News and Analysis
AdColony: “There Is No Alternative Tracking”
Marketing tech companies are widely surfacing solutions to fill the data gaps that these privacy-oriented changes will yield. But companies differ on what approach will work best: IDs rooted in mobile devices or email log-ins, for example, or panel data that users consent to share with advertisers. Other companies and thought leaders are even more polemical, declaring that the era of targeting ads based on individual user behavior is coming to an end.
Digital Marketers Deploy AI to Break through the Noise
Chief among the newest strategies brands are adopting is the use of artificial intelligence in digital marketing. Brands are increasingly willing to try AI to gain a better understanding of customer behavior, so they can spend more time on creativity and delivering more relevant content, says Mary Schneeberger, director of the integrated marketing practice at Avionos.
What Gannett’s Partnership with Snap Means for Local Marketers
Despite its obvious benefits from a marketing perspective — with the ability to connect to more Gen Z consumers than Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger combined — Snapchat’s youth-focused advertising tools haven’t always been easy for small and mid-size businesses to take advantage of. A new deal with Gannett could change that.
Commentary
Three Takeaways From DMEXCO 2018: Top Concerns in Digital Marketing
From brands to vendors to publishers, DMEXCO is a good bellwether to consider when trying to understand where things are headed. Brands taking control, data quality, and publishers getting smarter about data are key topics I kept hearing about—and for good reason.
Is Google Playing the Long Game with SMB Websites?
“When you look at this Website growth + the Local Knowledge Panel with Posts + AMP + Progressive Web Apps, we are starting to see the outlines of an “open web” that Google totally controls. Or at least they control the profitable parts,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their latest biweekly column.
LBMA Podcast: Dirty Lemon, HYP3R, Amazon
On this week’s edition of the LBMA podcast: Dirty Lemon, HYP3R gets $17M, GSTV’s OCTANE, 7Eleven goes with Apple and Google Pay, Amazon delivers Christmas trees, Diageo’s weather/time/location campaign in London.
Latest Posts
Retailers Need to Use Tech to Work Smarter, Not Harder
To have any chance for long term survival, retailers and brands need to bring more technology to bear in operating their businesses, enabling them to work smarter, not harder. Here are some strategic ways big retailers can use technology.
Borrell: Too Many Local Newspapers Remain Stuck in Their Newsroom ‘Church’
Facebook collected $13.6 billion in local ad spending in the U.S. in 2016, according to the report — more than all local media put together — $12 billion. The report says Facebook, Google and other global pureplays will continue to dominate digital ad revenue that comes from merchants and other businesses at the community level.
Street Fight Daily: SMBs Struggle with Social, Pinterest’s Appeal for Brands Climbs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Small Businesses Are Missing the Boat on Social… Pinterest is Quietly Gaining a Foothold Among Marketers… WaWa, Walgreens and Others Try to Clean Bad Map Data…
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Boosts Brands, Facebook Equips Publishers with Data-Based Ad Tools
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Created an Ad Format to Help Brands Directly Message Users… New Facebook Tool Handles Media Companies’ Video Ad Sales… Uber to Repay Millions to Drivers, Who Could Be Owed More…
Report: Solid Opportunity to Sell Marketing and Data Management Services to Local Merchants
As local merchants increasingly shift their marketing spending to digital tactics, they’re becoming more sophisticated in how they manage those programs. Street Fight’s latest analysis of its local small business survey shows a much higher adoption rate of digital dashboards and the like compared with previous research.
Case Study: Auto Shop Outsources Social Ad Campaigns
As social media advertising becomes more pervasive, businesses have to do more to get noticed. At Reliable Auto Repair in San Jose, California, Operations Manager Michael Jidkov says the hardest part about reaching customers on Facebook, Google, and Yelp is standing apart from the competition.
Photobucket Driving Targeted User Experiences With New Cuebiq Partnership
Image and video hosting website Photobucket is the latest tech brand that’s going local. The company announced today that it is partnering with location intelligence firm Cuebiq to understand users’ offline behaviors and provide them with a more relevant experience.
Ibotta App’s New UI Overhaul Puts 17% More Money Back in Users’ Pockets
Five years young, mobile shopping app company ibotta has already outgrown itself and is rolling out the biggest official overhaul of its user interface today — one that gives users 17% more money back than the last version of the app.
Street Fight Daily: Google Adds Attribution Tools for Marketers, Gen Z Loves Brands and Influencers
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Wants to Measure the Entire Path to Purchase… Gen Z Enjoys Branded Content More Than Millenials… Marketers Press Claims Against Facebook Over Inflated Metrics…
SMB Content Marketing: Avoid the Backward Approach
Whether a business is local or not, content drives the bulk of digital marketing. A successful content marketing campaign involves topics that resonate with the intended audience, creates buzz on social media and attracts high quality links. Yet, the approach that many people take to content marketing is backward.



















































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