News and Analysis
Within 24 Hours, Further Signs That HUD’s Facebook Probe Could Upend Digital Ad Industry
What’s at stake in the Facebook housing discrimination probe and related investigations into Google and Twitter is whether the dissemination of online content—the news, product recommendations, advertising campaigns of all kinds, and entertainment—can and should be permitted on the basis of data collected on users’ personal characteristics and past behaviors. Should organizations, in industries as varied as entertainment, apparel, tech, and education, be permitted to use evolving technology to predict whom ads should target and thus who should see the content promoting Berkeley’s MBA program, the new housing development in Long Island City, or the hip sunglasses Warby Parker will never get me to buy? How does past human behavior and long-term inequality in various groups’ access to privileged resources shape ad targeting and the technology that automates it, and can the tech industry reach beyond those limitations to open up new futures instead of capitalizing on and reinforcing historical distinctions?
The news this week of the Trump administration’s first charges filed against a major tech company is the first step on our path to finding out.
Automated Ad Targeting Ensnares Facebook in a Discrimination Lawsuit
The lawsuit is big news not just for Facebook or for housing-related ads but for the digital advertising industry as a whole. That’s because it marks the first major federal attempt to use the resources of the law to curb ad targeting on the basis of racial discrimination. As interest in regulating broad tech spreads across the country and political spectrum, the lawsuit could prove a harbinger of harsher laws to come.
Commentary
Bringing Brands Into the Fold, inMarket Touts Its ‘Three-Sided’ Beacon Network
inMarket’s strategic product is not the app, the value is created by their network. Their network links dozens of publishers’ apps to retailers that host inMarket beacons and, the third stakeholder in the network, the brands, whose products are being promoted. In this video, CEO Todd DiPaola talks about the importance of this network.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Bing, Yahoo Take Bite of Google’s Search Share, Native Ads Get FTC Guidelines
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Microsoft and Yahoo Search Share Grows, Still Trails Google by Miles (Ad Age)… The FTC Is Cracking Down on Native Advertising (Fortune)… A Former Topsy Employee Has an Interesting Theory on Why Apple Shut Down This $200 Million Acquisition (Business Insider)…
Top 5 Exits in Local Tech of 2015
The local technology space saw plenty of M&A activity in 2015 and remains poised for another busy year in 2016. Rampant expansion of certain areas such as on-demand services and delivery apps makes further consolidation likely. The startup scene saw its share of healthy — if not billion-dollar — exits as well. Here’s a recap of the five of the biggest exits in the local tech industry in 2015.
Street Fight Daily: Instagram’s Massive Ad Spending, Capitalizing on Consumers’ ‘Zigzagging’ Journeys
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Ad Buyer: Spend on Instagram Has Increased ‘Something Like 11,000%’ Between Q3 and Q4 (Business Insider)… The New ‘Zigzagging’ Customer Journey: Think Local, Act Mobile (GeoMarketing)… Google Plans New, Smarter Messaging App (Wall Street Journal)…
Daily Voice Shows Scale and High CPMs Can Mix in Hyperlocal News
Trying to scale community news has many pitfalls. Sites that go for scale can end up publishing glorified “bulletin boards” as they seek to spread budget-limited journalistic resources across multiple communities. The end result can be bottom-fishing remnant CPMs that can be as low as $1. Carll Tucker, CEO of six-year-old Daily Voice, which recently expanded into North Jersey, says its scaling model has produced average CPMs that “hover a few pennies under $8.”
10 Top Location-Based Marketing Campaigns of 2015
Beacons emerged two years ago but only seemed to come into their own in 2015. Despite hurdles to overcome in terms of consumer acceptance, marketers don’t lack impressive numbers for engagement and store visitation, particularly when combined with more commonplace techniques such as geofencing and targeted mobile ads. We asked our friends at GeoMarketing to look back at 10 campaigns that pioneered in the space in the past year.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Raising a “Down Round,” Google and Ford Partner for Driverless Cars
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare Raising Round to Capitalize on Data Business (TechCrunch)… Google Is Partnering with Ford to Build Self-Driving Cars (Business Insider)… With 100,000 Sellers Connected, Square’s App Marketplace Builds a Bridge (TechCrunch)…
ReachLocal Retrenches to Focus on Markets with ‘Potential for Positive, Sustainable Economics’
Local digital marketing firm ReachLocal has been engaged in a lengthy turnaround effort. It announced last week that it was exiting direct sales in the U.K. and focusing on markets with “potential for positive, sustainable economics.” The announcement indicates ReachLocal is still focused on cutting things that aren’t working rather than regaining growth momentum.
Ad Blockers: One Big Distraction from the Real Issue
In a year of overblown topics, the grand prize goes to mobile ad blockers. The backlash is not only disproportionate to real impact but also has fueled the wrong conversation. Instead of fighting ad blockers — or fueling them in the case of biased reports — the ad industry should ask itself how it got in this position to begin with.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Could Launch Air Delivery Service, Yelp’s Stoppelman Goes After Google
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon in Talks to Launch Its Own Air-Cargo Business (Seattle Times)… Google Has Lost Its Mind, Says Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman (Recode)… Etsy Launches Trendy Local Maker Guides for U.S. Cities (The Next Web)…
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Streets Ahead: ChatGPT, AI-Generated meta descriptions and AI Mode