News and Analysis
Strategy for Bolstering Brand Safety Online Combines AI, Human Linguists
Despite promises that they would do better, platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and others are still struggling with the issue. Brands don’t want their ads appearing alongside extremist content and hate speech, but flagging every piece of content that could be considered inappropriate is not an easy task.
The challenge has opened the door for a new industry of “authenticators,” which use technology to help brands avoid inappropriate content online. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, these technology providers are usually able to evaluate the quality of an ad impression in real-time and help their brand clients avoid anything that could be considered inappropriate. Or at least, that’s what the goal is.
Pared Expands to DC, Connecting Gig Economy Workers with Restaurants
Pared, the platform matching restaurant and hospitality workers with businesses in need of staff to cover shifts, is expanding to DC. Pared is already live in New York and San Francisco, and it plans to expand to Philadelphia, Boston, and other locations in 2020.
The San Francisco-headquartered startup claims its service offers a prime deal for workers and businesses alike. It says it offers hospitality and food service workers higher wages and flexibility while offering businesses a ready workforce amid perennially high turnover in the industry.
Google Revises Policy Asking Users for Permission to Listen to Their Assistant Recordings
The fact that this was an open practice that at least some consumers simply did not understand they were either opting into or automatically participating in points to calls for greater transparency and regulation. Google says it “fell short” of its “high standards” on the issue, but legislation like Europe’s GDPR, CCPA, and legislation in some 10 other US states indicates those standards may be imposed on tech companies by government agencies going forward.
Commentary
The Current State of Google Maps — Fake News, Fake Reviews
“It’s incredible to me that given all of Google’s focus on new local products that they are still getting some of the basics wrong,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “People who rely on Google more and more to find local businesses need to know that the fundamental metric of the business quality, reviews, is fair and well policed.”
Report: Most Local Merchants Will Increase Marketing and Shift Budgets to Digital this Year
The majority of local businesses are increasing their spending on advertising and marketing this year, and they’re shifting their dollars towards a broad variety of digital tactics. Those are two of the key findings from Street Fight’s just-released study, The Local Merchant Report 2017. Our analysis also revealed a pattern of momentum spending that makes a […]
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Connecting Dots in the Path to Purchase, Empyr Focuses on Pay-Per-Sale for SMBs
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.
Local Papers’ Love-Hate Relationship With Facebook Is Proving a Heartbreaker
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
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
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.
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