Street Fight Daily: Instagram Boosts Ads for Brands, Google Acquires Urban Engines for Maps

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Instagram Deems Its Brand-Focused, Call-to-Action Ads a Work in Progress (MediaPost)
When Instagram launched link ads, late last year, the plan was to help brands elicit more “actions” from users — like driving Web site clicks, mobile app installs and site conversions. Unfortunately for the social giant and its brand partners, that didn’t happen. Why?

Google Acquires Urban Engines to Bolster Location-Based Analytics (VentureBeat)
Google has acquired Urban Engines, a provider of location-based analytics for urban planning. The team will be joining the Google Maps team in a bid to “help organizations better understand how the world moves.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Street Culture: Trans-Atlantic Travel Helps Unacast’s Team Build Trust (Street Fight)
Every month, one half of the company’s employees travel to visit the other half of the employees — the engineering team is located in Oslo, Norway and the commercial team is in New York City — as a culture-building activity, giving employees a chance to connect while in the same time zone.

Data-Driven Marketing is Driving More Revenues (eMarketer)
Marketers put more dollars behind their data-driven marketing efforts, and saw revenue gains, between Q1 and Q2 2016 in the US. According to August research, this upward track is expected to continue into Q3.

Taking Proximity Tech Beyond Promotional Offers (Street Fight)
Shekar Raman: Once a beacon program is successful with promotions, many retailers think they only need to maintain what they have. But the technology also affords retailers a number of other opportunities to reach and engage with customers beyond simply delivering offers.

How Legacy Brands and Retailers Can Keep Up With Our Tech-Driven World (TechCrunch)
Mona Bijoor: Whether it’s in-store or online, technology is becoming a lever to bolster brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Resources such as shopbots and “virtual concierge” services are helping retailersturn new customers into repeat shoppers.

Apple News Now Lets Publishers Sell Subscriptions (Wall Street Journal)
A year after its introduction, Apple News will now allow publishers to sell subscriptions through the app. Publishers participating in the new program include the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist, National Geographic, Time, and the Los Angeles Times.

The World’s Biggest Brands and Online Platforms Join Together to Improve Digital Ads (AdWeek)
The Coalition for Better Ads, which includes Google, Facebook, P&G, Unilever, and the Washington Post, aims to monitor the quality of online advertising using technology currently being developed at the IAB’s Tech Lab.

Quick-Serve Chain Cooks Up In-Store Traffic with Mobile Video (AdExchanger)
Quiznos is working to connect the dots between digital ad exposures and store visitation. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2014, Quiznos reduced its brick-and-mortar presence. With fewer stores, each location had to work harder. So Quiznos changed its media mix to support its new retail footprint.

LBMA Podcast: Everyware, Shake Shack, and Carling’s Beer Button (Street Fight)
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Delta Airlines + Snapchat, Revel Systems & Punchh, OfferUp gets $119M, Hilton Hotels, IKEA’s Dining Club, Trackr + Alexa, and Neiman Marcus.

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Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]