News and Analysis

Covid-19 Is Changing Ad Auctions, Creating New Opportunities for Brands

Amidst all the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, savvy marketers are finding new opportunities to reach consumers at discounted rates. According to data compiled by Goodway Group, competition within ad auctions has gone down 13% since early March, and win rates are up 54% during the same time period.

The drop in competition within ad auctions is largely the result of brands pulling back on digital advertising during the outbreak. Most experts agree that dropping out entirely is a mistake, since it gives competitors an opportunity to convert new brand loyalists, but continuing to run existing campaigns without acknowledging the current economic and global health realities can be costly as well.

Email Marketers See Increase in Engagement During Covid-19 Crisis

In the middle of a global health crisis, email marketers are experiencing a renaissance.

According to new data from LiveIntent, email newsletter engagement has grown during the coronavirus pandemic. Newsletters in the health and fitness and “hard news” categories, including those focused on law, government, and politics, have seen a sudden increase in engagement and click-through rates on ads.

Businesses Find Opportunities to Fundraise, Connect Through Local Platforms

Consumers say they want to help the local businesses in their communities, and many are buying gift cards and launching GoFundMe campaigns to help their favorite restaurants, retailers, and brewpubs avoid going out of business. But restaurants and other essential businesses that remain open still need a way to let customers know how they’re selling their products and services, and how they can place orders without showing up in person.

The neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor is one of a number of platforms working on ways to ease that burden. Yelp, Facebook, and Patch are joining the fight.

Commentary

Can Facebook Contend in Local Search?

Facebook has been formidable in a few key areas of local — mostly among SMBs. It has penetrated further in SMB adoption than any other entity to date, and Street Fight data indicates sustained growth. That’s half the battle for Facebook: The other half is gaining equal favor as a local search and discovery engine among users.

Holiday Countdown: 5 Powerful Mobile Marketing Activations that Drive Sales

With the right approaches and strategies, stores can connect with consumers throughout December, even as the clock ticks down to everyone’s end-of-year celebrations. So, hitch your sleigh to the following five activations — put these in your marketing mix and get ready to toast your company’s end-of-year sales with a cup of retail cheer.

Google Websites — To Infinity and Beyond?

“In the developing world, Google has a simplified path to the GMB where if a business first creates a website they can get verified more easily,” Mike Blumenthal notes. “Thus the website becomes the hook into Google’s data funnel. In the US, and most other developed countries, I would speculate that it is typically the other way around”

Latest Posts

Belly Launches Loyalty Platform for Enterprise Retailers

According to the company, the new product will be considerably more flexible than Belly’s original loyalty rewards program for small businesses, giving retailers with large physical store footprints the opportunity to design more unified experiences across in-store, mobile, and online channels.

Yelp Courts Developers With New Tools for Integration

The program includes tools for developers to build with the Yelp Fusion API and Yelp’s local data, along with additional integrations. An updated developer portal will give developers better access to search more than 50 million local businesses across 32 countries.

Street Fight Daily: Salesforce Brings AI to the CRM Masses, Yelp Courts Developers with New Program

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Salesforce Brings AI to the CRM Masses with New System, Einstein… Marketers Are Getting the Snapchat Targeting Data They Want. Will It Scare Off Users?… Google Trips App Helps Plan Personalized Travel…

How Apple’s Subtle AR Play Could Impact Local: Sights and Sounds

Apple just entered augmented reality, without anyone really noticing. Though the iPhone 7 was met with a collective ‘meh,’ the real impact is below the surface, where the world’s biggest company collides with tech’s biggest opportunity.

HomeAdvisor CEO’s Top 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Get Into the Home Services Market

HomeAdvisor CEO Chris Terrill has been helping people find, furnish, decorate, organize and fix their homes since 2011. Before that, he helped people find mates, watch movies at home, and manage their weight. On Oct. 25th in NYC, he’ll take the stage at Street Fight Summit.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Foresees All-Robotic Fleet by 2021, Oracle Launches Chatbot Dev Platform

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Says Robots Will Drive Most of its Cars by 2021… Oracle Launches a Chatbot Development Platform… How Tech Companies Disrupted Silicon Valley’s Restaurant Scene…

Street Culture: Trans-Atlantic Travel Helps Unacast’s Team Build Trust

Every month, one half of the company’s employees travel to visit the other half of the employees — the engineering team is located in Oslo, Norway and the commercial team is in New York City — as a culture-building activity, giving employees a chance to connect while in the same time zone.

Taking Proximity Tech Beyond Promotional Offers

Once a beacon program is successful with promotions, many retailers think they only need to maintain what they have. But the technology also affords retailers a number of other opportunities to reach and engage with customers beyond simply delivering offers.

LBMA Podcast: Everyware, Shake Shack, and Carling’s Beer Button

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: Delta Airlines + Snapchat, Revel Systems & Punchh, OfferUp gets $119M, Hilton Hotels, IKEA’s Dining Club, Trackr + Alexa, and Neiman Marcus.

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Boosts Ads for Brands, Google Acquires Urban Engines for Maps

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Instagram’s Deems Its Brand-Focused, Call-to-Action Ads Work in Progress… Google Acquires Urban Engines to Bolster Location-Based Analytics… Data-Driven Marketing is Driving More Revenues…