News and Analysis

Brands Are Struggling with Customer Loyalty in 2020. Here’s Why

The pandemic has sparked changes in consumer behavior. Some changes are predictable, like people stocking up on toilet paper when lockdown orders first went into effect.

But other changes occurring over the past seven months have been more slight and easier to miss. Now, with the holiday shopping season getting into full swing, brands are discovering that these minor shifts in consumer behavior have the potential to wreak havoc on their seasonal marketing strategies.

How Consumer Behavior Toward Auto Ads Changed During Covid-19

As one of the largest spenders on digital advertising in the U.S., the automotive industry is a bellwether. Prior to the pandemic, the automotive industry had consistent double-digit growth in digital ad spending. That growth was forecast to continue through the end of 2020 — then, in March, everything changed.

Prop 24 Could Majorly Impact California Data Privacy. Will Businesses Comply?

All eyes are focused on the presidential election today, but for businesses, a ballot initiative in California could have major implications. Proposition 24, known as the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), is seen by many as an even more stringent version of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). That has some businesses rethinking how they collect user data and questioning whether they might be vulnerable to lawsuits if the proposition passes.

Commentary

Women in Local Marketing Tech: Are We There? Where Are We Going?

The challenge is national; the solutions may be hyperlocal. At Street Fight Summit 2018, we gave the audience a brief overview of some of the issues facing women in local marketing tech today and what we can do to keep moving in the right direction.

Facebook’s Perennial ‘Potential’ in Local

“In Facebook’s pivot to focusing on person-to-person communications and its strong emphasis on messaging, is there an implicit concession that the company will not make Facebook itself the center of its local effort?” Mike Blumenthal asks in this week’s biweekly column with David Mihm.

Gauging the Opportunity to Replace Local Merchants’ Websites

We asked respondents what they used their sites for, and, considering the functions they deemed most important, whether they could replace them with a list of suggested companies and platforms. Facebook’s company pages and Google’s enriched listings topped the list.

Latest Posts

5 Self-Service Platforms for Mobile Analytics

The vast majority of mobile analytics platforms have traditionally been aimed at the largest developers, leaving a huge swath of the market untapped. Here are five examples of self-service mobile analytics platforms that developers in the hyperlocal space can try.

How Turning Loyalty Campaigns Into a Data Play Transformed Empyr

Coaxing more customers to walk in and shop is what every merchant wants out of a loyalty program, but it is not always clear how effective these campaigns are. That’s why attribution — knowing for sure that new business resulted from an SMB’s marketing efforts — is such a holy grail in local.

Street Fight Daily: How Brands Leverage Snapchat Spectacles, Mobile App Installs Drop Sharply

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How 5 Brands, Including GrubHub and Hyatt, Are Using Snapchat Spectacles… Mobile Boom Stalls, with Double-Digital Decline in App Installs… What Makes People Buy from a Brand They Follow on Social Media?…

Survey: Merchants Gain Social Media Sophistication, Rate it Most Effective Tactic

Over the past several years, Street Fight has seen these local merchants shift their marketing budgets away from traditional media like newspapers, print Yellow Pages, and local broadcast towards digital marketing and media. That trend continues in a new survey that we conducted earlier this year.

Zuckerberg Raises the Right Questions – Local News Should Answer Them

Mark Zuckerberg posted a remarkable manifesto on Feb. 16 about our fractured communities and how to heal them. But why was Facebook’s founder and CEO saying this first? Why aren’t America’s news publishers, especially local ones, defining the crisis and offering their blueprints for solving it? Zuckerberg’s manifesto was 5,735 words long, but its core was these 138 […]

Street Fight Daily: How Waze Will Scoop Up Driver Data, News Orgs Stick by Platforms

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Waze Digs into Your Car’s Dashboard… Report: Despite Monetization Concerns, News Orgs Are All In On Platforms… If Anyone’s Going to Buy Directly from a Chatbot, It’s Millenials…

Case Study: Bonobos Integrates In-Store Tech for Seamless Shopping Experience

In many ways, Bonobos has become a model for e-commerce startups. Although the New York City-based company started out as an online-only men’s retailer in 2007, it has since expanded its physical presence with real world stores spread across the U.S.

Raise Report: New Funding for ReplyYes, Voysis, Bolstra

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for NewsWhip, uShip, Sun Basket, and TVSquared.

Street Fight Daily: Retailers Sign Up for Texting Via Android, Dash Turns Cars into Data Troves

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Wants Businesses to Text with Android Messaging Service… Dash Aims to Turn Driving Machines into Data-Driven Machines… How Retailers Can Best Position Themselves to Thrive in an Age of Disruption…

Investment Firms Come to the Forefront Among Owners of Local Newspapers

Today seven investment entities control 349 daily newspapers, well ahead of either the 196 belonging to long-established private publishers that include companies like Hearst and Advance Publications or the 161 public publishers that include legacy chains like Gannett and McClatchy.