News and Analysis
Mobile Far Superior to Desktop for DTC Advertising
DTCs are notoriously effective in courting young shoppers, including millennials and emerging Gen-Z consumers. This is likely because younger shoppers, growing up in the digital age and native to its conventions, gravitate toward convenience and are less tied to the longstanding preferences that legacy brands carefully crafted through decades of advertising. Mobile, which is tied to identity and location and offers quick digital purchasing options, is the platform where these trends are most exaggerated.
Gimbal Innovates to Track Consumer Trends in the Physical World
For years, marketers have used Google Trends to uncover insights based on search data. Now, executives at the advertising and marketing automation platform Gimbal are hoping their newest product will serve the same purpose for the physical world.
Built on top of an independent location data set, Gimbal Trends has been designed to provide marketers with a comprehensive view of consumer behavior in the real world. The product was released this morning, and already Gimbal is seeing interest from companies in the entertainment industry that are interested in leveraging the data to optimize their decision-making processes about upcoming events.
7 Indoor Mapping Platforms for Retailers
More than half of shoppers (57%) have used a retailer’s mobile app while in-store. In order for their apps to provide the greatest amount of value, retailers need to tap in to location features, including indoor mapping. When Street Fight first wrote about indoor mapping tools back in 2013, the technology was still relatively young. Now, the market has had time to mature and retailers looking at integrating indoor mapping technology into their mobile apps have an even wider array of vendors to choose from.
Here are seven companies with indoor mapping solutions for retailers.
Commentary
The AI Wars in Local Have Already Begun
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.
Small and Large Local Marketers Have Remarkably Similar Spending Focus
A survey of 200 U.S. small and medium businesses conducted late last year revealed that 70% said they would be increasing their digital and online marketing budgets in 2017. Fewer than a third said budgets would stay the same, and only 2% said they were cutting back.
Latest Posts
Drawbridge CEO: ‘Programmatic Has Led the Charge for Cross-Device’
Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan founded programmatic ad platform Drawbridge in 2010 after a stint at Google. She spoke recently with Street Fight about Drawbridge’s solutions, the ever-changing nature of mobile targeting, and the constant misinterpretation of the word “programmatic.”
Yodle Weighs in on How Google’s SERP Change Has Affected Online Ads for SMBs
With a few weeks of empirical data, we now have a much clearer sense of how or if this change has affected local AdWords campaigns. At Yodle, we have seen a negligible effect on the performance metrics of the search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns we run on behalf of our local small business clients.
How Badly Do Consumers Really Want Grocery Delivery?
Instacart is bumping up against the realities of the economy. There are two countervailing trends that are working against the idea of grocery delivery: frugality, and shopping-as-entertainment.
Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s New Merchant App, Google Announces ‘Analytics 360’ Ad Products
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon Launches New Merchant App That Puts the Daily Deal Front and Center (TechCrunch)… Google Introduces Products That Will Sharpen Its Ad Focus (New York Times)… Yelp’s Founder Once Thought No One Would Want to Post Opinions on the Internet (Chicago Tribune)…
The Changing Role of Local Search Ranking
As mobile searches outpace desktop-based searches, proximity throws a wrench in the works of traditional rankings.
5 Online-to-Offline Attribution Tools for Merchants
Seventy-nine percent of consumers say they research prices online before making purchases in person. Without the ability to identify which digital channels are most effective, merchants have no opportunity to optimize their strategies or understand the growth opportunities within online channels.
National-to-Local Marketers’ Top Pain Points Center on Integration
Nearly half of those who responded said they spend 1/3 or more of their digital marketing dollars to support their branch offices, franchises, and distributors — and 40% of them expect that budget mix to increase.
It’s Valuable, But Is It Accurate? LBMA Report Shines Light On Marketers’ Location Data Issues
According to a new survey, while 77 percent of marketers think that location based data is valuable, only 66 percent of them feel that it is accurate. This is a troubling discrepancy indicating that there is a lot of work to be done in standardization and verification.
5 Tools for Brands Looking to Harness Predictive Social Intelligence
Predictive social intelligence platforms use big data to organize, pattern, and predict which online conversations will be happening tomorrow. By contextualizing future online chatter, brands can better target specific audiences on social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

















































Why AI Describes Locations Differently