News and Analysis
Yubo’s Commerce-Focused Strategy Could Be the Future of Social Media
With 45 million users worldwide, Yubo is not the largest live streaming app on the market. It’s also not the newest. But the company’s founders still think they’ve got an edge in an otherwise crowded space, thanks to a unique business model that replaces in-app advertising with social commerce.
Invoca Acquires DialogTech as Companies Chase New Data Sources
With Google phasing out cookies and Apple limiting access to the identifier for advertisers, among other data privacy reforms, companies need more information about what their customers need. Conversation intelligence solution Invoca thinks it is taking a step toward providing that access with its $100 million acquisition of rival DialogTech.
Commentary
Digital Signage Is All Grown Up Now, Speaking with the Consumer, Not at the Consumer
I’ve been attending Digital Signage Expo (DSE) in Las Vegas for quite a number of years, and now more than ever, the show organizers, Exponation, deliver on their promise: a highly impactful four-day event jam-packed from early morning to late at night. The show demonstrated that if content is king, context is definitely queen. Location is the new cookie, and all the out-of-home industry stakeholders are now finally aligned for much success in the years to come.
From Zero-Click SERPs to Rabbit-Hole SERPs
Mihm to Blumenthal: Answer Optimization and Zero-Click SERPs seem to be gaining traction as concepts in the SEO industry, but as you pointed out in our previous conversation on this topic, Google’s moving well beyond simple answers and into journeys. Cindy Krum highlighted several examples of these new search journeys, which as I saw her presenting struck me as “rabbit-holes.”
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Cash Comes Rolling In for Big Tech, Uber Adds Multi-Stop Rides
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Big Tech Companies Post Glowing Quarterly Profits… Uber Launches Multi-Stop Trips in U.S. and Canada, Facilitating Detours at Local Businesses… When It Comes to Ad Quality, Programmatic Isn’t the Problem…
Hyperlocal Pioneer Howard Owens Sees New Mobile App as Key to Scaling Beyond His ‘Batavian’
Eight and a half years after launching his hyperlocal news site The Batavian, in upstate New York, Howard Owens is looking at growing his base company, Album Corp., beyond Batavia to multiple locations. His plan for expansion is driven by a homemade mobile app that he’s experimenting with for the site.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Dominance Grows, The Guardian Wants to Clean Up Programmatic
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Share of E-Commerce Market Grows in 2017, Nearing Half of Sales… The Guardian Wants Publishers to Unite to Clean Up Programmatic… Facebook Releases News Feed Guidelines for Publishers…
TripAdvisor Pushes Further Into Restaurant Space with Local Ad Product
Having already tackled travel and hotels, TripAdvisor is continuing to go after the restaurant vertical, today launching a new product aimed at independent restaurants and restaurant groups. TripAdvisor Ads marks the company’s first product designed to allow restaurants to reach customers through cost-per-click sponsored ad placements.
AR and VR — Will Local Advertisers Bite?
Local advertising is a $150 billion market, and is particularly conducive to AR, given the technology’s ability to qualify purchase decisions in the commerce-heavy offline world. There will be a land grab for this digital real estate as mobile AR gains consumer traction. There will be also questions about who “owns” that virtual space.
How Brands Determine Their Local Marketing Effectiveness
Website analytics are the most popular means of evaluating local marketing for multi-location brands. While that’s a logical tactic for analyzing digital marketing and advertising effectiveness, it hardly presents the full picture of multichannel marketing or online-to-offline attribution.
Brand-building Expert Norty Cohen to Marketers: Consumer Engagement Is Key
Cohen’s message is that the old ways of trying to connect via TV and other media just aren’t as effective as they used to be. What you need now is to make a connection with the potential consumer of your product or service. And the person who now has a relationship with the brand can then help spread the message via word of mouth.
Streets Ahead: Google Chat, and Instagram Reels