News and Analysis
5 Innovative Ways to Use AR in Holiday Marketing
A technology that was once considered to be on the fringes of digital marketing has moved into the mainstream, as retailers around the country find new ways to use AR in their 2019 holiday campaigns. From virtual try-ons to camera filters designed to drive people into physical store locations, there’s no limit to the number of ways creative marketers can use AR. Enterprising retailers are capitalizing on the momentum as they come up with smarter ways to help shoppers contextually visualize what products will look like on their bodies and in their homes.
Let’s take a look at how five major companies are using AR for holiday marketing this year.
6 Trends to Watch in Holiday Search Marketing
With fewer than two months to go until Christmas, retailers are already kicking their holiday search marketing tactics into high gear. Holiday sales this year are expected to increase roughly 4% over 2018, according to the National Retail Federation, and consumers are expected to be especially price-conscious. How will the retail industry respond to the changing dynamics in search marketing?
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest trends expected to influence holiday search marketing this year, from tactics for extending the local reach of holiday campaigns and how those tactics convert customers at the point of decision to newer products like Local Inventory Ads, which allows marketers to feed store-level inventory into Google search.
In Fitness Industry, Vertical Platforms Cater to Specialized Operations
Online appointment booking platforms are a dime a dozen, used by businesses in a huge range of industries. But among fitness businesses, specifically, general use booking platforms aren’t very common. That’s because fitness businesses are more likely to use vertical-specific tools designed to meet the needs of specialized operations.
Perhaps more so than any other industry, health and wellness has shown a great desire for verticalized technology solutions. Although verticalization isn’t limited to the health and wellness industry, fitness studios and related businesses are much more likely to use technology platforms designed specifically for their industry.
Commentary
Charting Google’s Shifting Priorities in the New Local Search Survey
For many years, Physical Address in City of Search was the most important ranking factor, but it has now been overtaken by Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance). As such, the canonical local search use case has become a mobile user searching for a business nearby his or her current location.
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.”
The Evolution of Location-Based Targeting
The technical methodologies and approaches for answering the question of where a device is (or what the user is doing) are not all created equal, and it’s worth taking a look at the different methodologies and how they are evolving.
Latest Posts
Swirl Looks to Close the Digital Divide Between E-Commerce and Physical Stores
Pushing back against a shifting tide and changing consumer behavior won’t be easy, but executives at in-store digital marketing technology provider Swirl believe they can change the way consumers shop. Hilmi Ozguc, Swirl’s CEO, says the key will be arming physical retailers with the same datasets as e-commerce giants.
Pasadena Now: 20 Articles Daily and 75 Advertisers — But Big Challenges As Well
“We built an online community newspaper the old-fashioned way — with daily deadlines, plenty of shoe leather and a grueling schedule of personally attending dozens of community events every month,” publisher James Macpherson says about his 12-year-old local news site.
Street Fight Daily: Google Debuts Assistant, Investors Losing Interest in Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Meet Google Assistant: A New Search Platform, Rather Than A Gadget or an App… Swirl Looks to Close the Digital Divide Between E-Commerce and Physical Stores
ClipCall Uses Mobile and Video to Help Consumers Connect With Home Service Providers
Lots of companies have taken a whack at the local home services space — from Angie’s List to a raft of startups. ClipCall, which came out of beta in January and will present t Street Fight summit West on June 7th, relies on customers using the company’s app to record video of a job they need doing and then sends that video out to nearby experts.
How True Religion Uses Wearables to Elevate the Shopping Experience
“It’s no secret that today’s retail landscape has shifted from ‘shopping efficiency’ to experiential. Customers want and expect elevated treatment from their brands. Specifically, brands that they frequent,” says the company’s SVP for direct to consumer, John Hazen.
Street Fight Daily: Google to Introduce Echo Rival, Amazon to Open More Stores
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google To Introduce its Voice-Activated Home Device… Amazon To Open More Brick-and-Mortar Stores, Beef Up Prime Services… ClipCall Uses Mobile and Video to Help Consumers Connect with Home Service Providers…
Unacast Raises $5 Million to Build Out Its Beacon Network
CEO Thomas Walle (who will be speaking at #SFSW16 in just three weeks) says the company will use the funding to develop more partnerships to build out its network of proximity companies so that it can use the aggregate data to “index the physical world.”
Sponsored Post: 5 Social Media Mistakes SMBs Make — and How to Fix Them
Whether an SMB uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and/or Pinterest or other networks, they need to consider the following mistakes they can make and how to successfully navigate the sometimes-choppy waters as they grow their social media presence and customer engagement…
Weighing the Local Promise of Bots and Conversational Commerce
Are bots the future of the internet? Maybe, maybe not; like the buzz around Google Glass in 2013, we’re in the midst of a moment when it’s hard to tell the difference between hype and technological breakthrough.
Street Fight Daily: Product Ads Come to Google Image Search, Weighing Bots’ Promise
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Product Listing Ads Officially Launch in Image Search… MCX, the Big Retailer Answer to Apple Pay, Announces Layoffs and Another Product Delay… Amazon Launches Restaurant Delivery in Manhattan with More Than 350 Eateries
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