News and Analysis

Retailers Use AI to Combat Shrinking Seasonal Workforce, Surging Customer Demands

Increases in customer service tickets are expected to come just as seasonal workforces are hitting all-time lows. According to Puneet Mehta, founder and CEO of the AI platform Netomi, about 25% fewer agents are working in seasonal customer service roles now than before the pandemic. Customer service accounts for a lot of the seasonal roles retailers have traditionally hired for, and now retailers are looking at leveraging technology to fill that labor gap.

What You Need to Know about the Google My Business Name Change

The GMB name change brings with it a fair degree of uncertainty. Google may be retaining, for instance, the model of an API that helps partners manage listings for both SMBs and larger brands, but if the company is simultaneously building out a snazzy new interface for those same multi-location brands to manage Google profiles on their own, does this fact represent an existential threat to listing management companies?

Marketers Want Multiple IDs to Replace Third-Party Cookies

Marketers and publishers asking which will be the next-generation ID to rule them all are misguided, according to a new study by data solutions provider Lotame. The company surveyed 200 senior US marketing and publisher decision-makers, and 33% of marketers said they were open to “any number” of IDs, while 33% said three identity solutions would do the trick.

Commentary

To Share or Not to Share: How Gamification is Swaying the Modern Consumer’s Loyalty

Although 94% of C-suite leaders consider customers’ data to be of paramount importance, privacy continues to be a hot-button issue. Data privacy practices have come under increased scrutiny with the passing of regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation, aimed at protecting individuals from the misuse and exploitation of personal information. Even as consumers continue to debate the tradeoff between convenience and control, one thing is clear—they are craving a more intuitive and personalized experience. How, then, can companies reconcile the differences and walk the tightrope as they acquire a 360-degree view of their audience?

Gamification is one path forward.

LBMA Vidcast: Pokemon App Driving Traffic to Target, Google Integrates Food Ordering into Maps

On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Swatch goes drive-through, iGeolise raises £3.2, Pokemon app driving traffic to Target, Neustar partners with JCDecaux, Google integrates food ordering into maps, MTA accepts Google Pay on subway/bus lines.

Why Marketers Still Struggle With One-to-One Personalization

Personalization has long been touted as the future-proof way for businesses to connect with and retain customers. With Gartner predicting enterprises will win or lose due to customer experience in 2019 and beyond, offering customers meaningful, personalized experiences takes on even greater importance.

To uncover the truth about how personalization efforts are affecting the bottom line of the Global 2000 and just how much one-to-one personalization is taking place, we conducted a survey with Forbes that asked 200 marketing leaders just that.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Dives Deep on Video Ad Data, Uber Gears Up for 2018

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Releases Research Examining Complexities of Video Ads… Uber Powered 4 Billion Rides in 2017. Its COO Explains How It Will Do More in 2018… Could Snap’s Unusual and Generative Structure Also Be Its Breaking Point?…

Raise Report: New Funding for AxleHire, Digital Genius, Happy Returns

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new funding for SendBird, TrendKite, Rubikloud, and Dahmakan.

Street Fight Daily: How AMP Beat Instant Articles, AI Shapes Brand Relationships

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Google AMP Beat Facebook Instant Articles… How Invisible AI Shapes Our Brand Relationships… Video-Streaming Service Customers Widely Pan Use of Ads…

Why Even Top Local News Sites Can’t Compete With Facebook on Ads

Facebook isn’t going away, and it shouldn’t, for local news providers. But news providers will use their own resources to engage the fraction of traffic that chooses to make its way to the narrow part of the funnel and into the subscription revenue pot.

Simpli.fi Leverages Unstructured Data to Target Auto Buyers on a Granular Level

Using a local business’s inventory management software to serve dynamic ads in real-time sounds good in theory, but the process can quickly get gummed up. In an effort to streamline that process, Simpli.fi is releasing an upper funnel dynamic creative solution that leverages unstructured data to target buyers.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon to Collaborate With CPGs on Alexa Ads, Snap Yields Results for NBC News

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Discussing Alexa Ads for 2018 with P&G, Clorox, and Others… NBC News Got 4 Million Subscribers in 5 Months to Its Snapchat Show… Location of Things Market Growing to $71 Billion…

Will 2018 Be a Tipping Point for Voice?

“There may only be 6-7 ‘commands’ that we use regularly with voice, though I’m willing to bet that as people get more and more accustomed to the interface, the horizon of possibilities expands,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.

Why All Local Tech Vendors Need Offline Attribution in 2018

Sponsored Content: With Google and Facebook offering their own standalone solutions (to measure only their own media) and with Snap’s 2017 purchase of Placed, anyone in the market of competing for share, will need, at minimum, the same tools as the next guy, writes Freckle’s Neil Sweeney.

Street Fight Daily: Local Online Pubs Shirk Display, SMBs Key to Growth of Digital Ad Platforms

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Local Digital News Publishers Are Ignoring Display Revenue… IAB: Big Digital Ad Platforms Must Mine SMB Market to Keep Growing… Hearst Scored Record Profits for 7th Consecutive Year by Investing in Data…

Addressing Multi-Location Brands’ Digital Marketing Pain Points

Street Fight’s 2017 State of Hyperlocal analysis showed that selling to enterprise local marketers was one of the toughest challenges facing suppliers, right up there with raising their own company’s brand awareness and showing marketing attribution and ROI.