News and Analysis
DoorDash Will Put an End to Old-School Delivery—And Smaller Rivals
What does the big money for DoorDash mean for the crowded on-demand delivery space? The market is growing as a whole, but there isn’t all that much growth share to go around. DoorDash CEO and founder Tony Xu has said as much. “If you look at where the U.S. is, there’s two players gaining share. It’s DoorDash and Uber. And DoorDash is growing 65% faster,” Xu said in a conversation with Recode editor-at-large and co-founder Kara Swisher earlier this year.
Alexa Has the Confidence of SMB Marketers. Should It?
Forty-eight percent of marketers surveyed by Uberall said they trust the e-commerce giant over its competition when it comes to marketing applications of voice technology in these early days of the medium. Google Assistant had the vote of 29% of the market, with Apple’s Siri scoring a surprisingly high 17% given the widespread consensus that voice is really a two-way race at the moment.
Adjust Leverages AI to Neutralize Ad Fraud
Advertisers and brands are expected to lose an estimated $50 billion as a result of ad fraud by 2025, with one of the most problematic types of ad fraud involving bots designed to mimic human behaviors. Using bots, fraudsters can imitate clicks and engagement KPIs on ad campaigns, wreaking havoc for mobile ad vendors and the advertisers that work with them. So what’s the solution? Firms like Unbotify are pioneering a new approach to bot detection and digital fraud prevention using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Unbotify’s solution analyzes human behavior patterns within websites’ and mobile apps’ user flows in order to differentiate between bots and humans.
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
Street Fight Daily: Google Bug Buries Search Results from Yelp and Other Competitors, Jet Raises $350M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Says Local Search Result That Buried Rivals Yelp, TripAdvisor Is Just a Bug (Recode)… Amazon Rival Jet.com Raises $350M Series B (USA Today)… Twitter’s Head of Retail Predicts Five Holiday Trends for His Platform (Adweek)…
Beacons to Shine a Light on Consumers’ Murky Path to Purchase
Retail activity this holiday season promises to be more omnichannel than ever, courtesy of the ever-present smartphone. That raises the stakes for retailers in terms of their preparedness and complicates their attribution metrics. With online-to-offline shopping dynamics in focus, this may be the long-awaited breakout year for beacon technology.
Classroom as Incubator: University of Florida Produces National Health Site for Young Adults
Every institution of higher learning has myriad news sources, from official newspapers to social media platforms. Some college publications have ambitions and appeal that transcend the campus boundaries. One such example is The Student Body, which emerged from a class at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville and now aims to reach a national audience.
Street Fight Daily: The Food Delivery Obsession, How Holiday Shopping Could Boost Beacon Tech
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… In ‘Overcrowded’ Food Delivery Market, Venture Capitalists Are Still Hungry for More (Bloomberg)… This Is How Macy’s Will Target Its Facebook and Instagram Ads for the Holidays (Adweek)… Events: Delivering 30-50 Percent Margins for Media Companies (LinkedIn Pulse),,,
RetailMeNot’s Hoyt: This Will Be the Most Personalized Holiday Season We’ve Ever Had
Today marks the beginning of a crucial week and month for retailers, as shoppers clamor for deals and steals on presents for family, friends, and coworkers. Whether in-store, online, or a mobile device, an astounding amount of retail business will be transacted in the next five weeks. RetailMeNot vice president of communications Brian Hoyt said to expect a more personalized, more omnichannel holiday shopping season this year, courtesy of the ever-present smartphone.
Sponsored Content: Unclaimed Social Media Local Listings Bring This Clothing Chain Down
This month’s Brand Battle, in conjunction with Brandify, compares the local digital marketing footprint of two popular apparel chains: Forever 21 and H&M. The Swedish clothing giant was the runaway victor in this contest, besting its rival in five of the six categories evaluated and tying Forever 21 in the sixth category.
5 Ways Merchants Can Use Hyperlocal Tech to Improve Service This Holiday Season
With the holiday season upon us, local merchants are pulling out all the stops to entice shoppers into their stores and away from their computers, with many focusing on customer service as their differentiator. Here are five ways local merchants can improve customer service this holiday season by implementing hyperlocal technology.
Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial and ‘Unicorpses,’ Airbnb Raises $100 Million
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… LivingSocial Offers a Cautionary Tale to Today’s Unicorns (New York Times)… Airbnb Raises $100 Million Only Months After Last Funding Round (Fortune)… Detour App Shows the Promises and Challenges of GeoLocation Travel Tech (Skift)…
Square Deal: Payments Startup Passes First Test as Publicly Traded Company
Square made its debut on the public markets yesterday. After its much-commented-on offering price of $9 per share, which some took as a shot across the bow for unicorn startups, the Jack Dorsey-helmed payments firm surged more than 45 percent in its first day of trading. The pressure may be off Square momentarily, but it won’t stay that way for long.
Connectivity Culture Growing Beyond ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’
Marketing technology company Connectivity went from a 20-person company to an 80-person company in a year and a half, and it’s poised to continue accelerating. Part of Connectivity’s success stems from fostering experimentation. “We always want to hire people who are entrepreneurs themselves, and let them know that they’re not going to get in trouble for failing,” said CEO Matt Booth.
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