News and Analysis
How the Rise of Unbranded Search Upends Restaurant, Retail, and Grocery Strategy
Fueled by the growth of mobile and set to rocket even further north in coming years thanks to voice, unbranded searches like “burgers near me” or “Thai food” are growing as fast as 113% year over year, according to a fresh study by multi-location marketing firm MomentFeed. Unbranded search grew about 30% from 2016 to ’17 and 56% the following year before doubling pace in 2018-19, suggesting the slope of this trend’s adoption could get even steeper in coming years.
Valentine’s Day Boosts Entertainment, Food, and Social Apps
The data shows that Valentine’s Day marks a major uptick in app usage across verticals. Compared to an average February day last year, on Valentine’s Day, entertainment app usage was up 24%, food and drink apps 20%, and social 16%. Consumers also spent an unusual amount of time on transport (7%) and gaming (6%) apps.
Voice Tech Could Transform Loyalty Programs. Here’s How
Within the hospitality industry, a growing number of hotels are using voice technology to improve personalization with experiences like virtual concierges. Virtual concierges use voice technology to personalize a guest’s stay by offering experiences based on past behavior. For example, virtual concierges can adjust thermostats or place room service orders based on a traveler’s previous preferences. When hotels and other hospitality brands take action based on the insights gathered about guests through their loyalty programs, they improve the overall guest experience.
But brands in a number of industries are exploring loyalty use cases for voice.
Commentary
Taking the Pulse of the Location Data Ecosystem
Companies selling location and proximity data and services themselves concede that it’s a pretty small market, but that location data is an increasingly critical signal for a variety of marketing, operations, and product features well beyond mobile advertising.
Where Will VR Fit Into Local Advertising?
How will advertising play out in (admittedly nascent) VR, especially in local? We’ll likely see the same early and ongoing misfires, such as banner ads. Or, as in video experiences, we’ll likely see a fair share of legacy formats — like pre-roll ads — ham-handedly shoehorned into VR.
The New ‘Location, Location, Location’ in Retail
“The new consumer (and search) paradigm favors small-scale, hyper-focused boutiques close to population centers as opposed to horizontal big box retailers on suburban commercial strips,” David Mihm says to Mike Blumenthal in their bi-weekly conversation.
Latest Posts
7 Call Analytics Platforms Using Machine Learning to Identify Caller Intent
Providers are introducing adaptive learning technology to categorize data and generate insights from inbound phone calls, giving merchants the ability to better understand what types of telephone calls are being driven. Here are seven examples of call analytics and attribution providers using advanced technology to identify caller intent.
Street Fight Daily: Shopper Intent and Location, Brands Tap Pokémon Go
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… flok Launches Chatbots to Bolster Customer Engagement for Local Businesses… Can Insights on Shopper Intent Improve Location Data?… This Brand Found a Clever Way to Connect with Pokémon Go Players…
flok Launches Chatbots to Bolster Customer Engagement for Local Businesses
With chatbot technology, communications between local businesses and their customers via flok can now evolve into more complex conversations. These conversations yield better data for the business owner and more detailed information as well as a more engaging customer service experience for the consumer.
The New Proximity: A Second Phase in Mobile Brings Here and Now to Life
The first phase of mobile software relied on us to express a desire and thereby to enable a service. Our actions initiated services that capitalized on the phone’s ability to maximize proximity. Now we’re entering a second phase where, for many of us, connectivity and location awareness will be active for longer stretches of our days.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Debuts Attribution Dashboard, MyTaxi Merges with Hailo
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare Debuts a Dashboard for its Foot Traffic Measurement System… MyTaxi Reportedly to Merge with Hailo in Bid to Compete with Uber… Verizon-Yahoo Deal is the Best Possible Outcome for Consumers and Marketers…
YP Announces New ‘Audience Cartography’ Platform for Targeting and Attribution
YP has announced the release of its new location data visualization methodology, Audience Cartography, which allows multi-location businesses such as restaurants, retailers, and auto dealers to refine advertising campaign targeting and establish attribution.
Mihm & Blumenthal: How Google’s Monetization Shift Will Impact Local Search
In this new feature, local marketing gurus David Mihm and Mike Blumenthal kick around some of the biggest ideas affecting the local search ecosystem and the broader industry. This edition looks at the latest changes from Google and how local marketers should react.
Case Study: Sailing Company Leverages Online Reviews to Maximize Sales
Online reviews can make or break a business in the tourism industry, which is one of the reasons why Kai Kanani Sailing Charters is pulling out all the stops to drive a higher volume of reviews on third-party websites like Yelp, Facebook, and TripAdvisor..
Street Fight Daily: Verizon Acquires Yahoo, Retailers Leverage Instagram for Loyalty
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Cuts $4.8 Billion Deal to Sell Core Business to Verizon… How Retailers Like Michael Kors Are Turning Instagram Into a Customer-Loyalty Vehicle… Retail Emails Lead to Quick Sales…
Street Culture: Promoboxx Links Incentives to Achievements
CEO Ben Carcio said that it dawned on him one day that his employees would probably enjoy the perks of the job more if they were linked to company goals. One of the most recent incentives that the Promoboxx team earned was half day Fridays for the summer after hitting a revenue goal during the first week of June.
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature