News and Analysis

How Will the Metavearth Materialize?

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Back to the metaverse’s meaning, concrete definitions are elusive … mostly because they don’t exist yet. But broadly speaking, there are two metaverse tracks. One involves virtual and synchronous worlds. The other adds digital dimension and context to the physical world. Both will take years to materialize.

Here’s What Happens When Brands Start Micro-Communities for Digital Engagement

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“[Micro-communities] foster a collaborative relationship between brands and customers. So instead of spying on consumers through cookies, brands can simply ask consumers for feedback and offer them recommendations based on their likes and dislikes,” says Philip Smolin, chief platform officer at 100.co, an AI-powered consumer brand group that works in the CPG space.

Evocalize Banks $12 Million to Scale its Local Digital Marketing Platform

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Seattle-based collaborative marketing startup Evocalize has grabbed $12 million in Series A funding for its data-driven digital marketing solution designed for local businesses and the real estate industry.

Commentary

3 Ways DTC Brands Impact Legacy CPG Playbooks

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Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have forced legacy CPG brands into a major strategy shift. The rumblings of the digital transformation signaled change was coming, and the rise of DTC brands has led CPGs to rethink consumer engagement and the marketing tactics necessary to achieve that goal. And, in today’s digital-first marketplace, CPG margins are tightening because of the competition from DTCs as well as Amazon’s white-label product lines.

The result of these challenges sees the CPG playbook evolving to meet the digital-first ecosystem through tactics including investing in acquisitions, moving advertising budgets into digital, and including emerging marketing channels such as experiential marketing to create brand awareness and make direct consumer connections.

Physical Stores May Resemble Our Newsfeeds in the Near Future

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We’re currently living in a time of unprecedented change in the marketing and advertising industries. One of the most interesting emerging trends is the incorporation of new advertising opportunities within physical stores, in ways that will remind you of your social media newsfeeds.

If you’re a member of Generation X, or even an older Millennial, you probably remember walking through the aisles in grocery stores and grabbing coupons out of plastic dispensers. What we will see occurring in the future is the 21st Century’s version of the coupon machine — the personalized newsfeed-ification of physical stores.

Employees Are Connecting On Facebook: Here’s Why They Shouldn’t

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When they aren’t connecting in the office, 87% of employees are connecting on Facebook. With more than 1.5 billion daily active users, it’s no surprise that employees flock to the platform to connect with colleagues. Facebook is easy and familiar, and many employees have used it for years. When employees want to connect personally with someone they know professionally, Facebook is the natural first step. 

But Facebook isn’t the best place for making personal connections with coworkers, mainly because of the amount of personal content employees post. They express their political opinions and might post jokes and language that could easily offend in a professional setting. When you introduce professional contacts to a personal platform, the lines of what’s appropriate are blurred. People might begin to censor themselves, which isn’t always healthy. Or employees might feel uncomfortable with a coworker based on something they’ve seen online.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Square Embraces Sales and Moves Beyond SMBs, The Staying Power of Email

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… As It Grows, Square Deploys Sales Force to Acquire SMB Customers & Bigger Brands… Selling to Multi-Location Brands: Building on Omnipresent Email… Microsoft Acquires AI Company to Make Cortana and Bots Sound More Human…

LBMA Podcast: Google Pay, Rival & Ticketmaster, Sears & Amazon

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On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Urban Airship + Google Pay, Aceby app, JetBlue’s pizza to LA, Rival takes on Ticketmaster, 7-Elven goes AR for Deadpool 2, Google Duplex, Sears and Amazon team-up.

Openings and New Hires at Verve, Yelp, Star Tribune

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Every few weeks, Geoff Michener takes stock of some of the latest hires and openings in hyperlocal marketing, tech, and media. This edition includes openings and new hires at Digital Remedy, Shoptiques, adMarketplace, and Motista.

Raise Report: JumpCrew, Gamalon, Tailor Brands Score New Funding

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Every two or three weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Good Eggs, MemSQL, Auth0, and Dashdash.

Street Fight Daily: Email Closes Path to Purchase, Ad Tech Courts Subscription-Based Publishers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Email Lures Back E-Shoppers With Abandoned Carts… Ad Tech Vendors Are Pitching Themselves to Publishers as Subscription Saviors… Facebook Lets Advertisers Target Users Based on ‘Sensitive’ Interests…

Consumers Demand Personalization, Range of Features from Brand Apps

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Consumers demand high and varied functionality from brand apps. About three in five consumers expect promotions and exclusive deals and loyalty programs, and half want to make purchases within the app, a report released this week by digital and mobile development firm WillowTree indicated.

With Rover, David Arkin Takes a Mobile-First, Enjoyable Approach to Local News

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American Hometown Publishing details how the company’s brand-new publication Rover—launched two weeks ago in suburban Nashville—aims to present news to its readers as an “enjoyable experience.”

Street Fight Daily: Consumers Want More from Brand Apps, Google Beefs Up on Big Data Analytics

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Consumers Demand Personalization, Range of Features from Brand Apps… Chasing AWS and Azure, Google Acquires Cask Data to Beef Up on Big Data Analytics… In the Pivot to Paid, Publishers Fear the Churn Spiral…

What Gmail’s Redesign Means for Email Marketers

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Google’s recent announcement that it would launch a major Gmail redesign and roll out new features was met with a collective ‘meh’ from users, but Gmail’s new features could bring big changes for email marketers.

Cousins Subs Leverages Social, Marketing Tech to Stay Local

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Look at the menu board at Cousins Subs, and you’ll immediately notice how important local is to the restaurant’s brand. But the commitment extends beyond the Wisconsin cheddar cheese featured among the Midwest chain’s list of local ingredients—it goes all the way back to how the brand chooses to represent itself on social channels.