Street Fight Daily: Google Sued Over Fraud Refunds, Net Neutrality Repealed

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

Google Sued for Allegedly Not Refunding Advertisers Hit by Fraud (Business Insider)
A web advertising company named AdTrader, whose staff surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with a Google executive, claims in a class-action lawsuit that Google does not refund money to advertisers when it discovers that those advertisers have spent money on fraudulent or invalid clicks.

CraveLabs Launches Self-Service Location Intelligence Solution (Street Fight)
In what could be seen as a signal of things to come for the mobile-location industry, CraveLabs is opening up its platform and launching a suite of self-service tools to give media planners and location analysts more open access to the company’s suite of location intelligence solutions.

The FCC Is Ending Net Neutrality, Presenting New Concerns for Brands and Tech Companies (AdWeek)
From increased ad prices to less competition, marketers and brands worry that nixing net neutrality will unleash a number of problems and headaches around standards. Joshua Lowcock, U.S. evp and chief digital officer at UM, told Adweek recently that viewability metrics—a standard over which marketers have agonized for years—could be wiped out. Quartz: How net neutrality could still be saved.

Jobs and New Openings at Qualtrics, Vivial and Reveal Mobile (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Sinclair Broadcast Group, Townsquare Media, and Balehu.

Raise Report: Nextdoor, Bizzabo, iZettle 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 Fetch Robotics, PhoneWagon, Chattermill, and Kasisto.

H&M Plunges as Digital Rival Zara Thrives (Bloomberg)
H&M reported the biggest drop in quarterly sales in at least a decade Friday as fewer customers visited its flagship brand’s locations, leading the company to pare expansion plans and consider closures.

Group Nine CEO Ben Lerer Predicts 2018 Will Be Year of Consolidation (Digiday)
2017 has been tough for digital media, with publishers missing their revenue targets or selling at a fire-sale price. Ben Lerer, CEO of the Discovery Communications-backed roll-up Group Nine Media, talked about what went wrong for those companies, how he hopes to avoid those pitfalls and why Facebook will eventually work for publishers.

Here Come the Facebook Pre-Roll Video Ads (Recode)
For years, Facebook executives have said they don’t want to run “pre-roll” ads — ads that run before you get to watch the video you want to play — because users don’t like them. Now, Facebook is going to start running pre-roll ads.

Balancing Omnichannel Concerns with Individual Channel Considerations (eMarketer)
Ivo Totev, CMO of SAP’s ERP solution, S/4HANA, spoke with eMarketer’s Jillian Ryan about how the company is addressing the challenge of building an omnichannel strategy without sacrificing individual approaches and what channels work best for its needs.

Uber Eats Couriers in Europe to Be Offered Free Accident and Sickness Insurance (TechCrunch)
Uber has announced it’s launching a free insurance package for independent couriers delivering food for its Uber Eats business in nine European markets.

LBMA Podcast: MapBox Buys FitnessAR, GM Launches Marketplace (Street Fight)
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan, Rob Woodbridge & Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Schiphol Airport, Kettle Brand’s Tater Tracker, Singapore Government, Microsoft, and Gravy Analytics.

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