News and Analysis

In Crowded Space, Brands Rethink Approach to CTV

Research from eMarketer shows that advertisers spent $10.3 billion on connected TV programmatic display ads in 2021, an 82% increase from the year prior. But what they got in return is anyone’s guess. For all the advancements in digital marketing, CTV advertising still remains an opaque space where advertisers know little about the shows or other ads their spots are running against. This can lead to wasted budgets, ad frequency issues, and even fraud.

Adriel Raises $13 Million Series B to Power Multi-Channel Marketing

The all-in-one digital marketing platform Adriel announced this morning that it had raised $13 million in Series B funding to scale its platform into an “end-to-end ad operations system.” Shinhan Venture Investment led the round, which followed a 2019 Series A worth $4 million.

US E-Commerce Brands Need to Localize to Maximize Overseas Opportunities

International ecommerce sales are skyrocketing, but selling abroad means taking on the challenge of catering to consumers with localized preferences. A recent global ecommerce report by payments infrastructure provider PPRO shows many brands are not currently up to the task.

Commentary

LBMA Vidcast: InMarket Acquires ThinkNear, Google Assistant Upgrade

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

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.

How the Newest 5 Features from Google will Change the Role of UA Managers

Facebook and Google still haven’t figured out how to automate creative. They can’t really even automate creative testing yet. So, take all the time you used to spend with bids and budgets and media buying and shift it to creative. Odds are, you aren’t spending even 2-3 hours a week monitoring and analyzing your competitors’ ads. Shift from bid edits and go do that. Or even better, spend 4-8 hours a week monitoring and analyzing competitor’s ads, and even ads from outside your industry. This research can result in blockbuster new creative concepts — the type of 100x ads that rocket ROAS.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: How Much Ad Viewability Matters, IAB Eases In-App Measurement

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Placed Study Outlines Viewability’s Impact on Store Visitation… IAB Releases Tool to Ease In-App Ad Measurement… Snap Is Testing Commerce with Discover Publishers…

Heard on the Street, Episode 1: Career Wisdom from Randy Parker

We talk to Brevi CEO Randy Parker in Episode 1 of our new podcast series about SMB-oriented marketing tech and several other matters—everything from company culture to what it’s like to operate a business and live in Boston.

Facebook Apocalypse? What to Monitor

Will Facebook’s usefulness as a local marketing platform be seriously weakened as a result of its recent privacy scandal and new measures to protect user data? Street Fight recommends monitoring the following to evaluate how serious the damage is.

SMB Index: In a Bad Month for Public Equity Markets, Local Isn’t Spared

March saw big declines in the public equity markets. The SCP SMB Index was the least impacted, retreating 4.1% compared to all other major indices, which declined more than 5% during the month.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Scandal’s Impact on Local, Retailers Hesitate on Amazon Ads

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Apocalypse? What to Monitor… SMB Index: In a Bad Month for Public Equity Markets, Local Isn’t Spared… Some Retailers Averse to Advertising on Amazon…

Google As Website? The Recent Explosion in Knowledge Panel Features and Interactivity

“Presentation layer doesn’t sufficiently describe Google’s ambitions. They want to be the transaction layer of the Internet—at least in local,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their latest biweekly column.

State of Hyperlocal: Report Shows Buyer and Seller Alignment, Attribution Focus

Both SMBs and multi-location brands listed social media as the top marketing strategy on which they were increasing spending. The majority of both groups said they were maintaining or increasing spending on all of the six digital marketing types we asked about.

Street Fight Daily: Sites Tap Audiences for Product Dev, Restaurants Court Young Customers

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Publishers Use Their Audiences to Develop Products… Casual Restaurant Chains Use Tech to Attract Elusive Younger Customers… Facebook Suspends Another Data Firm for Using Cambridge Analytica-Like Tactics…

Openings and New Hires at Spectrio, Apple, GroundTruth

Hires and new openings are also popping up at Google, Dropbox, and Factual.

Raise Report: Salesloft, Nift, Intercom Score 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 Fastdata.io, Kloudless, Instacart, and Neighbor.