News and Analysis
Coronavirus and Mobile Advertising: CPMs, Sensitivity, Geographic Comparisons
The Covid-19 crisis is a challenging time for all industries, but for mobile marketers it poses a paradoxical challenge. On the one hand, people are on their phones and engaging with media as much as ever. On the other hand, the economic downturn is putting a strain on marketing budgets, employees are working from home, and messaging during a public health crisis requires unusual sensitivity.
Brian Bowman, CEO of social marketing and user acquisition firm Customer Acquisition, provided Street Fight his takes on the current state of the mobile ad market, where it’s headed in the coming weeks, and how advertisers can approach their work with consideration for the difficulty of these times.
Street Fight’s April Theme: Local Commerce in the Time of Coronavirus
We’ll devote coverage this month to the virus’ continued outbreak and its effect on local business. Of course, the airwaves and ether are already filled with pandemic coverage, and we won’t look to compete with that. Rather, we’ll be writing specifically about the crisis’ impact on local commerce, marketing, and related subjects.
In fact, we’ve already gotten started. Our March theme of reputation management barely got off the ground before we and many of our contributors came to the realization that it didn’t really feel right to talk about anything other than Covid-19. Don’t worry, we’ll give reputation management an encore performance later in the year.
This Startup Is Helping Local Stores ID Customers During COVID-19
Chatbots are helping resolve customer service issues when businesses are closed and call centers are slammed, but brick-and-mortar stores are still struggling to adapt to an online-only business format. Pure play ecommerce outlets have spent years developing systems to manage transactions and verify customer identities, but most retailers on Main Street are accustomed to seeing shoppers in person and visually checking IDs.
A San Francisco-based startup called Persona is offering to help those local businesses adapt by giving away its online ID verification service for free during the COVID-19 crisis.
Commentary
Social Media Gets the Local Spending Growth, Partly by Default
Social media is widely used — and deemed particularly effective — by SMBs. But when you dig deeper, it looks like most local marketers are using social media as substitute for display advertising (and to reach mobile audiences) rather than as a uniquely local or even “social” medium.
How Voice Assistants Could Transform Local (Part II)
Voice assistants continue to evolve as a medium for local search, as I examined here last month. But what does it mean for local media players and startups? If consumers are increasingly searching with voice, how do you wedge your way into that conversation?
Facebook Local: The Launch We’ve All Been Waiting For?
Last week’s rebranding of its Events app as Facebook Local could be Facebook’s long-awaited foray into serious competition with the Googles and Yelps of the world for market share in local search. Meanwhile, another Facebook local product, Marketplace, has proved to be a sleeping giant.
Latest Posts
XPlenty CEO: Pokemon Go Data’s Usefulness Depends on Integration and Visualization Strategies
“It’s pretty difficult to get access to location data,” says Yaniv Mor. “There are quite a few companies today that are starting to provide products for smaller businesses that will help them take advantage of location data, but at this scale — hundreds of millions of users — that’s something that we haven’t seen yet.”
Case Study: Rhode Island Spa Looks to Automate Repetitive Marketing Tasks
When Alayne White first started using an online booking portal at her eponymous Rhode Island spa, her goal was to get just 10% of clients to book online. Eight years later, she’s inching closer to the 50% threshold, as nearly half of her clients are booking their appointments through desktop and mobile devices.
Street Fight Daily: Uber Tried to Buy Lyft, Google Helps Brick-and-Mortar Biz
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Tried to Buy Lyft in 2014 But Negotiations Fell Apart Over Price… Google Helps Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Turn Mobile Scrolling Into In-Person Buying… With Facebook’s Power Growing, Publishers Scramble to Connect Directly with Audiences…
Why Data Attributes Power the Long Tail of Local Search
The mandate for brands is simple: manage data attributes as a crucial element of your location marketing strategy. But it’s not enough to create attributes. You need to constantly monitor the ever-changing nature of your business and your customers and be ready to act on your attributes as needed.
5 Predictive Ordering Platforms for Restaurants
One area where restaurant owners struggle is inventory management — that is, predicting how many diners will show up at a given time and how much food they’ll consume. But many restaurant owners don’t realize that a number of hyperlocal platforms are already offering solutions to help with this issue.
Street Fight Daily: Google Updates Analytics App, Ad Buyers Talk Digital Platforms
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Updates Analytics App, Providing Insights in Five Minutes… What Ad Buyers Think About Facebook, Twitter, and Everything In Between… To Run a Killer Loyalty Program, Retailers Need to Think Big…
Street Culture: Rebuilt After Layoffs, Extole Keeps Culture at the Fore
“When you have a transition where there’s a new CEO and the company is basically in crisis, it seems like, ‘Oh, this is a perfect time for values,’” said Extole’s Matt Roche. “But it’s unbelievably hard to implement new core values when everyone’s afraid.”
xAd Foot Traffic Data Reveals QSR Trends, Maps Audience Segmentation Opportunities
At a high level, the report, based on 37 million visits xAd observed on its platform from April 1 to June 30, gives us the inside track on which brands have been the most successful in driving foot traffic to their premises — and which brands have a way to go.
LBMA Podcast: TripAdvisor Buys CityMaps, Google SMB, Placed.
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: Yik Yak, Cintas, Drawbridge + WeatherAlpha, Wayfair going VR, Hey Area, Shelfbucks + Great Northern Instore, and Retale.
Street Fight Daily: Reassessing Ride-Sharing’s Hold on Consumers, Facebook’s Publishing Disruption
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Reassessing Ride-Sharing’s Relationship with Consumers… Facebook, Header Bidding, and the Fight for Control of the Publisher Ecosystem… These 11 Brands Are Already Using Instagram’s Latest Feature…
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature