Letter From the Editor: Awarding the Innovators
Street Fight’s charter is to bring you news and insights on local media, marketing, and commerce. And a key corollary to that mission is to recognize and award the innovators driving these sectors. So, we’re bringing back an old Street Fight staple with a new twist: The Street Fight Innovator Awards.
We’ll present awards at a future event to be announced soon. The awards include several categories of media and advertising and allow you the opportunity to apply for consideration. Enrollment started last month and runs through July 12. You see all the categories, rules, and apply here.
The awards will be a central part of Street Fight’s plan to continue being an authority on innovation and transformation in the location-based media and advertising worlds. We’re excited to acknowledge champions and innovators driving success in these key areas for Street Fight’s market coverage.
Speaking of market coverage, following recent months’ editorial focal points, including Pursuing Privacy (June), Visualizing Local (May), and Automating Local (April), Retail transformation will lead our coverage throughout July. We’ll examine how retail continues to evolve, driven by competition from Amazon and key trends like “retail-as-a-service.”
Why is this important to Street Fight? As we continue to evolve the definition of “local,” one key component of its market opportunity is offline brick-and-mortar shopping. After all, about 90% of all U.S. retail spending, to the tune of about $3.7 trillion, is completed offline in physical stores. And that’s usually in proximity to one’s home (thus, local).
We’ll also be covering other key issues at the intersection of local and retail, such as the evolving science of fulfillment. Just like in the rest of the commerce world, it’s a matter of Amazon versus everyone else. Retailers like Target are excelling at in-store pickup, as are startups like Curbside. And Amazon looms, including its recent partnership with Rite-Aid for package pickups — a possible trojan horse for its continued conquest of brick & mortar retail.
Speaking of Amazon, let’s not forget that the annual Prime Day is coming up on June 15. This year, it stretches out to two full days. And Amazon is investing in a concert extravaganza, headlined by Taylor Swift. So, it’s clearly putting its money where its mouth is. We’ll be watching closely to track the local commerce impact.
Elsewhere in the wide world of retail disruption, Facebook’s new Libra currency could have implications for offline shopping. That’s particularly true in developing parts of the world and the 1.7 billion “unbanked,” but it’s also relevant for stateside retail, as its initial participants are an influential lot (see below). We’ll be watching this closely.
Stay tuned for lots more as we break down the most impactful trends and market happenings. Reach out to me with any ideas or opportunities about how you’d like to be part of Street Fight’s action. We have developing sponsorship opportunities, event-based activity, opportunities to contribute articles and to be a guest on our podcast Heard on the Street.
We hope to hear from you.
