Street Fight Daily: Square Opens Its Platform to Developers, Google Pursues the Gamification Route
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING
Square Announces SDK, Opening Its Platform Directly to Developers for First Time (Street Fight)
Recognizing and looking to capitalize on the fact that some businesses may have needs its own software does not exhaust, Square announced on Thursday the release of the Square Reader SDK, which will allow developers serving brands and SMBs around the world to redesign the check-out experience in exactly the right way for their specific businesses.
Google Hooks Up With Unity to Entice Advertisers with Game Supply (AdExchanger)
Google is going full-court press on universal app campaigns (UAC) through a partnership with Unity Technologies, a company that makes development tools for game creators.
After Downgrading Publishers, Facebook Explores New Ways to Boost Them (Street Fight)
We all remember the seemingly apocalyptic early 2018 announcement that Facebook would downgrade publishers in favor of foregrounding posts from users’ family and friends. Less discussed are the various changes Facebook has made since that announcement to give publishers on its platform a fighting chance.
Brand Battle: The Body Shop vs Bath & Body Works (Street Fight)
Sponsored: To see how two personal care brands—The Body Shop and Bath & Body Works—stacked up in a competitive marketplace, digital marketing company Brandify used its proprietary software to see which marketing and branding areas stood out as strengths and which areas fell short.
Amazon Led Q1 Programmatic Ad Spend with 10% Share of the Market (Digiday)
Amazon is the biggest spender of programmatic advertising, alone accounting for 10% of the spend of the top 50 programmatic advertisers in Q1 2018, according to an analysis by advertising intelligence and sales platform MediaRadar provided to Marketing Dive.
REIMAGINING RETAIL
Augmented Reality Shopping Service Launched (MediaPost)
Having been used for all kinds of things ranging from chasing characters through Pokémon Go to tapping into companies like Ikea to visualize what a piece of furniture would look like in a home, augmented reality is now being tried out for shopping, in a big way.
Rent the Runway Bet on the Death of Clothing Ownership—Now It’s Doubling Down (Recode)
Over its first six-plus years in existence, Rent the Runway grew to do one thing very well: Rent out designer dresses to women for special occasions.
Prime Day Powers Industry-Wide Boost in Mobile App Downloads for Retailers (Street Fight)
Amazon’s mid-July Prime Day powered not only sales at local businesses and direct purchases on Amazon’s rival retailer sites but also spikes in mobile app downloads for those retailers, according to data released today by mobile app marketing company Liftoff.
FORTUNES AND ACQUISITIONS
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom on Winning the Stories War (The Verge)
For Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s co-founder and CEO, the second birthday of the great Stories heist comes as a vindication. “It really goes against the idea that companies can’t adopt these things and make them their own,” Systrom said this week in a phone interview.
Apple is Worth One Trillion Dollars. Two Decades Ago, It Almost Went Bankrupt (NYT)
In 1997, Apple was on the ropes. The Silicon Valley pioneer was being decimated by Microsoft and its many partners in the personal-computer market. It had just cut a third of its work force, and it was about 90 days from going broke, Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, later said.
LBMA Podcast: GetMiles, GrubHub & LevelUp, Jido Maps (Street Fight)
On This Week in Location Based Marketing: Jido Maps, the National Park Service, VR waterslide in Germany, GetMiles, Guess? + Alipay, GrubHub buys LevelUp.
