Street Fight Daily: 02.06.12
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
Facebook’s IPO: The Good, the Bad and the (Local?) Future (BIA/Kelsey)
Jed Williams: Facebook has never shown the propensity to build a sales force of the mass and scope necessary to exhaustively address local markets and SMBs (as opposed to say Groupon). Even its deals play was an aggregated approach through partners. However, it does collect much of its advertising revenues from small and mid-market businesses that self-serve on the platform.
Why Context Is King in the Future of Digital Marketing (Mashable)
Jonathan Gardner: Local creates amazing opportunities to examine context. If I’m checking in on Foursquare, I’ve chosen to share my real-time, local context. Smart companies like Local Response understand the resulting data and harness it to create powerful, relevant marketing.
Study: GPS-enabled LBS Subscribers Likely to Double by 2013 (Press Release)
According to RNCOS’ recent research report “World GPS Market Forecast to 2013”, there was a record growth in the number of subscribers for GPS-enabled location-based services across the globe during 2009 and 2010. The report anticipates that the global GPS-enabled LBS subscribers will grow at a CAGR of 47% to double by next year (2013).
Gilt Groupe Snags New Chief Marketing Officer from JustFabulous (AllThingsD)
Closely following dozens of layoffs, the Gilt Groupe has appointed Elizabeth Francis to the position of chief marketing officer. Francis will be responsible for acquiring new customers and customer retention across the company’s flash sales sites and full-priced apparel and food sites.
Case Study: Localization Beats National Advertising for Gym Franchise (ScreenWerk)
Greg Sterling: Balihoo targets the national-local segment, franchises and co-op advertisers. In this case study, the company executed a plan for geo-modified ad creative combined with localized Web sites for a chain of gyms.
BlueCross Adds Blue365 Health and Wellness Deals (Local Onliner)
More vertical players are trying to leverage their brands with deal offerings and advertising. The latest one is Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Twenty-two Blue Cross state organizations around the U.S. are working with Analog Analytics to launch Blue365, a deal program offering health and fitness discounts, as well as adjacencies like tax prep.
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