A lot of people are tired.  They’ve grown weary of the lack of business certainty that the ongoing unpredictability of Covid-19 has wrought. For retail decision-makers, the past 18 months have been full of twists, turns, and massive challenges. But what could you expect from an unprecedented global health crisis impacting every single aspect of our lives? The ongoing Covid battle has put many folks on their back foot again.

The retail industry, in particular, has been losing sleep of late due to Covid’s negative impact on foot traffic and the disturbances in the supply chain, which have diminished inventory and caused prices to spike dramatically, throwing Q4 holiday season marketing budgets and schedules into chaos. With this pandemic, it seems that every time we feel close to getting over the hump and back to pre-Covid normalcy, we are hit with a new challenge with a merciless virus that refuses to go away without a fight. The anxiety and fear are normal. But through the fog of uncertainty, there are many reasons to maintain calm and stay the course.

Retail is alive and poised to thrive beyond its current level. The good news is it has never been more ready to innovate and embrace digital as the key element to fuel its success. Bricks-n-mortar is and will remain a key pillar to brand marketing strategies. Take a look at the aggressive efforts of brands like M&Ms and Lego. Both of them have made sizable investments in reinventing their physical stores into experiential destinations. M&Ms opened a 24,000 sq. ft. store in Minnesota’s Mall of America while Lego in 2021 alone launched over 100 new stores. Even digital natives like Warby Parker have acknowledged the critical importance of physical retail in their growth plans.

The Retail Media Advertising 2021 report by eMarketer provides an overview of the emerging retail media network and some considerations that retailers have shared with regards to its inception. We are proud to have Stan Coignard, our Locala Americas CEO, and Shareena Fontaine, our US Marketing Manager, as contributing industry sources to this piece.

As brands explore the new retailer media network trends, we’re happy to share how Locala’s ten years of machine learning optimization assists the world’s top advertisers with exclusive cross-retailer strategies, competitor conquesting campaigns, and independent measurement. These capabilities enable our clients to expand their visibility and pivot to meet industry-wide changes in consumer demand in real-time.

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This holiday season, “revenge shopping” will very much be top of mind for many shoppers who have been ravenous to return to pre-pandemic shopping habits. With heavy consumer demand and vaccination numbers continuing to increase, a dynamic  opportunity for brick and mortar stores has arisen all over the world.

Looking back just one short year ago, retailers have quickly adapted to a new shopping landscape and customers have adjusted to a new normal. According to eMarketer, retail sales between November and December are expected to reach $1.147 trillion. The US, pummeled hard with store closings last spring and summer, has recovered with the number of new openings equalizing any closures.

With more demand comes more competition to reach your target audience among the myriad of competitors all vying for their attention. Now more than ever, brands will need to do more to break through and connect with their audiences in a meaningful way.  

Reacting fast and staying ahead of the curve is vital this season. We put together six strategies to maximize your holiday campaigns and finish the year on top, whether your consumers are shopping in store or online. 

1. Create Targeted Messaging Based on Consumer Behavior
2. Customize Your Omnichannel Strategy for Each Consumer
3. Real Time is King
4. Target Audiences with Different Activation Experiences, and Drive ROI
5. Get Up Close and Hyper-localized
6. Be Fast and Convenient 

To learn more, download our free Holiday Playbook here.

This year, Juneteenth, the nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the US, will be celebrated on a larger scale than ever before. Just days before the holiday, the Senate passed a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and now awaits approval from the House. Many major companies already recognize Juneteenth as a day of observance including Nike, Target, and the NFL. But, this holiday isn’t just about giving employees the day off, it’s about acknowledging the African American community in a larger way outside of Black History Month.

Historically, The BIPOC community has not been prioritized as a target audience. Even though their spending power is currently at $1.3 trillion, their tastes, culture, and traditions have not always been a point of interest for brands. Now, in this new day and age, this community that makes up nearly 15% of the population can no longer be neglected.

Companies are being held accountable for keeping the BIPOC audience top of mind not only at the register, but on the shelves as well. The 15% Pledge, a nonprofit organization founded by Aurora James, challenges retailers to dedicate at least 15% of its shelf space to black owned businesses. Among the 22 brands that have pledged include Sephora, GAP, and West Elm. Within the workforce, Diversity Inclusion and Equity roles have catapulted as well. According to Indeed, Diversity Inclusion & Equality roles rose 123% between May and September 2020.

As people all over the country celebrate Juneteenth this year, it’s paramount for all retailers to create and follow through with long term strategies and commitments to incorporate the BIPOC audience in a meaningful and conspicuous way. To authentically achieve this, companies must understand they cannot solely ingratiate themselves with this audience through discounted offers and deals. It’s through representation, community, and acknowledgement of the black influence and existence in America that brands will exhibit a real desire to create long lasting change and inclusivity.

Over the next few days, Locala will create a series of posts on how our drive-to-store platform can help you target a specific audience on a localized level. When launching multicultural campaigns, it is important to speak to the exact audience you are targeting. Fusio identifies zones with a large volume of potential shoppers, so you can focus your efforts on high-potential areas.

With the holidays right around the corner, advertisers are considering the best channels to drive in-store while promoting their Black Friday deals. But with the serious impact that the pandemic has had on store openings, inventory, and hours, getting people to visit has become a challenge. 

But people are still planning to do their holiday shopping, both in-person and online. According to eMarketer, US brick-and-mortar retail for this holiday will still reach $822.79 billion. This year, we will also see US retail eCommerce sales will jump 35.8% to $190.47 billion. The highest traffic shopping days will be Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

While 60% of US internet shoppers stated they would be shopping online this season, 45% said they would be doing their shopping in department stores, 30% in clothing and accessories stores, 23% in small business shops, and 21% would shop primarily in electronic stores. 

We know that online shopping is going to see a massive increase this year, accelerated by the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean brands with physical locations should completely ignore the in-store shopping experience. This year, brands need to be smarter about the way they target their customers so they can effectively convert them to an in-store visit. Drive-to-store advertising can be extremely powerful when done strategically and properly. 

Here are three things brands should consider to increase consumer visits on Black Friday. 

1. SMART LOCATION TARGETING 

There are several ways that a brand can leverage smart location targeting to drive the right consumers into their stores, restaurants, or dealerships. The key is working with a vendor that is able to effectively do it. 

• Target consumers by their drive time or walk time to your store. 
• • By targeting based on the user’s travel time, you can maximize your media spend by setting an appropriate travel time to each of your stores. This is especially relevant when you are considering an urban versus suburban location when the difference between driving distance and walking distance is crucial. 
• Target higher affinity areas 
  • By targeting neighborhoods with higher affinity or likeness to your already consumers, you can reach zones with a large volume of potential shoppers. The trick is being able to find a partner that can discover and detect the affinity of the surrounding areas of your store locations. 
• Leverage geo-conquesting to target your competition’s shoppers
  • Use competitive conquesting capabilities to reach shoppers seen at stores with similar branding and products. Doing this allows you to capture your competitor’s customers because you can target the areas around their locations as well as their high-affinity zones in proximity to your stores. 

2. DYNAMIC & INNOVATIVE CREATIVES 

At Locala, we know that an advertising campaign can be much more than just an ad with the right creative format. That’s why this year it will be especially crucial to use the right format when delivering your messages to consumers. You want to make it as easy as possible for the user, whether that be providing them with real-time directions to your store, or reminding them of Black Friday deals. Here are a few Locala creatives that will allow for easy conversion from impression to visit. 

• Store Locator 
  • With the Store Locator creative, brands can Integrate the address of their nearest store, which will help maximize the chances of visits, guiding your potential customer with real-time directions to your closest location. 

• Multistore DCO
  • The Multistore DCO format allows your brand to promote a selection of stores, sorted by physical proximity to shoppers’ location. This format is great for busy consumers who want to choose the store best suiting their shopping journey.

• Countdown 
  • Using the Countdown means that you can create a sense of urgency among shoppers, highlighting the time away from Black Friday, making it ideal for the holiday season. 

• Real-Time Add-On
  • Leverage the Real-time format to remind your audience it’s time to shop on the day of the event. This format is ideal for moment marketing campaigns and timed promotions such as Black Friday deals. 

3. AN OMNICHANNEL APPROACH 

It’s true that cohesive omnichannel campaigns perform better than advertising on one channel alone. Studies have shown that executing an omnichannel strategy for an advertising campaign has almost 3x higher engagement rates than from one single channel. This Black Friday, make sure that you’re speaking to your consumers through different channels so you can extend your reach and reinforce your message. This year make sure you are working with a drive-to-store partner that can execute your campaign across several relevant channels. With the effectiveness of CTV and DOOH in captivating people with your brand’s message, desktop has one of the largest reaches for an ad campaign. And while these channels are great at capturing user attention, don’t forget that mobile is still the primary device for consumer time spent. By coupling these other channels with a mobile-focused approach, your brand can reinforce your Black Friday story in the most powerful way, converting users to store visitors. 

Learn more about key strategies and tactics for boosting consumer in-store visits with Locala’s The Drive-to-Store Handbook. Download here.

Brick-and-mortar has been under a lot of pressure in recent years, and while talk of a retail apocalypse might have been overblown, retailers have faced a lot of challenges, including the boom of eCommerce, the rise of real estate rents for many shops and businesses, as well as the demand from consumers for better, more engaging in-store experiences. 

Then came 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic; shops, in-door dining, and nonessential businesses were forced to close and people were avoiding crowded places. But business owners adapted and pivoted to deal with the hurdles placed in front of them, creating omnichannel experiences for shoppers where needed. 

