News and Analysis

Cracking the Code: Measuring ROI from Live Event Sponsorships

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Now, as festivals and sporting events return after two years of cancellations during the pandemic, brands are once again investing in sponsorships as a marketing opportunity — and grappling with the challenges that come from trying to measure the results of those initiatives.

Brands Look to Maximize Ad Spend Ahead of Recession

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As brands struggle to deal with restrictions on data-driven ad targeting and an economic slowdown since the second quarter, ad budgets are on the chopping block. Brand marketers and agencies are being asked to do more with less. Expectations on return on investment are at an all-time high, even while ad budgets stagnate or decrease. What’s the solution?

Multi-Location Marketers Use Nextdoor Business Awards to Drive Awareness

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As Nextdoor brings back its Neighborhood Favorites Awards program for the sixth summer, multi-location marketers are looking at how they can capitalize on the social attention to drive business and increase awareness among consumers in their local communities.

Commentary

Location Leaders Step Up to the Plate

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During the Covid-19 outbreak, we’re seeing tech companies step up to the plate in a mixture of altruistic and opportunistic moves. That’s everything from Comcast removing data caps to Amazon removing its paywall for streaming kids shows. But what about local specifically? Again, that’s where businesses are getting hit most.

We’ve seen moves in the local space over the past week from Facebook, Yelp, and Foursquare. Though there are several others, we’ll drill down on this representative sample. We’ll also give a shoutout to Google for its work to free up human and compute resources for local listings updates, covered Monday by Damian Rollison.

Beyond the Data Label: The Next Phase of Data Assessment

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This past summer, the IAB Tech Lab launched a much-needed transparency initiative in the form of its Data Transparency Standard, establishing baseline statistics on the objective attributes of a given data segment, such as refresh cadence, ID types, and segmentation criteria. The Data Label should be a big relief to data buyers, including agencies and advertisers, that are trying to wrap their heads around audiences, but it’s still only the starting point when it comes to assessing digital audiences. 

For as much as the Data Label injects transparency into audience construction, it only addresses objective attributes, and not the qualitative aspects of the data segment. To get the most value out of their data investments, advertisers and agencies need to go further and develop their own standards for evaluating data, especially when it comes to quality.

4 Mobile and Location Trends for Brands to Keep an Eye On

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Believe it or not, this is the smartphone’s third decade. When it comes to mobile apps and location-based marketing, so much has changed since the advent of the iPhone in 2007.

While it’s hard to predict what will become of mobile and location-based media in the next 10 years, it’s fair to prognosticate what we can expect for the rest of this year and beyond. Here are four mobile and location trends brand marketers need to watch.

Latest Posts

Evolving Our Lens for Local Ranking Factors

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Blumenthal and Mihm: We in the Local Search industry are not served by relying so heavily on traditional SEO logic and tools—in our approach to the Local Pack, our understanding of the ranking factors, and even what we suggest to clients as appropriate activities.

Consumers’ Reliance on Online Reviews, Evolving Rapidly, Is Reshaping Local Search

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Recommendations gradually exchanged in person are now flooding webpages, most notably Google’s SERPs. Twenty-seven percent of consumers are now reading reviews of local businesses every day, marking a staggering jump from just 12% in 2017, according to a recent report.

LBMA Podcast: Spent Retail Analytics, Reveal Mobile Black Friday Report

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On this week’s LBMA show: Spent retail analytics, LinkSure free global WiFi, Casino competes with AmazonGo in France, McDonald’s dancing in the streets of Bogata, Shopkick + Unilever & Walmart, Verve + AdCouncil for Goodwill. Special Research—Reveal Mobile Black Friday Report.

Firefly, Mounting Ad Displays to Ubers, Comes Out of Stealth with $21.5M

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Firefly, a new digital ad company, hopes to provide Uber drivers with another way to make money as they drive. The startup has quietly assembled a fleet of close to 1,000 Uber drivers in San Francisco and Los Angeles who have been mounting ad displays to the top of their vehicles.

Mike Ragsdale Says Putting Community First Makes His ‘Indie’ 30A Site a Big Winner

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In this Q&A, 30A founder Mike Ragsdale itemizes what he thinks his industry is doing wrong and how 30A, by making community paramount, has become the top revenue-producing site among independents.

RhythmOne Introduces Linear TV Attribution Partnership with Placed

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Marketing technology end-to-end platform RhythmOne announced an expansion of its relationship with attribution solution Placed this week, incorporating linear tv measurements into their already existing partnership.

Heard on the Street, Episode 17: Local SEO and Seeing the Matrix, with Andrew Shotland

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What are the latest developments in local search ranking factors and SEO? These were a few topics we batted around with Local SEO Guide CEO Andrew Shotland on the latest episode of Street Fight’s Heard on the Street podcast.

Google Local Services Reportedly Expand to Canada, Signaling Rapid Growth

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Launch in 2015 in Silicon Valley’s home court, Local Service Ads have since expanded to a whopping 90 markets in the U.S. and are now making their way abroad, where searches for local services are abundant.

The Numbers on Mobile’s Role in Holiday Shopping This Season

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The results of a survey released just last week by mobile ad firm AdColony go beyond the already stale proclamation that the mobile revolution has taken over retail, pointing instead to granular details about just how consumers are using mobile today. We provide the highlights.

5 Ways Businesses Can Leverage Location Intelligence Beyond Marketing

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Michelle Zhou: Location data can provide far better optics into consumer behavior than traditional data streams. Data from smartphones, social media, and other sources can track consumer purchases and migration in real time. Using data trends and insights, businesses can develop a comprehensive understanding of their customers and make the most informed business decisions.