News and Analysis

Last-Mile Delivery

With Supply Chain in Crisis, Retailers Use Tech-Enabled Processes to Monitor Demand

Demand for e-commerce shopping and fast shipping continues to be high, which puts additional pressure on retailers to fulfill consumers’ needs. As smaller, independent retailers look at how they can handle the upcoming surge, now is the time to utilize cloud-based communication tools like Twilio to keep customers satisfied.

How Younger Platforms Are Chipping Away at Facebook’s Dominance in Social

There’s a lot of talk in the martech/adtech ecosystem about Facebook and Instagram’s gradual loss of sway in social advertising, especially relative to video-first apps popular among young people such as Snapchat and TikTok. But how much are things really changing, and why?

A Third of Marketing Leaders Say They’re Not Ready for Third-Party Cookies’ Demise

The death of the third-party cookie on Chrome in 2023 dominated the martech discussion in 2021, but a third of marketing leaders say they are still not ready for the effect it will have on marketing. That’s according to a Lytics survey conducted by Sapio Research in October that polled 256 marketing leaders to assess the future of data-driven marketing.

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

#SFSW18: How Nextdoor Is Building a Business Around Neighbors

Nextdoor is an app exclusively devoted to the local communities that keep the lights on for small businesses.  Prakash Janakiraman, co-founder and chief architect of Nextdoor, joined Mike Boland, Street Fight’s analyst in residence, at Street Fight Summit West in Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon to discuss Nextdoor’s growth into a billion-dollar local business.

#SFSW18: Factual CEO Talks Company’s Top-Notch Approach to Location Data

Unlike so many location-based rivals, Factual’s goal is not to convert geospatial data into top-notch marketing solutions. The company, founder and CEO Gil Elbaz said Wednesday morning at Street Fight Summit West in Los Angeles, is laser-focused on providing top-notch location data. 

#SFSW18: Closing the Location Attribution Loop

Cameron Peebles, CMO of InMarket, emphasized that data should not just be used for attribution — to prove past ad placements have worked — but also to predict future consumer patterns and increase long-term marketing success. “Consumers don’t live their lives in points; they live their lives in patterns,” Peebles said. 

#SFSW18: The Local Ecosystem in Flux

“Small businesses are people who are gutting it out,” said Andrew Morbitzer, VP of corporate development at GoDaddy. “They’re here to do a service or provide a product. They’re not here to use software. [Our job is] removing the decision to take on another capability.”

Out of Its Rocky Recent Past, Philly.com Seeks to Be ‘Indispensable’

Philadelphia Media Network is building its future around a reorganized and united news operation that aims to produce more engaging editorial content with fewer editors and reporters and sell the package to readers of Philly.com for $2.99 a week after 10 free views. We recently caught up with PMN Editor and VP Gabriel Escobar to discuss this strategy.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile/Social/Video Dominate Ad Spending, Facebook’s Missing Video Metrics

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Trifecta of Mobile, Social, and Video Thrives While Print Declines… How Do We Measure Facebook’s Video Biz? It Still Hasn’t Told Us… For Third Oldest American Retailer, More Data and Business Hasn’t Meant More Advertising…

What Alignable’s New Trust Ratings Mean for Loyalty Vendors

Based on the results in Alignable’s 2018 Q1 Small Business Trust Index, the three least trusted categories of vendors include legal, hiring and people management, and loyalty and rewards. Alignable’s findings were based on Net Promoter Score ranges and averages for each products and services category.

With Visibility Manager, MomentFeed Optimizes the Local Data Foundation

In a bid to provide multi-location brands with better insights into the health of their digital storefronts, the marketing and customer experience management platform MomentFeed is launching a new product dubbed Visibility Manager, the company announced this morning.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook to Elevate Local News, Amazon Go Shifts Retail Paradigms

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook to Push More Local News Stories into Feed… How Amazon Go Will Drive Brands to Develop New Ways to Target Customers… Consumer Time Spent on Publisher Sites Fell in 2017…

Q&A: Does Google’s Latest Product Mean Death by a Thousand Cuts for Brands

Google really left businesses hanging with the Q&A release, Mike BLumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column: “We had enough engineering cycles that we could “step into the breach” of what is obviously a big brand problem. Whether it is long term or not depends on what Google can parse from the questions in terms of improving results. “