News and Analysis

Digital Privacy

2022 Predictions: Immersive Tech Edition

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Here are three predictions for what could happen at the intersection of immersive tech and local commerce. And because I often disparage broad predictions that don’t have any teeth, we’ve included action-specific or figure-based statements in each prediction (highlighted in bold).

SOCi Study Finds 62% of Google Reviews Are Written by Local Guides

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Local Guides write most of the reviews on Google today — about 62% of all reviews, in fact. In the restaurant category, the dominance of Local Guides is even greater, with Local Guides writing about 69% of all reviews.

2022 Will Reshape the Future of Ad Tech

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ID solutions for the open web are going to be invaluable for publisher monetization, so in 2022 collaboration will dramatically increase. ID partners in 2021 operated in the identity arena like a circular firing squad. Everyone claims their privacy is better than others, and everyone who has a solution wants to say theirs is the only one that works. In reality, all have to work together.

Commentary

The Hidden Opportunity Cost of Google Plus: Review Volume

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Blumenthal: I was able to look at reviews per month since 2015 for a large number of restaurant locations across the sites that are now common in the restaurant industry. Interestingly, Yelp’s and TripAdvisor’s review volume is roughly the same now as it was in January 2015, while you can see that Google’s review volume is now roughly 10x that of either of those two sites. And Google was receiving fewer reviews per location per month than either Yelp or TA in early 2015.

There is an interesting but not totally obvious point on the slide where Google’s review volume starts to take off and that is April 2016. For those of you who don’t track Google minutiae quite the way that I do, that was the month when Google finally separated reviews from Google Plus and no longer required a Plus profile to leave a review. 

LBMA Vidcast: InMarket Acquires ThinkNear, Google Assistant Upgrade

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On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: InMarket acquires Thinknear, Google Assistant lets you send reminders to others, Kraken Rum’s dining experience in London, Wirecard launches app in North America, Nike buys Celect for data science, Infiniti teams up with JCDecaux in Russia.

Back-to-School Retailing Is Now All About Using Mobile Data to Help Your Customers

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Back to School (BTS) is a $53 billion shopping season that’s entering its final stage as parents and college students take care of school supplies and clothing needs before Labor Day. And as we close out this decade and look to the 2020s, the combination of mobile technology, hyperlocal commerce, and consumer expectations make this a fascinating juncture in BTS history.

Fortunately, these complex market scenarios represent more of a golden opportunity than a paradox due to the promise of mobile. Here are two reasons why national and local brands should leverage data to bridge the online-offline gap and improve their BTS sales.

Latest Posts

How The Weather Company Turns Forecast Data Into Game-Changing Retailer Insights

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Using live weather conditions from radar and satellites, along with road-specific forecasts, high-resolution traffic feeds, and user-reported traffic conditions, companies are harnessing weather data to inform nearly every aspect of their businesses.

Street Fight Daily: Target Aims to Lead on Customer Experience, GDPR’s Impact on Facebook

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Is Trying to Become America’s Easiest Place to Shop. Here’s How… GDPR Is What Facebook Advertisers Should Really Worry About… Consumers Want Voice Services Beyond Basics…

Report: Consumers Warm to Voice, Demand More Integrated Experiences

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Both voice device ownership and voice shopping activity have nearly doubled in the past six months, with 17% of shoppers now owning a voice device and 42% of those device owners using voice to shop, a report by Narvar found.

Big Brands, Local Perspectives: Tommy Bahama

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CEO of Tommy Bahama Doug Wood cites systems that don’t talk to or easily integrate with one another as his company’s biggest technological challenge right now. The company, like many multi-store retailers, is investing in and focusing on tying its brick-and-mortar and online businesses together.

Street Fight Daily: Tommy Bahama’s CEO Talks Local Tech, Consumers Warm to Voice

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Big Brands, Local Perspectives: Tommy Bahama… Report: Consumers Warm to Voice, Demand More Integrated Experiences… Why Tech Firms Get Most of the Money From Programmatic Buys…

How Mall of America Is Innovating With Local Tech and Talking Robots

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Street Fight recently caught up with Sarah Townes, Mall of America’s marketing VP, to discuss the evolution of physical retail, where she’s placing her tech bets, and how location fits into the mix.

The New Face of Reputation Management: Photos, UGC Rise in Prominence

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As non-review content grows in prominence, brands and small businesses with be forced to reckon with it. Like reviews, such content both reflects and shapes a brand’s reputation. Unfortunately, many brands are still behind when it comes to engaging with local reviews, so these new developments will represent an even heftier challenge when it comes to crafting an effective and scalable strategy. Brands who neglect UGC in local will suffer greatly in comparison with those who learn how to engage.

Street Fight Daily: AR/VR Market Grows 72% YOY, How Mall of America Leverages Local Tech

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Content Market for Visual, Augmented Reality Hits $3 Billion… Even as Amazon Lurks, Drugstores Double Down on Bricks and Mortar… Is Google Using GDPR As an Excuse to Restrict Publisher and Advertiser Choices?…

5 Ways to Make Your Startup Culture Stand Out

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After three years reporting on “Street Culture,” Street Fight looks back on five ways that company leaders are making their company culture stand out—and some of the best pieces of advice for doing the same at your business.

LBMA Podcast: Alexa, Urgent.ly, Uber

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This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan & Aubriana Lopez. On the show this week: Digital Locations + Ampsy, Fullscreen Digital, Puig, Kedy AR, Diageo goes Alexa.