During the final LSA15 session, Heath Bradbury of Advance Auto Parts, Jessika Laudermilk of Toyota and David Harris of BJ’s Restaurants discussed the challenges of managing location data, search, mobile and other channels in a fragmented and chaotic media universe.

Just for a better sense of each organization, each panelist shared the number of locations they are dealing with: Advance Auto Parts has 6,500 retail locations, BJ’s Restaurants has 160 locations and Jessika’s region at Toyota is responsible for 76 dealerships.

Each had a unique perspective on the challenges of tradition vs. digital media and all had a different take on the matter. Here is what each brand is currently most interested in:

Advanced Auto Parts

• Decentralizing the organizations digital marketing
• Attributing revenue to digital channels and allowing this attribution to move the company forward digitally.
• Beacons are interesting but with 6,500 locations it is a much bigger consideration and investment.
• The aptitude within social media among individual store managers varies dramatically.
• At the brand or enterprise level, our digital activity can trickle down, but it isn’t enough anymore. Content needs to be hyperlocal and relevant to individual neighborhoods.

Toyota

• Nationally 36% of spend is digital with a lot of variation regionally.
• Individual dealerships manage digital activity and the broader organization is working to educate and consult.
• Currently looking at each dealers Google SERP, social and rep management and gives each dealer a digital score.
• Provides tools and resources to help dealers with digital.

BJ’s Restaurants

• Manages both traditional, digital and hybrid acitivity including online video, SEM, SEO, reputation management, print, etc.
• When it comes to the marketing mix, decisions are often based on cost, but attribution and ROI is a tremendous driver.
• Has a mobile app and monitors online order to see where consumers are going to make these orders.
• The social, mobile, local combination is comprehensively being explored by the company.