News and Analysis
Field Day Leverages an Uber-Style, Human-to-Human Marketplace for Local Marketing
An Uber for local marketing, Field Day connects brands, including current clients Panera Bread, Blaze Pizza, Equinox, and about 50 others, with “brand ambassadors”: locals who speak to the brands’ targets in their home neighborhoods in order to increase awareness and drive adoption.
Verizon Media Offers Opt-Out of Targeted Ads Across Its Network
Verizon Media is partnering with the nonprofit Network Advertising Initiative, integrating its advertising ID with the NAI’s “Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out” platform to allow users across the Verizon Media ecosystem to opt out of targeted ads.
Household Targeting Emerges as Alternative to Individualized Behavioral Ads
Jon Schulz, Chief Marketing Officer at Viant Technology, checked in with Street Fight to lay out the benefits and drawbacks of targeting methods offering advertisers alternatives to one-to-one behavioral ads.
Commentary
LBMA Vidcast: LG Builds Amazon Dash into All Appliances, Tide Launches 24/7 Delivery
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: 180byTwo’s eCHO, Outdoorsy the AirBnB for RVs, Outer, Tide launches 24/7 laundry service, LG builds Amazon Dash into all appliances, Baidu builds AI cat shelters. New research from Blis.
AR in Local Commerce: Google Shows the Way
Mike Boland: A recent and relatively understated development from Google could portend the future of augmented reality. Its previously teased “VPS” was released into the wild for a small set of users. For those unfamiliar, VPS (visual positioning service) guides users with 3D overlays on upheld smartphone screens. Sort of a cousin of AR, this type of experience could represent the sector’s eventual killer apps. Though we’ve seen the most AR success so far in gaming (Pokemon Go) and social (Snapchat AR lenses), it could be more mundane utilities like navigation that engender high-frequency use cases.
The Future of AI Is Here: Reflections on IBM Think
Damian Rollison: Among hundreds of sessions, exhibits, and demos, one theme came through clearly at IBM Think this month in San Francisco: for large enterprises especially, the AI-driven future for which we’ve been told to prepare is already here. In fact, enterprise companies are using IBM’s Watson technologies today to address a myriad of challenges inherent in the scale of those businesses.
Latest Posts
How Showroom Concept Stores Are Changing the Retail Industry
A number of major retailers and startups have been pioneering a local showrooming strategy, divorcing the purchasing of products from the distribution, and focusing more on experiences than in-person sales. Here are six examples of retailers that have been able to navigate this merchandise-free (or light) approach to local retail.
Sophistication, Efficiency, Control: Unlocking the Future of Programmatic Direct for App Publishers and Advertisers
As it splits the difference between real-time bidding and totally manual ad-buy systems, programmatic direct allows publishers and advertisers to create specific agreements around how the process will work. It guarantees protected inventory and premium placements without requiring much in the way of hands-on operation.
Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Empowers Brands, Uber Sues an Agency
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Brands Can Now Tap Pinterest’s Pin Collective Via a Self-Serve Customer Platform (AdWeek) Pinterest formed Pin Collective last October as a way to give brands access to the social network’s best content creators—publishers, production shops and individuals—to work directly with them on their campaigns. How […]
‘Mobile Marketplace’ from Button and Ibotta Adds 30 New Brands
Ibotta and Button today launched a performance-based marketing platform that improves customer acquisition and mobile traffic. The new marketing platform extends the benefits that come with Ibotta rewards to fast-track the mobile commerce efforts of traditional retailers.
How AI Bots, Voice Assistants Are Changing Shopper Behaviors
Rapid changes in the way people communicate aren’t just impacting personal relationships, they’re also hitting the retail market as consumer preferences evolve. In a new report released just this morning, the post-purchase solutions provider Narvar uncovers generational differences in how consumers prefer interacting with retailers.
Street Fight Daily: Google Appeases Antitrust Regulators on Shopping, Brands Turn to Influencers
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Offers to Treat Shopping Rivals Equally Via Auction… Why More Brands Are Adding Young Influencers to Their Creative and Marketing Teams… The Luxe Lab at Neiman Marcus Signals a Shift in Focus for Department Stores…
iPhoneX, AR & Local: How Do All the Pieces Fit?
There are lots of ways that augmented reality (AR) is a natural fit for local commerce. But questions remain: How will AR will materialize in local? How long it will take? And how do these factors signal local startups and media companies where to place their chips?
How Social Media Disasters Can Tarnish Brands
Gaffes by businesses, celebrities, and politicians on Twitter and Facebook have been with us since the advent of social media, but recent events have highlighted two very serious consequences for brands that may not have been clear previously.
Street Fight Daily: Inside Uber/Lyft Funding War, Small Brands Hit Roadblock on Instagram
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Funding Talks at Uber and Lyft Complicate Ride-Hailing Allegiance… Small Brands Are Finding It Harder to Get Verified on Instagram… Never Mind GDPR, Here Comes Apple’s Intelligent Tracking…
Street Culture: Blind References Help Weed Out Drama at Zaius
“In the hiring process, we often use the terms ‘smart, hungry, and humble,’” says Zaius CEO Mark Gally. “This notion of being humble is really a critical component of culture. We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we take our work extremely seriously.”
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem