News and Analysis

Report: DTC Brands Outperform Traditional Retail, Win Over Gen-Z

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As the millennial generation settles down and moves into its 30s, retailers are looking at a new group of consumers as the most coveted demographic. Generation Z—born between 1994 and 2002—is forming its own identity and seeking out different shopping experiences than its older counterparts.

A new report, released by the location intelligence platform Ubimo, finds that Generation Z shows a surprising preference for physical stores, although members of this group aren’t interested in shopping so much as experiencing new products in-store.

Heard on the Street, Episode 29: Push Notifications and Tech History, with Airship’s Mike Stone

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Airship has been innovating around push notifications for more than a decade, a lifetime in internet years. Airship SVP of Marketing Mike Stone, the latest guest on Street Fight’s Heard on the Street podcast, broke down the company’s approach to the mobile marketing business.

“There are two dimensions. One is the proliferation of devices and the channels that are attached to them, but there’s also that much more difficult thing of what consumers are willing to do,” said Stone. “The devices are one thing, but it’s also, once they’re there, where’s that line of creepy versus helpful.”

Fresh Chalk Has a New Take on Local Reviews

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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.

Commentary

Why Back-end Tech Is Key for Food Delivery Startups

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Outside of college campuses, local food delivery startups generally have larger neighborhoods to cover and customers with more niche needs. This may be why some of the biggest names in local delivery don’t seem as different at first glance, because their focus is on the back-end.

Mobile Marketing and the YouTube Cookie Shift

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Google recently announced that YouTube will turn to logged-in user data to verify views and ensure that relevant advertising reaches the right consumers. This will allow publishers, brands, and marketing to draw on all the highly contextual demographic and behavioral data that Google gathers from mobile consumers.

The AI Wars in Local Have Already Begun

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This AI-centric battle is being waged by heavier contenders than any before it, including Apple (Siri), Amazon (Alexa), and Google (Assistant). They’re each basing battle plans on their current positioning and biggest assets, and the winner will sway the next era of local commerce.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Google Will Offer Home Phone Service, Lyft Introduces New Carpooling Feature

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Fiber’s Latest Innovation Is a Landline (TechCrunch)… Lyft Wants to Make ‘Casual Carpooling’ a Thing Again (The Verge)… Digital Neck-and-Neck with TV Ad Spend in the U.S. (eMarketer)…

Case Study: Law Firm Uses Social Channels to Amplify Messaging to Prospects

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“Marketing for law firms generally is something that not even 20 years ago was considered somewhat taboo,” Mike Mellor says. “The folks in law firms have had some catching up to do in regards to driving cultural change and getting attorneys comfortable with the concept of marketing and new business development.”

Augmenting the Local Shopping Reality

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“I believe we are now at the tipping point where both AR and VR are set to become accepted into the mainstream and in a few years will play an integral part in all our lives,” says Amplified Robot’s Steve Dann.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Messenger Could Be the Next PayPal, Uber Won’t Go Public Anytime Soon

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Facebook Messenger Might Become Your New Mobile Wallet (Marketing Land)… Uber IPO Uber-Unlikely (CNBC)… Searching For Google CEO Sundar Pichai (BuzzFeed)…

9 Killer Location Features for Retailer Mobile Apps

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Retail apps have a reputation for being bulky and unnecessary, and for taking up space on consumers’ phones without delivering enough benefit. Going forward, the key for retailers looking to gain traction with their branded mobile apps will be integration with more location-based components.

Service Marketplace Lead Gen — What Color Do Disruptors Bleed?

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Marketplaces are sexy. They have disrupted long-standing lead-gen sources like Google, Craigslist, HomeAdvisor, and Angie’s List — all of which caused disruption within yellow pages years before.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Launches Waze Integration, ‘Platform Relationship Specialists’ Emerge

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Waze Integration for Drivers Rolls Out Nationwide in Lyft’s Mobile App (TechCrunch)… The Rise of the Publishing Platform Specialist (Wall Street Journal)… Publishers See Rising Premium on Mobile Advertising (AdExchanger)…

Raise Report: New funding for DoorDash, Handshake, GoCardless

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Marley Spoon, a startup that delivers ingredients needed for specific recipes to users, has raised $17 million and some of the other top funding news of the past week in this week’s Raise Report.

Promotions and New Hires at Amazon, Nuts.com, and Gorilla Logic

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An internal promotion at Amazon and some new personnel changes at Delivery.com and Gorilla Logic in the latest Movers & Shakers column.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Pay Coming to Mobile Web, DoorDash Moves Into Yelp Territory

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Pay Moving to the Mobile Web, Could Give Big Boost to Mcommerce (Marketing Land)… DoorDash Takes On Yelp, Offers ‘Objective’ Restaurant Quality Scores (VentureBeat)… Microsoft Tells Possible Yahoo Buyers It Would Consider Backing Bids With Big Bucks (Recode)…