News and Analysis
Why Retailers Are Struggling to Deepen Customer Relationships in 2022
Although 73% of decision-makers believe digital capabilities in physical locations—such as QR codes, self-checkout, and contactless payments—are more important now than before the pandemic, seven in 10 rated their organization’s ability to provide seamless customer journeys across digital and physical touchpoints as “average,” “fair,” or “poor.”
Ranking Correlations with Other Reputation and Search Metrics Are Not Linear
Google appears to think of ranking in terms of zones, where the first zone features the best possible mix of proximity, relevance, and prominence, and the second zone begins to sacrifice either proximity, or relevance, or both, but is less likely to sacrifice prominence. In more human terms, this means that Google wants to show us the best options for a query, and when it runs of inventory, it brings in results that are farther away or that might offer a reasonable alternative.
How AI is Evolving Ad Creative
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.
Commentary
Google Accelerating Its Path to the Transaction Layer of the Internet
Mihm to Blumenthal: Our mutual friend and Local U speaker Cindy Krum has long highlighted Google’s ambition to become the “presentation layer of the internet.”
It’s been apparent for the last four years that they want to take that one step further and become the “transaction layer of the internet,” as we’ve discussed in this space before.
A little birdie told me that you’re seeing that ambition accelerate.
LBMA Vidcast: Vibenomics, Southwest Airlines and ApplePay, Blis and Location Sciences
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Vibenomics AOOH platform, Cerberus Interactive takes on location-based gaming, Southwest Airlines with ApplePay, Blis partners with Location Sciences, 7Eleven launches mobile checkout in NYC, Unacast releases Turbine platform.
Is Visual Mapping the Next Google-Apple Battleground?
As Google and Apple lead the way, we are getting closer to ubiquitous visual mapping. If that happens, there will be significant implications for entities that currently use search and mapping for marketing or online presence. They’ll need to make sure they are optimized in this new format.
This could lead to an extension of SEO to cultivate presence in visual experiences. Just like in search, correct business location and details will need to be optimized to show up in the right places. You don’t want the AR overlay for your restaurant floating above the salon next door.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Google & Apple Boost Local AR, Foursquare’s New Location-Based Creative
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Smartphones, Developer Kits Drive Local AR and Visual Search… Foursquare’s New In-House Agency Will Pump Out Location-Based Creative… Marketers Still Shy Away from Venturing Too Deep into Ad Tech…
Sprinklr Launches AI Solution to Help Brands Manage Customer Experiences at Scale
Dubbed Sprinklr Intuition, Sprinklr’s AI tool can process an average of 700 million messages per day across social channels, and it becomes smarter with each customer interaction.
Top Experts Hold Conclave in Major Effort to Save Local News Industry
“The news industry now has to be very much focused on understanding users and delivering to them a very powerful, useful experience so they will be happy to pay for it,” says veteran journalist Bill Densmore.
Street Fight Daily: Scandal Fails to Dent Facebook’s Growth, AI Biz Expected to Boom
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Increased Facebook Ad Prices Drive Revenue Growth… Gartner Expects the AI Business Market to Grow 70% This Year… Advertisers, Agencies Agree Transparency in Ad Buying Is A Problem, But Disagree on the Blame…
Influenster Launches Solution to Help Brands Leverage Organic Reviews
In a bid to help retailers take advantage of the growth in user-generated reviews, the product discovery and reviews platform Influenster recently launched its own service to continuously supply organic, non-incentivized reviews to brand and retail websites like Walgreens, Target, and Bloomingdales.
Blaze Pizza Leverages Mobile App, Instagram, Events to Entice and Keep Customers
Blaze Pizza has branded itself as the on-the-go pizza option for millennials. In-app mobile ordering, location technology, and a focus on partnering with local franchise owners who know their neighborhoods have allowed Blaze to maintain a robust loyalty program and keep its customers coming back.
Heard On The Street, Episode 2: Jiu Jitsu and the Art of Content Marketing, with Monica Ho
“I’m a big believer in a value exchange,” says Monica Ho of SOCi. “Whether you’re a brand or an agency, or maybe you’re an entrepreneur, everyone is starved for more data on more information on certain things that are affecting the landscape.
Street Fight Daily: Blaze Pizza Innovates in Local, The State of In-App Mobile Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Blaze Pizza Leverages Mobile App, Instagram, Events to Entice and Keep Customers… Is There Hope for In-App Mobile Advertising?… Buyers Warm Up to Amazon’s Ad Biz…
Perch Deploys In-Store Tech to Help Retailers Close the Path to Purchase
Street Fight recently caught up with Perch CEO Trevor Sumner, who will speak at Street Fight’s Brooklyn summit this June, to hear about the latest at Perch and talk about how in-store marketing tech can lift brands’ bottom lines.
Local Merchants Highly Dependent on Social Media at Time of Uncertainty for Platforms
Well over half of the local merchants with larger budgets that we surveyed for a report last year indicated that paid Facebook ads constituted their top marketing tactic. That’s a pretty heavy dependence on a company that’s been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately.
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