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Tag: advertising

  • Burger King is selling more Whoppers than ever before in early days of its U.S. turnaround

    Burger King is selling more Whoppers than ever before in early days of its U.S. turnaround

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    In this photo illustration, a Burger King Whopper hamburger is displayed on April 05, 2022 in San Anselmo, California.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Seven months after Burger King unveiled a strategy to revive its U.S. business, the chain is selling more Whoppers than ever before.

    Burger King U.S. President Tom Curtis told CNBC that preliminary improvements to restaurant operations and new marketing campaigns are already boosting sales and customer satisfaction, although it’s still early innings.

    Parent company Restaurant Brands International is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings and sales results for its divisions, including Burger King U.S., before the bell on May 2. Last quarter, Burger King’s U.S. same-store sales rose 5% on the back of implementing early steps in the turnaround plan.

    The $400 million plan to rejuvenate Burger King’s domestic sales was developed in partnership with franchisees and focuses on revamping its restaurants and investing in advertising.

    “What’s happened in the last six months is that sense of ‘We’re in this together’ that we have with our franchisees. I think it’s unique in the business, and I think that differs from what you see from some of the competition as well,” Curtis said.

    Burger rival McDonald’s has had much-publicized spats with its operators over the years. Recently, tension has been boiling over changes to its franchise policies.

    Before Burger King announced its official turnaround strategy, the company spent roughly a year simplifying operations with a goal to improve efficiency and order accuracy, Curtis said. For example, Burger King reformulated and renamed its chicken sandwich. The now-retired Ch’King sandwich involved 21 steps to prepare the final menu item. The Royal Crispy Chicken sandwich takes just five.

    After announcing its “Reclaim the Flame” strategy at a franchisee convention in September, Burger King turned its attention to an in-store training program for all of its restaurants that instructed workers to greet customers, make Whoppers properly and give out Burger King’s iconic crowns. Curtis said it was “the most important thing that we did coming out of the convention.”

    Burger King also held roundtables for general managers in 45 cities. Those roundtables included training general managers on how to execute a five-week-long deep clean of their restaurants.

    “I think those things are foundationally important, and they resulted in a 20% uplift in guest satisfaction,” Curtis said.

    Additionally, Burger King launched its “You Rule” marketing campaign in the fall. The chain’s mascot, the Burger King, is nowhere to be seen in the ads. Instead, customers are royalty.

    And despite Curtis’ own initial misgivings about the “Whopper Whopper” jingle used in the campaign (he was underwhelmed by the lyrics and asked the marketing team to rethink it), the song went viral and spawned memes across Twitter and TikTok. The company officially released the song in response to the popularity, and it has nearly 3.3 million streams on Spotify as of Friday.

    “We’re selling more Whoppers than we ever have. It’s had a really positive impact that we didn’t pay for or foresee on the business … it’s really exceeded my expectations,” Curtis said, adding that he’s excited for Restaurant Brands to release its earnings.

    Since the company announced its “Reclaim the Flame” strategy, former Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle has joined Restaurant Brands as its executive chair. Doyle oversaw the pizza chain’s transformation into a digital powerhouse in the restaurant industry. Curtis, who started as a Domino’s franchisee, worked alongside Doyle during his long career at Domino’s as an operations executive before joining Burger King in 2021.

    One of Doyle’s priorities for Burger King has been improving franchisee profitability. Two Burger King franchisees have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2023. The first franchisee to file for bankruptcy, Toms King Holdings, sold most of its locations at auction for $33 million earlier in April.

    “I don’t want to say that it’s welcome, because it’s not, but I do think that if managed correctly, the outcome can be better than where you were before,” Curtis said.

    While early signs point to the turnaround taking hold, Curtis is deferring the victory lap for now, emphasizing that “Reclaim the Flame” is meant to be a multiyear growth strategy.

    For example, of the $50 million that Restaurant Brands earmarked to improve restaurants’ appearances in conjunction with franchisees’ own investment, Burger King spent just $15 million in 2022.

    “We’re not even halfway, and these things just take time,” Curtis said.

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  • Chicago to host 2024 Democratic convention

    Chicago to host 2024 Democratic convention

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    Chicago will host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic National Committee said Tuesday, bringing the event back to the city for the first time since 1996.

    The Democratic Party seems to be closing ranks behind President Joe Biden as its 2024 nominee, although Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are mounting long-shot challenges. The president said Monday that he’s “planning on running” but wasn’t prepared to make a formal announcement yet.

    Read: As Biden says he’s ‘planning on running,’ here are the potential 2024 Republican candidates.

    “The Midwest reflects America and will give Democrats an opportunity to showcase some of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s most significant accomplishments for American families,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. Chicago beat out cities including New York and Atlanta in the competition to host the convention.

    A water taxi plies the Chicago River.


    Getty Images

    Biden said in a statement that the city is a “great choice” for the event and that his party will “showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down.”

    Republicans are planning to host their 2024 convention in Milwaukee.

    Read more: Republicans pick Milwaukee to host 2024 national convention

    Chicago hosted the Democratic convention most recently in 1996, when President Bill Clinton was renominated. The 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was marked by violent clashes between police and antiwar demonstrators.

    Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson called his city “unmatched when it comes to hosting events of this scale.”

    Johnson said: “I look forward to working closely with the DNC to facilitate a spectacular convention that showcases Chicago’s diverse culture, our beautiful lakefront, our renowned hospitality sector, and our best asset: our amazing people.”

    The Democratic convention is scheduled for Aug. 19-22, 2024.

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  • ‘An evil act of targeted violence’: Shooting in downtown Louisville bank leaves 5 dead, 9 wounded

    ‘An evil act of targeted violence’: Shooting in downtown Louisville bank leaves 5 dead, 9 wounded

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace Monday morning, killing four people — including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor — while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.

    Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence.”

    The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles to the south. That state’s governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.

    In Louisville, the chief identified the shooter as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who she said was livestreaming during the attack.

    “That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured,” she said.

    Meta
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    -0.62%    ,
    the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning.”

    Social company companies have imposed tougher rules over the past few years to prohibit violent and extremist content. They have set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions, but shocking material like the Louisville shooting continues to slip through the cracks, prompting lawmakers and other critics to lash out at the technology industry for slipshod safeguards and moderation policies.

    Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the Louisville shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email. One of the officers, 26-year-old Nickolas Wilt, graduated from the police academy on March 31. He was in critical condition after being shot in the head and having surgery, the police chief said. At least three patients had been discharged.

    Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends in the shooting — Tommy Elliott — in the building not far from the minor league ballpark Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park.

    “Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad,” said Beshear, his voice shaking with emotion. “He’s one of the people I talked to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend.”

    Also killed in the shooting were Josh Barrick, Jim Tutt and Juliana Farmer, police said.

    “These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us,” the governor said.

    It was the second time that Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since becoming governor.

    In late 2021, one of the towns devastated by tornadoes that tore through Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear frequently visited Dawson Springs as a boy and has talked emotionally about his father’s hometown.

    Beshear spoke as the investigation in Louisville continued and police searched for a motive. Crime scene investigators could be seen marking and photographing numerous bullet holes in the windows near the bank’s front door.

    As part of the investigation, police descended on the neighborhood where the suspect lived, about 5 miles south of the downtown shooting. The street was blocked as federal and local officers talked to residents. One home was cordoned off with caution tape. Kami Cooper, who lives in the neighborhood, said she didn’t recall ever meeting the suspect but said it’s an unnerving feeling to have lived on the same street as someone who could do such a thing.

    “I’m almost speechless. You see it on the news but not at home,” Cooper said. “It’s unbelievable, it could happen here, somebody on my street.”

    A man who fled the building during the shooting told WHAS-TV that the shooter opened fire with a long rifle in a conference room in the back of the building’s first floor.

    “Whoever was next to me got shot — blood is on me from it,” he told the news station, pointing to his shirt. He said he fled to a break room and shut the door.

    Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey said the actions of responding police officers undoubtedly saved lives.

    “This is a tragic event,” he said. “But it was the heroic response of officers that made sure that no more people were more seriously injured than what happened.”

    Just a few hours later and blocks away, an unrelated shooting killed one man and wounded a woman outside a community college, police said.

    The 15 mass shootings this year are the most during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009, when 16 had occurred by April 10, according to a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

    Going back to 2006, the first year for which data has been compiled, the years with the most mass killings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded during the entire calendar year. The pace in 2009 slowed later in the year, with 32 mass killings recorded that year.

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  • Progressive Brandon Johnson wins tight Chicago mayoral race over moderate Democrat Paul Vallas

    Progressive Brandon Johnson wins tight Chicago mayoral race over moderate Democrat Paul Vallas

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    CHICAGO — Brandon Johnson, a union organizer and former teacher, was elected as Chicago’s next mayor Tuesday in a major victory for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing as the heavily blue-leaning city grapples with high crime and financial challenges.

    Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, won a close race over former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, who was backed by the police union. Johnson, 47, will succeed Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly gay person to be the city’s mayor.

    Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose her reelection bid when she finished third in a crowded February contest.

    Johnson’s victory in the nation’s third-largest city topped a remarkable trajectory for a candidate who was little known when he entered the race last year. He climbed to the top of the field with organizing and financial help from the politically influential Chicago Teachers Union and high-profile endorsements from progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Sanders appeared at a rally for Johnson in the final days of the race.

    Taking the stage Tuesday night for his victory speech, a jubilant Johnson thanked his supporters. He recalled growing up in a poor family, teaching at a school in Cabrini Green, a notorious former public housing complex, and shielding his kids from gunfire in their west side neighborhood.

    “Chicago, tonight is just the beginning,” Johnson told the crowd. “With our voices and our votes, we have ushered in a new chapter in the history of our city.”

    He promised that under his administration, the city would look out for everyone, regardless of how much money they have, whom they love or where they come from.

    “Tonight is the beginning of a Chicago that truly invests in all of its people,” Johnson said.

    It was a momentous win for progressive organizations such as the teachers union, with Johnson winning the highest office of any active teachers union member in recent history, leaders say. It comes as groups such as Our Revolution, a powerful progressive advocacy organization, push to win more offices in local and state office, including in upcoming mayoral elections in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

    Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Vallas said that he had called Johnson and that he expected him to be the next mayor. Some in the crowd seemed to jeer the news, but Vallas urged them to put aside differences and support the next mayor in “the daunting work ahead.”

    “This campaign that I ran to bring the city together would not be a campaign that fulfills my ambitions if this election is going to divide us,” Vallas said.

    He added that he had offered Johnson his full support in the transition.

    The contest surfaced longstanding tensions among Democrats, with Johnson and his supporters blasting Vallas — who was endorsed by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s second-ranking Democrat — as too conservative and a Republican in disguise.

    Johnson and Vallas were the top two vote-getters in the all-Democrat but officially nonpartisan February race, which moved to the runoff because no candidate received over 50%. Both candidates have deep roots in the Democratic Party, though with vastly different backgrounds and views.

    Johnson, who is Black, grew up poor and is now raising his children in one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. After teaching middle and high school, he helped mobilize teachers, including during a historic 2012 strike through which the Chicago Teachers Union increased its organizing muscle and influence in city politics.

    Vallas, who finished first in the February contest, was the only white candidate in that nine-person field. A former Chicago budget director, he later led schools in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has run unsuccessfully for office multiple times, including a 2019 bid for Chicago mayor.

    Among the biggest disputes between Johnson and Vallas was how to address crime. Like many U.S. cities, Chicago saw violent crime increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting a 25-year high of 797 homicides in 2021, though the number decreased last year and the city has a lower murder rate than others in the Midwest, such as St. Louis.

    Vallas, 69, said he would hire hundreds more police officers, while Johnson said he didn’t plan to cut the number of officers, but that the current system of policing isn’t working. Johnson was forced to defend past statements expressing support for “defunding” police — something he insisted he would not do as mayor.

    But Johnson argued that instead of investing more in policing and incarceration, the city should focus on mental health treatment, affordable housing for all and jobs for youth. He has proposed a plan he says will raise $800 million by taxing “ultrarich” individuals and businesses, including a per-employee “head tax” on employers and an additional tax on hotel room stays. Vallas says that so-called “tax-the-rich” plan would be a disaster for the city’s recovering economy.

    Resident Chema Fernandez, 25, voted for Johnson as an opportunity to move on from what he described as “the politics of old.” He said he saw Vallas as being in line with previous mayors such as Rahm Emanuel, Lightfoot and Richard M. Daley, who haven’t worked out great for places like his neighborhood on the southwest side, which has seen decades of disinvestment.

    “I think we need to give the opportunity for policies that may actually change some of our conditions,” Fernandez said.

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  • Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why consumers would want a mixed-reality headset

    Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why consumers would want a mixed-reality headset

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    Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook, GQ’s latest cover boy, has a sales pitch for a mixed-reality headset.

    “The idea that you could overlay the physical world with things from the digital world could greatly enhance people’s communication, people’s connection,” Cook told GQ, without confirming the rumored June 5 announcement of Apple’s
    AAPL,
    +0.77%
    Reality Pro headset.

    Apple’s plunge into the so-called metaverse would offer a jolt to a flagging industry as well as serious competition to Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +0.53%    ,
    Alphabet Inc.’s
    GOOGL,
    +0.61%

    GOOG,
    +0.88%
    Google, Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    -0.37%    ,
    Snap Inc.
    SNAP,
    +0.27%
    and others.

    “ ‘It’s the idea that there is this environment that may be even better than just the real world — to overlay the virtual world on top of it might be an even better world.’ ”


    — Tim Cook

    Creative users, the lifeblood of Apple’s business model, stand to gain the most from virtual-reality products, according to Cook.

    “It’s the idea that there is this environment that may be even better than just the real world — to overlay the virtual world on top of it might be an even better world,” Cook told GQ. “If it could accelerate creativity, if it could just help you do things that you do all day long and you didn’t really think about doing them in a different way.”

    Cook also looked inward during the far-ranging interview, explaining his persona and the challenges in succeeding the legendary Steve Jobs as Apple CEO. Jobs died in 2011.

    “I always hate the word normal in a lot of ways, because what some people use to describe normal equals straight,” Cook said. “Some people would use that word in that kind of way. I don’t know — I’ve been described as a lot of things, but probably normal is not among those.”

    Added Cook: “I knew I couldn’t be Steve. I don’t think anybody could be Steve. I think he was a once-in-a-hundred-years kind of individual, an original by any stretch of the imagination. And so what I had to do was to be the best version of myself.”

    From the archives (October 2011): Steve Jobs: MarketWatch’s CEO of the Decade

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  • Here’s the Cost-Saving Secret to the Future of Advertising | Entrepreneur

    Here’s the Cost-Saving Secret to the Future of Advertising | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Traditional TV still has its viewers, but — unless you missed the memo circulating for the last decade — you’re probably aware that streaming is the current reigning champ of entertainment. New over-the-top TV (OTT) (a.k.a streaming TV ads or STV ads) options are officially outpacing traditional TV viewership (34.8% vs. 34.4%).

    That means more people are tuning into Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and other internet-based options instead of cable. It’s a no-brainer for entrepreneurs: Incorporating streaming TV into your advertising strategy is a powerful tool to reach your audience at scale.

    But OTT advertising’s biggest selling point? Cost.

    Sure, you can gamble and drop $7 million into a single Super Bowl ad like The Farmer’s Dog, which won USA Today‘s 35th Ad Meter. You could even throw similar amounts at designated marketing area (DMA) tactics or out-of-home ads (e.g., billboards, live events). But it’s not imperative. By pairing first-party retailer data with solid, creative video content delivered on TV streaming platforms, you can laser focus whatever budget you have for a powerful impact.

    Related: A Media Exec on How Brands Can Leverage OTT and FAST for Marketing Success: ‘It’s More Lean In Than Lean Back’

    The easiest way to win out

    Before putting all your chips on the table, make sure you understand this fundamental concept: There’s your own first-party data, and then there’s first-party retailer data. The initial category covers only the information you’ve collected about your customers through their interactions with your brand — think email addresses, age demographics, website traffic or purchase history. Retailer first-party data covers similar territories for another seller’s customers.

    Both are powerful. But larger retailers — say, Amazon, Walmart or Target — usually work with far more people over larger geographical regions. Their information gives you a richer picture of the current market and trends while still answering precise marketing questions. It’s the ideal secret weapon to expand your business through deliberate target marketing.

    With that straight, imagine you’re a luxury brand like Louis Vuitton. Your average selling price is five times more than the category average (yes, really), so good luck getting a ton of sales with generalized marketing. Instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks, the better option would be to target women ages 18-54 who are in-market and have purchased multiple handbags in the past six months with an average household income five times that of the rest of America (think places like Newport Beach, California).

    Agencies can assume this targeted approach in the OTT arena using first-party retailer data to ensure your ads appear in target-appropriate shows in specific locations. Now, stop pretending you’re Louis Vuitton. Pretend you’re you. Imagine you own a gym with three locations — think about how useful this could be for reaching your audience.

    Related: Where Entrepreneurs Can Innovate in the Streaming Service Space

    The beginner’s guide to streaming ads

    Your first rule of thumb should be to know your audience. If you’re a direct-to-consumer business, your own website analytics data can help you define your target consumer. Plus, this little tool, Google Analytics, is free and makes it easy to understand, present and leverage the data you already have.

    Once you have a detailed picture of your audience, you need creative assets. Contrary to Apple’s ads that say you can generate high-quality videos on your smartphone, remember never to settle for generic content. You have to go for the emotional jugular — design something innovative that’s memorable and resonates with the specific viewers you aim to reach. Let’s not forget that you’ll be on TV screens across America; your production needs to be spectacular. After all, if you’re entering people’s homes, you must bring value.

    The next step is to know what success looks like. Unlike traditional media, sales are not the core key performance indicator (KPI) for OTT advertising. Your core KPI? Searches for your brand on Google and websites like Amazon (assuming you sell there), which Google Keyword Planner can help you see. You’re looking at whether the search volume for your branded keywords is growing.

    Think bigger. What if you used QR codes? You can easily see how many people clicked them. If you’re clever, you can create a custom landing page on your site with a promotion or deal to make your OTT spend impactful. Now you can track sales from an ad served on a TV!

    Related: 10 QR Code Generator Features That You Can Use For Free

    Coming soon to a screen near you

    Once upon a time, you advertised in a non-specific DMA and hoped your sales would go up. Again, we’re seeing a mindblowing breakthrough: We can leverage QR codes, marketing cloud clean rooms, retailer data and your website data to determine if your ad converted into a sale.

    And the future promises bigger and better methods. Imagine if OTT advertising could connect to other platforms and combine ad solutions, too. A car fan can’t get enough Fast and Furious movies? Let’s say they head over to Freevee to get their fix. The streaming platform puts a QR code up for — you guessed it — custom wheels. Then, they head over to IMDb to jog their brain about who’s in the film, where they also see an ad for those same wheels. No matter the device, you will reach them with the same ad. It could even extend to virtual (VR) or augmented realities (AR) that allow the consumer to put the wheels on a picture of their car.

    This setup illustrates how technology is transforming the customer journey and the advertiser’s ability to measure success. It’s easy to remove all the barriers to purchase for your customers and use different platforms together in a cohesive strategy to sell a product.

    Stream your way to success

    In the prehistoric age of retail and TV, advertisers had to cast a wide, expensive net to get ads in front of people. It was tough to see the fruit of their efforts. The new world of retailer data combined with OTT advertising is fundamentally different because it doesn’t require a mammoth-sized budget and can hone in on exactly who you want to reach.

    You have an incredible opportunity to advertise more efficiently and creatively than ever. Will you take it?

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    Joshua Kreitzer

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  • Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News should continue to trial, says Delaware judge

    Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News should continue to trial, says Delaware judge

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    DOVER, Del. (AP) — A voting-machine company’s defamation case against Fox News over its airing of false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go to trial after a Delaware judge on Friday ruled that a jury must decide whether the network aired the claims with actual malice, the standard for proving libel against public figures.

    Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that neither Fox nor Dominion Voting Systems had presented a convincing argument to prevail on whether Fox acted with malice without the case going to trial. But he also ruled that the statements Dominion had challenged constitute defamation “per se” under New York law. That means Dominion did not have to prove damages to establish liability by Fox.

    “ ‘The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that [it] is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.’ ”


    — Superior Court Judge Eric Davis

    “The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that [it] is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in his summary judgment ruling.

    The decision paves the way for a trial start in mid-April.

    Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion, claiming Fox defamed it by repeatedly airing false allegations by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the weeks after the 2020 election claiming the company’s machines and its accompanying software had switched votes to Democrat Joe Biden. The network aired the claims even though internal communications show that many of its executives and hosts didn’t believe them.

    The company sued Fox News and its parent, Fox Corp.
    FOX,
    +1.36%

    FOXA,
    +1.13%    ,
    which shares ownership with News Corp
    NWS,
    +1.99%

    NWSA,
    +1.77%    ,
    parent company of MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones.

    Don’t miss: Top congressional Democrats Schumer and Jeffries seek on-air acknowledgements that Fox News personalities knew Trump lost and election wasn’t stolen

    See: 2020 election ‘was not stolen,’ Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath, according to evidence in Dominion case

    Also: Pro-Trump on air, Tucker Carlson privately told his Fox News producer that he hates the former president with a passion

    Fox has said it was simply covering newsworthy allegations made by a sitting president claiming his re-election had been stolen from him. In his ruling, Davis said Fox could not escape potential liability by claiming privileges for neutral reporting or opinion.

    “FNN’s failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested.” the judge wrote.

    In a statement issued after the ruling, Dominion said it was gratified that the court had rejected Fox’s arguments and found “as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial.”

    Fox emphasized that the case is about the media’s First Amendment protections in covering the news. “Fox will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings,” the network said in a statement.

    See: ‘A complete nut’: Fox News hosts didn’t believe 2020 election fraud claims

    Also: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity among potential witnesses at Fox News trial

    The coverage fed an ecosystem of misinformation surrounding Trump’s loss in 2020 that has persisted ever since.

    MarketWatch contributed.

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  • Disney eliminates metaverse division in cost-cutting purge: report

    Disney eliminates metaverse division in cost-cutting purge: report

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    The metaverse is among the first victims of Walt Disney Co.’s cost-cutting purge.

    The Magic Kingdom is shutting down its next-generation storytelling and consumer-experiences unit, the small division that was developing metaverse strategies, as part of a plan to slash 7,000 jobs, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday.

    Disney…

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  • How First Republic stock’s tailspin started and why it hasn’t stopped

    How First Republic stock’s tailspin started and why it hasn’t stopped

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    Shortly after Silicon Valley Bank disclosed on March 8 that it was running short of cash and needed to raise capital, First Republic Bank’s epic stock slide began.

    The stock
    FRC,
    -15.47%
    has lost 90% of its value in less than two weeks, hitting an all-time low of $12.18 a share on Monday.

    Supportive comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen helped it snap back on Tuesday, but it’s hovering between positive and negative territory on Wednesday as investors await a key Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

    First Republic finds itself in a tough spot with a low share price and fresh debt downgrades and not even efforts to inject $30 billion into the company’s deposits in a scheme backed by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
    JPM,
    -2.58%
    and a backstop from the U.S. Federal Reserve seem to be helping.

    The bank’s troubles stem from its overlap both in clientele and parts of its balance sheet with doomed Silicon Valley Bank, which is being sold off this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after it officially failed on Friday, March 10. Silicon Valley Bank suffered a classic run on a bank, when depositors, nervous that it needed to raise capital, yanked their deposits.

    First Republic has suffered the same deposit flight.

    As a San Francisco bank with a focus on serving high-end clients, First Republic has acted as wealth manager for the greater Silicon Valley region of executives, managing directors and startup CEOs, as well as their counterparts on the East Coast.

    The list incudes Facebook
    META,
    -1.16%
    Founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has a large mortgage courtesy of First Republic, as the Wall Street Journal has reported. Few of its loans ever sour — it had $213 billion in assets at the end of 2022 and $176 billion in deposits.

    With its sophisticated lending products and access to the technology startup world, Silicon Valley Bank was also known for its a customer base from the venture capital and private equity world. 

    Also Read: 24 bank stocks that contrarian bottom-feeders can feast on now

    Those well-heeled clients of both banks started running into problems as interest rates rose last year, pundits warned of an economic slowdown and investors switched to a risk-off strategy of conserving cash and containing costs.

    The collapse of FTX and strain in the crypto world also fed the need for cold, hard government-backed currency. Rising interest rates made it more expensive to borrow and put a chill on the deal-making environment.

    All of this and other factors led to a drain on deposits at Silicon Valley Bank and others as it faced “elevated client cash burn” at a rate that was double pre-2021 levels, even as venture capital and private equity funds were slowing down their capital raising activities, the company said in an ill-fated mid-quarter report.

    On March 8 after the market close, Silicon Valley Bank said it planned to sell $2.25 billion in common stock and a type of preferred stock, with one of its major clients, private equity firm General Atlantic, in line to buy $500 million worth. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
    GS,
    -1.14%
    was handling the deal.

    The company also disclosed that it had lost $1.8 billion on the sale of $21 billion in available-for-sale securities on its balance sheet to cover deposit withdrawals.

    It was this last part that caused big trouble for First Republic. Not only did its clientele overlap with Silicon Valley Bank, its holdings included some of the same securities that Silicon Valley Bank sold at a loss.

    Wall Street investors quickly started bidding down shares of First Republic and other regional banks and the credit rating agencies moved in, cutting the bank’s rating from investment grade deep into junk in just a few days.

    None of this helped First Republic hold on to its deposits.  

    As one longtime banking official said recently, money from Silicon Valley types typically comes in the form of uninsured deposits, which means they’re in excess of the $250,000 that the FDIC will guarantee if a bank goes out of business. This so called hot-money is great for banks when times are good, but can move away quickly if the environment changes.

    “When hot money gets nervous, it runs,” former FDIC chairman Bill Isaac told MarketWatch recently.

    While an unprecedented effort on March 16 by 11 banks to inject $30 billion into First Republic’s deposits temporarily provided a lift to its stock, the move apparently wasn’t enough.

    First Republic said last Thursday that it had borrowed between $20 billion and $109 billion from the Federal Reserve during that week. It also increased short-term borrowing from the Federal Home Loan Bank by $10 billion at a rate of 5.09%.

    Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin said the numbers revealed that First Republic’s total deposits had dropped by up to $89 billion in the week ended March 17 past week—or about three times more than the $30 billion injection from the bank.

    “With [First Republic’s] earnings profile clearly impaired, the new deposits effectively bridge the estimated $30.5 billion of uninsured deposits still on [the bank’s] balance sheet, providing time for [it] to likely explore a sale,” Usdin said.

    Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tim Coffey said First Republic’s stock drop in recent days reflects uncertainty around what a potential second bailout would look like, or how the bank’s balance sheet is faring after a steep run in deposits and the falling value of its long-dated securities.

    Another unknown is the company’s latest Tier 1 capital Ratio, a key measure of a bank’s balance sheet strength.

    Like Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic’s balance sheet has had more than the usual exposure to long-dated securities, which have been falling in value as interest rates rise. 

    A typical mix for a bank of comparable size is to hold about 72% of securities as available for sale. The remaining 28% are held to maturity. First Republic’s mix is reversed with 12% available for sale and 88% held to maturity.

    The bank’s mix of longer-dated assets now commands a lower market value, given where interest rates are. The bank’s emphasis on long-dated securities provided a better return when interest rates were near zero, but they have been a liability in the current environment.

    “They’ve had duration risk where the value of their securities started going down as interest rates rose,” Coffey told MarketWatch.

    Another problem for First Republic is that many of those long-dated securities are in the mortgage business, which has been ailing as interest rates rise.

    Plenty of questions remain about First Republic’s situation and whether it could have been avoided. The challenges facing First Republic as well as the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will be the focus of hearings on Capitol Hill next week.

    Wall Street is also awaiting comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve when it updates its interest rate policy later on Wednesday.

    And JPMorgan Chase continues to work with First Republic on a potential bailout, even as the bank has reportedly hired Lazard
    LAZ,
    -2.17%
    to weigh strategic alternatives.

    All of these factors add to the uncertainty swirling around First Republic, giving investors little reason to go long on the stock for now.

    Also Read: 24 bank stocks that contrarian bottom-feeders can feast on now

    Related: Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown sees bipartisan support for changes to deposit insurance

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  • Amazon’s stock dips 1% as another 9,000 layoffs announced

    Amazon’s stock dips 1% as another 9,000 layoffs announced

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    Amazon.com Inc. is eliminating another 9,000 jobs, the company announced Monday morning.

    In a memo to staff, Amazon
    AMZN,
    -1.25%
    Chief Executive Andy Jassy said the cuts would take place over the next few weeks and primarily affect Amazon Web Services, People Experience and Technology Solutions, advertising and Twitch. [Twitch CEO Dan Clancy broke the news of 400 layoffs to employees in a blog post later Monday.]

    “This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term,” Jassy wrote.

    “For several years leading up to this one, most of our businesses added a significant amount of headcount,” Jassy added. “This made sense given what was happening in our businesses and the economy as a whole. However, given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount.”

    The news sent the retailer’s stock down 1% in trading Monday.

    The latest layoffs, amid a challenging macroeconomic climate that has claimed tens of thousands of jobs in the tech industry, follow an earlier round at Amazon, announced in November, that affected more than 18,000 employees. Additionally, Amazon has paused construction of its second headquarters in Virginia.

    At the same time, there are rumblings out of the Beltway that the Biden administration is preparing legal actions against Amazon stemming from investigations into its business practices, according to a report in Politico.

    Amazon is the second Big Tech company this month to announce additional job cuts. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +1.12%    ,
    wrote in a blog post the social-networking company would slash 10,000 more employees as it focuses on a “year of efficiency.” The move drove Meta shares up 7% and helped the company top $500 billion in market value for the first time since June.

    In November, the company said it would cut 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its workforce, in the first layoffs in the company’s 18-year history.

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  • Credit Suisse, UBS, First Republic, and More Stock Market Movers

    Credit Suisse, UBS, First Republic, and More Stock Market Movers

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    https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-a86267f

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  • Ryan Reynolds Sells Mint Mobile for $1.35 Billion to T-Mobile

    Ryan Reynolds Sells Mint Mobile for $1.35 Billion to T-Mobile

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    Ryan Reynolds Sells Mint Mobile for $1.35 Billion to T-Mobile

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  • Asana stock soars 24% as software company says path to profitability is improving

    Asana stock soars 24% as software company says path to profitability is improving

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    Asana Inc. on Wednesday reported and forecast narrower-than-expected losses, saying the figures reflected a firmer path to profitability, and its stock skyrocketed in after-hours trading.

    The project-management software provider — whose chief executive is a co-founder of Meta Platforms Inc.’s
    META,
    +0.25%
    Facebook — forecast first-quarter sales of $150 million to $151 million, with an adjusted net loss of between 18 cents and 19 cents a share. That’s better than FactSet forecasts for a 23-cent per-share loss with revenue of $150.4 million.

    For the full year, Asana
    ASAN,
    +1.83%
    said it expects revenue of between $638 million and $648 million, with an adjusted net loss of 55 cents to 59 cents. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a 79 cent-per-share loss, on sales of $645.8 million.

    The company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $95 million, or 44 cents a share. That compares with a loss of $90 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 34% to $150.2 million, compared with $111.9 million in the same quarter last year.

    Adjusted for stock-based compensation, restructuring and other costs, Asana lost 15 cents a share, compared with 25 cents a year earlier.

    Analysts polled by FactSet expected Asana to reported an adjusted loss of 27 cents a share, on revenue of $145.1 million.

    Shares soared 24% after hours.

    The company reported earnings as other workplace-oriented cloud-services platforms, like Salesforce Inc.
    CRM,
    -0.20%
    and Workday
    WDAY,
    -1.69%    ,
    scale back and lay off workers. The tech industry has tried to shrink, after hiring to meet digital demand brought by the pandemic that later fizzled as COVID restrictions lifted.

    Shares of Asana have fallen 60% over the past two months. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index
    SPX,
    +0.14%
    has lost 4.3% of its value over that period.

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  • The Importance of Data in Outdoor Advertising | Entrepreneur

    The Importance of Data in Outdoor Advertising | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    It’s no secret that big data has changed the world. Capturing and processing information at scale have impacted every sphere of our lives, including health, wealth, business and leisure activities. Advertising is no exception, and marketers continue to discover how data empowers them to rethink promotional strategies. The enormous outdoor advertising market, which is projected to be worth $34.4 billion by 2027, is a prime arena for companies to apply data to boost their marketing activities.

    Discover how to optimize outdoor advertising and spur your company’s growth by harnessing and applying data in your marketing plans.

    Related: It’s Time to Shift Your Advertising Budget to Outdoor Media. Here’s Why and How to Do It.

    Using data in outdoor advertising

    All advertising strategies depend on specific criteria for success. To implement an out-of-home (OOH) campaign, marketers need in-depth knowledge of the target audience, recognition of the prospect’s media channel preferences and an understanding of consumer behavior concerning the product.

    Big data provides valuable intelligence on these issues, including what advertising methods work and which don’t. Analyzing data and applying the insights enables your enterprise to maximize specific OOH media, such as billboard advertising, digital out-of-home (DOOH) and even wild posting tactics.

    With the detailed analytics available and the right tools to use them, you can now optimize your outdoor campaigns beyond any previous capability.

    Related: Outdoor Advertising Is Conquering. Why Aren’t You Using It?

    Applying data analytics in outdoor advertising

    Data analytics is the processing and examination of datasets and the drawing of conclusions about the information they contain. Business intelligence derived from analytics enables you to create OOH advertising strategies focused on the needs and preferences of the people passing through each touchpoint.

    The types of outdoor advertising analytics you can generate include descriptive analytics and predictive analytics. The first interprets historical data to identify trends and patterns and determine what happened in the past, spot potential problems, or uncover opportunities for improvement. The second — predictive analytics — uses statistics and modeling techniques to project future outcomes and performance.

    Generating useful metrics and insights

    The intelligence delivered by data analytics allows OOH marketers to segment their audiences effectively, determine media placements and audience movement patterns, and use performance metrics to optimize their outdoor advertising campaigns.

    For example, location analytics add a layer of geographical information to datasets to generate more valuable insights. These might include audience saturation, the population’s purchasing power and brand affinities, and the product categories that usually do well in each location.

    Mobility analytics provide information about foot traffic, peak hours in specific locations, and the hours of highest demand. When you know in detail which consumers will be exposed to your advertising, your company is in a much better position to maximize its return on investment.

    Determining data validity

    It’s one thing to have access to a ton of data and quite another to know that it’s valid and you can rely on it to improve your campaigns. Bad data is a perennial problem, with Gartner estimating that poor-quality information costs organizations an average of $12.9 million annually.

    If inaccurate or unreliable data make their way into a company’s outdoor advertising analytics, the resulting poor strategy choices could be devastating for both the marketing department and the company as a whole. To ensure decision-making accuracy, you need to ensure you’re using data that has been validated. Companies can use first-party data that belongs to them, combined with second- and third-party data purchased from reputable suppliers. Examples of this type of quality data include Geopath’s impression numbers and their Insights Suite for audience measurements.

    Related: Marketers, Turn Your Data Literacy into a Data Superpower

    Benefits of data analytics in outdoor advertising

    Data analytics delivers multiple benefits for outdoor advertisers. The intelligence provides a 360-degree, unified view of the customer’s journey, including all their interactions with the company.

    Purchase insights: Evaluating OOH impressions in tandem with your website activity, social media engagement and digital chat records offers insight into customer needs and wants and helps you clarify the consumer’s typical path to purchase.

    Audience targeting: With analytics, you can see which customers contribute the highest percentage of your revenue. You can also identify customers with the highest lifetime value and those who consistently share positive information about the brand. This information enables you to define your “ideal customer” characteristics, which creates valuable insights for audience targeting based on these metrics.

    Customer personalization: Consumers these days typically expect highly relevant offers and messaging across all their media channels, not just OOH. Analytics insights support more personalized outdoor advertising designed for each target segment. This tactic benefits the customer journey and increases your chances of making a sale.

    Effective iteration: Analytics enables precise performance measurements across all your campaigns and marketing channels, including OOH. These insights allow you to identify real-time improvement opportunities and iterate your actions mid-campaign to achieve them.

    Accurate forecasting: Performance projections are complex because they include multiple campaign variables, but analytics enable you to examine past performance and make more accurate future predictions. Scenario modeling helps identify likely outcomes of an OOH campaign depending on external factors. This allows you to accurately forecast lead volumes and conversion rates and take more effective actions.

    Improved ROI: By analyzing the performance of each channel and platform, including OOH, social media, email, websites, smart TV and direct marketing, you can identify those performing best for any given market segment and customer journey point. Based on this data, you can reallocate your ad spend and improve your ROI.

    Organizations that use data-driven insights to inform their outdoor advertising strategies typically experience a 10% to 30% improvement in overall marketing performance. Data takes the guesswork out of outdoor and billboard advertising. It helps you optimize your marketing budget, improve your customer experience, and understand which channels, touchpoints, and strategies work. And insights like that are invaluable when it comes to increasing ROI.

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    Gino Sesto

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  • Tesla, Apple, Ciena, and More Stock Market Movers

    Tesla, Apple, Ciena, and More Stock Market Movers

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    Stock futures traded mostly flat Monday as Wall Street kicked off a week that includes testimony before Congress from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the U.S. jobs report for February.

    These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:

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  • Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.

    Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.

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    Silicon Valley could use a reboot. The biggest players aren’t growing, and more than a few are seeing sharp revenue declines. Regulators seem opposed to every proposed merger, while legislators push for new rules to crack down on the internet giants. The Justice Department just can’t stop filing antitrust suits against Google. The initial public offering market is closed. Venture-capital investments are plunging, along with valuations of prepublic companies. Maybe they should try turning the whole thing on and off.

    The only strategy that seems to be working is to lay people off. Tech CEOs suddenly are channeling Marie Kondo, tidying up and keeping only the people and projects that “spark joy,” or at least support decent operating margins. Layoffs.fyi reports that tech companies have laid off more than 122,000 people already this year.

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  • Miller Lite Went Too Far Comparing Rival Products to Water | Entrepreneur

    Miller Lite Went Too Far Comparing Rival Products to Water | Entrepreneur

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    Despite their rep for running toward the silly and cartoonish, beer ads have rules to follow. The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau said Molson Coors broke those rules with a 2022 Miller Lite campaign. According to the agency, the company must pull the ads, which include the slogan, “light beer shouldn’t taste like water; it should taste like beer.”

    As CNN reports, the spot that caused competitor Anheuser Busch to raise objections was just 15 seconds long, featuring a cyclist topping a hill and pausing to take a breather. He then opened a beer that was the same shade of dark blue found on Bud Light cans and poured it over his head. The NAD stated that strongly implying the competition’s brew might as well be water was highlighting “a measurable attribute.” Customers might believe the assertion was “supported by such evidence.”

    The NAD didn’t see the joke and said Molson Coors had to pull the commercial because the company submitted no “evidence supporting the claim that any other light beers ‘taste like water.'”

    Molson Coors disagreed with the NAD’s decision and will appeal. The beer-making giant may have a case, too — after all, CNN notes that the NAD’s decisions aren’t legally binding, though advertisers generally go along with rulings.

    Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors are the top-selling U.S. beer makers, and the companies have clashed before. In a later dismissed case, Molson Coors sued over a 2019 Super Bowl ad claiming it used corn syrup in its brewing process.

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    Steve Huff

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  • Walmart, Home Depot, Meta, DocuSign, Medtronic, and More Stock Market Movers

    Walmart, Home Depot, Meta, DocuSign, Medtronic, and More Stock Market Movers

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  • Entrepreneur | Why the Best Days of Digital Media Are Ahead of Us

    Entrepreneur | Why the Best Days of Digital Media Are Ahead of Us

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The word of the year for 2022 feels like something straight out of science fiction: permacrisis, “an extended period of instability and insecurity.” If you’re in the media and advertising business, that sounds an awful lot like what’s going on right now.

    But despite the breakneck speed of change (and a really scary October that saw the free fall of ad-supported blue chip companies like Meta, Snap and Google), digital media isn’t really in permacrisis or even a crisis at all. It’s in a constant state of flux, and 2022 was no exception. In fact, I’d argue that all this change is a good thing.

    The first banner ad debuted less than 30 years ago. Search ads are even younger than that. Social media got its start 18 years ago, but TikTok has only been around for six years. The technology and tools for digital media are still very much in their infancy. Another brand-new medium that developed from the ground up? Television. It has taken almost 100 years for TV to hit its stride, and it still surprises us every year. We’re in the early days of digital media. As delightful and indispensable as the internet is in our lives, the templates we use today continue to be basic and unappealing; too many sites, even the really good ones, are crowded by poorly performing and poorly integrated ads. It’s hard to measure what works, and advertisers are still unsure of what they are always buying. Everything is fragmented and complex; there’s too much friction to get basic things done.

    That’s why the increased speed of change we’re witnessing is a good thing, and I believe we’re on the cusp of discovering the potential of what digital media can truly be. These trends tell me that the best days of digital media are around the corner because:

    Related: 5 Digital Marketing Trends to Know for the Decade

    Privacy is resetting the game

    We’ve spent years collecting data on people to advertise to them. Our industry chose to invest in harvesting people’s personal data and spent years doing it. This was at the expense of advancement as an industry in other technology solutions like contextual advertising that are less invasive and more useful. Advertisers used this data to build creative that relied on crude personalization (like your name) instead of focusing on real signals like attention time and engagement. It’s been lucrative for platforms, but people have found it annoying and creepy as we stalk them around the web. It’s also increasingly precarious for publishers and advertisers. While audience targeting initially gave interesting insights into people like never before, it’s no longer effective and won’t stand the test of time when it comes to emerging environments and platforms — or future privacy regulations. Massive penalties await publishers and advertisers that skirt the law. Fortune will favor those that move away from cookies and identifiers now.

    Context is everything

    Every advertiser I’ve spoken to believes that, at the end of the day, creative execution will be driven by contextual technology. So, why are advertisers still not moving quicker in understanding context in the current ways it can be leveraged at scale today? Why are brands not using deeper contextual insights to determine strategy, creative and more? Technology has already advanced to the point where it can comprehend the context of a digital environment. It can interpret words, videos, audio and metadata, providing a comprehensive understanding of the environment in order to pair it with dynamic and engaging ad creative. By doing this, digital advertising can produce something that consumers find beneficial and enjoyable (without personal data), no matter where it appears. We have the technology; let’s do this.

    It’s time to rethink metrics—and focus on attention

    Growing up, ads like Calvin Klein CK1 fragrance in magazines grabbed my attention — I can still remember those ads today. These days, the creative gets lost in the clutter, people skip preroll ads, and the metrics we use for success are flawed — yet we keep doing them. We need to take a fresh look at how we measure the success of digital advertising campaigns. With so much competition in the digital ad space, simply having an ad that is viewable does not always guarantee its success. We must find ways to capture attention and understand what drives people to take action. Through advanced contextual and attention solutions, we can identify the content and confirm if the ad resonates within the environment. And then, real-time optimization engines can be used to programmatically deliver the campaign in the most effective way possible. It’s a win-win-win combination.

    Related: 6 Marketing Metrics Every Business Should Track

    In-game advertising is the next big thing

    Every brand marketer knows gaming is huge. They play them, their kids play them, everyone does. And yet, in-game ads, specifically intrinsic in-game ads, are untapped and highly coveted: They let marketers reach consumers at their most receptive by integrating with the game world itself. There are more than three billion gamers in the world — with some groups spending more than six hours playing at a time. Talk about an engaged audience. Right now, most of the ad inventory is available on mobile, but consoles and big-screen gaming are about to come into their own. In-game advertising is set to grow 11% per year and reach nearly $18 billion in 2030. Early adopters get the added benefit of an uncluttered ad and media landscape — and unprecedented scale.

    CTV is an awesome, unstoppable freight train

    CTV spending rose 57% last year to $15.2 billion and is projected to more than double over the next few years. More importantly, 76% of video buyers consider CTV a “must buy” in their media planning budgets, as CTV allows them to leverage data and formats not available within linear TV. So, why are there no brand safety solutions, no contextual understanding of the content and no new ad formats? It makes no sense. Are brands simply not aware of the advancements in these areas and what is available? Why do we still rely on preroll in CTV instead of new formats that align with current customers? Innovations like AI, contextual intelligence and the widespread availability of more non-linear ad formats will make CTV ads work harder, and now that Netflix and other premium streamers are adding ads, it will be even more essential in an advertiser’s mix. Advertisers that figure out the medium early will also be the early CTV winners.

    The recession is real, but opportunity abounds

    Economic uncertainty, the U.S. dollar’s rise against other currencies and inflation are very real at home and abroad. Full stop. And ad spending cuts are happening. But digital still remains the single best and most effective way to target and reach consumers, and that’s not going to change anytime soon (consider that the average American spends 8.2 hours glued to their phone). Digital marketing is not discretionary for brands anymore. It’s a critical investment, and smart marketers will use the current ad climate to their advantage — to get noticed, to break out and to get ahead. After all, when competitors are cutting back, that can be your moment to get noticed.

    Related: How to Build on Your Digital Marketing Momentum in 2023

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    Phil Schraeder

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  • Entrepreneur | Redefining Customer Engagement in a World Where Data Privacy Reigns

    Entrepreneur | Redefining Customer Engagement in a World Where Data Privacy Reigns

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    With customer data having gone back underground, the magical genie is back in the bottle. That means now is the time to prove that as advertisers and marketers, you can juggle both engagement and privacy.

    Just about a year ago, consumer data was everywhere and readily accessible. But following data restrictions by Apple, countless consumers have clawed back their privacy. Indeed, not only do consumers doubt the security of their personal data, they feel as though their daily lives are subject to being tracked by companies, according to a recent study by Pew Research.

    After the data floodgates began to close, a major problem was revealed: Many marketers and many companies had gotten quite lazy. We had the gift of easy data, which helped identify consumer behavior with a pretty high degree of confidence. As it turns out, that adjustment may have been just a modest first step: Google plans to discontinue third-party cookies in Chrome sometime in 2024.

    Related: Importance of Customer Engagement in This Day and Age

    The future of digital advertising

    While the Apple changes were one of the first dominos to fall, the proposed Google changes also have the entire digital advertising industry nervous, since Chrome has the majority of global browser market share. Google’s move could represent a drastic departure from the current methods of targeted advertising. Indeed, I foresee a cookieless future for digital advertising that looks a lot less appetizing.

    That means the battle for authentic customer interaction has to adapt and come of age. Advertisers and marketers often find themselves at a loss for what to do to get authentic consumer engagement. This move away from high confidence, data-driven sales scenarios means that inroads for engagement need to happen as early and often as possible by working to make digital feel more personal.

    We all know that clicks do not necessarily convert to sales or loyalty, but the era of gaining insight into what makes a consumer tick based on behavioral data like keyword searches and previous page views is behind us. A consumer’s initial search for a microwave oven, a car or a soccer ball might have meant reminders showing up in a social media feed later on as a nudge of sorts. These days, the same search brings up dozens of examples that don’t necessarily inform or educate or sell.

    As a result, we are in a very confusing time for digital advertising, where the old, programmatic best practices — to optimize cost, scale and personalized accuracy — are becoming extinct, but new ways of trying to optimize digital advertising with personalization aren’t clear. Amid that uncertainty, the best approach to redefining customer engagement is a back-to-basics approach that, at its best, can be a differentiator for brands by helping to build customer trust and loyalty.

    Related: Now Is the Time to Get a Grip Around New Data-Privacy Realities

    Redefining customer engagement

    For certain purchases, potential customers will always want some sort of engagement that feels more personalized. This means any company hoping to make a sale without that built-in ability to get organic insight about a customer’s needs and preferences is now faced with creating a three-dimensional relationship in a one-dimensional environment. With less data to go around, purchase decisions rely more heavily on creating a sense of value exchange by going back to some of the basics, starting with creating a more human connection.

    One age-old solution to this modern problem is a return to insight sales. Many brands moved away from human-enabled sales to 100% digital because, at the time, the move was more cost-effective. But now is the time to rethink this move. In a world where there’s less “easy data,” companies risk spending a lot of money on engagements or clicks that don’t become engagements that convert.

    A personal, human element can potentially transform those clicks into an engagement or a sales conversion, creating a sense of value exchange that drives not only engagement but a confident purchase decision and even better consumer loyalty.

    Brand owners will need to work harder to truly know their customers. That is where a meaningful, strategic customer engagement strategy will be decisive. Consumers have lost their appetite for cookies, but they are hungrier than ever for meaningful connections.

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    Nick Cerise

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