News and Analysis
Fresh Chalk Has a New Take on Local Reviews
Despite digital change, recommendations from friends remain one of the most credible forms of marketing. Now, a new startup called Fresh Chalk is aiming to capitalize on that, giving consumers a way to find local professionals with help from their friends.
Like Yelp, Facebook, Google, and other local business directories, Fresh Chalk is aiming to help people source recommendations from reliable, qualified businesses in their own communities. But unlike most other competitors in the market, Fresh Chalk is keeping a tight focus on personal connections.
This Largely Brick-and-Mortar Industry Is Resisting Digital Disruption
Despite Amazon’s high-profile acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017, grocery is the bastion of brick-and-mortar shopping proving unusually resistant to a takeover by digital channels. At least, that is the vision of consumers, only 15% of whom say they are excited about the technical “revolution” in grocery, according to a new report on the future of retail by Walker Sands.
Startups Adapt to Shifting Privacy Standards
Two steps forward, one step back. That’s what it can feel like to be a technology provider in the location marketing space right now, struggling to strike a balance between the demands of brand marketers and growing concerns over consumer privacy and data regulation.
That push and pull is challenging vendors in the location marketing space. At the same time their firms should be seeing exponential growth, data regulations—including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s forthcoming Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)—are establishing new rules for innovation.
But some companies are embracing the regulation as a challenge to innovate in its own right.
Commentary
Are We on the Brink of a Retail Revolution?
Revolutions often happen over short periods of time and leave death and carnage in their wake. What we are experiencing today in retail is more of an evolution — a sort of “survival of the fittest” as both local and big brand retailers either embrace shifting consumer shopping patterns or face extinction.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Mobile Advertising Dominance, Is This the Year for Beacons in Retail?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Cements Status as a Mobile Juggernaut with $4.2 Billion in Ad Revenue (Mashable)… Where Do Beacons Fit in the Retail Sensor Landscape? (Marketing Land)… Pinterest’s Plans for World Domination (Business Insider)…
Moving App Zootly Wants to Make Your Relocation On-Demand
Launched in 2015, the on-demand moving app connects anyone who needs a mover or delivery with a professional mover in minutes. Whether it’s for moving a couch, a whole home or even getting some big purchases home from a day of shopping, the idea is that you can get a van or a truck and some movers when and where the need arises.
6 Local Directories Every VSB Should Be On
Consumers are increasingly going online to research local services and products, but for very small businesses (VSBs), this trend is becoming a problem. Fifty-nine percent of VSBs still don’t have websites, with owners often citing perceived cost and lack of technical expertise as reasons why they haven’t made their way online. For business owners who […]
Street Fight Daily: In-Depth Look at Restaurant Tech, Consumers Getting Ads Through FB Messenger
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Restaurant OS (TechCrunch)… You Could Get Facebook Messenger Spam from Any Website You Visit (Business Insider)… Will Readers Pay for Local News? A Digital Startup in Tulsa Bets That They Will (Columbia Journalism Review)…
What It Takes for Legacy Media Companies to Innovate and Thrive
As the media industry spins further away from the long-established familiarity of print models, its companies — large and small, old and new, hyperlocal and international — are hurrying to implement a plan for sustainability. Three organizations with creative solutions spoke on a panel at Street Fight’s LOCALCON in London last week about their strategies.
Why Top Newspaper Groups Are Pitching New ‘Solutions’ to the Ad Market (Part 2)
Christian Hendricks, the longtime leader of McClatchy’s digital operations who was recently promoted to VP of Products, Marketing and Promotion, talks about at NMS from the perspective of one of its four founding newspaper groups, and discusses its relationship to the 3-year-old Local Media Consortium.
Street Fight Daily: Gannett Makes Offer for Tribune Publishing, UPS Focuses on SMBs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Tribune Publishing Is Weighing a Surprise Offer from Gannett (Poynter)… The UPS Store Will Kick Off ‘Small Biz Salute’ for Small Business Week (AdAge)… Leaked Postmates Financials Suggest Company Might Be Doing Better Than Everyone Thought (TechCrunch)…
5 Hyperlocal Q&A Services That Connect Merchants to Customers
Most merchants think they’re reaching a targeted demographic when they advertise on neighborhood blogs or run geofencing campaigns, but a new type of hyperlocal marketing platform is taking consumer targeting one step further and giving merchants an organic way to connect with consumers who are primed and ready to convert.
How Facebook Helps Small Businesses Stay Relevant on Mobile
In a presentation at LOCALCON in London last week, Facebook’s product manager for local ads, Joe Devoy, took the stage to talk about how the company thinks about serving small businesses. The speech reflected the company’s broader strategy: build so many everyday functions into the Facebook mobile app that no one ever really has to leave it.
Why Top Newspaper Groups Are Pitching New ‘Solutions’ to the Ad Market (Part 1)
The top four newspaper groups in the country — Gannett, Tribune Publishing, McClatchy and Hearst — have formed a national network called Nucleus Marketing Solutions. Street Fight recently spoke with NMS’s CEO Seth Rogin, about the push-pull dynamics involved in creating and monetizing quality journalism online.
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The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation