News and Analysis

The Stakes of Apple’s IDFA Change

The IDFA change means that iPhone users will be asked whether they want to allow tracking when they open apps. It will deal a blow to digital advertising.

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

Looking for the ‘Big Picture’ in Local Search

Tunnel vision is an issue that’s long plagued the SEO community. Single-location rank trackers don’t tell the complete story of how well a business is really performing in local search results. But with so many avenues to go down in measuring success, it’s almost impossible not to get sidetracked from time to time.  If businesses […]

How Restaurants Are Using Interactive AR in 2021

Restaurants, retailers, and other local businesses looking to engage customers in a socially-distant way are giving AR-enabled interactive experiences a try.

Commentary

Marketers Need to Know the Truth About GPS

The imperfections of location-tracking tech do not mean that all location data derived from GPS satellites is inaccurate or useless as a marketing tool. It just means that marketers need to better set their expectations, know the data they are buying, and factor the limitations into their partnership agreements and marketing plans.

LBMA Podcast: McDonald’s, Google Sued, Telnav & Sionic Mobile

Featured on this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Telnav + Sionic Mobile, Telestra, Keyo’s pay by palm, McDonald’s, Dove’s AR cover campaign, Google sued. Special guest: Robert Radek, GEON Network.

Civil’s Bold Plan for the News Crisis: ‘Flip the Business Model on Its Head’

In this Q&A, Matt Coolidge, head of marketing and a co-founder at Civil, explains how a “new economy for journalism” oriented around unifying publishers and their audiences is working to flip the business model for news through such innovative approaches as blockchain technology.

Latest Posts

Constructing the Enterprise Priority List for Local Search

“I think some local managers in corporations are getting pushback as to why their local traffic is falling, and if it is why should they maintain local pages? What is hard to explain is that those pages DO feed Google,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “But these locations need to be not just well structured, but easily found and crawled by Google, not hidden behind some opaque code.”

Will Social AR Be the Next Local Battlefield?

We saw it with Pokemon Go and of course Snapchat. But the real glimpse of the mobile AR future came during Facebook’s recent AR-studded F8 conference keynote. The central message repeated by Mark Zuckerberg was that the smartphone camera is the new AR platform.

Report: Social Media Continues to Be a Top Marketing Tactic for Local Merchants

The fourth edition of Street Fight’s Local Merchant Report shows a continued movement to social media as a preferred marketing tactic among local merchants. They deem it their most effective tactic, so they’re increasing their spending. Analysis of the survey suggests that would-be marketing suppliers can help them integrate social with their own site and email campaigns, as well as assisting them with reputation management and reviews.

Street Fight Rolls Out Analyst Hours with Local Merchant Report

The report—a key franchise for us—has regularly served as a guidepost for vendors seeking to expand their reach into this market. What’s been missing? A way to tie the data directly to a vendor’s business. So for the first time, we’re offering time with the report’s author, Street Fight director of research, David Card, to discuss the report’s findings directly.

Street Fight Daily: Twitter Launches 24/7 News Service with Bloomberg, Uber Boosts Data Privacy

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter to Launch 24/7 News Streaming Service with Bloomberg… Uber Beefs Up Privacy Controls Amid Data Use Controversy… Now That It Knows Who’s Talking, Google Home Might Reach Its Potential…

Location Data for Brands: ‘Alternative Facts’ No Longer

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

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

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

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

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.