the article.

Locala x La French Tech

Locala is excited to renew our French Tech Pass again this year and to be a part of this international community. Designed for innovative, fast-growing entrepreneurs and startups, La French Tech aims to encourage international entrepreneurs with bold projects. It targets innovators from all over the world as part of an effort to accelerate the dynamism in the startup ecosystem.

La French Tech advocates pro-business policies while providing access to funding from enthusiastic investors. and exclusive mentorship and networking opportunities. With La French Tech pass, Locala is on a mission to attract the best talent in the tech industry. As the company is scaling up beyond the Hexagon, the French Tech Hubs provide a bridge between major international cities and Locala, facilitating accelerated growth and access abroad. The coming year promises to have a lot of innovative partnerships to come!

About the La French Tech Pass

La French Tech is a community to support French tech startups by facilitating the successful launch of member projects in France. The program is operated by a community of French entrepreneurs and investors with a shared ambition, driven by the French government.

“France’s vision for supporting the emergence of world-wide startups depends on fostering an international perspective: the aim is to encourage the free movement of companies, talent and investment.” Axelle Lemaire and Emmanuel Macron

Locala’s audience clusters now available on Snapchat’s inventory

Brands worldwide can now reach mobile consumers in Snapchat with Locala’s 650 different audience segments. These hyper-precise audience segments range from gamers, millennials, music lovers, travellers, to fashion enthusiasts. This new offer also means advertisers can enrich first-party user data and execute precise re-targeting mobile campaigns in Snapchat.

“Snapchat is a unique channel where young mobile-savvy audiences are keen to consume branded content,” explains Christophe Collet, Locala CEO. “This is a strategic opportunity for brands to take audience targeting in their mobile campaigns to the next level. Advertisers can design sequential and authentic storytelling to engage with very specific audience profiles.”

Furthermore, brands can extend the ad experience from the social media channel by leveraging Locala’s proprietary mobile ad formats – such as The Path, The Travelling, or The Trailer. The branded message should not end just at the impression level but take the user into a landing page to continue the conversation or even drive mobile shoppers into stores. Locala’s technology, FUSIO can track all the user engagements in the format including completion rate and guarantees a landing page that is 100% loaded.

Read the news in French on Offremedia and in Italian on Programmatic Italia.

Infographic: In-App Mobile Advertising Impact

Locala, a mobile programmatic platform, released a study, “In-App Mobile Advertising Impact” in partnership with IPSOS, a leading research company based in France with representation in 88 countries focused on understanding consumer behaviour. The study evaluates how advertisers should invest in mobile campaigns to attain the best results.

The in-app environment is a context inherently less favourable for advertising. Findings from the study show that both interstitial and MPU formats are efficient and persuasive for the brand. Nearly 500 respondents were surveyed for this study 2 weeks after being exposed to a mobile advertising campaign. The interstitial is a full screen format that leaves a longer lasting brand impression. The MPU is a strict format to deliver but is found to boost brand opinion among exposed consumers.

Here are 4 key findings:

Mobile in-app formats leave a longer lasting brand impression than desktop formats.

43% of respondents exposed to an interstitial format on their mobiles were able to recall the ad. Only 14% of respondents exposed to desktop banner formats could recall the ad and only 21% for desktop respondents exposed to desktop video formats.

Impactful brand attribution via mobile ads

96% of respondents that recalled the ad 2 weeks after campaign exposure where able to name the brand in the ad.

Mobile advertising boosts brand appreciation

Respondents exposed to an interstitial ad rated the brand 26 points higher than unexposed respondents. 49% of respondents exposed to a MPU or interstitial format said that the ad contributed to a positive impression of the brand.

Mobile campaigns are effective in stimulating purchases

35% of respondents exposed to either MPU or interstitial formats expressed intention to visit the brand’s store or website. These results show that in-app campaigns can meet branding and performance based objectives.

Download Infographic

Read this Infographic on the MobileMarketing News page

iOS 11: How will the new updates disrupt the mobile advertising industry?

Apple announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 a suite of news features for iOS 11 that will surely be welcomed by its loyal users. For mobile advertisers, this update doesn’t bring all bad news, there are also some exciting new potentials for marketers with the latest update. For users, it is all good news, as Apple’s new iOS 11 is putting user privacy centre stage.

Nico Rieul

Cookie era comes to an end

Apple unveiled its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention in the new iOS update, which is essentially an ad tracker blocker for its Safaris web browser, rendering browser cookies ineffective for advertising purposes. Put simply, cross-site tracking via cookies in Safari will no longer be possible. Advertisers and vendors that have large cross-device marketing efforts may need to start looking for alternatives. This is not a move by Apple to kill mobile advertising on iPhone completely. In-app inventory remains unaffected and 90% of user’s time spent are on their mobiles are still within apps. Apple is clearly moving to concentrate advertising efforts within the app environment and reduce monetization opportunities on mobile browsers for publishers. Contrary to Google, where the heart of their business is mostly browser based with AdWords.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention As mobile pure-players, we see this as the next logical move after Apple’s introduction of IDFAs. Anonymous IDs only available in app that can be linked to geolocation data in the form of X and Y coordinates or user interests via app usage. IDFAs have longer lifespans than cookies, it expires when the users change their smartphone. For publishers, in an audience planning world where data is king, this is a sure sign to start moving their investments and efforts into app channels on iOS.

More location data control for users

The new location sharing permissions update in iOS 11 will also be daunting for some app developers and vendors who need to collect location data permanently. Prior to this new version, many apps only allowed users to choose between “Always” or “Never” for location sharing with apps. In iOS 11, it will be Mobile screen mandatoryfor developers to display a third option “While in use” to users. Apple goes even further to give users more control on their iPhones.

It is without a doubt, when presented with these options, very few users will accept to share their location data continuously. Realistically, there are very few apps that can justify collecting location data continuously in the background. For example, Snapchat’s latest acquisition, Zenly, is one of the few apps that will require users to allow location in the background in order to operate. A forward thinking move on Snapchat’s part.

Mobile screen bis Clearly, Apple wants users to be aware of everything that is happening on their device, what is consuming their battery and data, putting app developers in a position to earn trust from users. Users will also see a blue bar of apps that are collecting location data when not in use, forcing apps to be accountable to users.

End of auto-play video

Another new feature that may seem disconcerting for marketers is the possibility to keep auto-play videos paused unless explicitly played by the user. Once again Apple has sided with the users to retain its loyal following, this time making life harder for content publishers. For the moment, this new feature will only be on Safari desktop, but no doubt will soon be on the mobile version of the browser as well.

The silver lining for mobile advertisers

Another iOS 11 update that has somewhat gone under the radar is the new QR code scanner that will be native in the camera app. This new move will make QR codes much more accessible for users on an iOS device. QR codes can facilitate data sharing like contact information, ULRs, and even phone numbers – making it much fas Mobile screen 3 ter than typing. Now QR codes have the potential to be mainstream without the need for additional software, presenting a true opportunity for advertisers. QR codes are already in fashion in Asia and quickly becoming the preferred payment method for most consumers. Advertisers can leverage this new feature to really bridge their online & offline marketing efforts. Consumers can now scan an OOH advertisement and be redirected into a branded digital universe.

Google’s playbook – will they follow suite?

So it is pretty safe to assume that Google and Android will soon follow with updates of their own that gives users the same amount of control on their devices. In terms of QR code scanner, the Samsung’s Galaxy S8 camera already has an integrated scanner. Up until now, users have to active the Bixby vision feature in the phone’s setting in order to active it – this has been a barrier to adoption as users were not informed about it. The new Android O, releasing after the summer this year, will include background location limits on apps as well to distinguish apps in the foreground and background. Developers will not be able to collect location data as frequent as before. Another bad news for adtech vendors focusing on background location data. Overall, the iOS 11 update is a sign that the industry is maturing in the right direction. Users are demanding more transparency and getting more power and control in return. The mobile advertising industry will have a long future ahead if we don’t lose sight of the user.

Read the article on mmabloguk.com

Locala Recognised by PwC for Best French Tech Revenue Growth

Success for Mobile saw a revenue growth of 81% in the past year. PwC revealed the Top 100 Digital Enterprises in France this week and Locala was recognised as the company with the highest revenue growth among the Top 100!

blog_visu_french_tech_revenue This is not just only a success for us, but for the entire mobile advertising industry. Locala’s vision for mobile advertising success is founded on data transparency, certified accreditations, and anti-fraud metrics. Our clients have chosen our values and trusted us with their mobile campaigns over the past five years. The mobile advertising industry is maturing with the right foundations.

“Success for Mobile” is not just the name of our company…this is our vision that we live and breathe everyday. When our clients succeed in creating impactful and effective mobile campaigns, that is a win for our company.

So… a big THANK YOU – MERCI to our clients for trusting our technology and our vision and to our talents at Locala

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Read more about PwC’s Top 100 Digital Enterprises in France:

UsineDigitale
LesEchos
Silicon.fr
Boursier.com

Looking beyond GAFA, a case for mobile advertising independence

The duopoly of Google and Facebook accounts for 67% of the mobile ad market in the US, and what’s more…the combined value of GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple) is $200Bn more than the CAC40. There are no doubts that these powerful American tech players are exercising their clout to write the rules in the industry.

Transparency is the most important edge against the rise of walled garden platforms in our data-driven business. Here are three principles that advertisers, end users, and ad tech platforms need to agree upon to set transparency as a norm in the mobile advertising ecosystem.

1) Users need to be respected

Let’s not forget that a single click from mobile users can mean converting an ad into a purchase, or blocking out brands forever. Mobile users and their data need to be respected. Advertisers need to draw a clean line between personalised and anonymised data. Both of these data belong to users and they are willing to exchange their anonymised behavioural data in return for free content and services. Conversely, to respect this equilibrium, personal details such as name, age, gender, telephone number, personal photos, emails, social media activities should be off limits. This is not the case for platforms based on logged environments today. It is entirely possible to send desirable mobile advertising that provides added-value for the end user just based on anonymous data from each device’s unique ID. Like cookies, users can reset this ID, however this is not the case for their login usernames and passwords.

2) Advertisers, own your campaign data

In the same logic, advertisers are fully entitled to their campaign data. These datasets are the key to understanding how your target consumers are engaging with your efforts. These insights empower advertisers with ways to better optimise and reach highly sought-after audiences. At Locala, our advertisers can retrieve their campaign data in real-time with visibility into each user’s behaviours (clicks, views, post-click engagements etc). This should be an industry norm because without this ownership, advertisers will not have independence and risk losing a lot more than that. Think about all the insights that arise from post-campaign data and its potential for future marketing strategies. With Google or Facebook, they retain the ownership of these valuable post-campaign data.

Can you trust these walled gardens to not leverage your campaign insights to advance their own agendas or share it with your competitors?

3) Time to level the playing field

Our battle is to ensure the advertisers are getting what they paid for and users receive desirable ads with added-value. Without trust, this is not possible. Trust is founded on mutual agreements, like standards, that helps to level the playing field between GAFA and the rest. One industry example is the need for technologies to be validated by third-party accreditation organisations, like the MRC. Our technology is dedicated to upholding standardised counting methods and the MRC accreditation to avoid measurement discrepancies ir order to deliver the highest standards in the market for advertisers. Next, interoperability and an cooperative attitude to key to better serve our clients. This is why the Locala technology is open and compatible with industry measurement players such a Integral Ad Science, Nielsen DAR, ComScore and many others. This kind of transparency will make our data-driven business more efficient for everyone.

I think we have heard mobile users loud and clear last year when mobile adblockers were introduced, now it’s up to advertisers to make sure they are heard. At the end of the day, it is up to them to choose a technology that is open and transparent. Advertisers should choose how their campaigns are charged and evaluate their investments based on certified KPIs. We need you: advertisers, and we’re here to protect you!

Let’s not forget that transparent alternatives is the key to guaranteeing added-value for all stakeholders. That’s why we continue to stand for independence in the best interest for our clients, mobile users, and the future of our industry.

Agree with what you read? Share this article and learn more about a breakthrough mobile buying model that we’ve invented – the CPLP!

This article was originally published by Christophe Collet on LinkedIn Pulse.

Stand out among mobile shoppers this holiday season!

As the most wonderful time of the year draws closer, advertisers wait with anticipation to maximize their revenue among holiday gift givers. On the other hand, consumers are used to the hoards of ads prior to the holiday season either in TV, print, radio, or digital. One thing for sure this year, advertisers need to be ahead of changing consumer behaviours to make sure they stand out. Brand presence in the mobile channel is a must-have this season, advertisers should invest their budget into the most recurring medium along the consumer’s path to purchase. By allocating simply 1% of the global advertising budget to mobile, this will boost brand visibility, attract and engage with consumers in a more personal way.

The great news for advertisers is that 80% of gift shoppers have not yet started gift hunting by November 1st. Brands can still capture the attention and win over their desired consumers as the countdown begins to the season of giving.

M-commerce accounted for nearly 20% of the holiday digital sales in 2015, and will stand to rise as shoppers consult their smartphones more and more in their purchase decisions. Brands are on a mission this Christmas, they need to master a mobile strategy in order to stay ahead of their competition.

Here are 3 tips to reach the target shoppers, engage on their mobile devices, and close the deal!

1. Reach the right audience

This year, millennials and parents are the most sought after gift shoppers by brands. 83% of millennials will be purchasing gifts for themselves this season and 78% will increase their usage of retailer apps and sites in their search. Mobile will be at the heart of the purchase decision for 56% of American parents as they pick up the latest gifts for their kids this Christmas. These loving parents are also expected to spend 25% more on gifts for their children this year compared to 2016. Reaching the right audience doesn’t stop at profiling them, sending branded messages in the most perceptive moment and a tailored context are keys to achieve the highest engagement.

2. Persist and master brand experience

More than any other period in the year, brands are fighting to stay top-of-mind among gift hunters. There is no secret ingredient, brands need to master intentional exposure! In the period leading up to the end of the year, brands should increase coverage and their campaign reach with calculated frequency capping. This strategy will unlock brand visibility and boost impulsive buys among undecided shoppers. Industry survey reports that 17% of consumers believe their mobile devices urge impulse purchases.

3. Stick to your consumers

Brands can now leverage real-time location with mobile, as is already being done by apps like Uber, Waze, and Pokemon Go. This holiday season, advertisers need to build geo-conquest strategies to engage shoppers on the move, deliver relevant messages in real-time and bridge the online and offline user experience seamlessly. The power of mastering these strategies will mean a boost in foot traffic from gift shoppers this year.

Get in touch today to launch a winning mobile campaign for the holidays!

What’s missing in the mobile engagement puzzle?

It is no secret by now that mobile programmatic is indispensable in the advertiser’s media plan today. When accomplished correctly, brands can reach their intended customer in the most receptive moment to convert an intention into a transaction.

Despite the increasing prominence of mobile programmatic, some brands are still on the fence and not yet buying into the promise; especially as the industry continues to be haunted by ad fraud issues. The keys to resolving this continuous dilemma are advertiser confidence and user acceptance, so the industry can finally deliver what it has set out to do and more.

To put the challenge at scale, this year alone, mobile ad spending is set to exceed $100 Billion USD worldwide, taking 54.9% of the global digital ad spending budget. As investments accelerate, the mobile digital industry needs a consensus on how to qualify the ROIs and ensure these budgets align with business objectives and deliver true lifetime value for the end-users. Brands may be able to accept a lean return but it will be much harder to recover from user rejection on their most frequented mobile devices. The onus is on marketers to seek and insist on true engagement metrics within their mobile campaigns and to put the users first.

Measuring mobile campaign impact needs to consider two different smartphone environments, mobile browsers and mobile apps, which require unifying metrics. Within both environments, we are already measuring impression views and clicks but that is not enough, we must have visibility on user actions post-ad. Mobile campaign metrics have to qualify true user engagements for the industry to improve and innovate continuously!

First, an ad impression must only be considered seen by the user when it has fully rendered on the smartphone screen. When counting clicks as engagement metrics, we need assurances that these clicks are net of human traffic and not accidental. Filtration techniques exist today to address the issue of fraud traffic as specified by industry bodies such as the MRC/IAB, where only one click can be attributed to one impression. As marketers, counting impression views and clicks are important to ensure users are not irritated on their smartphones with partly loaded impressions and videos that do not play.

However, as a marketer, you don’t want the users to just see your ad but also engage with the message. At this point, the success indicator must be a fully loaded landing page within the browser to know without a doubt that the message has been received by the user. To achieve even more peace of mind, brands can also measure mobile app opens and active installs to evaluate user acquisitions effectiveness. Being able to follow the user actions post-ad reassures brands that they have engaged with their audience and not just delivered unsolicited ads.

As an industry, mobile programmatic advertising needs to prioritise advertiser confidence and user acceptance. Brands, publishers, technology providers, and users alike, will benefit from true indicators for high-quality mobile engagements. This is also the only way to guarantee sustainable added-value for everyone. In practice, brands have to insist on qualifying engagements with certified metrics such as rendered impressions, clicks net of fraud, fully loaded landing pages, active installs and app opens. By eliminating unreliable measurement and putting the user first, we can finally elevate the industry’s quality standards, bring advertisers peace of mind and deliver the best experience for users.

This article was also published on the IAB UK Blog.

Why context is now as important as creativity in advertising

When we talk about creativity in advertising, we’re usually referring to the actual ad creative itself — the genius ideas that become the genesis of sticky and memorable advertisements, like the 1985 Levi’s launderette ad or the Cadbury gorilla.

Enter the digital world; times have changed. Television and print aren’t the only mediums by which advertisers can reach mass consumer audiences anymore.

As mobile devices become more ubiquitous, mobile screens are where the majority of consumers’ eyeballs are. While artistry and storylines are important in engaging audiences, equally, the context in which those ads are delivered is today equally as important to engagement as the uniqueness of the ad storyline and copy itself.

Context is the new creativity

At Locala, we hold the belief that ‘context is the new creativity.’ Allow me to explain how and why.

In the past, advertisers operated on the presumption that the creativity buck stopped with the art director. All the other elements of placing an ad, like strategic media buys, were seen as simply business-related function; wholly independent of the creative process altogether.

“It’s about having the right insight and using it well”

However, these days, thinking creatively extends to the business side of advertising as well. Advertisers need to start thinking more creativity, and not just when it comes to hiring the best, most creative thinking copywriters and art directors.

They also need to think about delivery of the ad itself more creatively, because these days, the manner in which the creative is delivered for the mobile user is just as important as the creative itself.

It’s one thing to develop the sticky, funny and engaging videos, banners and static ads for mobile, but that’s just half of the challenge. The other half of the challenge lies in delivering well-developed advertising to the right people, at the right time, in the right manner, to ensure that advertising resonates and brings about a return on investment.

By improving the creative delivered via mobile and personalising advertising experiences based on the time, place and location of mobile users, we can go beyond reaching the intended audiences but also better engage with them. It’s about having the right insight and using it well.

Brands doing it well

Innovative brands like L’Oreal are already proving the importance of using context to better deliver mobile creative campaigns. When L’Oréal Luxe Travel Retail Americas wanted to target Brazilian tourists traveling to Miami, Locala helped them to reach and engage mobile users across continents for a ‘brandformance’ campaign.

The campaign followed travellers from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro airports to Miami and back to raise awareness for the Polo Red Fragrance by Ralph Lauren and encouraged purchase near duty-free points of sale. During the campaign, more than 70% of users engaged more than 12 seconds compared to an industry average of five seconds on the landing page.

Also, 69% of users during the campaign accepted geolocation to locate the nearest Duty-Free store.

Accreditation and insight

Accreditation can go a long way towards effecting a creative use of context. For example, accreditation by an industry body such as the Media Ratings Council (MRC) helps advertisers better engage with audiences.

This is because when a company has certification on insight such as mobile post-click ad metrics, it allows for better insight into how consumers engage with an ad and what they want from an advertising experience, meaning that marketers can be more targeted.

Validation from a third party organisation like MRC assures brands that their ad creative is leveraged in the most efficient ways possible.

It may seem that the platforms, challenges, and insights presented by our increasingly digital, mobile-centric world have made the job of advertising to consumers more difficult and multi-layered. It’s certainly a far cry from the two-dimensional world of print and TV advertising of yesteryear, but it doesn’t have to seem overly complex.

With the right advertising solutions, cutting through to consumers can become a more interesting, insight-led process that is, in effect, as creative as it is business-savvy.

This article was also published in Marketing Tech News.

5 Tips to Get the Most Out of DCO on Mobile

Advertisers are no stranger to the necessity of delivering receptive personalized messaging on mobile. Today, this is possible through leveraging unique user behavioral and location data from mobile devices and the widely adopted use of dynamic creative optimization (DCO) technology. Here are 5 tips to leverage DCO in mobile campaigns to engage with mobile users and exceed campaign objectives:

1. Personalized advertising – remember the human connection

Increasingly sophisticated algorithms have helped to facilitate a lot of the campaign processes today, but don’t forget that at the end of the day, you need a person behind the personalized advertising! The human decisions that determine the DCO strategy cannot be overlooked. Avoid the common pitfall of expecting the algorithms to do all the work, we can trust DCO technology to determine and deliver personalized creative at scale, but the strategic planning and monitoring is still decided by humans. For example, marketers have to decide how to segment the audience to optimize the key message, either by geography or demographics. Then follow-through with a personalized message from the ad to the landing page in the click-through link via dynamic URL parameters and deep-linking apps to urge your prospects closer to conversion.

2. Be selective – don’t test everything at once!

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) is a continuous process. Marketers must resist the urge to optimize everything at the same time. When too many elements are varied, it makes it very difficult to establish a baseline and pinpoint actionable insights. It pays to be selective when choosing the creative elements to make dynamic, and align it with your campaign objectives. When applying DCO, it’s important to follow your audience with reliable conversion tags and detecting the various user interaction rates along the campaign. With these insights, marketers can then determine the frequency rules of their ads and reserve higher frequencies at the top of their consumer conversion funnel.

3. Keep an eye on your campaign – monitor early and regularly

After determining the campaign objectives (branding, website visits, app installs, etc) advertisers should start monitoring their campaigns early on – don’t wait until the campaign is halfway over to start analyzing the results! This way you will be able to adjust your goals if they have already been met and set new objectives and aim for changes and improvements during the campaign.

4. DCO is not A/B testing

Experienced marketers are all familiar with A/B testing, but it shouldn’t be grouped into the same category with DCO. The underlying assumption with A/B testing is that one concept is better than the other and once that’s determined, it will be delivered at scale. The beauty of DCO is that when applied properly, advertisers can determine the best concept for each target audience, and it doesn’t end there! With DCO, advertisers can keep up with the changing preferences of their target audience, and be sure to deliver different but receptive brand messages to their customers. This way, advertisers can quickly vary creative elements in a meaningful way and use the optimization engine to rotate out ineffective creatives.

5. Take retargeting to a new level!

Last but not least, marketers should aim to tell a continuous brand story by retargeting the users based on their past individual interactions with the ad and applying contextual data uniquely from mobile devices. With DCO you can deliver targeted sequential messaging. For example, use multilayer sequential messaging after a user has seen a short video. For the next exposure, deliver a longer video along the same subject to be more effective and continue where you left off. Unlike desktop campaigns, when retargeting for mobile, leverage geo-location data to increase the relevancy and engagement rate so your brand message really speaks directly to the user. Some creative uses of geolocation data can go beyond just locating the nearest point of purchase, but delivering messages with geographic context based on elements like weather warnings, important landmarks, local sports team news and travel options.

This post was also published by the Mobile Advertising Watch

Loyalty beyond love: How mobile programmatic will aspire brand love

Consumers are bombarded by millions of different messages everyday in this new digital era, where home, work, and relationships are blurred distinctions. To manage their daily lives, the consumer has firmly taken control by becoming the decision makers for what they see, read, download, and more importantly what they want to block.

In the fast-paced mobile world, brands can’t afford to miss customer preferences, otherwise they will be quickly alienated by their target customers. As a result, brand marketers need to change the way they communicate with these new digital-savvy consumers by correctly employing mobile programmatic to accelerate a brand’s affinity with their consumers.

In short, mobile premium programmatic delivers the most relevant content, in the best format at the right moment in the perfect context to the most appropriate audience. By grasping the full potential of premium programmatic with four key principles, brands will earn consumer loyalty to engage in a lasting affair.

1. Respect your lover

Now that consumers have the power to block ads, the best solution is to engage in a one-to-one conversation and stand out using native advertising. Native mobile advertising is experiencing explosive growth, worth more than $50B USD worldwide (eMarketer). Brands not only need to seek acceptance from their customers but also capture their attention. Native mobile advertising delivers ad formats that respect the end-user and does not distract their experiences. More importantly, it enriches and educates consumers to take more informed decisions and cultivate mutual respect.

2. Find the one

Consumers are increasingly spending more time on mobile devices with changing behavioural patterns, and do not expect to be interrupted by non-contextual ads disrupting their activity. Data analytics is absolutely essential to provide this context. Mobile programmatic can reach almost any intended audience worldwide through premium publisher partnerships or engage a hyper-local audience niche. For example, first and third party data, location history, premium app usage behaviour, device OS, languages, time of day, and weather data, all help to provide context behind content. It’s time to give the right context to ads and deliver a unique and tailored experience for each individual.

3. Learn to trust

For users, it is irritating when an advertisement interrupts their mobile activity and takes them out of their activity into the browser or the app store. Adding to this frustration, the users then find themselves in front of a page or a video that does not display properly and is impossible to exit. Viewability and targeting issues are a continuous struggle for marketers but end-user experiences should not have to suffer as well. Within the mobile market today, there are no industry standards of yet, but regardless, premium programmatic is already able to guarantee 100 per cent viewability and targeting to prevent poor user experiences. This new level of authenticity can only serve to enhance trust between a brand and their customers and will transform the entire advertising industry.

4. Money matters

Engagement is the new mobile currency, set KPIs by applying data-driven decisions and evaluations. Knowing exactly when and how the customers will engage with your message and when they reject advertisements is key to building a sustainable and long-term two-way conversation. Brands need to evaluate a campaign performance based on conversions and evaluate branding campaigns based on the degree of user engagements. Also, brands should seek insights on what exactly takes place throughout the consumer experience in the conversion funnel, which can last from anything between 5 seconds to 15 minutes. Mobile programmatic marketers should measure and only pay for real impressions, real engagements, real-clicks, real-arrivals, and conversions.

Seal the deal

Communicating with customers in the most engaging and relevant ways will help brands create and nurture sustainable and positive relationships. Ultimately, loyal customers are a brand’s best ambassadors that generate lifetime value and trust. By applying these four key principles, mobile advertising can finally come of age and be a sustainable business. Monetising mobile through premium programmatic needs to be adopted more widely as it is the only way to let your consumers experience brand love.

This article was also published in The Drum