So yes, this year has hit everyone across the globe hard, but it is clear that busy main streets and shops are still essential for communities to thrive. This has been made evident through the eagerness people have shown to get out of their houses and into malls and stores. While the world begins to return to a sense of ‘normalcy’, we are seeing people more willing to go out to the store for their shopping experiences. 

If you are a business, big or small, with a physical location, you need to figure out how to get consumers into your store, restaurant, or dealership.  

That is why at Locala, the Drive-to-Store Platform, we’ve been working hard to develop a best practices handbook highlighting the most effective drive-to-store tactics for brands across verticals, with proven successes from our very own clients. 

In this guide, you will find the three critical elements of creating, managing and optimizing drive-to-store campaigns. The insights in the report include:

• The goal of a drive-to-store campaign is different from a standard ad campaign, so getting the set-up right is crucial. That means considering things like travel time, radius targeting, and precise competitor targeting.
• The biggest mistake people make when running drive-to-store campaigns is only measuring performance at the end. But by that point, if people aren’t flocking to your store, it’s too late. That’s why foot traffic and optimizing the campaign mid-flight is critical to its overall success.
• Success stories from major brands like Palmer’s, L’Occitane, St Hubert, and Volkswagen that demonstrate the real impact of a well-executed drive-to-store campaign. 

Click here to download The Drive-to-Store Handbook. 

Learn how your brand can increase consumer visits to your store or online shop. Get in touch at contact@s4m.io 

2020 hasn’t been an easy year for high-street retailers, and with more lockdown-type restrictions looming ahead of the winter months, a classic drive-to-store strategy might not be the right choice for every business.

Remaining top of mind and showing your audience how you’re still supporting them can mean a speedy recovery when you go back to business as usual. Whatever your situation is, here’s how we can help you:

You are able to open normally

If your business is considered essential and you’ll be open, we strongly recommend running drive-to-store campaigns to let your customers know you’re still trading and your updated opening hours to boost your in-store traffic. 

Targeting only your local audience during this time will work the best for your business, as your clients might not be willing or able to travel too far. To help you identify key areas, you can use our Dynamic Catchment Area tool to select the true travel distance (driving or walking) to your store and also areas that have a high affinity with your past visitors, so you can make sure your advertising is reaching potential customers only. 

You are open for takeaway, or click and collect

If you’re continuing your business but a little differently, remind your local customers that you’re still open and how to order from your store. Run a drive-to-store campaign with a twist. First, target around your catchment area – where you deliver or a short walk around your store for pick-up. Then you can direct your customers to your online store so they can place their order or you can jump this step if orders can be placed in person and direct them to their nearest store. 

Thanks to our technology, you’ll be able to measure website visits and physical store visits. 

Only your online store is open for deliveries 

If you can only trade online, traditional drive-to-site campaigns should be your go-to. If you can only deliver to a certain area, it’s important that you geotarget your campaign so that you reach only those who can receive your product. Once you’ve got your catchment area sorted, you can reuse existing visuals to easily have a traffic campaign up and running. 

Often advertisers rely on social media and search engines to push this type of campaign, but mobile display campaigns in-app can be highly effective to drive traffic and increase brand recall. And once your store is able to open fully again, you can retarget these high potential audiences and measure your in-store traffic. 

You had to stop all business

Sadly, many businesses have had to temporarily close their doors during lockdown. Though it might be difficult to justify ad spend during this time, running branding campaigns to remain top of mind has a strong pay off when you can resume trading. 

Mobile and desktop display is a great medium for branding, and even a small investment can generate sufficient reach to keep your brand in the picture and connect with your consumer base. If you cannot do it with advertising or on top of your advertising, social media can be a great way to keep in touch with your existing audience. 

If you want to know more about how we can help you navigate local and national restrictions and prepare for the future, get in touch.

It goes without saying that this year’s holiday shopping season and overall seasonal celebrations will be unlike any other we’ve experienced. There is a myriad of things that are going to impact how people shop, when and where people shop, and the availability of items they’re shopping for. 

We know that there will be certain difficulties associated with this year, but there is still a lot of opportunity for brands. According to eMarketer, nearly 48% of US shoppers are still planning to spend the same amount on their holiday shopping as they did in 2019. 

Yes, this year will be challenging for brands and they will need to rethink some of the ways and the channels in which they are hoping to reach and connect with their consumers.

We’ve put together a few smart tips to consider when planning your holiday ad campaigns this year, whether it be to increase in-store visits or traffic to your online e-shop. 

Tactic 1: Use an omnichannel approach to generate store visits

We know that time spent with mobile has surged during the past 7 months, and mobile remains the key channel to reach consumers. Brands should focus on this consumption shift and leverage mobile as the primary device in their drive-to-store efforts, but combining multiple channels can help boost foot traffic.

It has been found that brands have seen a 3x higher visit rate when combining mobile with (D) OOH. This year it will be crucial for brands to reinforce their messaging with their consumers and a cross-screen approach; adding OOH or desktop to your media mix will be key to driving the in-store visits that can really impact your bottom line. 

Tactic 2: Leverage location data to maximize store visits on major shopping days 

Reaching consumers at the most opportune time is going to be a great way to urge them into your store this season. With dynamically optimized creatives, you can drive consumers on the spot by integrating the address of the nearest store and, to maximize the chances of visits, guide your potential customer with a store locator.

With hyper-local location targeting, you can identify shoppers who are near your store so they choose your brand for their purchases. Locala’s Dynamic Catchment Area tool also allows you to target consumers within a short walk or drive time to your location, so you can help limit their public transportation time. 

Using these strategies on the major shopping days like Black Friday and Super Saturday will help you to effectively reach your target consumers at the right time to drive those in-store visits. 

Tactic 3: Drive traffic to your online store where physical locations are closed

As we know, this year, consumers will be shopping differently. According to eMarketer 71% of US adults plan to do more than half of their holiday shopping digitally. Promoting your online store will be an essential part of driving your holiday sales, especially in areas where your physical stores might be closed or at limited capacity. 

By developing creatives that drive to your eshop you can help supplement the in-store visits that might have been impacted by consumers looking to shop online for gifts. You can also work with our team to create custom ads that offer convenient shopping experiences like buying online, picking up in-store to provide the consumer with seamless opportunities to purchase from your brand. 

Tactic 4: Maximize brand recall with impactful creatives

At Locala, we know that the format of the ad can be just as important as the actual message, which is why we have a library of proprietary and innovative formats. Powerful and tailored creative ad units can have a truly impactful effect on users and can convert them to make a purchase.

An effective way of doing this is to use a format that can create an exciting effect and sense of urgency, such as a countdown to a specific day, sale, or product launch. With the Countdown format, you can spark a consumer’s interest, which can have a big impact this holiday season. 

On the day of the event, you can leverage the Real-time format to remind your consumers that it’s time to shop, an ideal way to create moment marketing campaigns for timed promotions. 

We know this holiday season is going to be different, but at Locala we are committed to supporting brands do their best to get back to business amid this time. If you would like to hear more about how we can help boost in-store foot traffic for your business, please get in touch at contact@s4m.io

In this series, we’ve aimed to share three key strategies that political advertisers should consider for their digital campaigns if they want to win big during an election year. In this final installment, we are focusing on the importance of having an effective delivery method of a campaign message to connect with voters.

In order to be truly effective, candidates need to deliver powerful messaging. By delivering a custom and engaging ad to voters in key districts, a candidate can really reinforce their campaign messaging, all of this through the person’s mobile phone — the device they are most likely to be using. 

You may be thinking, yes we know we want to advertise on mobile to drive home our messaging. But consider working with a technology partner that has the capabilities to develop truly impactful custom, dynamic messaging through different creative formats. 

Dynamically optimized creatives 

Dynamic creative optimization refers to a form of advertising technology that allows an advertiser to personalize ads based on the user viewing their ad at that time, as well as to optimize on which creative is performing best, all in real-time. 

This can be extremely beneficial when it comes to political advertising because it means that you can deliver tailored messages at scale. For instance, if you are running for a Governor seat, you can look at which campaign aspects resonate more in which areas of the state. If you know a potential voter is in a location where schools are a big issue, you can target them with an ad that highlights your stance on education, while you can deliver a different ad on another aspect of your platform to someone in a separate part of the state.

Creative formats that re-engage users after the fact 

Another thing to consider when developing your advertising strategy is how you can re-engage a potential voter whether they have previously clicked on an ad or you want to remind your constituents to go out and vote. 

A smart and impactful way to incorporate this into your campaign is to work with a partner that has experience in developing creative formats that are effective in urging user interaction. For example, there are formats that allow a user to save an event in their mobile wallet. On a determined day or time, the advertiser can send the user a push notification that reminds them of the upcoming event. This can be used to further remind your audience to vote for your candidate. In addition, an advertiser can smartly develop retargeting ads that are specific to a user who clicked on an ad earlier in your campaign. The candidate can remind them they’ve shown interest and that they should go out and vote for them. 

Formats that play off of mobile device functionalities

Working with a partner that has a library of innovative and proprietary creative formats also allows you to deliver really unique messages. This allows an advertiser to retain voters’ attention and boost engagement by leveraging smartphones’ native sensors. 

Delivering a potential voter an ad format that asks them to engage with your format, whether it is by using a format that combines your message with an interactive feature that provides the ability to discover specific campaign components or comes with an interactive slider that gives the ability to switch between two creatives, offers the opportunity to highlight multiple aspects of your campaign platform to raise awareness. Delivering an ad that encourages people to interact is an effective way to raise awareness and boost recall, all tactics that can help drive voters to the polls on behalf of your candidate. 

Make sure that you check out all the insights from this series by reading the rest of the posts here:

1. Leverage mobile to reach registered voters at home in the US
2. Target registered US voters by their location and political affiliation
3. Reach registered US voters based on past behaviors and social interest

In the next installment of our political advertising series, we’re sharing how advertisers can leverage voter’s behavior and interest in order to effectively connect with them. 

Political advertisers should consider partnering with a partner that has access to the breadth and depth of accurate audience insights and understanding. This understanding of where a person stands on certain social issues such as, equal rights, the environment, and gun control will ultimately help candidates understand who the voters are in their districts. It can also provide insight into if your campaign has a chance at earning a potential voter’s support or if they in the past have voted for candidates with opposite policies than your own. 

Having access to these data insights will ultimately allow candidates to determine who they should be reaching in order to garner support, and will help limit outreach to citizens that will most likely not support their campaign. Advertisers can also harness this data to build messaging that speaks to undecided registered voters, or those voters who may be considered ‘swing’ and have shown support for either party on various issues. Using this data provides the tools to conquer those undecided or independent registered voters. 

For even more insights, check out the first two posts in this series!

1. Leverage mobile to reach registered voters at home in the US
2. Target registered US voters by their location

It’s clear to see that no one, not brands nor consumers, was prepared for the upheaval that the COVID-19 pandemic brought on. And with many US states still in uncertainty about certain aspects of updated reopening plans, we’re already predicting that the back-to-school shopping season might look different than ever before. 

Back-to-School is a billion-dollar shopping season for US retailers with US parents purchasing a myriad of items from clothing and accessories to technology and electronics. In 2019 alone that spend reached over $26 billion. And while we know shopping habits have shifted, 41% of US parents expect that they will still spend the same amount or more on their back-to-school shopping this year. 

When it comes to the major items being purchased in preparation for back-to-school, Deloitte found that many of these purchases still take place in-store. For instance, 62% of clothing and accessories shoppers plan to make their purchases in a physical store. The same was reported for school supplies with 62% looking to shop in-store for these items. 

Brands still have a great opportunity to reach their consumers and bring them into their brick-and-mortar locations for the purchasing but they will need to adapt their strategies this year to make the most impact. 

Check out our infographic to see how your brand can drive consumers into your stores for their back-to-school shopping this year!

We’re rolling out three things that political advertisers should be thinking about this election year. In this piece, we are sharing how advertisers can leverage location data to develop a winning strategy.

It’s clear that mobile continues to be the device that people spend the most time with. Along with that comes the location data that is available through the location services function on smartphones. When users opt-in to sharing their data, we can get precise information on their physical, real-time location. 

With this information, political advertisers can narrow down their constituents by town, city, county, state, or nationally and geofence the desired area to deliver hyper-geotargeted messages.  This is incredibly useful when we look at campaigns based on the government office in which the candidate is running for. The strategy for a Congressional campaign versus a Mayor, Governor, or President will be vastly different in terms of the scope and who the target audiences will be. Political advertisers should work with a partner that has the capabilities to deliver campaign messages to the desired audience in the necessary location to avoid wasted ad spend on voters who are not applicable to your candidate. 

As mentioned, in many instances, instead of heading out to the polls in large groups, we are expecting that voters will be sending ballots by mail at staggering rates. In New York State alone, nearly two million absentee ballots were sent out in advance of the June primaries. Through a partner that is able to deliver impactful mobile location-based ads, campaigns can reach voters at home who are receiving their Vote-by-Mail ballot and educate voters on your issues through effective messaging. This is a great way for advertisers to reach those constituents they know are planning to vote.

In case you missed it, check out our previous post on how best to reach audiences who will be voting by mail.

It’s undeniable the recent pandemic has had massive implications on physical retail. From the way people shop, to how they spend their free time and how they move around, COVID-19 has left a lasting impact on consumer behavior.

As consumers head back into stores, brands are rethinking their advertising strategy to better meet new customer expectations, habits and behavior. To help, we’ve developed the Back-to-Store report – a customized study examining your stores’ catchment areas and with tailored strategies to encourage consumers back.

With Back-to-Store, marketers will have access to exclusive and actionable insights to better understand how their stores’ affinity areas are evolving, and identify which high-potential neighborhoods they should invest in. You’ll be able to track the evolution of consumers’ mobility and see which regions they find more attractive to better localize media spend.

Receive a personalized report with actionable insights to build a more effective drive-to-store strategy and boost footfall to your stores.

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*Please note that due to high demand we are only able to offer the report to brand-side advertisers at this stage.

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting nearly every aspect of our daily lives, we’ve had to adjust to a new sense of normal. So far this year, we’ve seen major disruptions to events that we are accustomed to such as graduations, major sporting competitions, and awards circuits. This year also happens to be host to a number of pivotal elections in the United States government. But 2020 is shaping up to look different from any other election year. This is especially true when it comes to the presidential primaries and election.

