News and Analysis

How VR and AR Are Changing the Car-Buying Experience

Share this:

New cars are incredibly expensive, and most people don’t feel comfortable picking a vehicle based exclusively on two-dimensional images and whatever data they can pull up on the Kelley Blue Book website. Consumers don’t want to go into dealerships, either, so they end up delaying their purchases for as long as possible.

RelayCars thinks it has a solution.

The company has put together a program that uses augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to help consumers research new cars and trucks. Getting a realistic view of a vehicle from their own homes helps users narrow down their selections and decreases the time shoppers need to spend test driving multiple cars.

Digital Advertisers Look to Connected Cars to Push Industry Forward

Share this:

As the industry continues to evolve, Geopath’s Kym Frank predicts that two-way communication between cars and advertisers will become even more commonplace and OOH strategies that involve connected vehicle data will be the norm among major brand advertisers.

“The car itself can communicate with digital displays to trigger optimal creative, and the billboard can communicate with the dash to trigger in-app ads,” Frank says. “We are at the very beginning of seeing what is possible and measuring those impacts.”

Airship Acquires Apptimize to Sharpen Mobile Marketing Experiences

Share this:

Airship rebranded to emphasize its shift from push notifications to a broader suite of messaging tools. Apptimize will help its clients iterate across channels and solutions as they attempt to find the best way to reach customers flooded with marketing and other kinds of media.

Commentary

Google’s Next Local Conquest: Visual Search

Share this:

Indoor mapping continues to be one of those “holy grail” topics in local. It picks up where GPS drops off, tracking consumers all the way to the cash register. The latest move comes from Google, with an approach that could leapfrog beacons by using the positioning capability already in your phone (or soon will be).

Understanding Facebook’s Place as a Small Business Marketing Vehicle

Share this:

“While [Facebook is] not yet anywhere near Google’s ability to generate leads, I have, over the past 6 months, started to see them surpassing Yelp in driving local key performance indicators on the pre-sale side,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm.

‘Deep Audience’: Reach, the Location-Rich Media-Mix, and the Whole Marketing Picture

Share this:

TV and other legacy platforms are evolving to become more precise. These forces reflect brands’ desire to reach the people they’ve identified as most amenable to their products, and they reflect the desire to do so with messaging that is deeply relevant to consumers’ lifestyles and interests.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Uber Closes $3.5 Billion Round, Mary Meeker’s 2016 ‘Internet Trends’

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Turns to Saudi Arabia for $3.5 Billion Cash Infusion… 7 Key Data Points from Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report… Facebook Says Its New Tech Can Understand Text With ‘Near-Human’ Accuracy…

FiveStars Digs Deeper Into Customer Data to Get Beyond ‘Loyalty’

Share this:

FiveStars co-founder and CEO Victor Ho, who will be a speaker at Street Fight Summit West next week, caught up with us recently to talk about the efficiency of retention marketing, the shift from daily deals to digital loyalty programs, and what analyzing the trove of SMB consumer data can potentially yield.

7 Automated Customer Service Solutions for Merchants

Share this:

Savvy business owners are looking for ways they can use hyperlocal technology to manage the increasing number of customer requests, issues, and even complaints, without taking time away from the hundreds of other tasks they juggle on a daily basis. Here are seven examples of platforms that can help businesses react nimbly and effectively.

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Apes Facebook’s Ad Biz, Uber’s Leasing Expansion

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Salesforce Buys Demandware for $2.8 Billion, Taking a Big Step Into E-Commerce… Instagram’s Ad Business Starting to Look More and More Like Facebook’s… Inside Uber’s Auto-Lease Machine, Where Almost Anyone Can Get a Car…

DoorDash CEO: Opportunity in Local Delivery Is ‘Vast’

Share this:

“The core thesis … is to build a new type of logistics company where we’re using software that makes a lot of decisions previously made by humans,” said DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, who will be a keynote speaker at Street Fight Summit West. We spoke with him about scoring funding in a cooling investment market and the future of delivery as the company’s primary service.

Sussing Out Google’s Master Plan in the Post-App Era

Share this:

Google’s counter-attack to the world of apps can be seen in several places. In fact most Google moves are to drive mobile behavior through its front door. This principle underpinned nearly every announcement at Google I/O.

Sponsored Post: Infographic—How SMBs Need to Do Local Marketing

Share this:

There is no better way for a local business to get its digital marketing in place than through a full understanding of key tools; by linking up with a digital agency; and focusing efforts on one channel that delivers powerful results. For the past four weeks in this space, LocalVox has delivered those insights and hands-on tactics, plus resources to provide SMBs a clear path to getting started and succeeding…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Working on Major Siri Update, Facebook to Boost Branded Content

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple is Working on an AI System that Tops Google’s and Everyone Else’s… Facebook Set to Foster Popularity of Branded Content… The Facebook Papers Part 4: What’s a Publisher to Do?…

Street Culture: Glympse Builds an Open Community to Empower Staff

Share this:

The company has relied heavily on employees to be efficient outside of their comfort zones. Co-founder and CEO Bryan Trussel said that he hopes Glympse is a fun and challenging place to work, and he believes empowering employees is one way to make sure that happens.

5 On-Demand Platforms for Lawn Care

Share this:

Hyperlocal technology providers believe they can be the conduit to connect homeowners with landscaping professionals, and they’re using the same on-demand model as startups like Uber, Handy, and Instacart to make it happen. Here are five examples.