News and Analysis

Brands Push Forward with Automation, But Privacy and Creepiness Concerns Remain

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“Marketing automation is all the rage. Everyone feels like they need to ‘do it’ or they’ll be left behind. That rush to do the latest ‘new thing’ without thoughtful planning often leads to failure,” says Winston Lord, co-founder of Venga, a guest management platform that uses automation to enhance customer experiences. “It’s critical to build a 360 degree view of your client and your strategy before implementing marketing automation.”

Programmatic OOH Is Real. Why Isn’t Your Agency Using It More?

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The ad tech industry’s state of flux and disarray spurs confusion and buyer skepticism of real innovation. This is particularly prevalent in rapidly evolving areas like programmatic that also contend with existing legacy trust issues. I come across this every day, as there seems to be a persistent rumor that programmatic Out of Home (OOH) is “fake,” and that, when looking under the hood, programmatic OOH is merely an automated process for reserving and purchasing inventory. This misconception results in missed opportunities for marketers.

Factual Partners with Airship and Braze to Power Location-Based Mobile Marketing

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The partnership will enhance Airship and Braze’s efforts to furnish clients with precise mobile messaging based on the location of the customers they want to reach. Airship and Braze help brands engage their customers, retaining their business and ideally driving them back in-store. Airship rebranded, dropping the Urban from its name, last month.

Commentary

Street Fight Staff and Friends Predict 2017’s Top Stories (Part Two)

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As 2016 draws to a close, we’ve once again asked Street Fight staffers and columnists to look into their crystal ball and offer prognostications for what they think will be the biggest story (or stories) in local in 2017.

Why Hasn’t a Killer App Emerged for Finding Local Events?

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The local events space is still waiting on its ubiquitous app. There’s Yelp for restaurants. And Uber/Lyft for getting to and from. But there’s not yet a go-to for the crux of the night – the thing you do when you’re out on the town.

How Cisco’s Meraki Became the Largest Vendor of Bluetooth Beacon Gateways

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While Meraki’s routers have long had the ability to broadcast iBeacon packets, in October they released a software upgrade which enables API access to these radios, activating a major new feature. Now customers can use their Wi-Fi access points to monitor beacons from third party vendors.

Latest Posts

Openings and New Hires at TruMeasure, Brandmuscle, MapQuest

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Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes a new digital strategist at Emagine, and a promotion for Vendasta’s Jackie Cook.

Raise Report: Fresh Funding for Qubit, Thrive Commerce, ModoPayments

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new cash infusions for Qualia, TripTease and MoveBubble.

LBMA Podcast: Web.com, Alibaba, and Zuckerberg on Oculus OS

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On the show: Web.com acquires Yodle; Alibaba invests in Groupon; Walgreens gets deeper into beacons; Kontakt.io raises $5M clams; Foursquare + Delivery.com; Exterion pulling O2 customer data for OOH targeting; Yoose + Telkomsel case study

Street Fight Daily: Google’s Vision for AMP, Millennials Are Changing the Privacy Game for Marketers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… A Q&A with Google’s Head of News On Its Vision for Accelerated Mobile Pages (Nieman Lab)… Digital-Savvy Millennials Will Sacrifice Privacy for Personalization, Says Exec (Adweek)… Overnight, the App for Booking Last-Minute Spaces with Local Hosts, Closes $2.5M Seed Round (TechCrunch)…

How the Rise of the On-Demand Economy Is Driving Flexible Convenience

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“Customers drive booking, bookings drive pros, the pros drive availability and availability comes all the way back around and drives customers and booking,” Handy founder Oisin Hanrahan tells Street Fight. His company and others are figuring out over time what works and what doesn’t in local on-demand.

San Angelo LIVE Innovates to Hold Onto Revenue Amid West Texas Oil Bust

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The oil bust in West Texas has hit the San Angelo metro area hard. But the independent community news site San Angelo LIVE has been holding onto its revenues through energetic innovations in audience engagement, editorial content and client promotion.

Street Fight Daily: The Benefits of Cross-Device Data, Possible Outcomes of Google’s Antitrust Case

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Why Every Enterprise Will Soon Be Addicted to Cross-Device Data (The Next Web)… What’s Next for Google’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad European Antitrust Case? (Recode)… The Next Big Thing in Retail: Programmatic Commerce (Forbes)…

Closing the Loop: PlaceIQ, LiveRamp Connect TV Campaigns With Location Visits

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PlaceIQ and LiveRamp have announced the results of a new consumer behavior model that connects TV to the real world. The companies conducted a number of campaigns delivering targeted TV ads and then used location data to measure real-world store visitations, resulting in an average lift of 46 percent across three targeted verticals.

6 Tools Local Merchants Can Use to Grow Their Email Lists

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Email marketing is cheap and it’s effective, but it isn’t always easy for small businesses. For local merchants, the toughest part about email marketing can be generating a list of engaged subscribers. Here are six examples of tools that merchants can use to grow their email lists.

GrubHub’s Chia: Scale and ‘Strong Partnership Model’ Keep Company Afloat in Saturated Market

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Competition in the local delivery space has exploded in the past few years as on-demand providers rushed to connect service providers with consumers as efficiently as possible. Street Fight recently caught up with GrubHub’s SVP of Operations, Stan Chia, who says the company’s fundamental mission — restaurant discovery — hasn’t changed.