News and Analysis
Why Brands Are Turning to Influencers During Covid-19
Brands are on delicate ground as they look for ways to promote their non-essential products during the pandemic. Stay the course with existing marketing strategies, and it looks like the brand is ignoring a global health crisis. Push too strong with coronavirus-themed ads, and brands run the risk of being seen as capitalizing on the tragedy.
The solution that some brands have come up with is to put the ball in the influencer’s court.
7 Ways Retailers Are Using Mobile Messaging to Connect During the Pandemic
By most measures, it appears that retailers have a tough road ahead of them. While deep investments into ecommerce and steep discounts on existing merchandise are expected, many retailers are exploring other avenues in a bid to connect with customers and offer a sense of assurance during the pandemic. Mobile messaging platforms are being utilized in new and unexpected ways. With open rates close to 100%, texting has become the communication channel of choice during the ongoing pandemic.
Here are seven examples of ways that retailers are using mobile messaging to connect with customers during Covid-19.
Location-Based Search Disrupts Brand-Centric Theory of Marketing
Building a brand will never stop being essential for companies with brick-and-mortar locations hoping to secure the dollars of nearby consumers. But a new report from location marketing firm Uberall suggests the rise of location-based or “near me” search is undermining the power of branding alone, increasing the importance of optimizing for searches in which consumers are simply looking for the closest, most convenient option while on the go.
Commentary
Cost-Per-Visit and Bad Location Data: Are You Really Getting What You Pay For?
CPV is generating a welcome dialogue in the ad industry as it wrestles with questions such as how to value repeat customer visits and how much is a visit worth. Key to answering all these questions, though, is clearly understanding the accuracy of the underlying location data being used to score the visit.
The ABC’s of AR: Always Be Closing
In these early days of augmented reality (AR), we’re learning a lot about consumer behavior and preferences — the same learning curve defined the early days of smartphone apps. One lesson so far is that consumer AR use cases will be fairly limited. It’s not a silver bullet and it’s not for everyone.
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.
Latest Posts
Starbucks, Poster Child for Geotargeting, Nearly Loses Battle for Local Presence to Dunkin’ Donuts
Sponsored Content: Starbucks is well-known for its digital efforts in other areas: loyalty, check-out, mobile targeting, and push messaging within geofences. But the brand’s attempts at connecting with local customers dragged its Brandscore down.
As Voice Search Gains Importance, So Does Schema Mark-up for SMB Sites
Like it or not, SMBs have become far more educated and sophisticated with regard to digital media, and are in a much better position to hold their providers accountable. As a result, providers now must look for ways to more cost effectively provide higher quality products.
Street Fight Daily: Brands Cash In on Snapchat API, Google to Launch Click-to-Message Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Brands Cash In on Snapchat’s Long-Awaited API… Google To Launch Click-to-Message Ads on Google Search in Coming Weeks… Platform Publishing Creates Challenges for Publishers’ Mobile Design…
Why Brands Need to Master Prompted Search
When a business launches a new product, or, say, the latest Harry Potter adaptation hits the market, retailers are often challenged to update their location pages in a timely manner to show the availability of the product for consumers who rely on local search to find what they want nearby.
Street Fight Daily: Google Shifts to Mobile-First Index, Twitter’s Carousel Ads See Success
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Shifts from Desktop- to Mobile-First Indexing… Ad Buyers See Promise In Twitter’s Instagram-Like Carousel Ads… Is Omnichannel Marketing Finally Going From Retail Dream to Reality?…
Street Culture: Why Lunch Is a Big Deal at Euclid Analytics
At six years old with about 40 employees, the company is currently in a growth phase, and will likely grow considerably in the next year. Euclid’s director of product, Alexander Reichert, says that the daily lunch hour has been a kind of string that ties the team together.
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…
Weather Company Continues Data Expansion With First-Party Location-Targeting Platform
Continuing in its evolution from media property to data provider, the company unveiled a newly updated ad platform this morning that provides marketers with the ability to produce highly-accurate location-targeted campaigns.
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.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem