News and Analysis
The Future of Amazon as a Service
The concept of Amazon-as-a-service, or AaaS, didn’t begin in 2020. But as the year wore on, and people began relying on e-commerce platforms more than ever before in history, the concept took off. Reaching the first page of Amazon became paramount for brands hoping for digital success, particularly now, during the tumultuous holiday season.
Brands Embrace Live Video to Keep Shoppers Engaged
Live streaming, advertising, and e-commerce are all coming together in a new technology that could change the way brands interact with shoppers online.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly increased the interest in shoppable video tech, on both the brand and consumer side,” says Clicktivated CEO Chris Roebuck.
What’s the Fate of Location Intelligence in 2021?
The biggest thing we predict is location intelligence sector consolidation. This has already gotten started in 2020, considering Foursquare’s merger with Factual, and smaller deals like X-Mode’s acquisition of Location Sciences and Near’s recent Teemo acquisition.
Commentary
Earn an A+ with Back-to-School Email Marketing
Retailers, have you optimized your email marketing for back-to-school shopping? If not, it’s not too late—there’s still a huge opportunity to capture your share of this year’s lucrative season, with sales predicted to reach nearly $83 billion.
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
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.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Brings Stories to Flagship App, Voice Assistant Adoption Climbs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Brings Stories to Its Flagship App… Voice Assistants Now Reach 12% of U.S. Households… Payment Company Square Launches in the UK…
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.
Optimizing for Mobile Search: New Tips and Old Tricks
It used to be that you wanted to be situated as close as possible to the city centroid, or clustered with similar businesses. Now you might literally have to be the closest shop to the place your potential customer happens to be standing. How in the world do you optimize for that?
Brand Battle: Wireless Phone Companies Face Off
To gauge how each company approaches local marketing, Brandify’s proprietary technology analyzed AT&T’s and Verizon’s store locations with focus on areas of local presence management. 4,903 AT&T locations and 4,000 Verizon locations were included in the data sample.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Brick-and-Mortar Ambitions, Uber Suspends Self-Driving Cars After Crash
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google’s YouTube Has Continued Showing Objectionable Ads Despite Advertiser Pushback… Uber Takes Self-Driving Cars Off the Road After One Flips Over in Arizona… Amazon’s Ambitions Unboxed: Brick-and-Mortar Stores for Appliances, Furniture, and More…
Why the Creative Director of the Future Stands at the Crossroads of Marketing, Tech, Product, and Ads
Think of the evolving creative director as a technological and marketing pentathlete, a dynamic force who’ll need to satisfy more than just the traditional advertising imperative. Envision a product-strategy role; that is the model to come.
Raise Report: Flow, Databerries, PlateIQ Secure New Funding
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new funding for EVRYTHING, Helpling, Drivemode, and Lynkos.
Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Secret Tools Undercut Competitors, Marketers Take on Google
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… ShopTalk ’17: Retail Brands Focus on Amazon ‘Work-Arounds’… Uber Employees Still Use Secret Tools to Target Drivers and Undercut Competition… Opportunity Knocks: Marketers and Media Take On Google…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem