News and Analysis

Google’s Latest Privacy Play Has Big Implications for the Open Web

Connecting the Dots on Google’s Visual Road Map

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Google continues to double down on visual search and navigation. Its latest move came last week with updates to its Live View visual navigation to help users identify and qualify local businesses. This follows soon after its Earth Cloud Anchors that will let users create digital content on physical places.

Both developments tell us something about what may well be the future of local search: augmented reality-enhanced visuals.

How Brands Can Rise, Retain, and Return Stronger Than Ever this Holiday Season

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Prior to Covid-19, traditional demographics still directed many brands’ targeting strategies. However, the pandemic has laid bare just how flawed this method can be. We believe that the best measure of what someone will purchase in the future is looking at what they’ve purchased in the past. This holds true even in an uncertain market and is invaluable for retailers as the holidays approach. 

Crucial Attribution and Targeting Tools

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The lines in the traditional funnel have blurred. Consumers may enter and pursue a non-linear route before making a purchase or moving on. The path from awareness to decision is no longer predictable in an omni-channel environment. A progression that works for one type of consumer may have no relevance for another. These changes necessite another look at attribution models.

Commentary

Who Will Own Your Augmented Reality?

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Questions about AR ownership will be particularly contentious wherever money is changing hands, such as in AR advertising. Courts will face questions such as ownership of digital ad inventory when there are AR overlays on private property (or on other ads). There could be similar gray area in retail & commerce.

Mobile Advertisers, Don’t Be Fooled By Claims About ‘Precise’ Data

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When selecting data for mobile campaigns, don’t base your decision solely on claims about precision or how many decimal places appear in the coordinates, and definitely don’t mistake precision for accuracy. Precision is important, but the value of precision hinges on data accuracy.

Survey: Multi-Location Brands Warm to AI, See It as Most Useful for Email

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Multi-location brands are almost twice as interested in exploring artificial intelligence for analytics as they were last year, according to Street Fight’s latest survey. But there’s a significant disconnect between their perception of what’s most useful about AI and what suppliers of local marketing tech and services think about that same question.

Latest Posts

Location Data for Brands: ‘Alternative Facts’ No Longer

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As the proximity industry grows, it’s important for brands investing in location and proximity to understand the differences between the various data points and technologies on the market. These differentiators can greatly affect how the proximity and location data is applied towards a brand’s marketing goals.

Study: 55% of Mall Shoppers Would Shop at an Online Retailer’s Brick-and-Mortar Store

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Online retailers like Warby Parker and Bonobos have been experimenting for years with pop-up stores and actual brick-and-mortar locations. This phenomenon was the subject of a recent study conducted by ChargeItSpot, which provides cell phone charging stations for retailers and events.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Will Train Local Journalists, Alphabet Records ‘Stunning’ Earnings

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Will Start Training Local Journalists and Newsrooms… Alphabet Made a Lot of Money on Google Advertising Despite Recent Controversy… Amazon’s Echo Look Could Snoop a Lot More Than Your Clothes…

Comcast Rolling Out a New Local Ad Service

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For local businesses looking for advertising, there’ll be a new kid in town to help this summer. Better still, ad buyers will get the help for free. The service, called Stratasphere, is a new offering from Comcast-owned Strata, which already has three decades in the business of connecting ad sellers with ad buyers.

Cupcakes

Case Study: Bake Shop Owner Finds Customers in Local Facebook Groups

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What does it mean to run a local business without a local storefront? For Melissa Brogan, owner of The Bug & The Bear Bakeshoppe, it means having to use highly-targeted online marketing strategies to let people know she’s open for business, without getting the marketing benefits that come from having signage on the front of a physical storefront.

Street Fight Daily: More Than Half of Ad Spend Now Mobile, Amazon Launches Echo Assistant with a View

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… More Than Half of Ad Spend Now Mobile; Digital Audio Revenues Also Surge… Amazon Has a New $200 Echo Camera That Can Judge Your Outfit… Brands Recognize Realities of Customer Journey…

The In-Between Stage for Startups: Visions of Growth and the Value of Pivots

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The stages of business growth may have no end point, but the opportunities that lie within them are more abstract than they seem. Moz CEO Sarah Bird says that Jeff Bezos’ well-known assertion that it will always be “day one” at Amazon resonates with her, but that financials can cloud the view of that goal.

Made for Each Other: Wallets, Loyalty, and Mobile Payments

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It’s fair to say the local marketing industry has been a little disappointed by the adoption of mobile payments. The combination of a sluggish hardware upgrade cycle and consumer reluctance appears discouraging. But there are catalysts on the near horizon.

Location Data Shows Which Brands Coachella Attendees Favor

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Attendees at the annual music festival may seem somewhat heterogeneous from the outside, but a new study of InMarket’s anonymized location data gives a sense of the concertgoers’ brand preferences, and insight into the effectiveness of sponsors’ campaigns.

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Growing Rapidly, Gannett Earnings Suggest Bleak Outlook for Newspapers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Earnings Forecast a Bleak 2017 for Newspaper Companies… Instagram is Growing Faster Than Ever and Now Has 700 Million Users… Waymo Is Hitting Uber Where It Hurts…