Street Fight Daily: Online Ad Prices Rise, How Digital Brands Can Mirror Amazon’s Holiday Success

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

Online Ad Prices Rise As Industry Combats Counterfeit Inventory, a Good Sign for Publishers (WSJ)
The average price of ad space purchased through Google’s ad-buying systems has increased over the past three weeks, the company said, which it attributes to its adoption of the “Ads.txt” industry initiative earlier this month.

What E-Commerce Brands Can Learn from Amazon for Holiday Domination (MediaPost)
Priya Mony: E-commerce behemoth Amazon will undoubtedly take a large slice of the pie as shoppers seek to avoid the in-store frenzy. However, other brands can also drive holiday revenue with consumer-centric digital advertising tactics. 

Raise Report: Pixvana, Affinio, ADAY Lock Down New Funding (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 funding for Thrive Global, Buildup, PacketZoom, and Playment.

Publishers Scramble to Make Their Annual Sales Numbers (Digiday)
For some, the holidays is a time to feel gratitude and reflect on the blessings of the season. For sellers of media, it’s a mad scramble to do their utmost by Dec. 31 to maximize their bonus if they’re lucky — or make up for lost revenue ground if they’re not.

Snap Takes a Page from Facebook’s Playbook to Grow Into a Durable Social Force (AdWeek)
With stalling growth and growing pressure from investors, Snapchat is now the one stealing … sorry, borrowing from Facebook.

Blue Apron CEO Steps Down, To Be Replaced by CFO (Bloomberg)
The new CEO will take over day-to-day operations, focusing on improving profitability. Salzberg’s move lets him focus on Blue Apron’s long-term strategy, a decision the board agreed with unanimously.

BuzzFeed Is Losing Website Traffic to More Traditional Outlets (Recode)
Major news sites have seen increased readership as Americans try to make sense of the tumultuous political climate, but BuzzFeed has seen its web traffic decline.

Google Sets Its Sights on the Online Travel-Booking Industry (Skift)
Google wants consumers to buy more travel on it. That may prompt industry players to closely patrol the gray line between the search giant referring more customers to them and Google becoming customers’ first choice for booking trips.

Yext Sees 39% Revenue Growth in Latest Quarter (TechCrunch)
The New York-based company said it brought in $44.3 million in revenue for the third quarter.This is 39% growth from the same period last year. Analysts had been expecting $43.85 million in revenue.

AI Will Transform the Economy, But How Much, and How Soon? (NYT)
Three new reports combine to suggest these answers: It can probably do less right now than you think. But it will eventually do more than you probably think, in more places than you probably think, and will probably evolve faster than powerful technologies have in the past.

LBMA Podcast: Accor Hotels, Waze + Allstate Insurance, Target (Street Fight)
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Rob Woodbridge. On the show: Modern Adventure, EU’s geo-blocking, Ozmosis, Macy’s + NBCU + Verizon, Qualcomm Ventures invests in Wiliot.

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