News and Analysis
Privacy, Poor Management, and Sex Scandals Can’t Touch the Duopoly’s Ad Growth—Yet
It will likely take a significant downturn in spending or overall economic well-being for Big Tech to feel some major financial pain. And while great for Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, that’s got to be concerning for industry watchdogs wondering whether these businesses are too entrenched in digital search, advertising, and commerce to be challenged—because the past year was not hot for Silicon Valley, and yet the presses keep printing dollars.
Facebook to Integrate Technical Infrastructure of WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger
While the move indeed indicates that Facebook’s chief executives are looking to centralize acquired properties that once operated with relative autonomy, the integration also marks a response to growing concerns over user privacy. Under this new technical configuration, all the messaging platforms will be endowed with end-to-end encryption, warding off the possibility that people other than those taking part in conversations will ever read messages sent on the platforms.
Latest Posts
Connecting the Local-Mobile Economy, One Step at a Time
Hyperlocal, mobile, on-demand contextual commerce enabled by buy buttons within mobile apps — that’s the new string of buzzwords making the rounds at industry conferences. The market reality: It’s going to take a while for this string to play out in the connected local economy. A key reason is that even as mobile disrupts search, most marketers and merchants can’t expect to get their own app on a majority of users’ home screens.
The Struggle to Save Local News Is Not Doomed
The current state of local news in the technology-driven information age continues to be a hotly debated topic in industry circles. There’s more consensus around the grim prospects for local print media, and more debate about the outlook for independent local news sites. Understanding where the future lies for local news requires a thorough parsing of both positions.
Street Fight Daily: How Surge Pricing Could Affect Retail, Walgreens’ Mobile Approach
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber-Style Surge Pricing May Catch on with Retailers (Forbes)… Why Walgreens Is Partnering with Postmates and Betting Big on Mobile (LinkedIn Pulse)… Kroger Tests ‘Smart Shelf’ Technology (Indianapolis Star)…
NinthDecimal’s Staas: Programmatic Will Become a Strong Opportunity for Small Business Owners
“One of the challenges is a lot of the tools around the ecosystem have not really been built to scale for the small business owner, and they still require a lot of sophistication in understanding how to buy and sell media. The opportunity is in looking at how some of these platforms are evolving. I think programmatic will become a very strong opportunity for the small business owner,” said NinthDecimal president David Staas about shifting trends in location-based marketing and audience targeting.
LBMA Podcast: Eatsa Removes Waiters from the Restaurant, Coke-moji Happiness Experiment, Oscar Mayer…Matchmaker?
On the show: Eatsa removes waiters from the restaurant; Coke-moji Happiness Experiment; Oscar Mayer is your new…matchmaker?; Fujitsu partners with iProximity; Panama does location-based video sharing; Goodwill’s goBIN. Plus, news from Thinknear, Starbucks, Canadian Tire, and Mobiquity and Mobeam, and Rob’s new gig as VP of marketing at Foko.
Street Fight Daily: The Future of Search, Button’s Big Mobile Commerce Partnerships
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Looking Ahead: The New Search Landscape (Search Engine Land)… Mobile Startup Button Inks Airbnb, Ticketmaster Deals to Link Bookings to Other Apps (Recode)… Microsoft’s New Windows Phone App Lets You Recommend Home Maintenance Services to Friends (The Next Web)…
Four Local Marketing Strategies to Boost Same-Store Sales
Company success often rises and falls on the ability to deliver same-store sales increases, so multi-unit brands spend a lot of energy managing around this core metric. But it’s difficult to drive local success at scale with a one-size-fits-all approach. Here’s a list of four creative strategies (and associated tactics) that local stores can implement to boost their overall performance.
6 Tools for Tracking Business Competitors
Every business owner wants to know the competition’s secret sauce. Now, merchants who are interested in tracking their competitors can let technology do some of the work. Competitive analysis tools allow local business owners to understand what neighboring merchants are doing right through their digital marketing and on social media to get people through the door. Here are six examples of platforms that businesses can use.
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Launches ‘Buy’ Button, AOL’s Armstrong Ready to Fight Ad Blocking
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Makes ‘Buy’ Button Widely Available (New York Times)… Tim Armstrong Says AOL Is in the ‘Best Position’ to Fight Ad Blocking (Adweek)… Sources: Jack Dorsey Expected to Be Named Permanent Twitter CEO (Recode)…
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