Street Fight Daily: Target Acquires Grand Junction, Lyft Has Capitalized On Uber’s Woes

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

Target Acquires Transportation Company Grand Junction to Expand Same-Day Delivery (TechCrunch)
The company had already been working with Target on a same-day delivery pilot program in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, prior to this deal. That pilot will expand this fall to more New York area stores before a broader rollout to other large metros starting next year.

Enterprise Local Marketers Treat AI Hype as Means to an End (Street Fight)
David Card: Our research suggests that big brands and retailers don’t have AI high on their list of local marketing priorities. But it appears that if brands are very email- and direct mail-focused, and that’s where they’re thinking of applying AI.

Lyft Focuses on Self-Driving Cars But Confirms It’s Gotten a Boost from Uber’s Troubles (Recode)
Lyft director of product Taggart Matthiesen’s main focus these days is Lyft’s push into self-driving cars, which the company thinks will reshape its entire fleet within two decades. But on the new podcast, he told Recode’s Johana Bhuiyan that Lyft got a bump from the #deleteUber campaign in January.

How 5 Brands Use Geo-Targeting to Fuel In-Store Sales (Street Fight)
By serving mobile ads based on users’ geographic locations, brands can avoid these types of blunders and hone in on the type of hyper-specific messaging that boosts engagement and click-through rates.

Ad Institute Challenges Google and Facebook to Improve Measurement Standards (eMarketer)
UK ad industry trade group the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) is calling on YouTube and Facebook to work with it and a fellow trade group to bring the brand safety, measurement, and viewability of the digital advertising on their platforms up to “acceptable industry standards.”

Benchmark Pens Open Letter to Win Over Uber Employees (VentureBeat)
Upping the stakes in an already epic round of backbiting on Uber’s board, Benchmark today sent an open letter to Uber employees explaining why it decided to sue founder Travis Kalanick. The VC firm then posted the open letter on Google Docs and Twitter.

Inside P.F. Chang’s Data and Social Media Overhaul (Digiday)
When Dwayne Chambers joined P.F. Chang’s around two years ago, he noticed the company had too many agencies, consultancies and research firms — 13 — for its small marketing budget. So Chambers decided to overhaul the chain’s marketing with a digital focus.

AI Is Not Optional for Retail (VentureBeat)
Japjit Tulsi: AI has been around for many years, but recent advancements have moved AI out of the realm of science fiction and made it a business imperative. The game changers: powerful new GPUs, dedicated hardware, new algorithms, and platforms for deep learning.

The Road to Rocket Fuel’s Sale (AdExchanger)
As with matrimony, the road to acquisition is paved with dalliances – some serious and some … less so. For evidence, look no further than the DSP Rocket Fuel’s impending sale to Sizmek for $145 million, announced on July 18.

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