News and Analysis
Consumers Widely Frustrated by Business Messaging
Consumers are seeking easier ways to connect with businesses. For businesses, offering a phone number is no longer enough to maximize conversion opportunities when connecting with local customers searching for their products and services. But few businesses are prepared to meet consumers’ demands for quick, convenient communication.
How Brands Are Navigating Online Marketplaces, Especially Amazon
I connected with Dani Nadel, president and COO of Feedvisor, a firm focused on Amazon optimization, to discuss the state of online marketplaces, Amazon strategies, and alternatives for businesses looking for other platforms.
BrandMuscle Releases Markie, a Local Marketing Virtual Assistant
The classic SMB marketing problem is that SMBs simply do not have the staff or time required to coordinate sophisticated digital marketing campaigns. BrandMuscle is stepping in to solve the problem with Markie, a local marketing virtual assistant that analyzes opportunities and points operators toward ideal next steps.
Commentary
What Facebook’s Second Wave of Data Privacy Tools Means for Advertisers
Facebook finally rolled out the ‘Clear History’ feature, now known as the ‘Off-Facebook Activity Tool.’ This tool will show users a summary of the apps and websites that have shared their user data with Facebook and gives users the opportunity to control what information, if any, is shared with these websites. According to Facebook, the company “won’t know which websites you visited or what you did there, and won’t use any of the data you disconnect to target ads to you on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger.”
As advertisers, it’s important for us to understand how to prepare for the impact and to keep these updates top of mind as we move further into the second half of the year.
LBMA Vidcast: Factual Returns to Europe; Gimbal Releases Trends
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Factual returns to Europe post-GDPR, WeChat releases new facial rec. payments, Curiosity Lab teams with Georgia Tech, Gimbal releases Trends, iOS 13 changes location game, McDonald’s acquires Apprente. Special Guest: Kipp Jones, Chief Technology Evangelist, Skyhook.
Is Consent Enough to Make Audio Recordings Safe for Human Processing?
Recently, a number of high-profile tech firms have been uncovered permitting human employees to access private conversations consumers believed were only processed by AI.
Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa have all been placed in the limelight, and now Facebook has also come under fire for letting human employees access sensitive personal conversations for transcription purposes.
In the case of AI assistants, private conversations are primarily harvested from consumers who own and use their devices directly. However, there is an emerging body of evidence that these technologies are also harvesting secondary persons’ conversations — completely unknown to those individuals.
Latest Posts
Retailers Use AI for In-Store Experimentation, Customer Service
Brick-and-mortar retailers are looking for an edge in their fight against the e-commerce behemoths, and as the battle rages on, it’s looking like artificial intelligence might be the answer.
LMC Aims to ‘Think Completely Differently’ About Future of Local News
“The biggest challenges for the LMC and the local news industry are concerns around transparency, viewability, and fraud, which produce disconnects between buyer and seller,” says Local Media Consortium Board Chair Chris Loretto.
Street Fight Daily: Google Revamps Maps, Echo’s Market Share Slides as Speaker War Heats Up
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Maps Platform Arrives, Changing the Game for Developers… Amazon Echo Losing Market Share as Smart Speaker Rivalry Intensifies… Square’s Loss Widens As Spending Picks Up…
Who’s Using Local AR? And How Often?
According to a recent survey, AR users like what they see, with a whopping 73% reporting high or very high satisfaction. But non-users report explicit disinterest, with the biggest reason being the rather daunting “just not interested.” This presents a big hill for AR app developers to climb.
The Future of CRM: Devices, Data, Touchpoints, Apps—and Analytics
In a mobile-only world, better CRM solutions are as close as the smartphones in our pockets. With that in mind, let’s look at what the mobile device ID can do to reshape CRM and at how it points to the future of better consumer experiences.
Street Fight Daily: Ad Tech Facing Day of Judgment in GDPR, Who’s Using Local AR?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Publishers Say They’ll Use GDPR to Shed Ad Tech Vendors… Smart Speakers Top Phones for Voice Assistance… Cisco Is Acquiring Business Intelligence Startup Accompany for $270M…
Regions Bank Foregrounds the Lives of its Customers on Social With a Local Focus
“We think about our customers’ lives and the big events taking place in their lives. We focus more on the consumer and their needs than the brand and the messages we may want to push out ourselves,” said Regions Bank’s head of social media, Melissa Musgrove.
Square’s Acquisition of Weebly and The Battle for the Modern Merchant
Square’s acquisition of Weebly, its largest to date, signals the beginning of a consolidation wave that we have been expecting at SurePath for some time. It also suggests the beginning of a competition to see which tech company can become the first all-in-one small-business solution.
Street Fight Daily: Regions Localizes Its Social Strategy, Developers Harried by Facebook Changes
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Regions Bank Foregrounds the Lives of its Customers on Social With a Local Focus… Facebook’s Privacy Changes Leave Developers Steaming… Why Marketers Struggle With Data Management…
Brand Battle: Shell vs Exxon Mobil
Sponsored: To see how two gas giants—ExxonMobil and Shell—stacked up in a competitive marketplace, digital marketing company Brandify used its proprietary software to see which marketing and branding areas stood out as strengths, and which areas fell short.
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