News and Analysis

How Apple’s Latest Privacy Changes Will Affect Email Marketing

Share this:

Last week, Apple rolled out iOS 15, which brought more privacy changes that could undermine tracking and disadvantage digital marketers. Most notably, the company’s Mail Privacy Protection policy will ask iOS device users whether they want to “protect” their mail or not, preventing marketers from determining whether consumers who “protect” their email opened messages.

Snap Scan Shines New Light on the Company’s Local Discovery Ambitions

Share this:

Snapchat’s ambition to become a socially fueled local discovery engine recently got a boost with Snap Scan, a visual search tool that makes the world searchable and shoppable. Connecting dots over several years, Snap’s geo-local efforts include Geofilters, Snap Map, Local Place Promote, and Local Lenses. 

5 User-Generated Content Platforms for SMBs

Share this:

As Google expands the local search experience to encompass more aspects of the customer journey, user-generated content is coming into play as one of the most important ranking factors for small and mid-size businesses.

Commentary

How Long Will Google’s “Calculative PR” Playbook Work in Local Search?

Share this:

Mihm: The engineering mindset that millions of spammy listings in a corpus of hundreds of millions of legitimate listings worldwide, or a (hundred million?) spam reviews in a corpus of billions of legitimate reviews worldwide, are simply “edge cases” that are beneath Google to prioritize reflects a profound lack of empathy for how their technology impacts fellow human beings — both consumers and especially small business owners and their employees.

Blumenthal: Absolutely agree. And a related problem is that they see customer service in the same context: as an engineering/cost-benefit problem to solve, not as a way to improve their product. As such they see the last 5, 10 or 15% errors in their big data solutions as just a cost of doing business that they have no responsibility to solve. 

How Targeting Fuels Audience Activation and Satisfaction

Share this:

Consumers benefit from targeting. When there are clear rules and guardrails in place for tracking and targeting, shoppers enjoy a more relevant online experience and a panoply of ad-funded digital services.

Traditional ads still have a place in the marketing mix, of course. But the future of marketing is digital. Online ad spend is expected to surpass traditional ad spend (likely for good) this year. How is it that targeting, while respecting privacy, makes the consumer internet better?

LBMA Vidcast: Walmart and WhatsApp, Gucci Tries Out AR

Share this:

On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Walmart Mexico accepts WhatsApp orders, Nex raises £2M for lunch discovery, Gucci lets try on shoes in AR, 7Eleven delivers to beaches & parks, Reveal Mobile launches foot traffic attribution, Trax acquires Shopkick.

Latest Posts

Snap Opens Its API to All Brands, Agencies, and Tech Firms

Share this:

The company is providing open access to its marketing API, a move that will allow brands, agencies, and marketing technology firms to explore advertising on the social platform more freely.

Case Study: Crayola Overcomes Facebook Algorithm with Co-Created Content

Share this:

Partnering with the in-product consumer sharing platform Vivoom, Crayola launched a holiday-focused campaign in the fourth-quarter of 2017. Consumers were encouraged to record videos of themselves, using a Crayola-branded filter, and then share those videos across social media as personalized holiday cards.

VIDEO: PlaceIQ on Location Data’s Expanding Role for Brands

Share this:

Location data continues to evolve. And it’s not just tactics for data collection and deployment, but the changing ways it’s being used by brand advertisers. We spoke with PlaceIQ’s Duncan McCall backstage at Street Fight Summit West about this evolution.

Street Fight Daily: Snap Opens Up Its API, Google Expands AMP

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snap Opens Its API to All Brands, Agencies, and Tech Firms… Google Takes AMP Beyond Basic Posts with Its New Story Format… Uber Posts Q4 Losses of $1.1 Billion on Higher Sales…

How Marketers Must Prepare for the Voice-Connected Consumer

Share this:

As digital media surpasses traditional, marketers must prepare for the changes that will result from connected devices becoming a common source of customer experience. Local search will be of paramount importance as consumers turn to their voice devices, and eventually their connected cars and appliances

State of Hyperlocal: Location Data Is Key R&D Priority Now and Longer-Term — AI and Voice on Horizon

Share this:

Location data and analytics are a key R&D priority both now and in the longer term for companies supplying technologies and services to the connected local economy, according to Street Fight’s latest reader survey. Those companies deem AI and voice technology as two areas that require investment now, with an eye on a later payoff.

Street Fight Daily: Direct Brands Own the Future, Facebook’s New Branded-Content Rules

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… IAB Study Shows Consumer Economy Growth Shifting to ‘Direct Brands’… Facebook’s New Branded-Content Guidelines Spark Turmoil for Some Pubs… Amazon Laying Off Corporate Employees in Rare Cutback…

Facebook Is Shedding Those Coveted Gen-Z Users

Share this:

Less than half of the American internet population between ages 12 and 17 will use the social network this year, a drop from the past few years.

Follow-Up Thoughts on the SMB Marketing/Operations Universe

Share this:

“Regardless of the right package, the key for both agencies and small businesses is to choose best-of-breed components in each galaxy that integrate with each other so that you can add relevant and profitable services over time,” David Mihm says to Mike Blumenthal in their bi-weekly column.

Dr. Soon-Shiong and His New ‘Patient,’ the L.A. Times: Will His Rx Be ‘Local’?

Share this:

My hunch is that Patrick Soon-Shiong will find that applying advanced technology to local news is not as challenging as conquering cancer, especially if he listens to what Angelinos say is their biggest concern by a wide margin – getting from their home to work or other day-to-day destinations.