News and Analysis
Valentine’s Day Boosts Entertainment, Food, and Social Apps
The data shows that Valentine’s Day marks a major uptick in app usage across verticals. Compared to an average February day last year, on Valentine’s Day, entertainment app usage was up 24%, food and drink apps 20%, and social 16%. Consumers also spent an unusual amount of time on transport (7%) and gaming (6%) apps.
Voice Tech Could Transform Loyalty Programs. Here’s How
Within the hospitality industry, a growing number of hotels are using voice technology to improve personalization with experiences like virtual concierges. Virtual concierges use voice technology to personalize a guest’s stay by offering experiences based on past behavior. For example, virtual concierges can adjust thermostats or place room service orders based on a traveler’s previous preferences. When hotels and other hospitality brands take action based on the insights gathered about guests through their loyalty programs, they improve the overall guest experience.
But brands in a number of industries are exploring loyalty use cases for voice.
How Panera Uses AR to Heighten Cravings, Reaching Millions of Customers
Following up on the success of its #YouMix2 AR campaign, which debuted at SXSW last year, Panera recently launched a follow-up initiative. Working with M7 Innovations, a technology-focused consultancy that specializes in artificial intelligence and immersive realities, Panera designed an AR campaign that involved animated breakfast wraps. Consumers were encouraged to experience Panera’s breakfast wraps through AR technology and share the assets to Facebook and Snapchat.
Commentary
State of Hyperlocal: Attribution Is Top Industry Challenge and R&D Priority
Companies selling local marketing and technology and services continue to believe that online-to-offline attribution is the toughest challenge facing the industry, and it’s now their top near-term R&D priority. That’s what we’re hearing from a preliminary analysis of our annual State of Hyperlocal survey of Street Fight readers.
Q&A: Does Google’s Latest Product Mean Death by a Thousand Cuts for Brands
Google really left businesses hanging with the Q&A release, Mike BLumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column: “We had enough engineering cycles that we could “step into the breach” of what is obviously a big brand problem. Whether it is long term or not depends on what Google can parse from the questions in terms of improving results. “
Selling to Multi-Location Brands: Sizing Up the Prospects
Multi-location brands have been a little slower to embrace digital technologies in support of their local marketing and advertising than SMBs, but that’s changing pretty fast. The biggest of those companies still tend to be a little conservative, but they’re shifting digital spending towards local and adopting a broader variety of tactics.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Verizon May Renegotiate Yahoo Deal, Facebook Tweaks Audience Metrics
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Verizon Says Yahoo Hack Could Reopen $4.8 Billion Deal Talks… Facebook Tweaks Audience Network to Favor Advertiser Metrics… Google Rolls Out New Tech for Publishers to Count Mobile Viewability…
PlaceIQ Announces Strategic Investment From Alibaba Group, Expansion Into China
The location-based audience and insights platform has partnered with — and received a strategic investment from — Alibaba Group, the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world. The minority investment will be used to help PlaceIQ scale its operations globally, beginning with the Chinese market.
Street Fight Daily: Labor Ruling Threatens Uber’s Contractor Model, Geofeedia Used to Monitor Protests
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Drivers Ruled Eligible for Jobless Payments in New York State… Geofeedia is Just the Tip of the Iceberg: The Era of Social Surveillance… BuzzFeed’s Head of Commerce Talks About Shop, Part of Media Company’s E-Commerce Efforts…
Why Local Marketing Tech Is Strongly Influencing 2016’s Furious M&A Activity
This year, investment in marketing tech is on pace to more than double the investment in ad tech, suggesting just how promising this market is. Because these solutions are in high demand and are built on a recurring and relatively predictable software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue model, profits have surged.
Apps Continue to Battle, But the Mobile Web May Be Catching Up
With a shift to mobile websites, most mobile marketing dynamics will remain, although implementation for sites versus apps will be more than nuanced. Mobile search is already undergoing shifts, and listings management must take into account the role of the mobile platforms, maps, and, probably, Amazon.
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