Street Fight Daily: Walmart Acts as Media Platform, Amazon Courts Grocers

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

Inside Walmart’s Advertising Blitz (Digiday)
Walmart is making a push to grow its advertising by positioning itself as a media platform. Walmart’s pitch is that it controls transaction data from customers, which can help brands retarget consumers off Walmart.com, according to executives familiar with the matter.

Is the Camera the ‘New Search Box’ for Local Discovery? Part II (Street Fight)
Michael Boland: It’s often said in the ad-tech world, and other sectors that are reliant on data, that “Content is King, but Data is God.” This is increasingly true in local ad-tech and martech given the need for “ground-truth” conversions to attribute ROI. And it will equally apply in local AR.

Amazon Slashes Seller Fees to Improve Grocery Sales Online (Recode)
Amazon cemented its long-term interest in the grocery industry when it spent nearly $14 billion to acquire Whole Foods earlier this year. Now it’s making a subtler move aimed at improving its own grocery selection online. Quartz: Amazon explains how Whole Foods acquisition fits into its plans for world domination

On the Various Challenges Facing European Publishers (and Some Solutions) (Street Fight)
“As audiences age out, the number of print subscribers will plummet, and as older small business owners retire, old ways of doing business … retire with them as well,” David Mihm writes to Mike Blumenthal. “Legacy media companies that don’t evolve rapidly are going to be left with no audience and no customers.”

Mobile, YouTube, and Programmatic Are Alphabet’s Workhorses (MediaPost)
“The reality is that as long as mobile, YouTube, and programmatic can continue to deliver 15%-20% advertising-driven revenue growth, Google will have very few problems,” Ben Schachter, analyst at Macquarie Equities Research, wrote in a research note published Friday.

Marketers Should Consider Mobile a Lifestyle, Not a Channel (AdWeek)
Will Kassoy: Mobile is not a channel. It is a fundamental part of our lifestyle. It’s how we communicate, how we spend time and, more and more, how we transact.

The Great Ad Tech Cleanup (AdExchanger)
Terence Kawaja: Following the acquisitions of Rocket Fuel, MaxPoint Interactive and YuMe and the divestiture of Tremor Video’s demand-side business, there will be no public ad tech companies with an I/O media model by the first quarter of next year, except for Criteo, which is its own category. It’s the end of an era.

Influencer Marketing Is About Data, Not Celebrity Deals (eMarketer)
The influencer marketing space shows no signs of slowing down. But to have a successful strategy, brands need more than just celebrity endorsements. 

Why Snapchat Spectacles Failed (TechCrunch)
Josh Constine: Snap never got visionary video markers onboard. And as Snapchat’s popularity waned in the face of competitors, the fact that Spectacles only interfaced with its app rather than a phone’s camera roll became a burden.

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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]