Marqeta Finds $14M in Funding as Loyalty Plays Start Thinning Out
The flood of new loyalty and payment startups that littered last summer’s newscycle has dried up, with only a handful of companies – namely, Square, Belly, FiveStars and LevelUp – making it to a meaningful second or third round of funding. Add Marqeta to that list. The maker of a branded and white-labeled prepaid loyalty card announced that it closed a $14 million series A round led by Greylock Partners this morning, and revealed that its technology underpins the Facebook Card, the social network’s most recent stab at gifting…
Case Study: Salon Increases Average Purchase Price With Card-Linked Offers
Everyone wants a prize, and most people are willing to spend a little more to get one. At least that’s been the experience of Tiffany Amorosino. The co-owner of Bella Sante Spa uses a platform called OfferLink by Cartera to reward customers with free gift cards when they meet certain purchase price thresholds. Since opening her spa in 1996, Amorosino has seen a significant shift in the way SMB marketing is done…
Street Fight Daily: Google Unveils New Maps, PayPal Takes Aim at Square
Upcoming Webinar Puts Spotlight on SMB Adoption of Mobile
It’s no secret that SMBs lag behind all marketers in digital adoption. But the mobile chasm between consumers and these businesses is staggering: 10% of media consumption is spent on mobile; while just 1% of marketers’ budgets are dedicated to that platform. An upcoming webinar will discuss SMB optimization on mobile for business owners and marketing services professionals alike.
How Long Will Local Web Video Be Held Hostage by the ’30-Second Spot’?
The 30-second spot will be the ruin of those in local media who shift this old television workhorse to the Web. Local media companies rarely run anything less than 30 seconds, because that’s what advertisers want to buy, but this is a grave error — it spits in the face of the one who has clicked through to watch a short video…
How Marketers Can Help Merchants and Consumers Win With Local Search
For the sake of local businesses and local searchers, marketers need to come to the rescue. vSplash estimates that there is a $3.2 billion opportunity for local marketers to help clean up local search and help local businesses with their digital marketing efforts. And in that number there is some low-hanging fruit — especially for marketers that already have a foothold in local markets…
Street Fight Daily: Square Unveils New Hardware, PayPal Offers Cash for Registers
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Square Unveils Hardware for iPad Registers (New York Times)… PayPal’s Cash For Registers Tries To Outdo Square And Groupon With Its Own Bid To Rule The Register (TechCrunch)… Facebook, Waze at Odds Over Liquidation (Business Insider)…
Facebook, Waze and the Falling Cost of Mapping Technology
A lot of digital ink has been spilled about why Facebook would want to snap up Waze — namely, the company’s 40 million mobile users. But the discussions also verify the once-unthinkable reality that a startup could scale a navigation and mapping service into a billion-dollar business in five years. A number of technological trends have set the stage for Waze and other mapping and navigation startups to compete. Here’s a look at a few of them…
8 Reputation Management Platforms for Merchants
As customer review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and TripAdvisor proliferate, reputation management platforms are becoming an increasingly important tool in the local merchant’s arsenal. Nearly a quarter of small businesses now monitor their online reputations, according to BIA/Kelsey. Here are eight platforms that each tackle online reputation management in a slightly different way…
New Report Examines Hyperlocal Targeting on Mobile
With 133.7 million consumers, a full 52.5% of the U.S. population, owning a smartphone, it’s safe to say that the mobile platform is here to stay and growing. In a new report from Street Fight Insights, we survey the burgeoning industry of vendors that target individuals based on where they are, taking a deep dive into the technologies and strategies available for marketers…
6 Strategies for Building a Local Online Marketplace
Local marketplaces are notoriously difficult to build, and yet the rewards are significant for publishers who are successful. When done right, local marketplaces can create additional streams of revenue, and they can serve as page-view generators for the hyperlocal news sites they’re associated with. We spoke with several folks who have built marketplace products for local to get some insight…
‘Enhanced’ Local Listings Could Be Even More Important on Mobile
Enhanced listing services appeal to many SMBs and local brands because they are a holistic advertising medium that goes beyond the basic banner or text ad — not only do they stand out against free listings and hold the user’s attention, but they also drive conversion and social interaction at higher rates. But most sites currently lack unique enhanced listing features specific to mobile…
Street Fight Daily: Hyperlocal Targeting Faces Scrutiny, New CEO at CityGrid
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… ‘Hyperlocal’ Consumer Targeting Faces Scrutiny; Senator Questions Euclid (Wall Street Journal)… Ron LaPierre CEO of CityGrid Media (Screenwerk)… Yahoo Acquires Location-based Mobile Gaming Company Loki Studios (TheNextWeb)…
10 Months After Furor, Hyperlocal News Service Journatic Presses On
In the spring of 2012, Journatic, the for-hire community news shop, was a hot property in the hyperlocal industry. But less than three months later, following a report on “This American Life” about Journatic’s practices, Tribune and several other publishers suspended all work by the local news company. Tribune has resumed some use of Journatic’s work since, and I recently went to the company’s new VP of media services, Hanke Gratteau, to find out more about how the service was faring…
LBMA PODCAST: Dwolla, Kiip, MoodMedia, and Now Founder Ben Broca
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan talk about ISIS’s plan to bring loyalty to vending machines. Meanwhile, Dwolla closes their $16.5 million series C; Kiip powers the “sour to sweet” campaign for Sour Patch Kids; MoodMedia pinpoints you by the music your hear; Google Now! comes to the iPhone and leaves a lot to the imagination; Foursquare is about to sell your data; and PJs that tell stories. Plus special guest Ben Broca, founder of Now…
Street Fight Daily: Village Voice Editors Walk Out, Tumult at CityGrid
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Top Editors Abruptly Leave Village Voice Over Staff Cuts (New York Times)… What’s Going on at CityGrid? (Screenwerk)… Daily Voice Bankruptcy is a Setback for ‘Hyperlocal’ News (Fortune)…
How Publishers Can Create Hyperlocal Magazines Using Flipboard’s New Tools
This morning Flipboard launched a new web application called “Flipboard Editor,” the latest in a series of tools that allow users to create magazines for the Flipboard app. The new editor makes it even easier for users to create beautiful magazines (of already existing content) that they can share with other users. As Flipboard grows out not only its aggregation tools but also its user base, it’s important that hyperlocal publications take notice…
Looking Up: Local Data and the Real World
Google Glass may be overpriced or simply too odd for many consumers, but it still represents a manner of thinking about the interconnectedness of the internet and the world that is an inevitable outcome of current trends. With smartphones as our constant companions, we already spend a vast amount of our time looking down to look things up.