News and Analysis
KickCOVID.us Crowdsources Business Safety Data
KickCOVID.us is one part business directory, one part safety monitor. The hyperlocal mobile website allows consumers to read and rate the relative safety of businesses based on the precautions they are taking around Covid-19.
Look up Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant, for example, and you’ll see that social distancing is being enforced and some masks are being worn, but no temperature checks are taking place. At Matchbox, a restaurant in Ashburn, Virginia, most people are wearing masks and no-contact delivery is currently available.
How Are Brands Preparing for Native Ratings in Apple Maps?
A foundational element of local marketing strategy could be changing. Rumors began circulating last week that Apple would be giving users the ability to add ratings and photos to local business listings on Apple Maps when iOS 14 releases this fall. That could mean big changes are in store for brand marketers who’ve grown accustomed to monitoring reviews and ratings on a core group of third-party platforms.
Apple’s move into the ratings and review space isn’t totally unexpected, but it’s still causing the local marketing community to question how the update will impact local search and discovery.
Meliá Hotels Uses Local Influencers to Drive Covid-19 Awareness
Brochures and signage are easy to overlook, but social media influencers are harder to miss. As they work to bring back guests during the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of hotel chains are relying on partnerships with social media influencers to educate guests on the new safety protocols they’ve put in place.
Commentary
Mobile Coupons Are About to Overtake Paper—Here’s How Retailers Can Capitalize on That
When participants in CodeBroker’s 2018 Mobile Coupon Consumer Research Report were asked just how quickly they would likely redeem a coupon they received via text message, 25% said they would use it within three days. That number grew to 60% when they were asked if they would use it within a week.
Why This Select List of Local News Providers Includes Only One Daily Newspaper
A year-long study of newsrooms in the U.S. and Europe by two Danish journalists has singled out 16 local providers in the U.S. who are meeting the researchers’ main criterion: structural changes “to forge closer ties and stronger relations to their communities and audiences”—with a special focus on journalism over commerce, technology, and business models.
Latest Posts
How New Location Data Tools Are Making Attribution a Reality
The future of retail and attribution is evolving quickly and allowing brands for the first time to have a better understanding of how effective their advertising is. While the search for in-store attribution is at the top of the every marketer’s wish list it’s important that all know the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology.
Affinity Solutions Launches Tool to Predict Future Purchase Outcomes
Tech firms are working at a feverish pace to crack the code when it comes to predictive marketing, as brands demand more detailed insights into consumers’ future purchasing behaviors. The latest effort into this arena comes from Affinity Solutions, which is launching its Purchase-Driven Marketing Cloud today.
Blis Forecasts Where Consumers Will Be — Then Targets Ads Based on That Prediction
The company is unveiling a new service that it claims can figure out where consumers will likely go — and target mobile ads based on those expectations. Blis Futures uses artificial intelligence to identify patterns about where consumers are likely to spend time, and then focuses brands’ marketing to reach them at optimal moments.
Research Roundup: Comparing Franchisees and Independent Professionals
Comparing some surveys focused at opposite ends of the local small business spectrum — franchise operators and self-employed professionals — it feels like, though the industry is selling these groups the same marketing and commerce technology and services, the two segments are more different than similar.
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