Content Type Blog Post

Retail media networks are on the rise.   

The dawn of another year brings reflections both big and small. Everyone seems to make their own resolutions as they look toward a clean slate: Eat better, give more to charity, dust off the Peloton that’s currently doubling as a coat rack. But resolutions don’t just have to be about bettering ourselves in our personal lives—they can (and should) pour over into our professional ones…

There has been an explosion in retail media networks over the past couple of years, with brands like Walgreens, Ulta, Tesco, CVS, Walmart, Kroger and Best Buy entering the space. What’s driving the rise in popularity?

Retail media networks are on the rise—and they aren’t just for the giants like Amazon anymore. Retailers of all sizes can use their first-party data to drive sales and bring in ad spend from their brand partners. But where do you start??  

The new year is right around the corner, and we know the questions on email marketers’ minds: What trends are heating up for next year and how can I integrate them into my 2022 planning? We’ve got you covered. 2022 is going to be a year of growth and innovation in the email space—so get comfortable and let’s dig into the hottest email marketing trends…

Roughly one year ago, I discovered the holy grail of holiday shopping experiences: Buy online, pick up outside store. For those who didn’t experience this brilliant innovation, let me take you back to November 2020. During last year’s holiday season, I remember I wanted to interact with as few humans as possible (as was the case for many). So, I took advantage of a process…

Here’s a question: If your company was a person, would you be friends with them?

Marketers have heard it a million times: Customers want personalization. They want offers, promotions and recommendations tailored specifically to them, straight to their inbox. In our own research, Epsilon found consumers are 80% more likely to make a purchase when a brand offers personalized experiences.

Let’s take a short trip back to March 2020—no mask required.

Although digital has been a significant part of shopper marketing for a few years now, connecting with customers digitally on an individual, one-to-one level has been a challenge for the industry. Why? Because most of the data comes in the form of "audiences" and "segments," not individual journeys.

For the past 20-plus years, casinos have been at the forefront of using first-party behavioral data to drive intelligent segmentation and targeting. Now, it’s time to apply that same innovation to leverage third-party data, as well. Casino marketers have been trained to believe that “External appended data doesn’t predict gaming behavior.” But when it comes down to it, that's not entirely true anymore.

For most marketers, last year was all about hunkering down, trimming marketing spend, putting a pause on innovation and focusing on staying afloat. Few industries were hit harder than travel, with airlines nearly halting service, hotels left without guests, and only one in three tourism destinations open to international travelers. Even Disneyland had to close its doors for a bit—only the third time in history…

You’ve heard it a million times—"the modern marketing landscape is in the middle of a major change"—which is inherently true. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed marketers to completely rethink the way they communicate with customers, and the deprecation of third-party cookies coupled with increasing privacy restrictions by the likes of Apple and Google have made it even more difficult to have that dialogue with customers digitally.

As consumers, we’ve defined the financial services industry by the different products offered to us. For example, we may work with one bank for our mortgage needs and another for our checking and a third for our savings and financial planning.

Hear from our experts on the specific criteria and Epsilon's ratings in the 2021 Forrester Wave™ on Loyalty Solutions—and why they matter to your loyalty marketing outcomes.

The biggest topic in marketing in the past year has been data deprecation and its impact on knowing your consumers in a digital context. But there have been other forces at play for some time—changing privacy regulations, walled gardens restrictions and consumer-driven privacy control—culminating in one conclusion for nearly every marketer: They need to double-down on first-party data.

Over the last year, the auto industry has had to practically overhaul strategy and accelerate retail innovation to meet fast-paced changes in consumer expectations. How OEMs and dealers craft and model the customer experience is transforming—from the moment when a customer starts looking for a new vehicle, shopping, test-driving, sale and every digital and in-person interaction in between.

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A recent Phocuswire article explained Expedia’s focus on the cruise segment, continuing to invest to capture cruise demand by simplifying the shopping and booking experience, including a big focus on their call center extending the digital experience. The complexities of a cruise conversion make online bookings a challenge—and the cruise brands’ own call centers are at the center of their direct booking activity—so brands cannot…

Visit Omaha wanted to reach visitors during the city’s offseason and attract them to the area. Epsilon helped to evaluate their traditional audience markets and serve eye-catching creative to boost visitation during winter months, resulting in a strong revenue and community impact from over 14,500 new tourists. Let's see how they did it.