News and Analysis

As Agencies Feel the Squeeze, Covid-19 Reshapes the Martech Industry

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One in four small businesses has temporarily shut down, and 43% believe they have fewer than six months until permanent closure is unavoidable. With the small business community in panic mode, budgets for digital marketing have been slashed, and agencies are feeling the pinch.

“Everyone has been in panic mode, and rightly so. Businesses are worried about who might have to be furloughed [or] laid off, getting their PPP loans, what kind of regulations do they need to comply with, [and] what their contingency plans are for keeping any amount of revenue coming in,” says Simon Schwartz, founder of Locasaur. “Businesses are not interested in being pitched new marketing tech.”

5 Retail Tech Solutions Keeping Shoppers Safe During Covid-19

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Beacons, sensors, security cameras, and touchless payment solutions are all being used in ways they haven’t been before. Technology vendors are even changing up their offerings, or in some cases pivoting altogether, to better serve the retail market during this ongoing pandemic.

Here are five examples of technology providers offering innovative solutions for enhanced social distancing and improved shopper safety during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Curbside Pickup Moves Into Primetime, But Retailers Struggle With Implementation

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Petsmart and Kohl’s have it. So do Best Buy, GameStop, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and dozens of other national retailers. With social distancing orders in place across most of the country, curbside pickup is becoming an increasingly popular checkout option for retailers. Integrating curbside technology into existing ecommerce fulfillment programs hasn’t been without its challenges, though, especially given how hastily many of these programs have been rolled out.

Commentary

Q&A, Reviews, and Fake News on Google: False Content Is Not Just a Facebook Problem

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“Given the primacy of Google’s market position, and the primacy of Knowledge Panels in SERPs—also a conscious product decision on Google’s part—the percentage of customers who are likely to come across fake information is great,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.

LBMA Podcast: GroundTruth, General Motors, Zara, Ikea

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On the show this week: Milestone Pages, GroudTruth, 180byTwo, Tesla’s drive-in, 7-Eleven facial rec., IKEA goes full TaskRabbit, GM launches peer-to-peer sharing, Zara tries AR on.

Will the ‘Sustained Outrage’ of One W. Virginia Newspaper Survive Auction Block’s Hammer?

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The biggest heartbreaker is what happens to those families whose long-held newspapers were dedicated to publishing all the news without fear or favor. This is the story of one of those families, the Chiltons, and their paper, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail, which the Chiltons owned for 111 years.

Latest Posts

How to Foster Culture at Early Startups? Stylu Founder Says Just ‘Be Yourself’

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“Startup culture is very unique,” says Stylu’s CEO Justin Colombo. “There’s no such thing as rules. It’s good to have structure, but we’re very open-minded. We’re just moving forward naturally according to our culture and our style.”

LBMA Podcast: Adquick, Spotify, McDonald’s and Blippar

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This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Hormel, Talians app, Tree Elves and King of Pops, Commerce Signals, PlaceIQ, Broadsign, Here Maps and Twitter, and Apple Maps.

Street Fight Daily: Target Uses Data to Boost Brands, ProPublica Aims to Fill Local News Void

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Capitalizes on Shopper Data, Collaborates with In-House Brands On Programmatic… Attempting To Fill A Local News Void, ProPublica Launches Illinois Unit… Major Retailer Leverages Social To Score During Holiday Season…

5 Ways E-Commerce Retailers Are Creating Local Footprints

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New technology platforms are making it possible for online retailers of all sizes to expand locally into brick-and-mortar outlets. In other cases, technology is taking a back seat as e-commerce businesses form old-fashioned partnerships with stores on main street.

TownNews Founder: News Sites Will ‘Perish’ Without Latest AdTech

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In 1989, Marc Wilson’s Montana news bulletin board put editorial content into the hands of other local-news publishers more quickly, abundantly, and cheaply. Today, Wilson’s TownNews.com serves 1,600 newspapers — big and small, daily and weekly — as well as pure-plays and other digital publications

Street Fight Daily: Twitter Struggles with Publishers, Retail Marketing and Measurement

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Falling Behind Snapchat and Facebook, Twitter Struggles to Attract Publishers… How Retail Marketing Changes As Measurement Tools Improve… Where the Digital Dollars Have Gone: How 15 Major Media Companies Have Invested in Digital…

PlaceIQ’s New Service Looks to Give Brands the Full Competitive Picture

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As more and more brands invest in location-based marketing campaigns, there’s a crucial need to zoom out and see the big picture. In an effort to bring marketers to this full circle moment, PlaceIQ today is debuting LandMark, a new data-as-a-service capability that allows brands access to their location-based audience and insights platform.

Why Omnivore’s POS-Connection Platform Is Really an ‘App Store’ for Restaurants

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The platform, which connects apps to POS systems, is making it easier for restaurants to find and test new technology. We recently caught up with founder and CEO Mike Wior to talk about the unique issues facing restaurant tech, and how Omnivore’s service can enable more experimentation and innovation.

Street Fight Daily: GoDaddy Acquires Euro Rival for $1.8 Billion, How Foursquare Tackles Attribution

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… GoDaddy Acquires Rival Host Europe Group for $1.79 Billion… How Foursquare Leverages Location for Attribution… Don’t Expect To See Amazon’s Checkout-Free Grocery Store Mirrored by Local Retailers Anytime Soon…

Hand Delivery, No Lines, Pharmacist Chats — You Call This a Pharmacy?

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Capsule dubs itself a “next-generation pharmacy here to make your life simpler and healthier.” We recently caught up with founder and healthcare investor Eric Kinariwala to find out exactly how his startup is going to take the pain out of getting relief from what ails us.