As Mobile Takes Off, Hyperlocal Evolves
As smartphone usage increases in the U.S, mobile is finally making the transition from perennial “future star” to emerging powerhouse. Street Fight checked-in at IAB’s Mobile Marketplace conference earlier this week to find out more about how hyperlocal will fit into the mobile equation. A lot of stats were thrown around to demonstrate mobiles massive growth but here are a few that stood out…
Should Hyperlocals Incorporate Content From Local Merchants?
Today’s local merchant is learning to build a more contextual, social relationship with their customer base through social media, and it’s making the simple banner ad less effective. Simply put: business is integral to engaging the community because they have the commercial incentive to create content that builds their brand equity, directly or indirectly…
Street Fight Daily: 07.20.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
When reporters are in the field with their smartphones and they have a story to tell where both photo and location are vital, a stream of Flickr photos imported into a Google Map will do the trick. (10,000 Words)…
When it comes to national distribution, the majority of daily deals sites are in less than 10 big markets. Just under 20 percent of daily deals players are in a single market, while 69 percent of sites are in between 2 and 9 markets, (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: 07.19.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
American Express is showing it’s got designs on being a big player in the deals space. The company is unveiling a partnership with Facebook and the introduction of a new social platform called “Link, Like, Love,” that will bring American Express deals to Facebook users through their social graph. (GigaOm)…
Geolocation platform Geoloqi, which uses persistent location tracking to trigger notifications tied to real-world places, has received a $350,000 investment from multiple backers. The company is building a means of integration with location based social networks like Foursquare that goes beyond what they offer today. (ReadWriteWeb)…
Placecast President: Increasing Relevance With Location-Aware Ads
Placecast is a location-based mobile ad company that uses “geo-fencing” to help brands extend offers to consumers in the vicinity of their store. The company says it “has pioneered the first fully integrated platform solution for device manufacturers, local directory companies, and mobile operators to easily integrate and monetize location-based information from virtually any source.”
Hyperlocal Ad Marketplace Local Yokel Media Launches
Digital media vet Dick O’Hare has announced the launch of Local Yokel Media, an ad network that claims to be the “first hyperlocal online ad marketplace specializing in monetizing hyperlocal ad impressions.” The company’s technology allows local and national advertisers to target online audiences via aggregated inventory on hyperlocal news and information sites…
Street Fight Daily: 07.18.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Yelp now has over 20 million reviews, up from 10 million in March, 2010 (and 17 million in April). The reviews bring in the visitors, and visitor growth tracks pretty closely with the growth in reviews. Yelp hit 53 million visitors in June, according to its own stats. (TechCrunch)…
Connecticut law-enforcement officials are looking into whether Groupon is breaking consumer-protection laws that prohibit gift cards from expiring. (Wall Street Journal)…
In Hyperlocal News, Mom-and-Pop Shops Will Win
Economies of scale do not apply in hyperlocal news. Rather than going up with scale, CPMs not only go down—they disappear. If Gap buys an ad across a network of hyperlocal sites, the CPM will likely be lower than if a local store advertises, because the Gap can buy that region from any number of sources. Conversely, the corner grocer will pay a comparatively premium CPM when they know for sure their ads show up in the right place.
Street Fight Daily: 07.15.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Over the past six months, daily deal sites such as Groupon, Living Social and Gilt Groupe have attracted more than $1.69 billion in venture capital and other investments. Globally, there are more than 3,000 total daily deal companies, including more than 1,000 in China, more than 900 in Europe, and more than 600 in South America. (Daily Deal Media)…
Groupon has filed new S-1 from for its IPO where it is looking to raise at least $750 million. The daily deals site has added new underwriters Williams, RBC, Loop, Citadel, JPMorgan, Allen & Co, BofA, Citi, Barclays and Deutsche in addition to previous underwriters Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. (TechCrunch)…
CheckIn+ Aggregates Check-Ins, Could Be Big
Street Smart Moves: The best or biggest deal, assertion, investment or other strategy this week. Who: SHAPE Services What: Introduced CheckIn+, a location-based aggregator that includes augmented reality Last summer, Business Insider noted the start of a wave of check-in aggregators, following hot on the heels of the wave of location-based services–just like daily deal […]
The Alternative Press: A Successful Hyperlocal in the Garden State
The story of why InJersey went out has been told in so many conflicting ways it could be called “Garden State Rashomon.” I’d like to tell the story of another New Jersey hyperlocal, The Alternative Press, that is less maddening, and more optimistic. Would-be hyperlocal publishers and editors, give TAP founder and CEO Mike Shapiro five minutes of your time.
Case Study: Online Marketing In a Small Town
When Todd Kuhns opened Pickler’s Famous earlier this year, he hoped to save money on advertising by creating buzz online. Unfortunately, the Kirksville, Mo., ice cream parlor owner has found that many residents of his small town are reluctant to use tools like Foursquare and Twitter. So, he’s developed a blended approach to advertising that […]
Street Fight Daily: 07.14.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
When EveryBlock was launched in Chicago in 2007, the site’s mission was to fill people in on everything going on in their individual neighborhoods. Now, with new community features in place and a presence in 16 cities, the MSNBC-owned site is planning to expand out nationally. (American Journalism Review)…
Location-based Q&A platform Localmind has raised $600,000 in angel funding. The service differs slightly from fellow Q&A apps like Opinionaided or Locql, because Localmind’s real-time, location-based platform sits on top of existing check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla. (TechCrunch)…
Turnover Hits Examiner.com Brass
Lots of movement of the executive kind at Examiner.com this summer. Some of what we’ve noticed in just the past weeks: Rick Blair, the company’s CEO, is gone after essentially coming out of retirement to help get the company rolling along a path toward gigantic traffic numbers. You can find him near the beach in North Carolina growing his interest in social investing more than content farms…
Patch-HuffPo Wants Hyperlocal Traffic? Here’s How
Last week I talked to a number of people about Aol’s Patch network and pointed readers to one Patch in particular that ostensibly seemed to be going for (human) form over (hyperlocal) function. It was a little unfair to single them out perhaps, especially with plenty of other examples of click-baiting to highlight, but I’m guessing I wittingly provided them just what they wanted by sort of calling them out: more pageviews, more clicks, more buzz…
Arlington Hyperlocal Picks Its Own Patch, Turns a Profit
Scott Brodbeck, the editor of hyperlocal ARLnow.com (Arlington, Va.), which is part of the “authentically local” movement, claims he has a steady thrum of profitable traffic, and an empathy-bordering-on-sympathy for his competition (read: Patch). I thought it would be worthwhile to dig into this apparent and positive anomaly…