News and Analysis

How AI is Evolving Ad Creative

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The creative process is notoriously challenging for advertisers and publishers. Beyond the difficulty of the creative talent that goes into the ad, publishers and advertisers struggle to settle on creative and match it to viewers at appropriate times. It’s a huge logistical challenge.

retail store

More Brands Are Going DTC. Here’s Why

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Yeti’s recent decision to no longer sell its products at Lowe’s and transition to a direct-to-consumer model is not an anomaly. A growing number of traditional brands are moving away from wholesale and opting to sell to consumers directly through their own e-commerce channels.

The Growth of Visual Search

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Claire Carlile, in a recent post on visual search that contains useful tips for local businesses, shows us that Google is now making it possible to conduct a search that starts and ends with images. Her example search is conducted using Google Lens, where an image of a Sony headphones package is the “query” that produces a local pack result replete with its own images. This may or may not be the future of search, but it’s highly representative of the visual-first orientation that Google is embracing to a growing degree.

Commentary

Is Uber Local Advertising’s Duopoly Killer?

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While Amazon is challenging the duopoly, when zeroing in on local advertising and commerce — Street Fight’s hallmark — as opposed to driving eCommerce, another challenger may loom: Uber. In fact, we have a longstanding prediction that it will blitz local advertising by strategically building from the Trojan Horse that is “in-ride mode.”

This theory is based on the fact that Uber has your captive attention during rides, given in-app utilities like mapping and ETA. Furthermore, it knows where you’re going (think destination-based promotions). In the aggregate, it has lots of behavioral data for a richer mosaic of audience-targeting gold.

Revamping Your Strategy and Audiences for the Latest “Safe & Civil” Facebook Advertising Update

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Your social advertising strategy and audiences may need a bit of an overhaul to align with updates to Facebook’s “Safe & Civil” Advertising Policies, especially if they fall within particular categories.

If your customer is running a campaign that does fall within one of the three categories upended by recent Facebook policy changes, it’s best to launch your campaign with a Special Ads Category applied prior to publishing. This will save you time and a headache resolving errors during the length of your campaign.

Believe the Hype: The Pragmatic Value of Location-Based Analytics, Audiences, and Attribution

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After 25 years of framing technologies by level of maturity and adoption, the Gartner Hype Cycle has finally placed location intelligence for marketing where it belongs — in the trough of disillusionment. Sounds like a lousy place to be, but it’s actually the opposite. Why? The trough of disillusionment is the stage right before the slope of enlightenment. Let me back up and explain.

Latest Posts

Foursquare Announces New Chief Revenue Officer, Liz Ritzcovan

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Ritzcovan’s mission will center on “client centricity.” She’ll be tasked with optimizing Foursquare’s relationships with its clients as the company seeks to make the case that its suite of resources for brands looking to connect the digital and physical worlds is both comprehensive and indispensable.

Restaurant Management Platform Toast Raises a Whopping $115 Million

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Restaurant management platform Toast is announcing a $115 million Series D this morning. Courtesy of T. Rowe Price Associates, the round values Toast at $1.4 billion.

Simpli.fi Reaches Next Level in Precise Location Targeting

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As of this morning, advertisers using Simpli.fi’s programmatic advertising platform will have access to Addressable Geo-Fencing, a solution that Simpli.fi’s vice president of marketing Ryan Horn says is the next logical step in the localization and personalization of programmatic advertising.

Prime Day Showcases the Power of an E-Commerce Empire—And What It Means for Local

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Prime Day underscores Amazon’s power in the retail market because it compels the over 100 million consumers who pay for that service to make the most of their investment by purchasing directly from Amazon. Local businesses are hardly in a position to compete.

Why Google’s Mobile Speed Update Smells Like Trouble for Small Businesses

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The murky guidelines surrounding just whom and how many people and sites the mobile speed update may affect—and how exactly businesses in the line of fire are to amend unsatisfactory practices—spells potential trouble for small businesses.

Groupon Reportedly Puts Itself on the Market

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Groupon, the early pioneer in local deals that was once valued at as much as $16 billion, is on an avid hunt for a buyer, Recode reported this weekend. Executives and banking representatives at Groupon have reportedly been pursuing potential targets.

TVadSync and Unacast Partner for Cross-Platform TV/Digital Attribution

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Unacast’s location data will allow TVadSync to prove with unprecedented accuracy that the campaigns it manages across TV and digital platforms are indeed driving exposed audiences to make purchases at brick-and-mortar stores.

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Puts Itself on the Market, Google Demoting All Slow Sites

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The latest in local and hot takes on tech & marketing… Groupon Reportedly Puts Itself on the Market… Google Speed Update Is Now Being Released to All Users… Some of London’s Top Retailers Call for a Sales Tax on ‘Largely Online’ Rivals…

SMB Index Declines Slightly Over the Course of a Volatile June

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June was a volatile month in the public markets, which saw the SurePath SMB Index give back 1.1%, after climbing 7.9% in May. Web.com led last month’s winners, leading the index with 31.5% growth in market cap following news of an acquisition offer.

In Case You Missed It: Facebook Axed a Post on This Founding U.S. Document Last Week

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The anniversary of its home country’s birth was not without incident for Facebook, which attracted attention for automatically striking down a post, flagged as hate speech, containing the words of the Declaration of Independence.