News and Analysis

Holiday Sales Are Starting Earlier Than Ever. Here’s Why

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“Retailers are responding to social distancing guidelines [this] year and preparing for potential decreases in spending by kicking off promotions earlier than we’ve ever seen,” says Dosh CEO Ryan Wuerch.

Wuerch says Covid-19 safety protocols require a more elongated approach to holiday marketing. Kohl’s, L Brands, and Macy’s have all referenced pulling forward holiday promotions, and Amazon’s Prime Day later this month seems perfectly timed to pull in early holiday shoppers.

Street Fight’s October Theme: Home for the Holidays

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Entering Q4 means many things, but to us it points to the media and commerce world’s annual culmination. That’s right — in this time warp of a year, we’re entering the holidays. Considering the oddities of 2020, what will this year’s holiday season look like? We know for sure it will not be normal.

Answering that question will be Street Fight’s October editorial focus. Branded with the cheeky title “Home for the Holidays,” (title credit: Damian Rollison), this month’s focus will be defining the holiday shopping dynamics of a socially distanced and sheltered-in-place world. What will be different?

Interactive Maps Help Bring Back Shoppers After Covid Hiatus

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As the pandemic has worn on, marketers have begun to ask what’s next. How do you keep open and click-through rates high, even as consumers shift back from e-commerce to in-person shopping? The answer, for many, involves maps.

Just look at Torrid, the women’s retail chain formerly owned by Hot Topic, with more than 600 stores across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada.

Commentary

How AI Helps Local Businesses Compete With the Biggest Brands

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Historically, the world of advanced analytics has been the domain of huge enterprises with large budgets. But with big leaps in AI capabilities, even the smallest business can now access insights that were previously only available to “the big guys.”

How Local News Publishers Can Win SMB Ads Against Facebook: A Case Study

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We know that local news providers can compete with Facebook for brand advertisers. But what about publishers also capturing SMBs—is that too much of a stretch? Michael Dinan, editor of the profitable local news site New Canaanite in suburban Connecticut, has some answers.

LBMA Podcast: VRstudios, McDonald’s, Snapcodes & Cargo

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On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: VRstudios, Fysical Technologies, City of Sacramento, Snapcodes + Cargo, McDonald’s, Cirque du Soleil + Ivanhoe Cambridge. Special guest: Karl Swannie – Echosec. 

Latest Posts

Openings and New Hires at Empyr, Pitney Bowes, and Button

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Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Netsertive, Vendasta, Speakeasy and Tapad.

Street Culture: Cuebiq’s Aggressive Growth Bolstered by Candid Culture

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“We are a company that values transparency,” says the company’s CEO, Antonio Tomarchio. “Every month we present to all the people across the company everything that’s going on. I believe that not only it’s the right thing to do, but also that it’s always the best long-term strategy for success.”

Street Fight Daily: Google Tests Voice Ads on Speaker, Pinterest Targets Visual Search Market

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tests Waters of Voice Ads on Speaker… Pinterest Goes After Visual Search Market Share… Alexa is Coming to the iPhone…

xAd Introduces Pay-for-Performance Model, Guaranteeing Offline Store Visits

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Location intelligence company xAd today launched a new media buying model called “Cost Per Visit,” which is intended to ensure offline visits at stores by customers — and offer better ROI for brands. Marketers who use “Cost Per Visit” only pay when targeted customers physically go to a store after seeing a mobile ad.

Google’s AMP Pages Speed Mobile, But Publisher Control Remains a Big Issue

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Mobile page-loading issues are so pervasive that 59% of users click off content that takes more than three seconds to load, costing news publishers numerous opportunities to lengthen pageviews into sessions and monetize their articles and videos. Google’s AMP addresses the problem, but at what cost?

Street Fight Daily: Walmart Acquires ModCloth, Marketing Tactics Divide Consumers by Generation

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Millenials Follow Brands; Gen-Xers, Contests; Boomers, Promotions… Walmart is Acquiring ModCloth, the Online Women’s Fashion Retailer… Introducing Marketing-Stack Management, Powered by Enterprise Machine Learning…

ShopChat Comes Out of Stealth with a Mobile Shopping Keyboard

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ShopChat’s newly debuted mobile shopping keyboard works with messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Apple iMessage, letting users find and share pictures of products through their smartphones with their friends. Those friends can then give feedback, including emojis, and recommendations about the products.

Yext’s IPO Could Raise All Boats in Local — And Herald Consolidation

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While the company’s long-anticipated announcement yesterday didn’t come as a huge surprise for those following local, the news that it was imminent still packed a punch. So we asked several luminaries to weigh in on what the offering might portend for the broader industry.

Street Fight Daily: McDonald’s Begins Testing Mobile Ordering App, Campaign Monitor Buys Tagga

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… McDonald’s, Late to Mobile Ordering, Seeks to Avoid Pitfalls… Campaign Monitor Acquires Tagga to Boost Email Marketing with Customer Data… How Will the IoT Impact Local Search?…

Commerce Signals and LiveRamp Partner to Create a Sales Data Yardstick

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Data firm Commerce Signals has partnered with LiveRamp to make data more valuable to merchants and advertisers. The collaboration draws upon sales data from banks and financial networks to enable marketing measurement and optimization across digital publishers and devices.