News and Analysis
Snap Scan Shines New Light on the Company’s Local Discovery Ambitions
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.
Commentary
Alexa, Podcasts, and the Role of Voice in Today’s Marketing
The increasing popularity of smart speakers, digital assistants, and podcasts means we need to begin thinking differently about voice and marketing. That includes tailoring online content to users and how they engage with it, making voice functionality a part of the sales funnel, and creating podcasts or partnering with influencers to reach audiences in a new way. With the right approach, a creative brand could get a considerable head start in this new but quickly developing marketing landscape.
Google’s Fake Listings Problem Gets More Attention—and May Spur Regulation
Blumenthal to Mihm: It seems to me that Google could take the fake listings issue off the table by seriously investing in cleaning up the fake listing and fake review issue. I just don’t think that they think that way.
At a minimum, as the company that has the monopoly in the local space, Google faces the expectation and responsibility to provide a service that truly serves the public and businesses. And they seem to forget that.
Cannes Roundup: A Triad of Innovation is Capturing Advertisers’ Attention and Spend Right Now
This year, we saw the rise of three elements of technology-driven outcomes that, I’d suggest, represent a triad of innovation — and those elements are agility, speed, and the product-development capabilities to allow early-adopting brands to actually access emerging marketplaces (such as audio, as we saw this year). The first two terms are interconnected, and each fuels the drive for innovative products that big-name brands are beta-testing already.
Latest Posts
Cost-Per-Visit and Bad Location Data: Are You Really Getting What You Pay For?
CPV is generating a welcome dialogue in the ad industry as it wrestles with questions such as how to value repeat customer visits and how much is a visit worth. Key to answering all these questions, though, is clearly understanding the accuracy of the underlying location data being used to score the visit.
Case Study: Using Business Texting to Reach Millennial Homebuyers
The value in business text messaging is for brands to be able to communicate with customers how they want to be communicated with. At Environmental Pest Service, director of marketing Mandi Harris has started using business text messaging as a way to increase customer engagement and improve the effectiveness of Google AdWords.
Street Fight Daily: Publishers Desert Instant Articles, Walmart Bets on VR
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… More Than Half of Facebook’s Instant Articles Partners May Have Abandoned It… Walmart Looks to Revolutionize Retail with VR Acquisition… Vogue and GQ Will Test Content Inside Amazon’s Echo Look…
The ABC’s of AR: Always Be Closing
In these early days of augmented reality (AR), we’re learning a lot about consumer behavior and preferences — the same learning curve defined the early days of smartphone apps. One lesson so far is that consumer AR use cases will be fairly limited. It’s not a silver bullet and it’s not for everyone.
Upserve Uses Restaurant Transaction Data to Track Industry Trends
Upserve recently released its State of the Restaurant Industry Report, using data pulled from thousands of restaurants and millions of transactions through the United States. Performing a retroactive analysis, Upserve’s data science team looked at 2017 trends to see which predicted trends lived up to the hype, and which fell flat.
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Why TV Remains the Heartbeat of Local Connection