Street Fight Daily: IAB Accepts Blame for Rise of Ad Blockers, Analyzing Yahoo Gemini
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
The IAB Pivots on Ad Blocking and Issues a Mea Culpa: ‘We Messed Up’ (Adweek)
The Interactive Advertising Bureau said the digital publishing industry has cared too much about revenues and too little about user experience, and needs to accept blame for the rising popularity of ad blockers. “We messed up,” said Scott Cunningham, the IAB’s senior VP of technology and ad operations. “Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty.”
As Yahoo Gemini Ramps Up, How Well Is It Performing for Search Advertisers? (Search Engine Land)
Mark Ballard: Whereas Gemini has shown promise in improving the performance of mobile search ads on Yahoo, it does not yet appear to be driving substantially more ad volume than Yahoo would otherwise receive. This could very well reflect the fact that Gemini is a developing marketplace advertisers are still learning how to approach.
6 Strategies for Improving Email Pitches to SMBs (Street Fight)
Email is the go-to channel for pitching within the hyperlocal community, but with 81 percent of small business owners now being contacted by between one and five sales reps each week, it’s becoming harder for digital marketing vendors to stand out from the pack. Here are six strategies vendors say they’ve successfully used to break through the clutter in local merchants’ inboxes.
First Data Slips in Trading Debut (Wall Street Journal)
Shares of payment-processing giant First Data slipped in their trading debut after pricing below expectations in the largest IPO of the year. The company, which processes trillions of dollars of credit card, debit card, and other payments, raised $2.6 billion in its offering. (Subscription required)
Raise Report: New Rounds for EzCater, Checkr, Netsertive (Street Fight)
Every two weeks we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. In this edition, new investments include rounds for EzCater, Checkr, and Netsertive.
Twitter Unveils New Reports for Businesses to Track Whether Their Ads Worked (TechCrunch)
Twitter is giving advertisers a new way to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns through its conversion lift reports. The reports measure whether Twitter ads actually lead to an improvement in whatever business metric you’re focused on, whether it’s website clicks/signups or mobile app installs.
Inside the Numbers: The Effect GrubHub Has on Restaurants (ChicagoInno)
GrubHub has released a comprehensive study, compiled by a third-party research firm, that details the company’s effect on local businesses. According to the report, restaurants on the GrubHub platform see six times greater monthly revenue growth than restaurants not on the platform. And, on average, restaurants see a 30 percent increase in takeout revenue within one year of joining the service.
MMA ‘Demystifies’ Location Data, Works Toward Standardizing Collection and Transparency Practices (GeoMarketing)
Aware that advertisers won’t spend on channels they can’t comparatively measure, the Mobile Marketing Association is working with the Media Rating Council to create standards and best practices for counting and calculating the quality of location data and mobile campaign metrics related to driving in-store traffic.
The 5-Step Uber Playbook That Will Disrupt the On-Demand Economy (TechCrunch)
Dan Storbaek: We’re starting to see a powerful Uber playbook being unleashed. The company continues to experiment and refine its approach, and a number of interesting patterns are becoming apparent. Here is how I think the company will Uber-ize the world.
LBMA Podcast: Walmart’s Simple Text Shopping Assistant, Walgreens Rewards Activity Tracking (Street Fight)
On the show: Walmart’s Simple Text shopping assistant; Walgreens rewards customers for activity tracking; ordering pizza from the street courtesy of JCDeaux; LOCALīz from Bulzi; Droneports in Rwanda; Sunshine’s crowdsourced weather app; your opinion pays at Portland’s SamplingLab; using digital solutions to enhance the customer experience. Plus, news from RevTrax, Salvation Army, and eyeQ.
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