News and Analysis
Google’s Soft-Power Approach to Super Bowl Ads
When it came to the Super Bowl, Google opted not to put the spotlight on flashy new products but rather to emphasize the good it can do for the world at a time when it’s “don’t be evil” slogan of yore has become prime material for parody. During the big game, ads for products as seemingly disparate as Pringles, tax software, and beer pointed to a present haunted by tech’s infiltration of domestic life and machines’ superiority to humans.
Brandify, PlaceIQ, Simpli.fi Among 2019 LSA Ad-to-Action Award Finalists
The Local Search Association announced this week a slate of 20 finalists for its annual awards celebrating the best in local and online-to-offline marketing. Among more than 80 submissions, the finalists have been recognized for their outstanding work in such categories as reputation management, SMB software, and local search.
While Sales Growth Rate Slows, Amazon Marketplace, Cloud, and Ad Businesses Point to Long-Term Prosperity
For brands hoping to compete with Amazon (and potentially looking on with relief at a sign of fallibility from their digital rival), the company’s earnings report brings the news that Amazon Marketplace, where third-party sellers can reach customers, is doing more than twice as much in sales as Amazon’s first-party retail platform. Marketplace is troubled by bad practices and fake reviews, and its prosperity suggests the growing challenge for brands to get customers to even go to their sites at a time when Amazon is essentially the homepage of the commerce-oriented Internet.
Commentary
Survey: Many Opportunities to Connect Local Media With National-to-Local Marketers
National brands and retailers remain wedded to traditional media and marketing for their local branches, franchises, and resellers. However, they are increasing their spending on digital channels, and over half of them feel it’s important to associate their campaigns with local media and content.
Pokémon Go and Local: Why Now?
The lesson from the phenomenon isn’t for local tech companies to try and build the next Pokémon Go — but rather to build a similarly justifiable value exchange for sharing location. Advertisers and ad networks should likewise work with apps that have that higher likelihood of user opt-in.
Latest Posts
Webinar Recap: Marketing and Customer Engagement Tactics for the Holiday Season
Black Friday is a week away. Is there anything brands and merchants can do before then to make their local marketing stand out amid the holiday crush? Yesterday’s Street Fight webinar, “Real-Time Location-Based Marketing Strategies for the Holidays,” in conjunction with Brandify, indicated there’s still time to implement some practical tactics that can make a difference.
Street Fight Daily: Square’s IPO Pricing Lower Than Anticipated, Google Brings App Content into Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… For Its IPO, Square Scales Back Valuation by $3 Billion (New York Times)… Google Just Scored a Huge Win for Its Mobile Search (Business Insider)… Starboard Urges Yahoo to Drop Alibaba Spinoff Plan (Wall Street Journal)…
StructuredWeb’s Nissan: We’re Just Starting to See the Complexity Curve Going Up
Long sales cycles, smaller target audiences, higher transaction values — all these characteristics separate B2B from B2C marketing. “There’s a level of precision that you need to have in the B2B space, because otherwise you can spend a lot of money without seeing any results,” said StructuredWeb president and CEO Daniel Nissan.
All Politics Is Data for 2016 and Beyond
The saying used to be that “all politics is local.” A more appropriate term for the 2016 election cycle might be “all politics is data.” In fact, with their emphasis on audience and local targeting and their growing adoption of programmatic buying, political campaigns have begun to increasingly resemble marketing campaigns.
Street Fight Daily: Google Brings Back Google+, Angie’s List Says No to Acquisition (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Four Reasons Why Google Is Bringing Google Plus Back to Life (Recode)… Angie’s List Turns Down IAC’s Second Offer to Buy It — This Time for $512 Million (Business Insider)… Lyft Executive Says on Track to Hit $1 Billion in Gross Revenue (New York Times)…
The Challenge for ‘Indie’ News Sites: Monetizing Highly Engaged Audiences
When they met at their recent Chicago convention, independent community publishers and editors talked a lot about what might be called “reve-news.” On everybody’s mind at the Local Independent Online Newspaper (LION) Publishers’ annual meeting was how to monetize news. Even weddings and obituaries can contribute to local news publishers’ bottom line.
5 Tools for Display Ad Creation and Distribution
Programmatic-driven ad spend is expected to reach $14.2 billion worldwide this year. However, research by AppNexus indicates 97 percent of programmatic campaigns still lack targeted creative for individual audience segments. To satisfy this need, more hyperlocal vendors now are creating tools that businesses can use to generate targeted ad content without hiring their own in-house teams. Here are five tools for display ad creation and distribution.
Street Fight Daily: Google Gets Mobile Support from Facebook, Apple Maps Adds Foursquare Data
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Gets Surprise Ally in Mobile-App Search Push: Facebook (Wall Street Journal)… Foursquare Joins Apple Maps Data Sources as Company Builds Out Ecosystem (Search Engine Land)… Uber Is Creating a Ride-Sharing Mesh Network with Its New ‘Destinations’ Feature (The Next Web)…
Retail, Restaurants, and Roofers: Where Does On-Demand Work (and Not)?
A year into the on-demand revolution, the question persists: Where’s it going next? So far, it’s gone into nearly every local vertical, but there are still areas with the right conditions for on-demand models to take root, some of which remain underdeveloped. These include higher-end professional services like lawyers and doctors, project-based work like design and writing, and, of course, SMBs, especially when it comes to local marketing and advertising.
Report: Executive Survey on Hyperlocal Tech and Tactics
What’s on the mind of technology and marketing suppliers targeting the connected local economy? They’re keen on mobile — perhaps too keen — but struggling with their own companies’ brand awareness. The dichotomy between small businesses and national chains that sell locally is profound, and presents difficult challenges in scaling to support either, let alone both, according to Street Fight Insights analysis.
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation