News and Analysis

Fragmentation in Connected TV Creates Opportunities for Brand Marketers

One of the earliest frontrunners in this race for market share has become Innovid, the CTV advertising delivery and measurement platform. With the ticker symbol “CTV,” Innovid is now branded as a pioneer, a label that CEO and Co-Founder Zvika Netter isn’t shying away from.

KEVANI, Taking Localized Approach to OOH, Announces New LA Property

When it comes to out-of-home advertising, one creative strategy does not fit all markets. That has been a guiding principle at KEVANI, an OOH firm that’s taking a community-driven approach to digital billboard advertising. The company specializes in full motion digital and premium static assets in California, with the understanding that national advertisers see the greatest results when they embrace the personalities of the neighborhoods where their displays are located.

Innovation Brief: Girls Who Code, Facebook Messenger, and Humanoid Robots

Street Fight’s Innovation Brief series aggregates and analyzes happenings from across the technology and media spheres. This week, we look at Girls Who Code, Facebook Messenger payments, and humanoid robots.

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

LBMA Podcast: Woolrich, Oreo Subscriptions, Amazon GO

This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan, Rob Woodbridge & Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Kroger, Yext + Duda, eyeQ launches Atom Research: Gasbuddy.

State of Hyperlocal: Attribution Is Top Industry Challenge and R&D Priority

Companies selling local marketing and technology and services continue to believe that online-to-offline attribution is the toughest challenge facing the industry, and it’s now their top near-term R&D priority. That’s what we’re hearing from a preliminary analysis of our annual State of Hyperlocal survey of Street Fight readers.

Street Fight Daily: User Time on Facebook Drops, Highlights from #SFSW18

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… User Time on Facebook Declines for First Time Ever… Google’s Rivals Say Search-Page Practices Still Unfair… Alexa Can Now Send Text Messages to Phones…

#SFSW18: How Yelp Is Partnering Its Way into the Future

“We’ve made sure there’s an authenticity in Yelp so that people going to the service for reviews can count on it,” said Yelp SVP Chad Richard in the final conversation of Street Fight Summit West in Los Angeles. Richard called authenticity “the essence of the business.”

#SFSW18: Local’s Visual Future: The Rise of AR, VR, and New Customer Experiences

“We want to please the restaurants and we want to please the users,” said Danny Gordon, CEO of Auredi, just one company at Street Fight Summit West using visual technology to enrich customer experiences. “It’s unbelievable the amount of excitement we see when we show customers dishes that look exactly like they do in person.”

#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.