News and Analysis
How 5 Retailers Are Using AR for Covid-Compliant Try-Ons
With hygiene and customer safety now a top priority, more retailers are beginning to use AR to simulate the try-on experience. Whether they’re “trying on” items at home or in-store, AR tools are giving retailers a way to assist customers in their buying decisions as they virtually test out thousands of products using their mobile devices.
Here are five examples of how innovative retailers are taking full advantage of AR in the Covid era.
Foursquare’s New Audio Assistant is a Peek into the Future of Local Tech
Dubbed Marsbot for Airpods, Foursquare’s virtual assistant will whisper insights to users about their surroundings, unprompted, as they move throughout the world. This may be a recommendation for a local coffee shop or a fun fact about a landmark.
For brick-and-mortar businesses and the technology providers that help them connect with customers, the marketing possibilities are tantalizing.
Connecting the Dots on Google’s Visual Road Map
Google continues to double down on visual search and navigation. Its latest move came last week with updates to its Live View visual navigation to help users identify and qualify local businesses. This follows soon after its Earth Cloud Anchors that will let users create digital content on physical places.
Both developments tell us something about what may well be the future of local search: augmented reality-enhanced visuals.
Commentary
Google’s Local Improvements—Posts Become Essential, and Mike Wins the Bet!
“Google’s made plenty of laudatory improvements to Google My Business and associated products over the past 24 months, and there does seem to be a qualitative shift in the way it’s approaching the space,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.
LBMA Podcast: Mapbox, GasBuddy, IKEA
On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Propellant Media, Singapore’s Lifesight, Mapbox API, Gasbuddy, IKEA’s sleepiest ad ever, Swrve + Bluedot.
GateHouse Media’s Kirk Davis Argues Chain Is Becoming a ‘Leader in Community Engagement’
Cost-cutting equity funds have hollowed out scores of daily newspapers, turning their communities into “news deserts,” the critics say. But Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse Media, counters that the equity-funded conglomerate is transforming its 144 dailies into tribunes of the people. He makes his case in this Q&A.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Disrupts Retail in Seattle, Oracle Makes IoT Data Actionable
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Living Lab: Reimagining Retail on Seattle’s Streets… Oracle Launches Apps to Surface Predictions and Insights from IoT Sensor Data… Using Data to One-Up the Competition…
Raise Report: New Funding for MapAnything, Cuebiq, SIM Partners
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 The Bouqs, Soundhound, Reserve, and Fuze.
Why Back-end Tech Is Key for Food Delivery Startups
Outside of college campuses, local food delivery startups generally have larger neighborhoods to cover and customers with more niche needs. This may be why some of the biggest names in local delivery don’t seem as different at first glance, because their focus is on the back-end.
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Sees Growth in Local Ad Accounts, Facebook Agrees to Audit
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Stock Plunges After Sales Outlook Misses Mark, But Local Ad Accounts Grow… Facebook Agrees to Audit of Its Metrics Following Data Controversy… Lyft Has Hired the Head of Google Street View to Lead Its Mapping Team…
Swirl Launches Direct Facebook Integration for Online-to-Offline Attribution
Retailers using Swirl’s platform can now connect “verified” real world store visits to Facebook ad impressions and more accurately measure the direct impact that Facebook ad campaigns are having on the way consumers move around inside their stores.
Newspapers Have High Level of Trust, but Will They Capitalize on It?
The key will be not how Facebook shares its revenues or tinkers with its news-feed algorithm. How successful newspapers are in achieving sustainability will depend on the richness of the connections they build with their audiences.
Street Fight Daily: Square Launches POS App for Retailers, GrubHub’s Sales Surge
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Square Launches Dedicated Point-of-Sale App And Service for Retail Merchants… Grubhub’s Sales Surge… The Washington Post Rolls Out Customizable Content Ad Unit…
7 Fresh Ways SMBs Are Using Social Media for Marketing
In order for business owners to maximize the impact of their expanded social media budgets, they need to think outside the box and try new tactics for reaching consumers online. Here are seven examples of fresh new ways that small and mid-size businesses can use social media for marketing in 2017.
Mobile Marketing and the YouTube Cookie Shift
Google recently announced that YouTube will turn to logged-in user data to verify views and ensure that relevant advertising reaches the right consumers. This will allow publishers, brands, and marketing to draw on all the highly contextual demographic and behavioral data that Google gathers from mobile consumers.
Street Fight Daily: Target’s Data-Driven Strategy, MarTech Focus Shifting From Platforms to Data
How Target is Leveraging First-Party Data to Survive a World Hostile to Brick-and-Mortar (AdExchanger)… Marketing Tech Shift: It’s Data, Not Platforms (eMarketer)… Retale Acquires Shopping List App Out of Milk (VentureBeat)…
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature