News and Analysis

Innovation Brief: Instagram, Rockets, and Drones

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M7 Innovations’ Matt Maher discusses Instagram’s creator economy, commercial space travel, and drone delivery.

6 Buy Now, Pay Later Solutions for Retailers

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Retailers that don’t start offering flexible payment options on their checkout pages soon risk losing shoppers who prefer the unconventional approach to financing, especially for more expensive items. Flexible payment solutions tout bigger carts, customization, and faster transactions among their benefits.

Retailers Turn to AI to Assist with Forecasting Challenges

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With machine learning and AI, retailers have been able to navigate the continued imbalance between supply and demand. This is especially true for digital-first retailers and on-demand businesses. The number of online grocery shoppers increased by 35 million during the pandemic. That opened the door to new opportunities, but it also opened the door to certain logistical challenges that grocers never experienced previously. For example, online grocery shoppers expect the items in their mobile apps to be in-stock and available for delivery immediately, which is different from a shopper who casually browses store aisles to see what’s available at a brick-and-mortar location.

Commentary

LBMA Podcast: Alexa’s Location Alerts, Starbucks and Uber

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On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: CS Hudson, Baidu Maps, XYO Protocol’s blockchain lab, Ariana Grande + YouTube, Alexa’s location alerts, Starbucks + Uber.

Will Audio AR Drive Local Commerce?

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Mike Boland: AR may not play out in the way you think, at least in the near term. Though it’s generally thought of as graphical overlays on your field of view, another “overlay” could be more viable in the near term: sound. This “audio AR” modality could come sooner than—and eventually coexist with—its graphical cousin.  

The Transparency Trap: On Low Standards for ‘Transparency’ in the Data Market

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Jake Moskowitz: In media, transparency demands accountability. In other words, it means asking media suppliers to “prove it.” It means expecting suppliers to “show me the viewability and fraud percentages, and allow me to suppress ads from running next to unsafe content.” Today, when it pertains to data, transparency just means “tell me where the data came from”—that’s it. That is not enough.

Latest Posts

Hiya and Samsung Turn the Phone Dialer Into a Local Search Engine

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“When you buy a new Samsung device, the phone just does more than the iPhone or any other Android,” says Mayur Kamat, Hiya’s VP of product. “Without downloading or installing anything, the user can call a business in the same way they call their friends and family.”

Quantifying the Physical World with a Product-Based Approach

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By having access to real-world consumer footprints and analytics in real time, businesses have the potential to make decisions on product marketing quicker and more reliably.

Street Fight Daily: Google and Walmart Partner Up, Uber Turmoil Starts to Affect Investor Support

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google and Walmart Partner Up as Both Face Threat from Amazon… Mutual Funds Mark Down Uber Investments by Up to 15%… Wall Street Loves Ad Tech Right Now — As Long As You’re Making a Profit…

Case Study: Jack in the Box Explores Autonomous Delivery Robots

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While the company is keeping a tight lid on which other technology platforms it’s testing out currently, Alter says consumers can expect that its new robot delivery fleet is just a part of its experimentation with hyperlocal tech.

The Key to Multi-Channel Success: Understanding the Search and Social Mindset

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People behave differently depending on where they are in the digital space. Even the same individual will exhibit drastically different behavior depending on when and where they are online. Understanding the different mindsets of your audience on these channels will help you align them more effectively.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Faces a Slide in Young Users, Tech Giants Invest in TV Advertising

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Instagram and Snapchat Are Benefiting from Facebook’s Loss of Young Users… Why Tech Giants Are Spending Big on TV Ads.. Google as the New Home Page — A Tactical Guide…

2017: A Year of Experimentation for Google Local Search

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For marketers and local businesses, it’s always a challenge to keep track of the search giant’s frequent shifts in policy in policy, procedure, and terminology. This year has been especially dizzying, though to those paying attention, many opportunities are presenting themselves to reach out to customers in new ways.

How Big Is the Promise of Local AR (And When Can We Expect It)?

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Real execution will require an extensive value chain. And that’s why location data will be increasingly valuable in an AR-driven world. Specifically, location data will be a key element in displaying the right business or product information graphically.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s In-House Brands Prosper, Frontrunner for Uber CEO Emerges

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Private Brands Have Gone from $0 to $2.5 Billion in Sales in Under a Decade… Jeff Immelt Emerges as Frontrunner in Uber CEO Search… Voice, AI, Mobile Dominate Search as IoT Hits $800 Billion in 2017…

Street Culture: A New Way to Keep Score at CrowdOptic

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“The argument is, build a large company to be insanely great and change the world, right?” says CEO Jon Fisher. “As we operationalize the financial part, the path to making a real contribution in the world can be formulaic.”