With everything happening around the United States over the past few months, political advertisers are entering into uncharted territory. Sheltering in-place orders have resulted in massive changes to typical political campaigns. Public debates have been reimagined, conventions and rallies have been postponed or outright canceled due to the limits on crowd sizes.

We are also seeing major shifts in how people are consuming media and spending their time. In April 2020, 52% of Americans reported that they were spending more time using mobile devices since the start of the outbreak of Coronavirus in the US, with 26% of consumers stating that they’ve spent more time in-app. While reaching voters might not be as straightforward as it has been in past elections, US adult users are now spending over 3 hours per day on their smartphones, meaning that the device provides advertisers with major benefits in reaching them.

With people limiting their social interactions, especially in large settings and groups, spending an increasing amount of time at home and with their smartphones, we may see less voters going to the polls and more requests for voting by mail. It’s more vital than ever that political advertisers address these behaviors in their campaign outreach and leverage a partner that is able to reach registered voters in this unprecedented situation.

We’ll be rolling out three key things political advertisers should consider for their digital campaigns in order to win this election year.

Locala partnered with insights company Happydemics to study how consumer behavior is evolving with the easing of lockdown in France.

We surveyed more than 1,000 French citizens, aged between 18 and 65+, to get a view of how the crisis has impacted consumers’ habits and expectations.

Here are a few takeaways:

• Nearly half of the people surveyed are planning on going to stores at least as often as they did before lockdown.
• French consumers will be visiting stores for their personal pleasure, to fall back into their routine and to buy goods they couldn’t find before.
• Brands are expected to offer more discounts, enforce health measures, and develop Click & Collect services.
• The food sector will lead the way in terms of consumer spend.

To get the full insights, take a look at our French infographic.

Last year Locala took a new approach on how we wanted to help our different communities across the globe. Whether it be helping to remove carbon emissions through our partnership with Ecotree or donating revenue to help hospitals fight COVID-19 in France, we are looking at how we can give back. Partnering with Givsly in the US, we have begun to shift the way we think about how we are spending time with our clients, realizing that outside of the traditional lunches and happy hours, we can provide an experience that has a real purpose and is socially impactful. 

Givsly is a for-purpose company that helps businesses rethink the way that they can create social impact and give back to their communities. Through their initiatives, they create opportunities for people to connect in exchange for donations to nonprofits they care about and develop turn-key events that companies can sponsor to create more purposeful experiences. 

Our CRO, North America, Ed Silhan sat down with Givsly for their For-Purpose Experience podcast recently to share why we are taking these steps.  

Ed, along with Givsly CEO Chad Hickey, Rob DeSalvo, SVP of National Sales and Content Solutions at Undertone, Nicole Adams, Program Manager at SuitUp, and Nikkya Hargrove, Director of Programs at Harboring Hearts, discussed how corporations are rethinking employee and client engagement and how they give back to the community. 

Three key themes seemed to emerge during the conversation. 

Younger generations are often driving this shift

As more college grads enter into employment, we are seeing the workforce skew younger, especially in the advertising and media sector. In 2020 GenZ and Millennials are noted to make up a majority of the workforce with GenZ expected to represent 75% of it by 2030.* 

We are finding that younger generations are seeking to have a more meaningful purpose and are striving to interact with their communities in a way that helps. According to Mackenzie Corporation, 77% of Millennials and GenZ involve themselves with a charity or good cause and they are now expecting that their companies address these social and environmental issues too.** With 10%-20% of GenZ employees reporting that they’d even be willing to take a pay cut in order to be able to work towards a cause they care about.* 

The demand from these employees is helping to drive the involvement of companies with CSR efforts and to shift the concept from  a ‘once a year volunteer day’ mindset to something that is becoming embedded into overall company culture and values.

Buy-in from leadership is key for success 

With the demand from their employees to promote social responsibility and get involved in socially impactful programs, 

Although we’re seeing that younger employees are leading the charge, it ultimately requires the senior management team sign-on in order for the programs to be implemented within the organization.  Recently, leadership teams are looking for ways in which to support  their communities and employees as well,helping to work with them to identify the right  opportunities  for their business. Building a responsible and sustainable business is crucial for the success of that business.

Having an executive champion helps to really embed the social responsibility programs within the company culture and really adds to the value of these initiatives among teams and encourages staff involvement. 

Purpose can help build deeper bonds with employees and clients 

We’re seeing that  people across the board are looking to interact with companies, whether it  be as an employee, client or as a consumer, that are socially responsible. 

88% of consumers want the brands they support and engage with to have CSR initiatives, some even stating they’d go so far to boycott a brand that supports a social issue/cause that conflicts with their own.***

For employees and clients, the sentiment is the same. Companies that have implemented volunteer programs have noticed that providing an environment where co-workers and partners can engage in meaningful activities has helped to build deeper relationships. 

We’re all striving to do good and make our communities a better place. When the corporations we engage with everyday help to make that possible it encourages us all to take part in having a  positive social impact.  

Tune into here to listen to the whole podcast. 

*Forbes

**Mackenzie Corporation

*** Cone Communications

This is not the first time that the advertising industry has had to deal with an unprecedented global situation that resulted in major challenges for brands and agencies. Throughout, major brands have become staples within American culture, and this is not the time for them to abandon their customers — this is the time for them to support people, reinforce what optimism there is and help customers navigate what is going on. And while there is an air of uncertainty, and the space needs to be approached with care and sensitivity,  we know challenging times often result in innovation. This is the opportunity for brands to develop new approaches to reach their consumers.

Here are three things that brands should consider: 

Don’t cut off communication with your consumers

This is not the time to abandon consumers. Keep reaching out to your consumers, whether it be to share new product offerings, knowledge on how to stay safe or just to offer a comforting message. It’s important to remain in contact with your customers so your brand doesn’t end up being forgotten. People will have a more positive sentiment towards a brand that was able to provide them with value during this period. Ultimately, the industry will bounce back and brands will need to be in a position where they are ready to react and not ramping up from scratch. 

Take a more localized approach

While your customers may not be heading out in droves to retail shops or shopping malls, that doesn’t mean they aren’t shopping. Where it is safe, brands can encourage customers into their stores by targeting people within a 5-minute walk of your store so they don’t take public transport to get there. Target your messaging based on location so you can share local opening hours and any delivery services. You could even work with a partner to develop new creative ad formats that let customers know if you have what they need as they walk past.

Additionally, during this time we can look to focus on awareness campaigns in local markets or driving consumers to online stores and sites. 

Personal screens will be more important than ever

People are changing their daily habits and lifestyles drastically at this time. Consumers will not be attending large scale outings or events, or in places like NYC even grabbing a bite to eat at the local cafe but we know that their smartphones are not going anywhere.  If anything, we’re going to see more time spent with mobile as people are trying to keep informed, check-in with loved ones and distract themselves. This is the key channel to reach consumers and should be reinforced during this time. Brands should harness this pattern of consumption shift. 

Locala is introducing academy, 20-minute training sessions on drive-to-store. These weekly webinars are here to help you learn something new and prepare to get ahead of your competitors when we can go back to the shops!

Click on the links below to register for the session of your choice or watch our replays:

• April 1 – Replay: Introducing drive-to-store advertising
• April 8 – Replay: Using Location Data
• April 15 – Replay: How to measure incremental visits
• April 20-May 1 – Replay: How does drive-to-store measure up in your market – US – UK – France – Canada – Spain – Singapore – Belgium – Italy
• May 6 – Replay: Best practices for your drive-to-store campaign
• May 13 – Replay: Drive-to-store for automotive
• May 20 – Replay: Drive-to-store for restaurants
• May 27 – Replay: Drive-to-store for fashion
• June 3 – Replay: Drive-to-store for home & furniture

Recordings of all Webinars will be available on this page and on our Vimeo channel afterwards.

2019’s coming to a close, and with it ends a decade of innovation. In 2010, the iPhone outsold Blackberry for the first time, changing the way people accessed the internet and revolutionising the advertising industry. Since then we’ve seen Facebook become more than a social network, as it established its dominance on the advertising industry alongside Google. We’ve seen changes in the way personal data is used, with the GDPR and CCPA setting the rules for how advertisers engage with users going forward.

There’s been countless mergers and acquisitions, innovations and trends (and more years of mobile than anyone can count). Outside of ad tech, the traditional retail landscape has been overturned, as we said goodbye to BHS, Mothercare and Maplin. Countless other traditional brands struggle on as agile DTC start-ups thrive.

What might the 20s have in store? Now’s the perfect time to look ahead to what the next decade might have to offer.

A new era for privacy

Despite new regulations and seemingly never-ending cookie consent banners, the average user still has a very hazy understanding of how their personal data is used for marketing. But that’s beginning to change, the digitally native Gen Z not only understand how data is used, they have strong opinions on who should and shouldn’t have access to their personal information.

By 2030, most consumers will have a good understanding of how their data’s leveraged to improve their buyer journey. For the data exchange to feel compelling, the online experience must be frictionless, and measurably improved compared to an opted-out journey. Expect also to see more loyalty systems where users exchange personal data for discounts and rewards. For users who prefer to keep private, it will become clearer how to opt-in to services which require personal data, and to remain opted out of anything else.

Outcome-driven campaigns

Today’s industry is siloed by channels – digital, search, OOH etc. The challenge this currently throws up is how to combine the channels most effectively, and then how to attribute results to each channel, or each combination of channels. It’s time for a change. Rather than create an advertising plan by channel, consider creating a plan by desired outcome, and then optimising the mix to best deliver the result for that particular campaign, for that particular brand, at that particular moment in time.

This would require thinking about campaigns differently, looking at the business KPI the brand is trying to achieve – whether that’s store visits, purchases or branding – and then building the marketing plan around that central goal, optimising the mix as the campaign progresses.

This approach would require serious restructuring, but it could be the difference between good and outstanding campaign performance.

A brick-and-mortar revival

Despite many high-profile closures, there’s hope for the high street in the 20s. While eCommerce is changing the face of retail, it won’t eliminate the role of physical stores. Customers will see the physical store experience as a key part of the buying journey and brick and mortar stores will adapt to meet their new expectations. Sports stores may offer coaching, technology firms might teach how to correctly use their software, fashion retailers could hold talks on sustainable fashion. The more retailers lean into the experience, the more successful their shops will be.

Merging online and offline

The line between online and offline is blurring, customers aren’t shopping on a single channel anymore. They can go from online engagement to online purchase, offline engagement to online purchase, offline engagement to online search to online purchase to offline return – the possibilities are endless. Today, we have cracked online to online tracking as an industry, but we’re only just beginning to explore the opportunities of online to offline. Over the next decade, the industry will need to innovate to reliably attribute every single one of your customers’ touch points instead of last click only. Mobile data will play a large role, as it joins up advertising channel, location, eCommerce and payment channel.

Bringing brands and customers closer through one-to-one messaging

Thanks to significant advances in ID tracking, AI and personalisation over the next ten years one-to-one messaging will finally be within reach, so the buyer journey can be genuinely tailored to each customer.

Brands will be able to merge their CRM systems with their ad tech stacks to link their customers’ online and offline identity. Combined with dynamic creatives, this will help deliver targeted marketing campaigns to drive customers to the desired brand interaction. This one-to-one advertising will allow the message, tone and visuals to be adapted to the customer’s individual tastes, while still delivering campaigns at scale.

We’ve come a long way in 10 years. And the next 10 have a lot to offer as our industry continues to grow and thrive. Download our trends for 2020 to learn more about what the first year in 20s has in store for you. In the meantime, let’s raise a glass to a successful and prosperous decade.

As the digital advertising landscape evolves, brands are searching for effective ways to keep up with rapidly changing marketplace dynamics. Looking ahead, you’ll need to reach customers with engaging, relevant messaging to have a lasting impact that will get them into your stores.

From the advent of 5G and industry standardization to redefining traditional success metrics, you’ll need to keep an eye out for the hot trends to implement going into the new year. So, before we all cheer to a new decade, here are the five trends that will define 2020 in the ad tech industry.

Say goodbye to cookies

With behemoths Google and Apple introducing tighter controls around the use of 3^rd party cookies this year, advertisers are now having a harder time delivering targeted ads to users.

If you want to keep your standards up and your ad delivery high, consider these alternatives:

• Switch to a cookie-free app-based inventory,
• Use location and contextual data sources to get insights into user preferences and offline and online in-app behavior,
• Invest in first-party identity graphs to track users across their touch points.

Time to switch things up with 5G 

It’s happening – 5G networks are primed and ready to go! Thanks to unprecedented data speed, customers will start using their mobiles more – especially to stream content. This is a golden opportunity for you to invest in video formats that’ll have little to no load time.

Time to embrace mobile-first creatives and best practices. From short-form video content to focusing on formats suited to the mobile environment, make the most of mobile to stand out.

Media metrics are on their way out. Time to welcome business KPIs

Proving the effectiveness of a campaign is no walk in the park. Especially when your board doesn’t speak your language.

There’s an easy solution. Move away from media and marketing metrics like clicks, views, viewability and engagements, and turn to more tangible ways to judge your advertising performance – like increased numbers of customers in store or how many more people are buying your products.

Mobile is more than a channel, it’s a measurement tool

As we move into 2020, mobile is going to become more than just an advertising channel. It’s going to be the technology which helps prove campaign ROI.

With the ability to deliver one unique user ID, track user engagement and visits to a store location and so much more, brands will start using mobile as a measurement tool to prove campaign effectiveness. Don’t miss out!

Creating an industry standard

As it stands, the current system to validate campaign effectiveness is flawed. When those delivering the ads are also the ones reporting on campaign ROI, and the definition of store visits changes from one provider to the next, how can advertisers measure like for like?

To avoid any issues, independent third-party experts with no stakes in the campaign performance must become your go-to for evaluating and proving ROI on drive-to-store campaigns, and they must . It’s only by working with them that you’ll make sure your campaigns are delivering the visits you’re buying.

Whether all of these predictions come true or not, they all point to a rapidly changing industry, determined to deliver effective ads through creativity and innovation. Make sure to monitor these changes closely, don’t forget to adjust and look for hidden opportunities to stand out.

2020 has a lot to offer to brands who are ready to seize these opportunities. If you want to know more about what the coming decade has in store for you, download our 2030 report.