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T-Mobile/Sprint Say They'll Start Customer Experience Centers Employing Thousands http://bit.ly/2RYwyhI T-Mobile and Sprint jointly announced post-merger plans to build five so-called “customer experience centers,” each with an average of 1,000 employees. With some other service expansions, they say these new centers could add 5,600 new jobs by 2021. They also say that by 2024, the merged company will have 7,500 more customer care professionals than the stand-alone companies would have without a merger. The announcement of the customer centers comes shortly before the chief executives of T-Mobile and Sprint are scheduled to appear before Congressional committees to defend the merger. The marketing going on now is mainly centered on selling Washington lawmakers, opinion-makers and regulators. “With these five new centers, we’re going to give even more customers across the U.S. the rock star treatment they deserve!” said T-Mobile CEO John Legere in a statement. If the merger is approved, he will lead the merged companies. advertisement advertisement The new centers are designed to provide better customer service, which might explain why each one is planned to have so many employees. T-Mobile announced its new Team of Experts (TEX) customer service plan last summer, emphasizing personal assistance to solve consumer problems, “There are no robots or automated phone menus. No getting bounced around from department to department,” it promised. “No shouting ‘representative.’ You now have your own entourage at T-Mobile dedicated to you and your happiness.” The $26 billion merger, first announced last April, has already won the approval of a national security panel. It awaits approvals from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. T-Mobile and Sprint executives are scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Judiciary Committee in February. The companies need to plead their case a little harder now that Democrats control the House of Representatives. Though Congress has no say in merger approvals, the hearings, proposed shortly after the Democrats took power, could sway public opinion. Previously, the Energy and Commerce Committee hadn’t held a hearing on a merger in eight years. T-Mobile and Sprint say the new customer center will be built in Overland, Kansas, currently Sprint’s headquarters city that will become a secondary hub if the merger is approved. Four other sites will be announced later. The estimates of job gains might need some explaining. According to CNBC, last June, Legere told a Congressional committee that the merger would add jobs overall but said that 3,295 retail jobs would be lost by 2024. The Communication Workers of America last year said the merger will cost 28,000 employees. It urged attorneys general in all 50 states to investigate. A report from NERA Economic Consulting, done for T-Mobile, says over three years, the merger would add 24,000 jobs over three years. In its service center announcement, the company seems to be emphasizing its worthiness as an employer at least as much as its devotion to service. It said, in a press release, that the new employees “will be able to experience the things that have earned T-Mobile recognition as a best place to work on numerous lists year over year. They will be eligible to receive benefits and opportunities such as significant management preparation experience, career development paths and college tuition reimbursement.” Otherwise, T-Mobile has pledged to spend to expand service into rural areas and says its 5G service coming next year will be better than the rollouts just beginning from Verizon and AT&T. But detractors say allowing the T-Mobile and Sprint hook-up will take away two hungry competitors to Verizon and AT&T and create a company almost just as big, and with no reason to aggressively keep its prices low. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 04:35PM
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Foot Locker Tests Localized Store Experiences http://bit.ly/2Uy83oC
Foot Locker wants to make shopping for sneakers a uniquely Detroit experience, opening a new Power Store there that lets people personalize products in new ways. The brand's testing of the new concept comes as retailers everywhere struggle to make walking into a brick-and-mortar store more engaging. Foot Locker, which is already experimenting with the Power Store in other countries, says local sneaker culture offers plenty of experiential opportunities. “With our passion at Foot Locker to inspire and empower youth culture and the sneaker community, we’re constantly looking for ways to elevate our retail experience across in-store, online and mobile app touchpoints,” says Patrick Walsh, vice president of marketing for Foot Locker North America. advertisement advertisement He tells Marketing Daily the brand chose Detroit for its U.S. pilot because “metro Detroit has super-passionate sneakerheads but wasn’t being served as well as [it needed] to be. It’s also a vibrant marketplace for sneaker culture and our brands, so we’re looking forward to bringing the best localized expression.” The idea is to use the physical space to foster a sense of connection, as well as tempt people with city-centric products, including Detroit-inspired footwear from Nike’s “Home & Away” Collection, New Era hats, Hershel bags, Detroit vs. Everybody, The Dirt Label and District 81 apparel. One offering, for example, is Adidas’ AM4DET, a shoe designed by Detroit native Kayla Donaldson, inspired by the city. The new store also includes an activation space run by a local marketing manager set to host events that range from talent shows to panel discussions to appearances by local influencers. To make it a full-family shopping experience, there's a women's shop-in-shop and a Kids Foot Locker. To keep fans in the loop, the brand launched a new Instagram account, @footlockerdetroit. The Detroit deal follows the launch of stores in Liverpool, Hong Kong and London, and Foot Locker says it is eyeing a dozen new stores this year, including Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Milan, Italy. Foot Locker’s Power Store launch comes at a time when shoe marketers are scrambling to find new ways to connect with an audience that’s been increasingly turning thumbs down on basketball and performance shoes, and instead opting for casual kicks from brands like Skechers and Vans. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 02:46PM U.S. Multicultural Consumer Imperative For Global Brands http://bit.ly/2Usr6As I recently revisited Interbrand’s and Kantar Millward Brown’s 2018 annual reports listing the top global brands, echoing consensus from New York to Sao Paulo, from London to Shanghai. Back home, it’s evident that millions of multicultural consumers are not being courted by these giants. Not that there isn’t any strong multicultural marketing out there. In fact, there are some topnotch multicultural strategies and executions seen in the automotive, QSR, telecommunications and retail categories. However, these are exceptions to a mostly pale multicultural marketing landscape. Let’s assess four key reasons why multicultural marketing will be a business mandate for the future success of global brands in the U.S. market over the next 30 years. 1. A polynomial and younger demographic model: According to 2016 U.S. Census Bureau figures, 41% of the country’s population is multicultural and identifies itself as either Hispanic, African American, Asian, Native American or a combination of two or more races. That accounts for approximately 128 million consumers. The multicultural component is statistically projected to be 58% of a total population of 438 million consumers by 2050. This said, it’s clear that population growth will be driven by different cross-cultural segments that will be primarily Generation Z and Generation Alpha consumers. advertisement advertisement 2. Retail pacesetters: Over the past five years, there has been conclusive research asserting how multicultural consumers — especially the Hispanic and Asian segments — are driving key food and perishable merchandising trends in the grocery channel. These behaviors are permeating to mass, convenience and club channels, mirroring a sophisticated multichannel shopping behavior influencing general market shoppers. As center store grocery categories become increasingly visible in ecommerce and in alternative digital platforms, their growth will depend largely on younger multicultural shopper segments who are currently driving both the technology adoption and the omnichannel shopping experience integrating brick-and-mortar and digital retail environments. 3. The era of culturally relevant digital content generation: At some point in late 2017, digital ad spends surpassed traditional media expenditures, and will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. Multicultural consumers’ embrace of mobile media will continue to fuel the exponential growth of search, social and video generations among increasingly symbiotic audiences based on cultural and lifestyle variables. In my opinion, this will fuel an extraordinary reservoir of creativity, which U.S. ad agencies will unequivocally capitalize on, perhaps becoming the pillar of American creative resurgence to parallel the multicultural advertising excellence currently originating in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Australia and the U.K. 4. Multicultural entrepreneurial stewardship: The muscle of small and medium-sized businesses has traditionally been, and will remain, the backbone of the country’s economic growth and employment base. What will change in future is how multicultural entrepreneurs take center stage, as Hispanic, African-American or Asian entrepreneurs will account for most of the job creation the economy generates. By the way, a very large percentage of these entrepreneurs will be women. Isn’t it time for the world’s leading brands to start looking at the U.S. multicultural consumer as a business imperative? Disclaimer: The views and opinions presented in this article are only the author’s and are not associated with any corporation, government agency or nongovernmental organization. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 01:28PM Super Bowl Streaming Viewership Poised To Surge http://bit.ly/2Utve37 The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event of the year, but will it ever become the biggest streaming event of the year? That is unlikely to happen in 2019, but this year’s Big Game is poised to break new streaming records, if new data from Adtaxi pans out. The digital marketing agency released the results of its annual “Super Bowl Viewership and Consumer Streaming Trends Survey,” which examines streaming habits around the NFL championship game. The survey found 21% of respondents say they plan to watch at least part of the game via streaming video this year, up from 8.1% last year, a 160% increase. CBS has the TV rights to this year’s game and will make it free to stream on its websites, connected TV and mobile apps. It will not require any authentication, eliminating some of the friction that comes with streaming most NFL games. advertisement advertisement It isn't clear whether the streaming feed will include the same advertising spots that run during on the linear broadcast feed. If 20% of consumers actually streamed the game, that would mean around 20 million consumers streamed the event, which would be a record for a single live event. “Based on the exponential shift in our data, we may well see a day when Super Bowl streaming overtakes traditional TV viewership completely,” says Chris Loretto, executive vice president, Adtaxi. Adtaxi also found nearly 70% of consumers will engage with Super Bowl-related content on a second screen, largely social media and group chats. A majority of respondents were excited to watch the game itself, with 27% saying they were most looking forward to the commercials. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 01:18PM Facebook Revs Up 30%, Credits Engagement http://bit.ly/2UupN47 Despite what seems like a never-ending string of scandals, Facebook’s fourth-quarter earnings still managed to beat analyst estimates. For the quarter ended December 31, the social giant reported revenue of $16.9 billion -- up about 30%, year-over-year. Analysts say the impressive performance has everything to do with Facebook’s unrivaled engagement. “Facebook’s strong finish to 2018 … speaks to the strength of its engagement, ad offering and ability to drive earnings power,” Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said in a note to investors. Nowak also credited Facebook for “aggressively investing to improve its platform safety … security, product offerings, and monetization.” During the period, mobile ad revenue made up 93% of Facebook’s total ad revenue -- up from about 89% in the fourth quarter of 2017. On average, daily active users (DAUs) just surpassed 1.5 billion in December 2018, which represented a 9% increase, year-over-year. Monthly active users totaled 2.32 billion as of December 31, which also represented a 9% increase, year-over-year. advertisement advertisement Despite some margin restructuring, Facebook grew its workforce by 42% over the past year. At the end of 2018, the tech titan reported 35,587 employees around the world. For Facebook, rarely a week goes by with some privacy-related controversy bubbling up to the surface. This week, the company once again found itself in the hot seat for distributing a virtual private network that allowed it to access users’ mobile and web data. As Morgan Stanley’s Nowak acknowledged, Facebook is taking the matter of user privacy more seriously. Just this week, the company hired several top privacy lawyers, including Nate Cardozo, who is leaving the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to manage privacy at Facebook’s WhatsApp unit. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 01:18PM MWC Promotes Next Generation Of Smart Business http://bit.ly/2HVact5 The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year brings together the latest innovations and leading-edge technology from more than 2,500 leading companies. It assembles today’s visionaries to explore the hottest topics influencing the industry. Our company has attended Mobile World Congress since 2007 as attendee, speaker and now as a strategic partner of the GSMA and judge of the Glomo Mobile Awards. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft and Dieter Zetsche, board of management, Daimler AG will keynote. Why Attend Mobile World Congress 2019? The core advantage of MWC and why I have attended since 2007, is MWC is a global marketplace. You see, experience and meet people, new technology and importantly, get a sense of the global pace of change vs. the U.S. or Western-only view. It is a must-see and importantly must-experience event for business leaders who want to lead their organizations through a rapidly changing world economy. advertisement advertisement The Importance of Intelligent Connectivity Intelligent connectivity is the next generation of smart business, homes, factories, transportation and people, places and things. Intelligent connectivity began with the launch of Sputnik and has rapidly evolved with the rise of smartphones over the next decade. It is now in a phase of hyper-growth and super adoption. This year, the Internet of Things, the changing consumption of content and media by consumers, new and disruptive technology platforms and the impact of green energy powering the digital economy will be among the key themes. MWC is the best venue for mobile, brand, media, IOT and telecom industry networking, new business development opportunities and deal making. What to Expect Mobile World Congress begins Feb. 25 and runs through Feb 28. It is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile, telecom and IOT industries and is attended by over 101,000+ people from 204 countries. It is a place where over 100 countries gather to discuss the future of innovation and the world economy. In a sense, it is of greater consequence than the WEF in Davos, as the blueprint of innovation and the future economy is implemented at MWC Barcelona. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 11:26AM
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Interview: How Apparel Brand Terez Builds Community Through Positivity-Focused Experience http://bit.ly/2G0iWfp The founder of activewear brand Terez on creating immersive customer experiences, the importance of community and implementing retail technology in a purposeful way In an industry that has been portrayed as preoccupied with the superficial (see: The Devil Wears Prada), it is no wonder that fashion consumers are looking to new brands that inspire confidence and overall self-love. As a demand for a more body-positive culture rises in the fashion market, so do innovations in wellness retail. A good case in point: the wellness market alone is valued at 34 trillion globally. Leading innovators have leveraged both trends, intersecting style with a consumer-oriented, wellness-based message. Enter Terez, the female-founded NYC fashion startup, well known for its cheerfully patterned leggings. PSFK spoke with Founder and CEO Zara Terez to learn more about how the brand has merged style and wellness to build a strong community, and how that will translate into a virtual store for its new partnership with augmented-reality platform Obsess. PSFK: How does Terez fit into the wellness retail market? Terez: That’s a really great question because I don’t see us as just in wellness, or in active, or as just an activewear brand. We’re really in the intersection of what wellness is and what fashion is. To us, our most important mission and message is happiness. Our community, the Terez community, are women who want to feel good about themselves and want to feel confident in whatever situation they’re in. They don’t necessarily have to be considered active women. They just want to be inspired and feel energized. That’s why people come to us, especially in the wellness market. It’s because we are empowering them and encouraging them to feel good about themselves through joy and self-expression. Did you notice something that was specifically missing from this space, or an unmet consumer need you wanted to fill? No. I grew up around fashion. My father was a manufacturer for women’s clothing for years and years. My mother was very creative and she was a hairdresser, so I grew up in the industry. I actually never thought I was going to be a part of it. I had a bunch of traumatic events happen in my life at a young age and that is what pulled my mind and my head into the area of positivity, and strength, and happiness. That’s what drove me to want to create something for myself that really brought me joy. What I knew best is what I grew up around, which was fashion. That’s the area that just lended itself most easily to me because I knew it. It became the vehicle for spreading my purpose. You mentioned you are a woman-to-woman brand. How important do you think it is for brands to have a strong message? We are a brand that talks to and serves women, but also includes men. More than anything, we want people. We want to be talking to the person, no matter who they are. Woman to woman, man to woman, man to man, whatever it is. We talk a lot about women’s equality; it needs to be people’s equality. I do have trouble calling a brand that doesn’t stand for anything a true brand. I think that there needs to be purpose in what it’s doing. There needs to be an emotional attachment. There can be companies that exist, that have a product, or a service, or are filling a purpose, but in my personal opinion, I don’t think that would put them under the category of a brand. I think a brand today needs to stand for something. We need to be genuine and authentic. You need to have a mission to connect with people on an emotional level. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, to make some historical big statements. Tell me about your recent physical popup store in New York. We called it “Terez. Explore. Shop. Create.” It was the first time we ever did a physical brand experience. We wanted to have the opportunity to tell our story and narrate it ourselves for the first time. It was an opportunity to embrace our community in a very tangible way and connect with them. Our brand and our clothing is super communicative. People make you feel good. You want to be around people. We wanted to give them an environment where they can come together and really embrace one another. Our concept for the store was that whatever you put into the universe comes back to you. I truly believe that. We had different examples throughout the way. One major purpose was for every product that people would purchase, we would donate to the Women in Need foundation (WIN). In the center of our Terez universe, we had a Positivity