Street Fight Daily: Verve Mobile Buys Beacon Startup, MindBody Files for IPO
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Mobile Wallets, Smart Coupons, And iBeacons: Verve Mobile Acquires Fosbury (VentureBeat)
Mobile advertising platform Verve Mobile, which bills itself as a “location-based mobile platform,” announced this morning that it has purchased beacon technology platform Fosbury. The goal, it says, is to further link mobile marketing to offline retail performance.
The Connected Local Economy: A New Way to Understand Innovation in Local (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: As a new generation of local technology companies approach the public markets, it’s critical for us to agree on what “local” actually means today. New technologies and the intelligence of the Web are coming together to radically reshape local commerce. We’re witnessing the rise of a new connected local economy.
Wellness Startup Mindbody Isn’t the Cure for This Ailing IPO Market (Pando)
Mindbody, the booking software company for service businesses, said Monday it would sell 7.2 million shares between $13 a share and $15 a share in an offering that is likely to come next week. But the barriers to entry to the SaaS sector are low and there are already plenty of similar companies such as Booker competing in the area.
What 500 Local Merchants Want: It’s All in Our Latest Report (Street Fight)
We’re thrilled to release the third edition of Street Fight’s “The Local Merchant Report” — a 70-page, 500-merchant study featuring dozens of charts, rich data, case studies, market analysis, and even pitch strategies.
Google’s Amazing Location-Aware Search Finds Answers About Nearby Places (Search Engine Land)
How tall is that tower in front of you? What’s the name of a river you’re near? What time does a store you’re looking at close? Google’s new “location-aware” search can answer questions like these, even if you yourself don’t know the exact name of something you’re near.
What the Rise of Slack and HipChat Mean for Small Business (Street Fight)
Mark Sullivan: On the surface these messaging app seem to offer businesses better internal communication. In reality their value is rooted in real-time, contextual streams of business data within an environment that invites collaboration. That’s a fancy way of saying these are chat apps with loads of integrations.
Hey Incumbents: While You Were Sleeping Your Business Blew Up (Screenwerk)
Greg Sterling: Many “incumbent” local media organizations watched from the sidelines as the internet and digital marketing world developed momentum over a decade. In fairness, some took risks and experimented. But when you see something happening in front of your eyes you need to act or be ready to say goodbye.
Yelp Starts Showing Evidence Of Review Fraud (Search Engine Land)
Yelp has added evidence of review fraud directly in the reviews section of local businesses. If Yelp blocks out reviews and places a “Consumer Alert” box, it may will take the searcher directly to the place the business owner is suspected of trying to pay someone to leave a review.
MapQuest Confirms It’s Using Mapbox To Overhaul Its Product (TechCrunch)
AOL-owned MapQuest has confirmed a big product and brand overhaul for its mapping product, including a partnership with developer mapping platform Mapbox to improve the product’s performance. The company said the Mapbox partnership would be used to bring “fully adaptable, fast-loading, and responsive maps” to MapQuest.
Hyperlocals: The Second Biggest Missed Opportunity in Local Marketing (ClickZ)
Gregg Stewart: This month I began to look back to some of the techniques that were used by smart brands to gain advantage over their competition. I thought of one that that has direct parallels to today’s marketplace reality, taking advantage of market-specific hyper-local media properties.
Startup Launches Out of Stealth With Mark Cuban Advising, Coca-cola as Client (Boston Business Journal)
Ground Signal, a location-based social media startup, is quickly gaining traction, with advisors including serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban and customers including Coca-Cola. offers a way for brands to gain insights on fans and customers through users’ publicly available social media accounts.
For CPG, Mobile Promotions Push Targets to Store (eMarketer)
The US consumer packaged goods and consumer products industry will spend $2.33 billion on mobile advertising this year, representing 47.0% of digital ad spending in the industry. Marketers are boosting efforts to reach mobile coupon clippers, and 97.4 million US adult mobile users will use their devices to redeem a coupon/code this year.
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