Video is now available for purchase from the third and most evolved edition of BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, which took place March 25-27 in Dallas. At the show, we saw that industry leaders were in general agreement that major progress has been made among all the stakeholders in “national marketing, local targeting.” Many speed bumps, however, are still being felt along the way. Key stakeholders, including agencies, media companies, franchises and local franchisees are, by necessity, transforming their identifies as they adjust to the new digital (and mobile) marketplace.

During our Chairman’s Session that closed the show on Day 3, Houston Chronicle, Yahoo and Fox Interactive Media vet Warren Kay, Speakeasy CEO Mike Orren, SuperPages vet Robyn Rose and 3rd Act Marketing CEO Gregg Stewart provided their summary insights into four key topics in “national marketing, local targeting.” Among them:

1. The time is finally ripe for National Local. Research by the CMO Council — cited by BizHive’s Dave Walker — noted that 57% of CMOs say that local programs are important, but only 7% of CMOs have a successful program in place. Success, however, will soon become more apparent.

National local programs are “at the beginning of becoming the next big thing,” said Orren. “If there was a graph that showed where innovation and cost effectiveness begin to make sense for local, the line has now begun to be crossed.”

“Scar tissue” remains from the “embarrassment and disappointment” of early local marketing efforts, added Warren Kay. But now “informed decision makers really understand national local, and how they might apply the type of budget they have. That will drive the local marketing space in the future.”

2. Media and directory companies are transitioning to the new environment. Local newspapers and directories still play a real role in targeting locally — and regionally. But they are also being forced to re-evaluate their core strengths.

It is a simple admission to note that many advertisers really aren’t getting ROI from the traditional products, notes Robyn Rose. But they can reposition themselves by providing consultative services with their advertisers. “You really have to understand your partners. If you are targeting local or franchise locations, for instance, you need vertical and regional experts,” she says.

Mike Orren notes that media companies are well positioned to guide and sell local businesses and even national business in their market. But they can’t get “hung up” over moving their own inventory. Their core assets are not their product, but their “brand, reputation and feet on the street,” he says.

Gregg Stewart says that the key thing is that media companies are now being judged entirely on their effectiveness. “At the end of the day, the advertiser doesn’t care if (the media is) local or not. They want to sell something. They will look at whatever they can buy that is fastest and cheapest,” he says.

3. Some things are automated, and some things are not. Relying solely on automation and “air coverage” doesn’t work at every level, especially in local.

“There is a paradox in local,” says Gregg Stewart. Marketers build their attack the CMO level. Programmatic sales and other automation are highly effective for doing that, he says. But you need to also execute work with door to door sales.

“Companies need to understand the partnership with sales and marketing,” adds Warren Kay. They must ultimately collaborate to leverage customer insights and customize aspects of the marketing campaign. Companies such as Simpli.fi, for instance, do very well in developing content marketing programs to complement their programmatic sales.

4. Platforms can bring local franchisees in line, and also liberate them. Brands are “schizophrenic” from top to bottom, with the national brand representing one thing, and each local outlet representing something else. The question is to what degree is it healthy to have “local franchisee stars act like franchise choir boys” — as Yext’s Christian Ward put it.

“The trend with national organizations is to get more control,” says Gregg Stewart. “The stakes are too high. I see that as a trend for a while, until we get these things figured out.”

But franchises should do everything they can to encourage local innovation. “You need local stars,” says Rose. “You need to figure out how to embrace them, not bring them into everything. You need to get everyone else to emulate their success.”

The post The Chairman’s Session at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL: The Top Four Things to Know appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Video is now available for purchase from the third and most evolved edition of BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, which took place March 25-27 in Dallas. At the show, we saw that industry leaders were in general agreement that major progress has been made among all the stakeholders in “national marketing, local targeting.” Many speed bumps, however, are still being felt along the way. Key stakeholders, including agencies, media companies, franchises and local franchisees are, by necessity, transforming their identifies as they adjust to the new digital (and mobile) marketplace.

During our Chairman’s Session that closed the show on Day 3, Houston Chronicle, Yahoo and Fox Interactive Media vet Warren Kay, Speakeasy CEO Mike Orren, SuperPages vet Robyn Rose and 3rd Act Marketing CEO Gregg Stewart provided their summary insights into four key topics in “national marketing, local targeting.” Among them:

1. The time is finally ripe for National Local. Research by the CMO Council — cited by BizHive’s Dave Walker — noted that 57% of CMOs say that local programs are important, but only 7% of CMOs have a successful program in place. Success, however, will soon become more apparent.

National local programs are “at the beginning of becoming the next big thing,” said Orren. “If there was a graph that showed where innovation and cost effectiveness begin to make sense for local, the line has now begun to be crossed.”

“Scar tissue” remains from the “embarrassment and disappointment” of early local marketing efforts, added Warren Kay. But now “informed decision makers really understand national local, and how they might apply the type of budget they have. That will drive the local marketing space in the future.”

2. Media and directory companies are transitioning to the new environment. Local newspapers and directories still play a real role in targeting locally — and regionally. But they are also being forced to re-evaluate their core strengths.

It is a simple admission to note that many advertisers really aren’t getting ROI from the traditional products, notes Robyn Rose. But they can reposition themselves by providing consultative services with their advertisers. “You really have to understand your partners. If you are targeting local or franchise locations, for instance, you need vertical and regional experts,” she says.

Mike Orren notes that media companies are well positioned to guide and sell local businesses and even national business in their market. But they can’t get “hung up” over moving their own inventory. Their core assets are not their product, but their “brand, reputation and feet on the street,” he says.

Gregg Stewart says that the key thing is that media companies are now being judged entirely on their effectiveness. “At the end of the day, the advertiser doesn’t care if (the media is) local or not. They want to sell something. They will look at whatever they can buy that is fastest and cheapest,” he says.

3. Some things are automated, and some things are not. Relying solely on automation and “air coverage” doesn’t work at every level, especially in local.

“There is a paradox in local,” says Gregg Stewart. Marketers build their attack the CMO level. Programmatic sales and other automation are highly effective for doing that, he says. But you need to also execute work with door to door sales.

“Companies need to understand the partnership with sales and marketing,” adds Warren Kay. They must ultimately collaborate to leverage customer insights and customize aspects of the marketing campaign. Companies such as Simpli.fi, for instance, do very well in developing content marketing programs to complement their programmatic sales.

4. Platforms can bring local franchisees in line, and also liberate them. Brands are “schizophrenic” from top to bottom, with the national brand representing one thing, and each local outlet representing something else. The question is to what degree is it healthy to have “local franchisee stars act like franchise choir boys” — as Yext’s Christian Ward put it.

“The trend with national organizations is to get more control,” says Gregg Stewart. “The stakes are too high. I see that as a trend for a while, until we get these things figured out.”

But franchises should do everything they can to encourage local innovation. “You need local stars,” says Rose. “You need to figure out how to embrace them, not bring them into everything. You need to get everyone else to emulate their success.”

The post The Chairman's Session at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL: The Top Four Things to Know appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

To kick-off BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, the analyst team sits down to review 2015 – 2019 local advertising across 12 different channels and 94 industries, summarizing key issues for marketers over the next half decade.

Michael Boland, Chief Analyst and Vice President of Content, BIA/Kelsey
Peter Krasilovsky, Vice President, BIA/Kelsey
Steve Marshall, Research Director, BIA/Kelsey
Stacey Sedbrook, Vice President of Strategic Sales Consulting

Steve Marshall opens with our Local Commerce Monitor results on franchisees. They send $87K-plus, the highest level of marketing spend among the SMBs BIA/Kelsey tracks. They are highly engaged in digital — 42.9 percent of 2015 spending will be on digital; again, far ahead of the average SMB.

Franchises also spend at least 10 hours a week on social networks. About 85 percent maintain customer lists (compared to only about half of SMBs have customer lists in digital form). Seventy-one percent of franchises will have a loyalty program this year. This is a vindication of loyalty programs. Hand in hand with these loyalty programs, franchises are driving huge investments in discounting — 50.7 percent of revenue will be due to discount sales tied to loyalty programs.

