News and Analysis
Study: Multi-Location Businesses Underestimate Power of Local Digital Strategy
Marketing technology has changed the way consumers find, choose, and return to businesses. While the majority of multi-location businesses have successfully implemented broad strategies to be discovered by consumers, research shows many are failing to fully leverage the latest tools for local discovery, engagement, and conversion.
AnyRoad Enables Brands to Close First-Party Data Gap
AnyRoad’s new solution, which debuted last month, enables brands to collect first-party data and feedback from every guest that attends an experiential activation or event — not just the primary reservation holder.
Machine Learning Transforms Local TV into a Modern Advertising Channel
Kalyan Lanka, VP of product management at Ampersand, argues that the same pairing of creative and targeting potential celebrated in CTV is hitting local TV. Here’s how marketers can take advantage of the opportunity.
Commentary
Contactless Commerce Is Suddenly Mission-Critical in Every Retail Category
The phrase “by any means necessary” is fast becoming retail’s new mantra. The same industry that is typically viewed as cautious and conservative is moving really quickly. More quickly than I have seen in my 35 years in the industry. And where is the industry moving most quickly? Toward something we now call “contactless commerce.”
Shoppers around the world are afraid. They’re guarded, and they are wary of any contact with any strangers. They don’t want you to come near them. In response, retailers in every category are absolutely scrambling to remove human contact from the shopping journey.
Augmented Reality for Ecommerce: the Why and the How
According to Gartner, in 2020 100 million customers will shop in augmented reality, both online and in-store. With these numbers in mind, it’s about time to jump on the AR bandwagon and start reaping the benefits of stellar customer engagement, improved conversion rates, and wider reach.
Playing the Long-Game with Today’s Low CPMs
As companies try to strike the right advertising tone given the global pandemic, it is apparent consumers are getting hit with the same messaging over and over — albeit from completely different brands: ‘Now more than ever’… ‘In these uncertain times’…. ‘The safety and comfort of home’… ‘We’re here to help’… ‘We’ll get through this together’…
It seems the same playbook for how to engage customers during this time leaked to every team. So how can brands break away from the ‘hipster conundrum’ (trying to be genuine and unique while everyone else floods the market with the same message and approach)?
Latest Posts
Four Targeting Myths That Devalue the Real Power of Location Data
Jake Moskowitz, head of the Emodo Institute, debunks some myths about location data. Here’s the first shocking one: Location data can’t find you 60 million devices that visited a Hyundai dealership within the last month or two… or three, because that’s impossible. Throughout all of 2017, across the entire US, there were only about 17 million cars sold in total. That includes Hyundai, Honda, Ford—indeed, all brands. In data stores, users run across super-sized segments all the time. It’s not uncommon for vendors to claim that their single-brand auto dealership visitor segments include tens of millions of consumers. Location data is powerful, but it can’t make up shoppers.
Native Ad Industry Booms, Capitalizing on Hunger for Ads That Don’t Look Like Advertising
Native ad firm AdYouLike is staking its reputation on the assumption that the ads you like may not look like ads. That bet appears to be paying off, as a report from the firm shows the native ad industry set to grow to $400 billion by 2025, a 372% jump from the projected size of the market in 2020.
3 Advantages of Private-Label or In-House Affiliate Marketing
The affiliate space continues to become more innovative each year. As a result, clients are looking for ways to enhance their affiliate programs. This could include anything from cross-device tracking to multi-channel attribution. And one of the fastest-growing affiliate marketing trends is private or “in-house” programs that are powered by white-label network or technology solutions. […]
Poor Data Quality Is Hurting Location-Based Campaigns—Here’s How to Fix It
“Location data offers the ability to turn universal ads into local ads. Same as local TV. The issue is how location targeting is being executed,” says location-based ad veteran Warren Zenna. “People don’t look at ads on their phones when they are out doing things like shopping and driving around. They look at them, sometimes, when they are inactive. Mobile ad creative needs to be better — more engaging and more contextual — and presented when someone is in a contextually relevant mindset.”
Voice is Rising as Medium for Local Discovery
Voice is not only booming as a search tool but also seems to be cannibalizing search volume from the medium that last revolutionized the practice of digital discovery: mobile. That’s the headline from Stone Temple Consulting’s third annual survey of consumers regarding their use of voice-enabled devices.
How Marketers Are Making In-Store Metrics More Reliable
In-store marketing platforms are designed to spit out all different types of metrics. Return-on-ad-spend (ROAS), customer acquisition costs (CAC), cost per visit (CPV), and customer lifetime value (CLV) are just a few of the metrics that marketers regularly track. But how reliable are these metrics, and what do they mean for big-picture business growth? The ad tech company S4M is aiming to answer that question. The company recently released a new feature as part of its FUSIO drive-to-store platform.
What’s the Relative Impact of Google My Business vs. Websites on Conversion?
Blumenthal to Mihm: The consumer is on a journey and is close to making a decision when they are seeing you on Google. Whether they make it at the Business Profile on Google or at the website, it is imperative that your profile at Google has enough information to confer trust. Otherwise, the end user will just move on to the next profile and never make it to your site.
Welcome to the New Face of Street Fight
Things are changing rapidly in the world of location-based media and commerce. As a key media and publishing entity at the center of those industries, Street Fight is likewise changing. Over the coming weeks, you’ll notice new things. Our look and feel has changed to better reflect our publishing goals and persona. You may have already noticed a cleaner and more organized layout. We’ll continue to optimize that, including topical filters and categorization for key topics of location technology.
Street Fight’s March Focus: Targeting Location
Our new year’s resolution at Street Fight is to better optimize and structure our publishing and content output. So we’ve launched monthly themes—an editorial focus that zeroes in on key subtopics of location tech and commerce. This thematic approach joins ongoing daily reporting. We’ve already started with themes for January (Beyond the Screen) and February (Word […]
Local Search Association Crowns the Best Solutions in Local
At its annual conference in Dana Point, CA, this week, the Local Search Association recognized the best solutions in location-based search and advertising with its annual Ad-to-Action awards. Award winners, who competed in a field of over 80 entries and were selected by judges representing companies such as Google, Amazon, and Walmart, included Brandify, PlaceIQ, and Vendasta.
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