News and Analysis

By Unlocking Vehicle Data, Car Rental Companies Help Build Smarter Cities

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As operator of three of the most recognized brands in the industry — Avis, Budget and Zipcar — Avis Budget Group represents a mobility ecosystem of more than 11,000 locations in approximately 180 countries. The company recently partnered with the connected-car data firm Otonomo to manage its connected cars on Otonomo’s automotive data services platform. Otonomo will help ABG derive insights from its large connected vehicle fleet, including anonymizing, standardizing, and delivering data from Toyota, Ford, Peugeot and GM vehicles.

The deal between ABG and Otonomo is expected to generate more than 4 billion road miles of data this year, and 7 billion road miles of data by 2020, with much of that data being used for predictive maintenance, smart city planning, and streamlining of the rental process.

5 Business Models for On-Demand Delivery

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In the on-demand food delivery vertical alone, revenue is expected to reach $94 billion this year. Other verticals, like beauty, parking, health, shipping, and marijuana, are seeing significant gains, as well. Although the space is maturing, investors are still seeing great growth opportunities. Any number of on-demand delivery startups has the potential to take over the space if it continues to grow as its current pace.

To understand where that growth might occur, we need to take a step back and examine which business models are proving most successful in the on-demand delivery space and how startups are implementing those business models for financial gain.

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How Retailers Are Reaching Back-to-School Shoppers

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It’s that time of the year. As summertime comes to an end, parents around the country have started filling up shopping carts with pencils, notebooks, and binders. Families in the U.S. are expected to spend an average of $696 on back-to-school supplies this year, the highest amount ever recorded by the National Retail Federation.

Back-to-school shopping has become an important event for retailers like Target, Walmart, and Office Depot. While ecommerce is king at other times of the year, parents shopping for their kids’ back-to-school supplies are just as likely to shop in-store as they are online.

Commentary

Understanding Facebook’s Place as a Small Business Marketing Vehicle

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“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

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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.

Retailers Need to Use Tech to Work Smarter, Not Harder

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To have any chance for long term survival, retailers and brands need to bring more technology to bear in operating their businesses, enabling them to work smarter, not harder. Here are some strategic ways big retailers can use technology.

Latest Posts

Street Culture: Glympse Builds an Open Community to Empower Staff

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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

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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.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Starts Selling Off-Site Ads, Snapchat Scores $1.8 Billion

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Starts Selling Off-Site Ads Targeting Non-Users Too… Snapchat Raises $1.8 Billion In New Funding Round… The Future of Voice-Related SEO for Local Business…

Connecting Dots in the Path to Purchase, Empyr Focuses on Pay-Per-Sale for SMBs

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The company’s CEO Jon Carder says that when you can prove attribution to local marketers, their rate of attrition drops dramatically: “It just gets incredibly better because there’s proof of how well the advertising’s working.” Empyr’s solution for attribution connects credit card information with mobile impressions.

New App From GoDaddy Wants to Help Entrepreneurs Brainstorm Business Ideas

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The app is a community space that fields and vets ideas from its users. People can log on and anonymously enter a concept they have for say, starting a local gardening service and receive support and advice in the form of “loves” — which is sort of like a Facebook like.

Local Papers’ Love-Hate Relationship With Facebook Is Proving a Heartbreaker

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What if local newspapers, instead of chasing after ever-bigger traffic numbers via platforms like Facebook, cultivated fewer but more receptive users — the kind that would be more attentive to advertising messages, especially if the messages had less blare and more flair. Could going deeper on community coverage result in higher CPMs?

Street Fight Daily: Uber and Foursquare Join Forces, Twitter Disbands Commerce Team

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber and Foursquare Team Up to Make It Easier to Find Your Destination… Heavy-Hitter Investors Plan a For-Profit Launch Next Month in Denver… Twitter Disbands Commerce Team, Ceases Product Development on ‘Buy’ Button…

PlaceIQ Releases Location Data Accuracy Study, Debuts ‘Dynamic Distancing’ Tech

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The company has released the results of an independent, third-party analysis of location data accuracy in 150 locations across five U.S. cities and also announced the launch of its Dynamic Distancing technology, which it says offers comprehensive, “reality-based” data for use by brands and marketers.

Yelp’s Richard: Local Will See a ‘Tendency Toward Collaboration’

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Like many other companies with location at their core, Yelp is in the process of morphing its fundamental offering into something more. The company is hoping its user reviews are just the groundwork for a more holistic service for merchants and customers alike.

Street Fight Daily: Google Maps to Feature Local Ads, Foursquare’s Restaurants Bot

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Maps Will Feature Local Search Ads for Businesses… PlaceIQ Releases Location Data Accuracy Study, Debuts ‘Dynamic Distancing’ Tech… Foursquare Just Quietly Released a Bot for Finding Restaurants…