Tree. The Positivity Tree also represented the notion that whatever you put into the universe came back to you. We encouraged the people who came into the store to write down on a leaf a positive daily reminder to the Terez community. People would come and write different things. They would hoist it up into the tree. As they would hoist it up, a different positive affirmation would come out of the tree from somebody in the Terez community that was for them to take home. Again, it was about how what you put into the universe in a positive way will come back to you. It was immersive. We wanted people to really grind their teeth on what we were doing. We also created something called the Kindness Coin that we gave out to 200 customers when we first launched. What we asked them to do over the holidays is look around and do a random act of kindness, whether it’s helping a friend or a stranger, helping somebody across the street. They give them this coin, which on the coin it actually said that, “Every little act of kindness makes the universe a better place.” They were all numbered and they can either keep it for themselves or pay it forward. Or, they could bring it in to the pop‑up and they could pick out any single one item that they wanted for free. Then, we would take the coin and put it back in the universe. Did it grow? Yeah! It grew, and you heard stories. As I said before, you want to take action. We don’t want to just sit here and say, “We’re encouraging women to feel happiness and self‑expression.” We want to embrace and empower positivity. We want people to actually do it and feel it. When people came into the store, their reaction and their response was something that I never could even have imagined. These people were so taken back by what we have done because we really care. That’s not something that is common. We wanted to innovate. We wanted to do things that people have never seen before. We love being bold. We love innovation. We love making people feel good and confident. If we can do that in a multitude of ways, that’s what we’re going to do. We wanted that to really come to life and shine in the popup experience. You are launching a virtual version of your physical popup store. Could you explain why you chose to do so? We wanted to create this immersive experience. The response that we got was tremendous. It evoked these feelings of love, and care, and self‑expression, and we wanted to extend that. We were able to partner with Obsess, which gave us the opportunity to use technology. It’s not technology for the sake of technology. That’s not what we were trying to do. We wanted it to help us realize what our mission is in a broader scale. Obsess is also a female‑founded New York City startup, so it was a really synergistic partnership. We wanted to create this virtual store that holds all of the beauty, all of the love of the physical store but in a different way. All the major things that we talked about from the physical stores do live on the virtual popup, which is really amazing. People can navigate through the space a bit differently. I talked about the Positivity Tree before, about people giving and receiving positive affirmations, the experience of which we enable online. If you click on the virtual tree’s leaves, you will receive a positive daily reminder from the Terez community. Hopefully, we can continue to translate what our purpose was in the popup to this virtual store. The other thing that we added is that users can actually discover Kindness Coins. We hid Kindness Coins all throughout the virtual store. Each time a Kindness Coin is discovered, we’ll donate one item on behalf of our community member to WIN. The shopping experience is also really smooth. You can click on a product and you’ll be able to see the details and purchase it. The mission and message are consistent between physical and digital experiences. It also gives us the opportunity to reach people who weren’t able to come, who maybe don’t live in the New York City metropolitan area but who are part of the community. Or even, send it out to people who are just learning about the brand. To create a virtual environment that is similar to what we did in the physical space is really important for that, so we can reach more people, spreading the positivity and kindness message. Through our partnership Obsess, we want to bring and translate that warmth and joy in a virtual way. How has the community reaction been thus far? From the reactions that we had with our physical popup space, we had hundreds of members of the community who came through and shared their experience. I had people come in and shed real tears about joy, and I was like, “Is this really happening?” They felt the Terez love. They experienced the joy that we were trying to give them. That’s why we’re excited to be able to spread that feeling to as many people as possible. This is no longer an experience bound by time and space. Terez is paving the way for a new kind of retail, fostering community that bridges physical and digital space. For more from similar inspiring retailers, see PSFK’s reports and newsletters. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ January 31, 2019 at 10:42AM
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How Brands Like Equinox Use Data To Deliver Hyper-Personalized Wellness Advice http://bit.ly/2sXLk9B Health and fitness brands are enabling customized experiences and tailored lifestyle plans using customer information like DNA or gym habits to help them reach their personal goals Fitness brands from Thorne to Equinox are leveraging customers’ personal data to curate specific recommendations for diet and exercise that help customers achieve their goals. From workout routines and diets based on customers’ genes to health plans that address individuals’ blood levels of various toxins, here’s how four health and fitness brands are using customers’ unique stats to help them improve their lives: FitnessGenes AthGene Equinox Thorne For more examples of how brands are leveraging hyper-personalized fitness data, visit PSFK’s Amplifying The Benefits Of Wearables Through Personalized Experiences. Lead image: stock photo from Bojan Milinkov/Shutterstock Fitness brands from Thorne to Equinox are leveraging customers’ personal data to curate specific recommendations for diet and exercise that help customers achieve their goals. From workout routines and diets based on customers’ genes to health plans that address individuals’ blood levels of various toxins, here’s how four health and fitness brands are using customers’ unique stats to help them improve their lives: Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ January 31, 2019 at 10:42AM Vice Media Inks Video, Display Ad Deal With Teads http://bit.ly/2Bfo1wv The advertising platform Teads and Vice Media have signed a deal to place Teads power video and viewable display advertising across Vice’s websites, on both mobile web and desktop. The new deal will allow Vice to expand its viewable display and video inventory. Vice will be able to fill that inventory through direct sales or Teads’ offerings. Bertrand Quesada, coFounder-CEO of Teads, tells Digital News Daily the deal reflected Teads’ effort to get as many high-quality publishers on its platform as possible. “We share a common goal with Vice Media -- in connecting audiences with content they are passionate about in contextually relevant ways.” Quesada added Vice’s “unparalleled reach to millennial audiences… is key for so many of our brand and advertiser partners.” advertisement advertisement Vice is approaching Teads as a partner that can help the company monetize worldwide, not just its U.S. base. “We see them as part of our growth internationally, supporting our strategy to align with demand partners that share our presence and aspirations on a global scale,” said Alex Payne, vice president, global programmatic solutions, Vice Media. Teads invented the outstream video ad format and subsequently released viewable display ad units. The formats have been disruptive to the industry; their placement within publisher pages flow more naturally than traditional banner ads. Teads now says its ads reach 1.4 billion people globally each month, through various deals, including CNN, ESPN, the BBC, The Daily Mail, Reuters, CBS News, Conde Nast,. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 09:07AM VR Headsets Forecast To Reach 54M By 2023 http://bit.ly/2RrPP63 Unfortunately for Facebook and other champions of virtual reality, the technology has yet to take off among a critical mass of consumers. But that could change in the next few years, new research suggests. By 2023, shipments of VR headsets will reach 54 million -- up from an estimated 21 million this year -- Juniper Research predicts. That would amount to 160% growth over four years. However, the research firm doesn’t foresee Facebook and its Oculus Go headsets benefiting much from the boom. Google is well positioned to remain the leading VR headset vendor through 2023, according to Juniper. By then, the tech giant is expected to account for 27% of all VR shipments. For its part, Sony’s shipments are set to exceed 9 million units by 2023, which will represent about 18% market share. advertisement advertisement By 2023, Juniper anticipates that over 37 million games consoles will be using VR, which will represent about 19% of all consoles. The firm recommends that future headset releases align with mid-cycle console updates to allow for bundling of consoles and headsets into single offerings. Xbox-maker Microsoft appears to be moving in this direction, according to research author Sam Barker. “We expect Microsoft to announce VR support for its next generation consoles to provide competition for Sony in the VR space,” Barker notes in the report. Perhaps slowing VR adoption, however, Juniper suspects premium games publishers might remain wary of the significant investment required for AAA-rated VR development. To be clear, consumers are buying Oculus Go headsets. During this past holiday season, for example, Facebook sold about 555,000 units, according to a recent estimate from SuperData Research. Besting Facebook, however, Sony sold about 700,000 PlayStation VR headsets over the 2018 holiday period. Throughout 2018, the VR market racked up roughly $3.6 billion in revenues, per SuperData Research. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://bit.ly/2oB2PsH January 31, 2019 at 06:03AM |
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