News and Analysis

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Report: Text Messages, Online Chat Essential Channels for Businesses

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More than 70% of US consumers polled in a survey commissioned by business messaging platform Quiq had engaged with businesses via text messaging or online chat two or more times in the previous month.

That should be a signal to businesses that email and phone are no longer sufficient; messaging will be key to survival for consumer-facing businesses of the future.

Amazon is Making Meaningful Gains in Search Ad Market

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It will be key to see if the pace of Amazon’s overall and search ad revenue slows down in the next few years as it exhausts. For now, its ad success is just one more sign, like the news that it will likely sell its Go tech to retailers, that Amazon can find and dominate new businesses beyond its core identity as the Everything Store. 

Retail as a Service: Amazon Tips its Hand

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Amazon has a knack for moving into new vertical segments and then applying its logistical mastery and economies of scale to carve out margins and undercut incumbents. Then, it doubles down by scaling things up to its signature high-volume/low-margin approach. As Jeff Bezos ruthlessly admits, “Your margin is my opportunity.”

The latest place for this to unfold is retail. No, we’re not talking about Whole Foods, though that’s part it (more on that in a bit). We’re talking about Amazon’s transformation of the in-store experience — upending and streamlining logistics just like it’s done in shipping and cloud computing.

Here are some predictions for how Amazon’s disruption of retail via licensing of its Go technology will upend the industry.

Commentary

Is Snapchat Quietly Redefining Local?

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Snapchat’s recent moves and related developments seem to indicate an emerging redefinition of what it means to be digitally local, a redefinition that is happening under our noses and without much fanfare as Snapchat works to gain and maintain the eyeballs of Millennials.

Local Providers Should Take Care in Interpreting Big Mobile Advertising Numbers

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One of the key themes of Mary Meeker’s annual presentation was mobile advertising — its growth, targeting, and measurability. But recent Street Fight surveys of SMBs and brand marketers indicate that mobile still has surprisingly low usage and perceived effectiveness.

How Sports Marketers Can Extend Their Brands and Win Big This Summer

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With so much opportunity — and competition — how can marketers stand out from the crowd and forge meaningful relationships with sports fans? Here are some best practices that will enable marketers to identify their perfect audiences and build lifelong relationships with fans.

Latest Posts

Why Attributes and Identities Matter in Local Search

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Google continues to remind businesses that location data is the foundation of their brands. The question is whether your business is taking advantage of the opportunities Google is creating to use location data to build your brand.

5 Pay-by-Mobile Vendors for On-Demand Parking

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Parking is among the most popular uses for mobile payments, with 19% of consumers having paid for parking with their smartphones and 26% indicating they’d be interested in doing so. Here are five examples of vendors offering mobile payment parking solutions right now.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Opens Up Siri and Maps to Developers, Snapchat Ad Expansion

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple is Opening Up Siri, Maps, and Messages to Outside Development… Snapchat Launches a Colossal Advertising Expansion, Ushering in a New Era for the App… Google Pairs Facial Recognition with Location Tracking, Potentially Boosting Available Location Data…

Bypassing the Hurdles to Bring Programmatic to SMB Advertisers

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SMB advertisers care about reaching consumers, not the nitty gritty of technology covered in the ad trades. Local media companies and smaller agencies should focus on how programmatic technology helps them sell that outcome, rather than get stuck selling the technology itself.

BUST: A Hard Landing as Soft Surroundings Files for Bankruptcy

Case Study: Virginia Retail Chain Shifts Print Ad Budget to Social Channels

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Kim Glover, A. Dodson’s director of marketing, says that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest make up the core of the retailer’s online marketing program — however the company is “always ready to evolve” with its customers as new platforms gain in popularity and usage.

Street Fight Daily: Microsoft to Buy LinkedIn, Google Maps Local Search Ads

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 10 Things to Know About the New Google Maps Local Search Ads… Siri To Be the Focus of Apple’s Developers Conference… What Happened to Austin When Uber and Lyft Left Town …

8 More Community Sites Climb to Michele’s List Revenue Pinnacle in 2016

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Overall, 78% of the 96 sites in the closely watched survey of independent news sites reported revenue increases in 2015, with 13% saying they doubled revenue and close to a third reporting gains of 50%.

Street Culture: Birdzi Finds ‘Liberation’ in Lack of Corporate Hierarchy

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“What happens a lot of times in corporations is you find that decisions are made that can’t be questioned,” says CEO Shekar Ramen. “We don’t have any of that and we want to maintain the flat nature of our company as much as possible.”

Street Fight Daily: Uber Launches Advance Scheduling, Verizon-Yahoo Plot Thickens

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Begins Letting Passengers Schedule Rides Up to 30 Days in Advance… Verizon Might Have to Pay for More Pieces of Yahoo Than It Wants… Attention Facebook and Google: Apple is Selling Mobile App Ads Now, Too…

Picking the Locksmiths: Bizyhood Unlocks the ‘Ghosts in the Data’ Problem

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What would you do if you wanted to game Google into thinking you’ve got a vast network of local shops servicing area customers based on their search queries? According to a recent New York Times article, some lead gen companies are creating thousands of ghost listings to achieve just this. Bizyhood is trying to combat the practice.