Street Fight Daily: Brands Using Apps to Drive Revenue, Facebook Tweaks News Feed (Again)

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

How Three Brands Use Apps to Drive Loyalty and Revenue (AdAge)
The best brands pair tried-and-true marketing strategies with cutting-edge app innovation to engage consumers like never before, bringing a high level of engagement and good old-fashioned buzz. Starbucks, Nike and Sephora are brand innovators that use branded apps as a platform for connection, brand loyalty and most importantly, to create a unique and exciting consumer experience.

Facebook Tweaks News Feed to Favor ‘Personally Informative’ Stories (Poynter)
On the heels of changes that smothered clickbait and emphasized posts from friends and family, Facebook said it’s created a “new ranking signal” that will evaluate feedback from users to determine if posts are informative or not.

Openings and New Hires at Tapclicks, GotU, Matchcraft (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Google Ventures, Factual, Gooway Group, and Townsquare Media.

How AMP Will Affect the Wider Web (MediaPost)
Ben Frederick: Google announced recently that it was expanding its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to the wider Web. Which basically means two things: The mobile Web is about to get much faster, and it will be more difficult to track consumers as they move through the funnel on mobile.

CVS Pharmacy Launches Mobile Payments and Loyalty Solution, CVS Pay (TechCrunch)
CVS Health launched its own mobile payments solution Thursday that will allow customers to pay for products, pick up prescriptions, earn ExtraCare loyalty rewards, as well as pay – just by scanning the barcode in the CVS mobile app.

Raise Report: Fresh Funding for Townsquared, YieldBot, Drizly (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes recent rounds for Carvana, SiteZeus, Spot.IM, and Insert.

Introducing the Bots Landscape: 170+ Companies, $4B in Funding, Thousands of Bots (VentureBeat)
Bots, or conversational UIs, are (sometimes) autonomous services humans can interact with using (somewhat) natural language in existing messaging apps — and they’re finally starting to take shape. Hundreds of companies are sprouting up across each of these categories…

Nokia’s Former Maps Unit, Now Owned by German Automakers, Is Close to Signing More Investors (Recode)
Here, the former Nokia maps unit now owned by a consortium of three German automakers, is looking to add new investors by the end of the year, its CEO told Recode on Thursday. The new investors will come from around the globe and are likely to include companies beyond just car makers, potentially including U.S. technology companies.

How 3 Publishers Are Using Instagram Stories for Visually Compelling Journalism (Nieman Lab)
I talked with The New York Times, National Geographic, and Sports Illustrated — each known for striking photography and large Instagram followings — to understand how they are trying to make use of Instagram Stories for a new kind of visual narrative. Here, lightly edited, is what they had they say…

Albany, NY Mall Fully Embraces Pokemon Go, Turning Its Lobby Into Battle Area (The Next Web)
Colonie Center in Albany, New York decided to make the most of its location as a PokéGym and went on to convert its lobby into a designated Pokémon Go arena.

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