This is the wave — loyalty and discounting — that will sweep the local space. There will be a much deeper, more committed relationship between the franchises and customers.

Franchises tend to favor buying through on-premise sales reps (feet on the street), even though many have national agency relationships. The franchises buy most through agencies and are extremely satisfied. Sixty-three percent are extremely satisfied with their agency relationships, though they prefer making individual purchases with assistance (expertise) from the agency. “They like a partner for these activities versus doing it themselves.”

Co-op advertising represents about $50 billion in U.S. spend annually and franchisees are the most prevalent users of co-op (more than 50 percent of all co-op monies flow through franchises). As a result, they want more analytics and analysis for their planning and assessment of campaigns.

Next up, Mike Boland discusses technology, particularly mobile.

Mobile ad revenues will grow from $13.25 billion in 2014 to $41.63 percent in 2019. In mobile, brands are the majority early adopters. YP, Yelp and other directories participate, but more than half is brand spending.

There are many flavors of ad targeting in mobile. It is no longer a matter of simply being geo-targeted, but must include contextually relevant information on the mobile devices. Using local area codes perform better than 800# listings, because they are perceived as actually local.

Bringing local inventory to bear on these opportunities, bringing POS inventory online as Google is doing, will be critical to market growth.

The static display ad is dying as live targeting takes on the role of providing context to mobile users.

Location-based programmatic ads are making headway. Weather, for example, can be used to address a customer with a topical offer. For example, a gym can send a coupon to a runner when it is raining: “Come in and run out of the rain.” These ads are starting to perform well.

Competitive conquesting works in retail, but struggles in restaurants. “There are so many different shades to these new opportunities, and it requires a lot of testing,” Boland said. Think of location as an audience profiling tool — where are consumers going and what does it say about the consumer that brands can use to create resonant messaging for consumers.

Contextual location targeting, such as a consumer at Wrigley Field, is a rich starting point for engagement. Drawing in other activities around that location and demographics.

“Everything I just mentioned can only happen when the location is accurate,” Boland concluded. “But the dirty little secret is that many location tags are wrong.” That’s a critical area for the market development and we have a session about this later this week.

Now Stacey Sedbrook: Are companies really learning use national and local brand targeting. Brand is centric, the location is subservient to the brand. And it is all over the board (for the same reasons that Gregg Stewart identified earlier). Talent development is going to be essential.

Stacey suggests it is important to “super-serve” the brand behind franchises, so we still need to be near the national brands, such as locating near Detroit for auto. The relationships matter more, and sales will continue to thrive.

Programmatic ads do not replace the human relationships that media companies have built with brands. Steve Marshall adds that he sees a tremendous need for integrators who do consultative selling with brands. Stacey: Make the local franchise group happy. So, send out a “hunter” to bring in brand deals, but hand fulfillment and account management to the local staff. Relationships matter.

Programmatic feels like “a buying method” to talk about targeting demographic, location with the “humble display ad.” Mike Boland: “This is bringing the tenants of search to the local display ads.”

That’s the session.

The post At BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL: Location Services Will Kill Traditional Display Advertising appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL show is now fully in place, with 56 speakers set to define the cutting edge in national brands and local marketing. The show takes place March 25-27 at The Dallas Westin. Just added to the program: Internet visionary Mitch Golub, who leaves Cars.com today after successfully developing it into a $1.8 Billion enterprise that has, along with AutoTrader.com, helped define all the best practices of working with the world’s most aggressive national and local marketers (the car manufacturers and car dealers.)

Also added: key brands defining the best in vertical marketing. Dental One Partners, VCA (Animal Hospitals) and Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning have now been added to a lineup that also includes leaders from Brooks Brothers, UniGroup (United Van Lines), Rooms to Go, All My Sons Moving & Storage, El Pollo Loco, U-Haul International, Nestle TollHouse Cafe, and The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Announced earlier: keynotes from Google’s Brendon Kraham; Facebook’s Jon Czaja; Bizhive?s Dave Walker, Kenshoo’s Aaron Goldman, Geary LSF’s Karen Traversi Kovaleski and The Weather Co’s Ryan Davis. There are also key sessions with thought leaders such as YP’s Melissa Burghardt, The Washington Post Co’s Ethan Selzer; The Dallas Morning News’ Grant Moise; Meredith Corp’s Pam Taylor; and TvB’s Steve Lanzano.

The program also marks the debut of key new BIA/Kelsey data on franchise marketing from our Local Commerce Monitor survey. And last but not least, we’ll be doing Dallas right, with two Best of Dallas receptions; a “Before the Bell” Dallas Innovator Breakfast at the Addison Treehouse sponsored by Speakeasy; Two social breakouts, including National DEMOs and Drinks and Women Leading in Local; and an After Hours Country Casino sponsored by Local Site Submit and Moon Valley Software.

Check out the full, 2 1/2 day agenda. You may register here.

Cars.com visionary Mitch Golub is set for BIA/Kelsey National

The post 56 Speakers Set for BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, March 25-27: Cars.com's Mitch Golub Added appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL show is now fully in place, with 56 speakers set to define the cutting edge in national brands and local marketing. The show takes place March 25-27 at The Dallas Westin. Just added to the program: Internet visionary Mitch Golub, who leaves Cars.com today after successfully developing it into a $1.8 Billion enterprise that has, along with AutoTrader.com, helped define all the best practices of working with the world’s most aggressive national and local marketers (the car manufacturers and car dealers.)

Also added: key brands defining the best in vertical marketing. Dental One Partners, VCA (Animal Hospitals) and Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning have now been added to a lineup that also includes leaders from Brooks Brothers, UniGroup (United Van Lines), Rooms to Go, All My Sons Moving & Storage, El Pollo Loco, U-Haul International, Nestle TollHouse Cafe, and The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Announced earlier: keynotes from Google’s Brendon Kraham; Facebook’s Jon Czaja; Bizhive’s Dave Walker, Kenshoo’s Aaron Goldman, Geary LSF’s Karen Traversi Kovaleski and The Weather Co’s Ryan Davis. There are also key sessions with thought leaders such as YP’s Melissa Burghardt, The Washington Post Co’s Ethan Selzer; The Dallas Morning News’ Grant Moise; Meredith Corp’s Pam Taylor; and TvB’s Steve Lanzano.

The program also marks the debut of key new BIA/Kelsey data on franchise marketing from our Local Commerce Monitor survey. And last but not least, we’ll be doing Dallas right, with two Best of Dallas receptions; a “Before the Bell” Dallas Innovator Breakfast at the Addison Treehouse sponsored by Speakeasy; Two social breakouts, including National DEMOs and Drinks and Women Leading in Local; and an After Hours Country Casino sponsored by Local Site Submit and Moon Valley Software.

Check out the full, 2 1/2 day agenda. You may register here.

Cars.com visionary Mitch Golub is set for BIA/Kelsey National

The post 56 Speakers Set for BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, March 25-27: Cars.com’s Mitch Golub Added appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Franchises use more targeted marketing and advertising, are more engaged with their customers, and are also more disciplined across the full range of activities required in reaching and serving customers. They use more marketing tools and platforms, loyalty programs, mobile marketing, social media, cloud platforms, etc.

In particular, franchises are well ahead of other SMBs in their use of personalized, targeted digital media and platforms including Pinterest, mobile coupons and deals, text messages, Twitter ads, etc. Looking at the media usage findings from LCM is like looking into a new media laboratory (look out, MIT!).

Franchises estimate that about one-half of all their sales in the next 12 months will be through discount programs. This arrestingly-high reading is actually consistent with other behaviors of franchises — such as their near-saturation use of loyalty programs (and the personalized, targeted media mentioned above). Franchises are building close and deep relationships with their customers, and they’re accomplishing this by using a host of digital media and platforms.

The bottom line: Franchises might be viewed as a vanguard — showing us where the rest of the SMB world is heading.

Clients of the BIA/Kelsey Advisory Services can find the full report here.

The post Franchises as a Vanguard of the SMB World appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

It’s here! We have just announced the agenda for BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL. which takes place March 25-27 in Dallas.

The NATIONAL theme is especially important this year. Local technology and services have reached a level where they have fostered major relationships with national brands and retailers. At IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting last year, we noted a poll by Operative that showed that local sales has now become the seventh most important revenue driver for CMOs. Our own BIA/Kelsey research shows that national players will spend more than $68 billion on local marketing by 2018.

We know this: Brands want to be part of this. Retailers want to be part of this. Franchisees want to be part of this. And so does local’s growing community of digital channel players and vendors.

All of them will be front and center at the third edition of BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, which we are co-chairing with 3rd Act Marketing’s Gregg Stewart (ex 15 Miles, TMP and Wahlstrom).

The agenda is now posted, with an initial slate of keynoters that includes Facebook’s Jon Czaja, whose portfolio includes the national franchise opportunity, where he leverages his experience at core national local leaders such as General Mills, eBay and Walmart; “Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google” author Aaron Goldman, Kenshoo‘s CMO, who shares his irreverent and critical take on search. social and mobile; and Geary LSF President and CEO Karen Kovaleski, who is spearheading national local strategies for such key brands as Bumble Bee, WD-40, Brooks Brothers and Ashley Furniture.

The brands themselves will be well represented at the show. The initial slate of brands at the event include key local targeting leaders from Brooks Brothers, El Pollo Loco, All My Sons Moving and Storage, ServiceMaster/American Home Shield and Rooms to Go.

Other speakers come from media leaders who are providing local solutions to national players, including Dallas Morning News SVP Grant Moise and Washington Post VP Ethan Selzer.

We’ll also hear from a number of top platform providers and agencies, including BizHive Chairman Dave Walker, ReachLocal VP Travis Arthur, Where2GetIt CEO Manish Patel, Simpli.fi CEO Frost Prioleau, SpeakEasy CEO Mike Orren, LocalBizNow CEO Todd Webber and Soci CEO Afif Khoury.

Anchoring the whole show is the second edition of our GoLocal Awards, honoring the best efforts from national brands and rretailers(and their agencies) in local. We’re just getting started. Watch this space for frequent updates.

The post Mark Your Calendars: BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, March 25-27, Dallas appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

When it comes to advertising and promotion, franchises prove to be considerably different from non-franchise SMBs, according to findings from BIA/Kelsey‘s most recent wave of our Local Commerce Monitor.

Franchises were much more oriented toward digital and online media. According to the LCM data, they expect to allocate 42 percent of their total ad budget toward digital and online media in the next 12 months. This is substantially higher than overall SMBs, who planned to allocate only 26 percent to digital and online.

Franchises are also considerably more sophisticated than non-franchise SMBs in other ways. CRM systems are used by 74 percent of franchises currently while only 29 percent of overall SMBs currently use them. Customer loyalty programs are also common with 72 percent of franchises offering them as opposed to only 38 percent of SMBs overall doing the same. Finally, franchises have a more integrated online presence than non-franchises with 25 percent of franchises automatically pushing content between their online sites, compared to just 15 percent of SMBs overall.

When looking at the most recent research findings from our LCM data for franchises, it is hard not to think to yourself, “Whoa, these folks are really carrying a heavy load.” They have to satisfy the financial demands from their corporate parents, generate a local online presence that does not conflict with the national presence or branding, build out an advertising/marketing infrastructure (CRM, loyalty program, email marketing, etc.) that works for their needs and also dovetails with their corporate parents. All of that on top of the obvious need for them to run a business. With that said, hats off to franchises for everything they have to juggle.

Interested in learning more about Franchises? Check out the Local Commerce Monitor Franchise Spotlight deck or feel free to contact us for more information.

The post Franchises Prove to be More Sophisticated Than the Average SMB appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Google is well known for its forays into seemingly exotic innovations such as skunkworks, top secret Project X research lab known for coming out with  inventions like driverless cars, Google Glass and high altitude balloons for bringing the Internet to hard to serve populations.

Christine Merritt, Google’s head of business development and partnerships for its North American channel sales division, kicked off the International Franchise Association’s “digital marketing and technology summit” at is Annual Convention in New Orleans with her vision of “innovation osmosis.” Merritt argued that, “all this innovation seeps down into advertising.” Merritt is an executive in Google’s $5B channel sales division led by Todd Rowe who will be keynoting at tomorrow’s IFA morning session.

Merritt elaborated on Google’s research into the “Zero Moment of Truth” or ZMOT, an initiative to explore how people buy things online. “The way people buy anything and everything is changing,” Merritt observed. For franchisors and franchisees, Merritt offered that it is important to note that 61% of users follow brands and retailers on social networks. Merritt noted that this is important as social annotations in these networks drive a 5-10% lift in searches. Google understands this and also the broader need to provide contextually relevant advertising that understands both the user intent and the context. While this certainly applies to search in that the searches returned to two people using different devices like desktop or smartphone will be different based on the context of their search, Merritt expanded on this to say, “Google is more than search. With Google+ we tie together  all of Google’s solutions including Search, YouTube, Play, Display, Offers, Local, Gmail, etc.” She invited the franchisors and franchisees to leverage the kinds of innovations now available to help engage their customers online in that in their “zero moment” of context and intent because that’s how people are buying things now.

According to BIA/Kelsey’s own research, franchisors have a vested interest in the online ratings, reviews and customer comments about their individual franchisees, leading some franchisors to limit or filter social media used by franchisees. In our Local Commerce Monitor survey of local businesses, we found that more than half (51 percent) of franchisees surveyed stated their franchisors are “highly involved” with the social media presence of their local franchise businesses (e.g., they require the local franchise to run public dialog with customers through the national corporate website).

We’ll be covering the franchise market as one of our themes in our upcoming conference May 7-9 in Atlanta, when we explore, “Leading in Local: The National Impact.”

The post IFA 2014: Google's Merritt Talks About Advertising Innovation for Franchise Community appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Google is well known for its forays into seemingly exotic innovations such as skunkworks, top secret Project X research lab known for coming out with  inventions like driverless cars, Google Glass and high altitude balloons for bringing the Internet to hard to serve populations.

Christine Merritt, Google’s head of business development and partnerships for its North American channel sales division, kicked off the International Franchise Association’s “digital marketing and technology summit” at is Annual Convention in New Orleans with her vision of “innovation osmosis.” Merritt argued that, “all this innovation seeps down into advertising.” Merritt is an executive in Google’s $5B channel sales division led by Todd Rowe who will be keynoting at tomorrow’s IFA morning session.

Merritt elaborated on Google’s research into the “Zero Moment of Truth” or ZMOT, an initiative to explore how people buy things online. “The way people buy anything and everything is changing,” Merritt observed. For franchisors and franchisees, Merritt offered that it is important to note that 61% of users follow brands and retailers on social networks. Merritt noted that this is important as social annotations in these networks drive a 5-10% lift in searches. Google understands this and also the broader need to provide contextually relevant advertising that understands both the user intent and the context. While this certainly applies to search in that the searches returned to two people using different devices like desktop or smartphone will be different based on the context of their search, Merritt expanded on this to say, “Google is more than search. With Google+ we tie together  all of Google’s solutions including Search, YouTube, Play, Display, Offers, Local, Gmail, etc.” She invited the franchisors and franchisees to leverage the kinds of innovations now available to help engage their customers online in that in their “zero moment” of context and intent because that’s how people are buying things now.

According to BIA/Kelsey’s own research, franchisors have a vested interest in the online ratings, reviews and customer comments about their individual franchisees, leading some franchisors to limit or filter social media used by franchisees. In our Local Commerce Monitor survey of local businesses, we found that more than half (51 percent) of franchisees surveyed stated their franchisors are “highly involved” with the social media presence of their local franchise businesses (e.g., they require the local franchise to run public dialog with customers through the national corporate website).

We’ll be covering the franchise market as one of our themes in our upcoming conference May 7-9 in Atlanta, when we explore, “Leading in Local: The National Impact.”

The post IFA 2014: Google’s Merritt Talks About Advertising Innovation for Franchise Community appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.