News and Analysis

With Walmart+, Retailer Combines Digital Subscription Service and Physical Stores

Regardless of which retailer comes out on top, there’s no doubt that many will see Walmart’s decision to launch a digital-first membership program as a turning point in brick-and-mortar retail and a concession on Walmart’s part that e-commerce is the way of the future, displacing rather than complementing old-school retail.

Marcel Hollerbach contends that Walmart’s decision to launch a membership program points to just how well positioned retailers with physical locations are in the current climate, with the ability to quickly facilitate things like in-store returns and same-day deliveries of items that take much longer to ship by mail.

5 Localized Ad Platforms for SMBs

Localized ad platforms could also see an increase in use in the coming months among SMBs that want to cut down on unnecessary costs. Many of the localized ad platforms aimed at the SMB market take a self-serve approach, allowing business owners to adjust their budgets and adapt their strategies as conditions evolve.

Here are five localized ad platforms that are focused on helping merchants get back on their feet.

CCPA Enforcement Begins. Are Companies Ready?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) generated plenty of headlines when it went into effect on January 1st. We covered tools for compliance, the law’s long-term effects, as well as its pitfalls and promise here at Street Fight. But a six-month grace period before enforcement coupled with the arrival of coronavirus shifted the attention of the location data world partially away from the nation’s first major privacy law.

That enforcement grace period ended this week, and with it, a new era in consumer privacy began.

Commentary

The Cookie is (Still) Dead: Device IDs and the Future of Mobile Marketing

Some hybrid cookies-based scenarios will putter along, and some scale-hungry players will stick to old tech for a bit longer, but smart marketers are investing in customer data platforms that are mobile-first, connecting CRM directly to the mobile device.

How Publishers Can Survive Facebook Churn: Top Expert Weighs In — Part II

“The smaller scale might be an advantage when it comes to trust,” Grzegorz Piechota told Tom Grubisich. “Local publishers can offer services Facebook will never be able to provide at a global scale such as checking all the facts, verifying all the ads, or providing a 100% guarantee of brand-safe context.”

How to Turn Alternative Data into Alpha

The need for real-time data is critical, as it enhances the speed and accuracy of key decisions and enables investors to detect any defects before making a choice.

Latest Posts

LBMA Podcast: Instagram, Netflix, LiveNation & LetGo App

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: GM + IBM & Mastercard, AliPay coming to U.S., Staples Easy Button, Shell + NavAds, Lyft and JetBlue, Google pilots with Myer, and Custom Curated Experiences.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Buys CrowdTangle, PlaceIQ Teams with Nielsen Catalina

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Buys CrowdTangle, a Social Analytics Tool for Publishers… PlaceIQ Teams with Nielsen Catalina Solutions on Detailing the CPG Purchase Path… Google’s Tiny Radars Tweaked to Identify Everyday Objects in a Home…

Imagining a Local Search Pathway for Snapchat

Snapchat may be considered by many to be “the next Facebook,” but its approach to social media and interactions couldn’t be more different. From its emphasis on moments to the uneasiness the founders have with ad personalization, the company is certain to blaze a trail all its own the the local space.

Community News’ Fight to Succeed: ‘Sustain Local 2016’ Put It All Together

Seeing their very survival at stake, local news sites are starting to revamp their models and sometimes scrap them for new ones. Some of the best of what’s happening in the besieged industry was put on display at the recent “Sustain Local 2016” conference.

Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Says Verizon May Ditch Deal, Branded Content on Mobile Sees Success

roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Raises Possibility Verizon May Back Out… Click-Through-Rates for Branded Content on Mobile Double That on Desktop… LinkedIn Makes It Easier for Businesses to Send Sponsored Direct Messages….

Mobile 1.0 Had Its Own Uber: Recalling the Birth of the Future

Somewhere in the nascent days of flip-phones, when I headed up AOL’s mobile products division, we came across a little company with an ambitious goal: let people hail a cab or black car virtually using their cellphones. The company, Qsent, had been working on a mobile-phone version of a service called iQtaxi.

How Retailers Are Personalizing the Shopping Experience This Holiday Season

The biggest story this holiday shopping season isn’t expected to be any specific toy or garment that’s flying off the shelves, but the way consumers are being recognized and how they’re finding the products they ultimately purchase when they shop inside physical stores. With holiday retail sales expected to increase just 1.8% this year, retailers […]

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Revs Up Local Marketing, Pinterest Aggressively Adds Ad-Tech Partners

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Revs Up Its Local Marketing Efforts… Pinterest Adds 15 Ad Tech Companies to Beef Up Its Data and Measurement Game… T-Mobile Launching Device to Make Most Any Car ‘Connected’…

Snapchat, Uber, and the Implications of Machine Learning

Machine learning and predictive analytics need to meld seamlessly with core app functionality. The technology needs to “just work,” without steep learning curves or frustrating dead ends. So I’d expect any company who experiments with machine learning for local search to start with a simple set of problems and hone the user experience.

The Accelerating Consolidation of the Digital Ad Market

“The flow of dollars from businesses of all sizes has clearly been away from lower-performance niche platforms into boosted Facebook posts,” writes David Mihm. “We can debate the value of that activity, but relative to the questionable/delayed/opaque performance of so many digital ad products, Facebook seems to have found a sweet spot.”