News and Analysis

Marijuana Advertisers Chart Uncertain Territory with Laws in Flux

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Could running ads for cannabis products put digital publishers in the crosshairs of federal regulators? It’s a question that more and more publishers are asking, even as marijuana legalization continues to spread across the U.S.

In a bid to help businesses in the cannabis industry understand what is, and isn’t, legal from an advertising perspective, Dash Two released its own guide to marijuana advertising laws. The company says it will keep its guide updated as the laws continue to evolve.

How Americans Shop Today

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All industries—apparel, grocery, electronics—are affected differently by the move to e-commerce, and consumers are turning to new options, including social marketplaces, disrupting what we typically think of as digital shopping. Here are some insights on major market changes, including the key to Amazon’s dominance, the industries flouting the turn to e-commerce, and a curious preference among millennials, from a recent survey of 1,000 consumers by Signs.com.

6 Companies Reimagining Last-Mile Delivery

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There’s a renewed push in Silicon Valley to tackle last-mile delivery. The use of autonomous vehicles, drones, and artificial intelligence is what more and more vendors are pushing for. Last-mile delivery is the most expensive part of shipping, and increasing fees mean prices are only going higher. The company that can get goods from a transportation hub to the customer’s doorstep in the shortest amount of time will win the retail game, and technology firms are hoping that their innovative solutions will be the answer that retailers are looking for.

Here are six examples of companies that are working to innovate in the last-mile delivery space.

Commentary

Will Native-Social Ads Dominate Mobile?

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The majority of mobile ad companies that don’t evolve their janky and interruptive banners will be displaced. A new era of mobile ads will be defined by intelligent formats that speak to the affinities of buying-empowered millennials (who are now almost 40 by the way).

Survey: Merchants Gain Social Media Sophistication, Rate it Most Effective Tactic

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Over the past several years, Street Fight has seen these local merchants shift their marketing budgets away from traditional media like newspapers, print Yellow Pages, and local broadcast towards digital marketing and media. That trend continues in a new survey that we conducted earlier this year.

How Does Google Determine the Authority of Local Entities?

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“Each of these sites that Google trusts might calculate authority in a different way, but if Google can verify the relationship to the local entity, they can apply that authority to the ranking of the local listing,” writes Mike Blumenthal to David Mihm.

Latest Posts

The Context for Contextual Marketing Is Changing

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The idea behind contextual marketing makes a lot of sense. But in practice, contextual marketing is getting pretty hairy, especially for location-based marketing. That’s because context is getting more complicated

Street Fight Daily: HERE Wants to Compete with Google Maps, Yahoo’s Grim Financials

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Seeking Investments from Microsoft and Amazon, HERE Signals Intent to Compete Aggressively with Google Maps (Search Engine Land)… Yahoo Paints Grim Financial Picture as Deadline for Bids Nears (New York Times)… Why Pinterest Forces You Off Its Mobile Site and Into Its App (VentureBeat)…

On-Demand Is Tricky to Build, but ‘Very Much a Net Positive for Everybody’

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“On-demand is much harder than people think. It’s supply and demand — you have to make sure companies can grow, and that this growth can be matched,” says interim.team’s Rorie Devine. Growth in supply and growth in demand need to be in sync, which makes it “twice as hard.”

Street Fight Daily: HomeAdvisor Growing Fast, Mcommerce’s Customer Service Impact

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Diller’s Home Services Bet Could Hit $1 Billion in a Few Years (Bloomberg)… How Mobile Commerce Is Changing Customer Service (VentureBeat)… Second Measure Is the New Secret Weapon Investors Are Using to Outsmart Each Other (Business Insider)…

5 Platforms for Cross-Promotions Between Local Businesses

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In communities around the country, small business owners are considered local influencers. And rather than go it alone with their local marketing campaigns, some of these merchants are finding success by partnering with peers and implementing new cross-promotional marketing strategies.

Google Finally Reveals How to Improve Your Local Ranking

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Google has significantly updated its help page on the topic of local ranking to include, for the first time, specific common-sense guidelines showing businesses how they can increase the likelihood that online searchers will find them in Google Maps on desktop and mobile.

7 Smart Ways to Deliver Loyalty Rewards Based on Buying Patterns

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Hyperlocal vendors are increasingly marketing their high-tech loyalty programs at small and mid-size businesses, with easier ways for business owners to deliver loyalty rewards based on data captured through the point-of-sale. Here are seven ways merchants can use purchasing behaviors to offer more relevant rewards.

Street Fight Daily: Comcast-backed Firm Bets $250M on Groupon, OOH Advertising’s ‘Renaissance’

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Comcast-Backed Firm Makes $250 Million Investment in Groupon (Bloomberg)… Technology Fuels Renaissance in Out-of-Home Advertising (AdAge)… Does Google Stand a Chance Against Facebook in Mobile Display? (Marketing Land)…

Automating Local Commerce: Rise of the Chatbots

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Bots could displace apps just as apps displaced search. “Search started with consumers typing into a box,” Pingup’s Ron Braunfeld said recently. “[AI] is all about knowing where you are, time of day, what’s in your refrigerator; and giving you the right information without having to search.”

Case Study: How a New York Car Dealership Generates Online Leads

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At his family-owned used car dealership, Anthony Curran works as a salesman and also handles marketing. He says a recent campaign with Facebook had a lot of success: “In the first week we had over 80,000 people reached. Since then, everyone has been mentioning seeing us on Facebook.”