News and Analysis
Google Is Using AI to Improve Business Listings — Here’s How
Google said it would be using artificial intelligence and machine learning to build a self-updating Maps product that predicts when business hours are likely to be wrong and updates listings automatically using AI-generated predictions.
New Hires at Publica, January Digital, Vibrant Media
The monthly Street Fight new hires roundup features movers and shakers in adtech, martech, e-commerce, localized marketing, location intelligence, and more. This month’s roundup features new hires at CTV ad platform Publica, digital analytics company January Digital, and contextual marketing firm Vibrant Media.
5 Ad Tech Platforms for Supermarket Chains
In a move that’s been a long time coming, supermarkets are finally switching from print to digital advertising en masse. Printing circulars and paper coupons are being replaced by sponsored search and display ads as supermarkets both boost their own advertising spend and set up retail media networks to allow brands to better reach their shoppers. Amazon paved the way for grocers to advertise online with its acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017, but continued growth in 2022 is due primarily to surging demand for last-mile grocery delivery via mobile apps like Instacart and DoorDash.
Commentary
Retail as a Service: Amazon Tips its Hand
Amazon has a knack for moving into new vertical segments and then applying its logistical mastery and economies of scale to carve out margins and undercut incumbents. Then, it doubles down by scaling things up to its signature high-volume/low-margin approach. As Jeff Bezos ruthlessly admits, “Your margin is my opportunity.”
The latest place for this to unfold is retail. No, we’re not talking about Whole Foods, though that’s part it (more on that in a bit). We’re talking about Amazon’s transformation of the in-store experience — upending and streamlining logistics just like it’s done in shipping and cloud computing.
Here are some predictions for how Amazon’s disruption of retail via licensing of its Go technology will upend the industry.
Turning a Unique Vanity Phone Number into Many
Just over half of Americans now use their personal mobile phone numbers as their only phone numbers. A majority of Americans also no longer have landline phones in their homes, and that’s convenient because anyone, anywhere in the world, can now reach you with just that one number. But the opposite is true in the business world, where brands can leverage new technologies to create multiple vanity numbers in order to engage their customers across local, regional, and national marketing campaigns.
That statistic I cited above isn’t just an interesting bit of trivia. It highlights how the phone, an ancient communications medium compared to social media platforms, chatbots, messaging apps, and email, remains important to a brand’s marketing efforts.
Will Images Drive a New Local Search Paradigm?
Blumenthal to Mihm: Obviously AI/ML vis-à-vis image recognition is going to play a huge role going forward in terms of discovery and conversion. But I would have to add that it is also critically important to Google as a way to engage the user in “immersive search” behaviors. That is, drawing the user deeper and deeper into Google so that they never feel the need or desire to go someplace else. This will further seal off the walled garden of local discovery search.
You can see this in the new search by photos feature where the user is led into a grid of visual business choices and ultimately served up the Local Finder via the View list link or, if they click on an image, a business profile. But to get to the phone number, the user had to totally commit to diving deeper into Google.
Latest Posts
Openings and New Hires at GasBuddy, Ansira, Mirriad
Every two weeks, Street Fight rounds up some of the latest hires and new openings in the hyperlocal marketing, tech, and media industries. This week’s edition includes changes at CARTO, PlaceIQ, Cuebiq, and Placed.
Raise Report: Alpha, Neighborhood Goods, ConDati Secure New Funding
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 Riminder, Sentry, Platform.sh, and OnTruck.
LBMA Podcast: Mapbox, GasBuddy, IKEA
On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Propellant Media, Singapore’s Lifesight, Mapbox API, Gasbuddy, IKEA’s sleepiest ad ever, Swrve + Bluedot.
Street Fight Daily: Teens Flee From Facebook, Google Wins in Immediate GDPR Aftermath
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The State of Teens, Social Media, and Technology in 2018… Google Emerges as Early Winner from Europe’s New Data Privacy Law… Meeker’s 2018 Deck: Local Gets a Seat at the Table…
GateHouse Media’s Kirk Davis Argues Chain Is Becoming a ‘Leader in Community Engagement’
Cost-cutting equity funds have hollowed out scores of daily newspapers, turning their communities into “news deserts,” the critics say. But Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse Media, counters that the equity-funded conglomerate is transforming its 144 dailies into tribunes of the people. He makes his case in this Q&A.
Street Fight Daily: Mary Meeker’s Trends for 2018, The State of MarTech Acquisitions
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mary Meeker’s 2018 Deck: Highlights and Analysis… What’s Next in Marketing Tech Investing?… Ad Tech Vendors Wrestle with IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework…
Customer Feedback: Authenticity as the Final Frontier
Coherent feedback cuts the distance between a company and its audience. But all that is compromised when paid reviews and rigged ratings enter the scene. Authenticity therefore remains the final frontier for marketing and client-oriented strategies.
Mobile App Header Bidding Expands Monetization Opportunities for Publishers
Increases in impression volume and ad spending on mobile devices are changing the monetization opportunities available to mobile app developers, according to a new report released by the publisher-focused sell-side platform PubMatic.
Street Fight Daily: Programmatic Comes to Audio, Publishers See Increase in Direct Traffic
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… DoubleClick Bid Manager Opens Up Digital Audio Ad Buying Globally… In the Post-Facebook Era, Publishers See Rise in Direct Traffic… Mobile App Header Bidding Expands Monetization Opportunities for Publishers…
SMB OS Operators, Part IV: Peter Krasilovsky
“We like to cite $500 billion as the broad SMB OS opportunity—roughly 3.5 times the size of local advertising,” veteran industry commentator Peter Krasilovsky says. “But I think the end number has got to be many times larger.”
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem