News and Analysis
FedEx Stops Ground Deliveries for Amazon, Signaling Delivery War to Come
For FedEx as for the many other companies and industries Amazon has decimated over the past 20 years, the problem in confronting Amazon may turn out to be one of margins. While FedEx needs a profitable delivery business to survive, Amazon can afford to lose money on delivery and make it up with relatively free-flowing profits from Amazon Web Services and its booming ad business.
In fact, Amazon can afford, thanks to the faith and generosity of investors, to make no profits at all. No easy task, competing with that.
Marijuana Advertisers Chart Uncertain Territory with Laws in Flux
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
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.
Commentary
Local’s Next Battleground: In-Car Media
A few recent moves have begun to triangulate how Uber might build out auxiliary revenue channels. It will be all about enhancing your ride, then, down the road, an ad model. And it won’t involve in-car signage or digital displays.
3 Mobile Changes That Will Affect Marketers in 2017
In 2017, the total number of worldwide mobile users is expected to surpass 6 billion across 11 billion mobile devices. So, what does the future of mobile look like for marketers? More specifically, what data-related trends will dominate in the coming year?
Is There an SMB Analytics Market? And If So, What Should It Measure?
“I’m not convinced small businesses without a full-time in-house marketer really care about analytics,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their bi-weekly chat. “They certainly don’t have the time or expertise to dive in each week and change their marketing or customer service behavior based on what a dashboard is telling them.”
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Google/Facebook vs. Publishers, Will Alibaba Buy Yahoo Stake?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… In Battle with Google and Facebook, More Publishers Join Forces (Digiday)… Alibaba Raises More Cash, Yahoo Stake In Sight? (Forbes)… Most Mobile Marketers Are Using Location, But How Do You Do It Right? (Marketing Land)…
Making Sense of Google’s Changes that Just Blew Up Online Ads for Local Businesses
There’s really no way to overstate what a massive change Google’s ad reconfiguring is for everyone in the SEM industry. But it’s going to have a more profound — and even devastating — effect on locally-oriented businesses who had relied on Adwords as a key marketing tool.
Case Study: New England Dessert Bar Grows Email List With Monthly Contests
At Treat Cupcake Bar, Sarah Waters’ responsibilities run the gamut from online and offline marketing and social media management, to event organization and employee development. Of all her responsibilities, it’s online marketing that creates some of her biggest challenges.
Street Fight Daily: Billboards and Location Marketing, Wikipedia’s Search Plans Causing Controversy
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… See That Billboard? It May See You, Too (New York Times)… Head of Wikimedia Resigns Over Search Engine Plans (The Guardian)… As Advertisers Clamor for Location Data, Can Publishers Deliver? (AdExchanger)…
Snowcap Data Launches Leadbird, a Local Lead-Gen Toolkit for SMBs
The new platform, which aggregates real-time local data, looks to give small businesses the same kind of access to data that big businesses have, but on a hyperlocal level, CEO Carl Rohling told Street Fight. From there, SMBs can design direct marketing campaigns based on information about the consumers in their proximity.
Openings and New Hires at TruMeasure, Brandmuscle, MapQuest
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
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
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
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
“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.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem