News and Analysis
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.
Contextual Advertising Is Not Replacing Behavioral Ads. It’s Enhancing Them
Advanced Contextual does not see contextual ads as at odds with behavioral. Rather, the company wants to add a layer of contextual intelligence to the open exchange, guiding all advertising going forward.
The Great Re-Opening Calls for a Great Re-Think of Your Media Mix
Brands can re-plan their media mix and use intelligent out-of-home to deliver on the same goals that they used CTV, and frankly all digital for: brand awareness, engagement, and response. Here are some tips for marketers rethinking their media plans amid the return to the great outdoors.
Commentary
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.
LBMA Vidcast: Octopus Ads in Ubers and Lyfts, Walmart and Google Team Up on Voice
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Neiman Marcus + SalesFloor, Octopus ads in Uber & Lyft, Cleveland Cavaliers + Aramark use Apple business chat for food orders, CVS + Shipt, Snapchat testing “Status” feature, Walmart + Google voice ordering.
Latest Posts
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…
Sponsored Content: The Real Meaning of Local Presence Management
If just one piece of a brand’s local presence is not being managed well, then in-store traffic can dip. That’s why consistent monitoring of online data across websites, mobile applications, and forums is necessary for businesses long after they’ve initially taken control of their digital presence.
Why Carrier Data Is the Key to Unlocking Mobile Verification
Brands like P&G are placing new demands on agencies and media providers for increased transparency and accountability, which in turn has led to significant advances in areas like viewability. The next battleground is clearly verifying the data accuracy of the underlying ingredients – namely the quality of data used for targeting and measurement.
Street Fight Daily: Salesforce & Google Partner on Analytics, MarTech Budgets to See Big Growth
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Salesforce and Google to Integrate Analytics 360 with Marketing and Sales Clouds… MarTech Budgets Projected to See Double-Digit Growth Next Year… Lyft COO Rex Tibbens Is Stepping Down After More Than 2 Years…
Where Local Agencies Help Brands Most
About a quarter of multi-location brands use local media agencies to help manage and evaluate their local digital advertising and marketing programs, according to Street Fight’s latest survey. There’s a modest correlation between using agencies and marketing effectiveness, and the agencies seem to help the most with TV and display advertising.
SMB Index: Big Gains for Local Stocks in October
After gaining 2.1% in September, the SCP SMB Index experienced a scorching start to Q3 gaining 6.8% in October, outpacing all other major indices we track. For the first time, Square cracked the Top 5 Constituents list after climbing 29% in October.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Undercuts Rivals Ahead of Holidays, Facebook Expands Messenger Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Discounts Other Sellers’ Products As Holidays Approach… More Brands Will Be Able to Send Sponsored Messages on Facebook Messenger… Uber’s Business Has Recovered After #DeleteUber, But Lyft Made Lasting Gains…
Openings and New Hires at Infogroup, Vistar Media, Unacast
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Functionize, Emissary, X-Mode and dataPlor.



















































Why AI Describes Locations Differently