News and Analysis
As Delivery Market Consolidates, Affiliate Marketing Gets Sophisticated
Uber’s recent decision to acquire Postmates for $2.65 billion was just the beginning. As the delivery market consolidates, there will almost certainly be rising demand for pay-for-performance marketing products that help these companies strike a balance between volume and profitability.
One of the latest examples of this is the launch of Actionable Intelligence, a product by Button that gives marketers the ability to target and test high-value audience segments with personalized offers.
6 Ways to Use Martech Tools for Covid Compliance
Different industries are looking to manage the spread in different ways. For retailers, that might mean using artificial intelligence to make sure customers are following social distancing rules inside their stores. It might also mean using location data, beacons, and other mobile technologies to track where consumers are going during shutdowns or monitor employee compliance with local Covid regulations.
It’s worth noting that this is a sector that is evolving at breakneck speed. These are just a few of the ways the martech community is using its technology for Covid compliance right now.
Apple and Snap Signal Local AR Commerce Ambitions
Recent announcements from Snap and Apple at their respective developer conferences point to future connections between AR and local commerce.
Snap’s Local Lenses will let developers create geo-anchored persistent content that Snap users can discover through the camera interface. This will also include the ability for users to leave persistent AR graphics for friends to discover. The use case that Snap has promoted is more about fun and whimsy, including “painting” the world with digital and expressive graffiti. But the development could also include local storefront information.
Moving on to Apple, it similarly continues to show its AR aspirations. The latest is GeoAnchors for ARkit, announced at WWDC. These evoke AR’s location-based potential by letting users plant and discover spatially anchored graphics that are persistent across sessions and users.
Commentary
AR Cloud: The Linchpin for Local AR
What about the non-Googles of the world? How will they create AR and visual search apps that can map environments reliably and return the correct info or graphics? The answer is the still-theoretical but critical AR Cloud.
LBMA Podcast: Placed, CityMapper, WeWork
On this week’s LBMA podcast: BAG Networks, Placed, Citymapper, Robomart, REI, BMW acquires Parkmobile, Universal + Amazon Alexa, and WeWork buys Conductor.
How Patch Has Quietly ‘Bootstrapped’ Itself Into 36 NYC Neighborhoods
Patch CEO Warren St. John tells our columnist Tom Grubisich why he decided to bet big on hyperlocal news in New York City while other local publishers were shutting down or threatening to do so, retrenching or selling out.
Latest Posts
Using Chatbots to Improve the Customer Experience
Although automated messaging has been around for years, today’s chatbots combine machine learning with artificial intelligence to create enhanced user experiences. Chatbots are also giving brands a chance to flex their creative muscles, utilizing technology in innovative ways.
How Brands Can Get More Out of Their Brick-and-Mortar Marketing
Marketers that fail to see local storefronts as a critical channel are missing out on a rich sales opportunity. Brands invest $70 billion in local markets each year, but a significant portion of that spend often goes to waste because they fail to work collaboratively with their local partners.
Street Fight Daily: Google My Business Tests Chat Feature, M-Commerce Sees Conversion Issues
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google My Business Tests a Messaging Feature to Enable Business-Customer Communication… Mobile Smartphone Shoppers Struggle with Navigation… E-Commerce Won Black Friday Weekend. Now Walmart Really Has to Compete on Amazon’s Turf…
What Is the Essential Digital Marketing Bundle for Local Businesses?
Where should small businesses be spending their money (or energy) right now to maximize their digital investment? Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm say it all starts with a website and listings management, and includes a variety of services like email newsletters, reviews management, and even Facebook ads.
Street Culture: How Placeable Employees Own the Company’s Culture
The company offers a number of perks, including membership stock shares making each employee an equity owner. “That’s the kind of tactical ownership that we’re going for,” says CEO Ari Kaufman. “Make everyone own a piece of the company. This is your company. Give a sh*t about it — it’s yours.”
Street Fight Daily: Black Friday Store Visits Decline as M-Commerce Soars, Strong Loyalty for Amazon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Thanksgiving, Black Friday Store Sales Fall, While M-Commerce Soars… Amazon Enjoys Great Loyalty from U.S. Amazon Shoppers… Marketing the Potential of the Connected Car…
QSRs Are Thriving With Location-Based Data, But There’s a Caveat
QSRs have successfully forged ahead with location-based ad strategies. Not only have we seen an influx of case studies asserting as much, but also a recent report from xAD inferring that foot traffic has spiked for QSRs thanks to location-based marketing, and, perhaps more importantly, the data mined from those efforts.
Sponsored: Black Friday’s Battle of the Brands
Though Toys ‘R’ Us might have enjoyed an edge by appealing customers with its toy-specific specialized product focus, Target held the final advantage, winning this month’s Brand Battle by 75 points.
Moms and Dads Do the Crowdsourcing at New Hyperlocal Network ParentNation
In September, Renee Levine and her husband Josh launched their hyperlocal parent-recommendations site in the New York City suburbs of Westchester County, N.Y., Fairfield County in Connecticut and North Jersey. Here, Levine talks about the birth of ParentNation and why the company is building their content strategy around crowdsourcing.
Street Fight Daily: Location Behavior Drives Holiday Sales, Top Retailers Use Tech for Success on Black Friday
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… QSRs Are Thriving with Location-Based Data, But There’s a Caveat… How Top Retailers Are Using Tech to Score Points On Black Friday and Beyond… Location Behavior Could Drive Sales Online During Holidays…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem