News and Analysis
Why More Brands Are Bringing Data Intelligence In-House
Despite implementing many of the same technology platforms and marketing strategies as they did in early 2020, retail brands today are shifting their approach and bringing more data intelligence solutions in-house. The strategy is part of a larger emphasis on first-party within the brand marketing community, particularly as personalization techniques grow more advanced and privacy changes make targeting harder.
Survey: Interactive Video is the Future
Of course, we might approach a survey by an interactive video platform about the love for interactive video with some caution. But there are other signs that interactive video is the future of online customer engagement, increasingly taking over both online ads and shopping experiences.
Leadferno Launches to Power the Front End of Five-Star Customer Experiences
When Aaron Weiche, CEO and co-founder of Leadferno, started his previous company GatherUp, the goal was to help businesses organize data on customer experiences and boost their reputations. Now, Weiche is onto his next venture, which aims to set up the communications infrastructure that will help businesses kick off those five-star customer experiences.
Commentary
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.”
LBMA Vidcast: PayPal & Instagram, Special Guest: Neil Crist of Moz
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: 3D printed Sushi, PayPal + Instagram, Postmates Party, AirFrance SkyDeals, Macy’s goes VR, Sam’s Club Scan&Go. Special Guest: Neil Crist of Moz.
Going Rogue: The Value of Guerrilla Marketing
The appeal of guerrilla marketing for the entrepreneur lies in the creative freedom to express the essence of a brand that is not bound by the restraints of size, decorum or editorial slant of traditional advertising, as well as the option for a low-cost campaign with the potential to go viral. Guerrilla marketing can be a bit like rolling the dice on a five and turning it into thousands—if it gets picked up and goes viral, you’ve accomplished a national or even international marketing campaign for the cost of something local.
Here are some tips for crafting a low-cost guerrilla marketing campaign for startups.
Latest Posts
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.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Feed May Oust Pubs, Google Helps Marketers with Holidays
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Tests Removing Publishers from Newsfeed — Unless They Pay… Google Prepares Advertisers for Holiday Shoppers… How AI Helped Walmart Go from 700,000 to 60 Million Items Online…
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.
Street Fight Daily: Google Takes Over Local Bookings, Snap Goes Programmatic
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Reserve with Google Booking Service to Open Beyond U.S. and Include Restaurants… Snap Turns to Programmatic Ads for Snapchat Shows… The Most Successful E-Commerce Brands Build for Mainstream America…
Street Culture: Life at Boxed Means “Do The Right Thing”
Wholesale ecommerce retailer Boxed is taking its position as team leader seriously. The company pays for its employees’ kids to go to college. It looked at the industry-wide “pink tax” and started a campaign against the higher prices. It even started contributing $20,000 to pay for employees’ weddings.
Raise Report: Hiya, HappyOrNot, Standard Cognition Score New Funding
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Omnyway, Crosser, and Allset.
Street Fight Daily: Lyft Raises $1 Billion & Eyes IPO, Subscriptions Come to Instant Articles
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Is Said to Explore IPO as It Raises $1 Billion Led by Alphabet… Facebook to Test News Subscription Sign-Up Via Instant Articles… AI Can’t Devise Your Creative, But It Can Handle the Where, What, and When…
Local Media Consortium Not About to Retreat From Its Google and Facebook Ties
Questions are being raised about whether news publishers should keep expanding their relationships with Google and Facebook, and even whether they should pull out altogether. But you don’t hear that talk from the Local Media Consortium, which represents more than 70 newspaper, broadcasting and other local media companies.
So Long Local Search — Hello Machine-Directed Discovery
Whatever you thought you knew about getting your business found online and on mobile, or whatever you are currently learning, is already obsolete. The way consumers interact with search technology today is on its way out. Why? Autonomous cars, artificial intelligence and voice commands are all transforming search into something we can only begin to imagine.



















































AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature