News and Analysis
Google Considers Buying TikTok Rival
TikTok could be seen as a competitor for YouTube, the video platform owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. TikTok is typically seen as a greater threat to Facebook in the social category, and the social giant is testing a copycat app of its own to crush the insurgent. But more time on TikTok could also mean less time on YouTube in a tight attention economy, and TikTok’s fervent teen users apparently have Google concerned enough to spark a potential Firework deal.
7 Loyalty Platforms for Restaurants
One area where restaurants have particularly specific needs is in promoting customer loyalty. Vertical-specific loyalty platforms for restaurants tend to have features and capabilities that more generalized loyalty platforms do not. For example, many loyalty platforms for restaurants are tied to reservation systems, so waiters know customers’ preferences before seating them at their tables.
Although the number of loyalty platforms for restaurants is growing every day, we’ve put together a list of seven important players that anyone who is interested in this space should be following.
Amazon Pursues Retail-as-a-Service, Looking to Sell Go Tech to Cinemas, Airports
This time, it’s not Amazon Web Services, the cloud underpinning Amazon’s operations and those of other companies around the world, but Amazon’s Go technology that is being peddled to new clients. Bezos’ e-commerce behemoth is in talks to sell the flashy cashierless solution to movie theaters and airports, CNBC reported.Â
If Amazon is successful, the play to sell Go to other businesses may some day turn what now appears a revolutionary technical advance (with potentially devastating consequences for cashiers) into a commonplace asset. Just as AWS, the B2B play partially financing Amazon’s low-margin retail biz, supports thousands of businesses unbeknownst to their customers, Go-as-a-service could come to change all of retail without many consumers even realizing Amazon is behind changing checkout norms.
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.
What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Fake News’
“Fake news” is actually about stories written to win clicks (and potentially do harm). Losing the focus on this accurate definition to spin and political jockeying creates a challenge for the business of marketers, advertisers, and publishers.
What Happens When Google Can Manipulate the Very News It Seeks to Protect?
A recent controversy finds the search giant caught in a contradiction. The company has strong financial interest in acting as the gatekeeper to the news. But Google also has a strong interest in portraying itself positively in the news that it effectively controls.
Latest Posts
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.
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Integrates with Yelp, Facebook’s Geotargeting Capabilities
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Integrates with Yelp for Location Tags in the UK and Japan, Bypassing Foursquare (TechCrunch)… How a Senator Used Facebook Ads to Influence Employees in a Single D.C. Building (Fusion)… The Road to Self-Driving Cars Winds Through Here (Crain’s Chicago)…
Openings and New Hires at MindBody, NavAds, TruMeasure
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Wrap Media, Yieldbot, and Facebook.
Raise Report: New Funding for Affirm, NestAway, Rinse
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 AdTile, Luka, and Beekeeper.
Street Fight Daily: IAB’s Annual Digital Report, Publishers Threatened by the Rise of Platforms
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Digital Advertising Revenue Jumped 20% in 2015 (Adweek)… Most Smartphone Owners Use Location-Based Services (eMarketer)… Google’s Parent Alphabet Misses Profit Expectations As Moonshot Spend Soars (The Guardian)…
Why Online Locations Matter Even More in the New Retail Landscape
In order to compete in the the new information-rich environment, businesses have been presented with a new and complex challenge: to win the battle for consumer attention they have to appear wherever customers are looking.
Hexagon Geospatial Aims to Make Maps More Important Than Ever Using Geo-data and Analytics
These days, we rely on maps not only to provide us a route, but also to be relevant in real-time. If a road is closed, we expect our map app to tell us as much. If a place of business we were planning on driving to is no longer open, then our map better have that information.
Street Fight Daily: Google Officially Charged by EU, Facebook’s TV-Like Ad Buying
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… EU Files Formal Charges Against Google Over Android Conduct (Wall Street Journal)… Ad Buying on Facebook Just Got More TV-Like (AdAge)… Ad Tech Is Broken. Here’s How Newsrooms Can Help Fix It (Poynter)…
Displacement and Measuring the Unknown in Multi-Device, Multi-Channel Marketing Attribution
Now more than ever, conversions are the metric used to measure the value of every pit stop along the customer journey as it moved across multiple devices and channels. Displacement-based attribution strategies help marketers stay in step with consumers.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem