News and Analysis
Could QR Code Menus Pose a Risk to Merchants?
Tableside QR codes have nearly eradicated germy menus, but they may have opened the door to a new threat that businesses didn’t see coming: data fraud.
Convenience Stores Adapt Marketing Efforts for EV Era
The market for electric vehicles is growing steadily, with automakers like Tesla, Ford, and VW helping to boost demand across much of the country. As consumer habits in the auto industry evolve, and the share of fossil fuel-powered cars on the road decreases, gas stations and convenience stores are adapting their marketing strategies for a new electric-first future.
GoDaddy’s Marketing Planner Helps SMBs Prepare for Holidays
The holidays are still months away, but GoDaddy is betting that more small and mid-size businesses will be taking a proactive approach and starting their seasonal marketing campaigns earlier this year than in the past. The company recently launched a new marketing planner designed to make it easier for businesses to keep track of holidays and promotional opportunities.
Commentary
Lead Gen Spam: Bad for the Consumer, Bad for Business, and Bad for the Local Ecosystem
Blumenthal to Mihm, on lead gen spam: The real issue for me is that Google Maps is really like a public utility, and Google is not doing enough to protect the consumers of that product. There is significant harm in the deception of the consumer, the blocking out of legitimate businesses, and the possibility that the consumer public will lose trust in the whole, creaky house of cards.
The Blind Spot in Facebook’s Vision of Privacy
Insofar as Facebook’s pivot to privacy fails to reward its users for the data that has made it one of the world’s most powerful and profitable companies, I see it as a modest change that is more reactive than proactive, more inevitable than forward-thinking. It is likely that Facebook is only beginning to lay out its moves on privacy, and more ambitious changes may lie ahead. But for now, when it comes to the most pressing, fundamental ethical challenges that are inciting political fervor and increasing the likelihood that serious regulation of Big Tech is on the way, Zuckerberg is dragging his feet. With visionaries like Lanier and Zuboff raising public awareness about Facebook’s business model, the truth may just catch up with him.
Things Not Strings: Google’s New Hotel Profiles Exemplify Its Approach to Entities
Google’s Knowledge Graph ambitions are expanding to include obviating heavy reliance on secondary sources like Wikipedia and being able instead to classify and cross-reference information as a native, self-sustaining activity on web pages themselves. That’s what makes a recent patent filing different from the evidence of the Knowledge Graph we’ve already seen in the wild.
While this more ambitious way of surfacing information about entities is not yet standard, in researching Google’s new interface for hotels, I think I’m seeing evidence of a real-world example.
Latest Posts
Learning to Work on Your Startup Even While Executing on the Day-to-Day
“Some of the best companies you couldn’t define their market size on day one,” says Foundry Group’s Brad Feld. “Nobody has any idea what their market sizes are. Others a lot of times you think the market size is X and it’s either an order of magnitude bigger or smaller. “
LBMA Podcast: Honda France, American Eagle, UpCurve buys Closely
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Rob Woodbridge. On the show: Macallan, Locus Labs + Acuity Brands, Amazon & Fexy Media, Lufthansa, Brandify. Case Study from Shopkick.
Street Fight Daily: Inside Snap’s Messy IPO, SoftBank Deal Looms for Uber
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Kept Doubters Mum… Uber CEO Says the SoftBank Deal Hasn’t Happened Yet But Will… The Bumpy Road Ahead for AI in Sales, Customer Service…
Adxcel Rebrands as Artsai, Using AI to Consolidate the Marketing Stack
“We optimize the entire customer lifecycle journey,” says Artsai’s CRO Erik Lundberg. ” We may help someone acquire a new customer on Facebook, then reengage user on programmatic or RTB [real-time bidding], and then help drive the user to make a purchase inside the marketer’s mobile app or landing page.”
Why DNAinfo’s Shuttering Isn’t a Reflection on the Hyperlocal Digital Opportunity
The shuttering of these sites was a failure of a business, not a failure of opportunity. The opportunity is there. A multi-billion dollar opportunity. It just needs the right model and good execution to grasp it.
Looking at Location Signals, GroundTruth Looks at Ways to Predict Behavior
A recent study by the company focused on the foot traffic at mass merchandisers and grocery stores and airport traffic, and pointed to the NC city as the best choice for Amazon’s HQ2. “Being able to dig in to real world behaviors, it draws out real actionable recommendations,” says Sarah Ohle, VP of marketing insights.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook to Launch Campaign Optimization Tool, Inside eBay’s Renaissance
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Is Introducing a Campaign Budget Optimization Tool for Advertisers… Inside eBay’s Repositioning as a Modern E-Commerce Platform… Twitter Helps Out Small Businesses with Promote Mode Service…
Local Marketing on Alexa? The Real Estate Industry Gives It a Shot
There are almost 40 real estate “skills” currently listed in Alexa’s directory. This is greater than those related to lawyers/attorneys, doctors/dentists, and a host of other SMB categories, and overall there doesn’t yet appear to be much adoption of voice technology at the local business level.
JCPenney’s Outgoing Mobile Chief: Digital Integration Vital for Retail Brands
“The most exhilarating thing about being in mobile is that it’s ever-changing. The traditional way of doing retail is dying; you have to reinvent yourself to stay relevant,” James Meeks, former head of mobile at JCPenney, told Street Fight.
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Fights Companies Soliciting Reviews, Snap Reckons with Post-IPO Disaster
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Increasingly Cracking Down on ‘Review Solicitation’… Snapchat Is Having a Crisis of Confidence. So Are Investors… Postmates Launches Grocery Service, Scheduled Deliveries, and Revamped App…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature