News and Analysis
B2B Video Marketing Grows Up, Getting Briefer and Garnering More Attention
The standards for B2B video marketing are rising as marketers get the hang of the hottest, no longer so new medium. Marketers are learning to keep things short and sweet, decreasing the average video length from six to four minutes from 2017 to 2018, and audiences are tuning in longer, Vidyard reports in its annual video in business report.
TRUSTX Takes Aim at Opaque Programmatic Trading Practices
The lack of transparency in the programmatic space has finally reached a tipping point. According to a survey on the state of programmatic media buying, conducted by Digiday, 27% of media buyers say the greatest concern they have with programmatic advertising is the lack of transparency. While many players in the space are claiming that their hands are tied, and agencies continue to push back against audits, upstart technology firms are carving out niches as leaders in the push to bring trust into programmatic advertising.
Marketers Prepare for Father’s Day Boom
With just two days to go before the big day, brand marketers would be smart to ramp up their campaigns now. Researchers at the digital advertising platform ZypMedia discovered that shoppers purchasing gifts for Father’s Day don’t plan nearly as far in advance as they do for Christmas and other major holidays. As a result, last-minute campaigns targeting shoppers are much more likely to have a major impact.
Commentary
Snapchat, Uber, and the Implications of Machine Learning
Machine learning and predictive analytics need to meld seamlessly with core app functionality. The technology needs to “just work,” without steep learning curves or frustrating dead ends. So I’d expect any company who experiments with machine learning for local search to start with a simple set of problems and hone the user experience.
The Accelerating Consolidation of the Digital Ad Market
“The flow of dollars from businesses of all sizes has clearly been away from lower-performance niche platforms into boosted Facebook posts,” writes David Mihm. “We can debate the value of that activity, but relative to the questionable/delayed/opaque performance of so many digital ad products, Facebook seems to have found a sweet spot.”
Just How Big a Deal Are Voice Search and Chatbots for Local?
At Street Fight Summit we raised a little controversy around the potential disruptiveness of voice search to the hyperlocal economy. Street Fight believes voice search is a critical emerging technology, a view that seemingly contrasts with that of many companies on the supply side of hyperlocal.
Latest Posts
PlaceIQ Looking to Build a Role for Location Tech Into TV, OOH, and Even Direct Mail
Brands don’t want only to measure the persuasive powers of their mobile ads. They also want to know the efficacy of their TV, OOH, online, and even direct mail efforts, which is where PlaceIQ, with its freshly acquired $25 million, wants to deliver bigger results.
Taking ‘Local’ Right Down to the Keystroke
A new group of companies are finding ways into local services by getting in between consumers’ desires and fulfillment of their desires at the core level: where their thumbs are hitting the glass. Startups like PopKey and Slash have found what feels like a Trojan Horse into our stream of communication.
For Brick and Mortar to Beat Ecommerce, It Takes Mind, Body, and Spirit
While many onlookers think that increased comparison shopping, faster and cheaper delivery options like drones, and the convenience of shopping at home equal doom for physical stores, the reality is that the economy (like the people behind it) is largely driven by the irrational.
Street Fight Daily: Waze Partners With Lyft, Craigslist Competitor 5miles Now Valued at $300M+
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Waze to Scoop up More Data through New Partnerships (Wall Street Journal)… Mobile App 5miles Raises $30M at a $300M+ Valuation to Rival Craigslist in Classifieds (TechCrunch)… Bootler Brings Comparison Shopping to Food Delivery Services (Chicago Tribune)…
As Local Search Behavior Evolves, Marketing Spending Will Follow
Merchants and marketers have to be findable and present useful information regardless of the searcher’s context. And that’s where the mechanics of local search marketing get messy. It feels like a great opportunity for tools and managed services that help break down those silos, and measure effectiveness across or between them.
It’s Been a Long Slog, but Digital News Publishers Are Beginning to Innovate
News publishers get beat up regularly for not making a successful journalistic transition from their palmy print days to the hotly competitive digital era. And they certainly deserve it. But I think Neal Mann’s recent full-metal-jacket attack on them in Medium was way over the top.
Street Fight Daily: AOL Merges All Publishing Products, the Scope of Uber’s International Disruption
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… AOL Is Combining All of Its Publisher Products (Business Insider)… Why Uber’s Rushing Into Deliveries Could Reap $24.6B Internationally (Forbes)… For Some Sprint Customers, Watching Ads Cuts Phone Bill (Wall Street Journal)…
Report: Beacon Use Growing, Industry on Track to Deploy Nearly 400 Million by 2020
“The number of sensors is increasing quarter by quarter,” said Unacast co-founder and CEO Thomas Walle. “A lot of companies are still in testing and trialing, but we’re moving out of that phase and into full commercial deployments.”
Basket President: App’s Crowdsourced Price Information Empowers Shoppers
“The difference in prices between stores in a five-mile radius can be as much as 50 percent, based on in-store unadvertised specials, advertised specials, and variance in list price,” says Andy Ellwood. His company, Basket, has built “a massive database” that allows the company to display that price information back to consumers.
Street Fight Daily: How Ad Blocking Affects Ecommerce, Is Food Delivery the New Gold Rush?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Ecommerce Links Become the Latest Unlikely Casualty of Ad Blocking (Digiday)… The Food Delivery Wars: A Little Bit of History Repeating? (PYMNTS.com)… FiveStars Gets $50M to Help Small Retailers Run Loyalty Programs Like Their Bigger Rivals (TechCrunch)…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem