News and Analysis
Is Snap Building a Local Discovery Engine?
Snap wants to compete with Google Maps as a local search and discovery engine. That’s a tall order, but Snap could have an edge in socially-fueled map results. As often, it’s all about the data.
Why Audio Out-Of-Home Is Attracting Brand Marketers
“Between Covid-19 altering consumer buying behaviors and accelerating the growth of e-commerce, specifically in retail media, consumers have higher expectations than ever when it comes to customer experience,” Vibenomics CSO Paul Brenner says. “Implementing AOOH into retail media plans allows retailers to deliver a personalized, one-to-few shopping experience consumers now expect.”
MOLOCO Secures $150m in Series C Funding
The mobile app marketing company MOLOCO announced that it had raised $150 million in Series C funding. Tiger Global Management led the round.
Commentary
The Ethical Stakes of Data Collection and Ad Targeting
With politicians and everyday political partisans on both the Left and Right peeved at Big Tech (the Left for tech’s role in economic inequality and election hacking, the Right for perceived anti-conservative bias, and thinkers across the spectrum for privacy concerns), it is time for Zuckerberg and his peers to get smarter about the arguments for and against data-driven ad targeting and the business models that rely on it. Facile paeans to relevance are not going to cut it—not with the scrutiny Facebook and the rest of the tech industry are now receiving. Tech executives should be as clear-eyed as their fiercest critics about the ethical underpinnings of their businesses. Only then can innovative, far-reaching conversations about the future of advertising, data collection, privacy, and Big Tech begin.
LBMA Vidcast: Kroger Partners with Pinterest
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Hermes AR package delivery, NFC forum’s payment standard, Lego + Snapchat + Kabooki, McDonald’s + Waze billboards, Geon Network, Glympse partners with Albertsons.
Latest Posts
Yelp Analysis Finds Bright Spots for Business Growth
A new economic outlook report released by Yelp this morning finds ample opportunity for growth for small businesses throughout the country, and particularly those located in Southeastern states. “The markets we often think of as being on the forefront of trends in food, retail and other sectors can also be the toughest for small-business success,” explains data editor Carl Bialik.
Cultural Shifts Underlines Google’s Local Enterprise Play
“Google at one time talked about a suite of GMB products called the Business Builder but it got left on the cutting room floor of the forced march to Google Plus and the subsequent ugly separation,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “It’s refreshing to see a similar strategy finally coming to fruition. I think we are seeing them being slowly tied together.”
Street Fight Daily: Brands Make Best of AR, Facebook Boosts Brand Intelligence
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Brands Are Using AR to Engage Consumers and Measure Results… Facebook Lets Brands Dive Into People’s Posts… Yext for Food Makes Menus Visible in Searches on Google, Facebook, Bing…
Voice Assistants Could Transform Local — But Not Necessarily How You Might Think
Voice search and AI are widely misunderstood. Generalist tech coverage has painted the picture of an opportunity that resides mostly with stationary devices like Amazon Echo. But the real scale will happen elsewhere.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Adds Food Ordering, Apple Throws Advertisers a Curve Ball
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Adds Food-Ordering Feature… Publishers Are Already Feeling Pain from Apple’s Move Against Ad Tracking… Mobile-Ordering Apps Trouble Restaurants…
Street Culture: Female Leaders at Main Street Hub Highlight Group Dynamics and Diversity in Communication
At marketing automation and CRM company Main Street Hub, the product engineering team has grown from six people to 30 in three years. The entire company employs more than 500 people, so in the product, engineering, and design department, the leadership is proud of the diversity and success they have achieved.
LBMA Podcast: Casper, Urgent.ly, Samsung, PlaceIQ
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: ComScore, Swarovski, KFC, Target with Pinterest. Special Guest: Herve Utheza – Here Technologies.
Street Fight Daily: Google Builds an Anti-Amazon Retail Alliance, Inside the War on Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Takes Voice-Activated Shopping Nationwide with Google, Joining Walmart… How Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Others Are Fighting to Forge Best Delivery Practices… Lyft Will Use Google Maps as Default Navigator for Drivers…
Brands Aren’t Effectively Planning for Personalization and Segmentation Ahead of the Holidays
A report from B2C marketing and analytics company Zaius shows that many companies, though they claim to be spotlighting personalization and segmentation as a way to engage customers, are actually not capably following through.



















































Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem