News and Analysis

With Help of Magisto, Small Businesses Reach Customers with Video

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AI technology is finding its footing in the small business market, years after it reached critical mass among big brands. A new app from Magisto is using AI to streamline video creation and help small businesses more effectively engage audiences on social media.

Crack-of-Dawn Black Friday Lines Are Already a Thing of the Past, Data Shows

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How is the increasing appeal of e-commerce and other digital options such as BOPIS—buy online, pick up in-store—affecting retail’s biggest day of the year? One consequence, data from Reveal Mobile indicates, is the end of the notoriously colossal lines that used to mark the beginning of Black Friday. 

What Will AR Mean for Consumer Brands?

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What’s driving AR today? And what does it mean for big consumer brands? Our lead analyst Mike Boland tackles these questions in this week’s Road Map column, which delves into the tech giants’ investments in AR and what they mean for the future of XR-driven brand advertising.

Commentary

Ad Tech, Local Media and the 2016 Political Campaign

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In this year’s presidential campaign, news and information consumers can be reached via a wide range of channels, and media buys can be executed in milliseconds. Now that local inventory has joined this channel, political camps have the ability to execute local campaigns on a massive scale.

How the Rise of Virtual Reality Could Impact Local Marketing

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With each passing tech revolution, response time diminishes while opportunity cost grows. Local media companies that were late to the consumer internet or the smartphone revolution already know this pain. With VR and AR, local startups will be more agile to experiment than larger incumbents.

Facebook Continues to Experiment in Local — But Its Focus Is Long-Term

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The company isn’t trying to build a unified local search portal at all. Instead, they’re launching trial balloons, turning developers loose to experiment with the company’s local data in order to surface features and nuances that might eventually be useful as subtle additions to the Newsfeed…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Uber Nears $2B in Revenue, Twitter Ads Get More Reach

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Leaked Doc: Uber Nears $2 Billion in Revenue, Expects IPO in 18-24 Months (Recode)… Twitter Gives Promoted Tweets and Video Ads More Mobile Reach (AdWeek)… Facebook Has Taken Over From Google as a Traffic Source for News (Fortune)…

Case Study: Bubble Tea Shops Use Boosted Facebook Posts for Customer Acquisition

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Like many merchants, the team behind Boba Guys relies primarily on unpaid marketing campaigns for customer retention, using organic tactics like posting exclusives and inside news on social media. Ten percent of Boba Guys’ marketing is aimed at customer acquisition.

Geofencing at Events: How to Reach Potential Customers Live and On-Site

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Businesses have been taking a closer look at the potential for geofencing and proximity marketing for trade shows, events, and festivals. The technology offers some rich opportunities for interactive messages, and can ensure that promotions are especially relevant.

Street Fight Daily: The Magnitude of Instagram’s API Switch, PayPal Acquires Mobile Commerce Startup

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Why an Instagram Tweak Spells the Beginning of a Multibillion-Dollar Industry (Recode)… PayPal Makes Its First Acquisition After Splitting From eBay (Fortune)… Google Express Plans to Shut Down Its Two Delivery Hubs (Recode)…

A New Political Campaign Methodology Connects Supporters With Localized Social Media

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It’s self-evident that campaigns should be promoted at local levels, where word-of-mouth buzz can truly happen within neighborhoods. As the 2016 national election approaches, campaigns have the opportunity to harness local social more directly than ever before.

Sponsored Content: Localizing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

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After getting listed in online directories, setting up SEO-optimized websites, and creating profiles on popular social channels, running a PPC campaign is the next logical step for local business marketers. This post is part of a series on strategies in local digital marketing, sponsored by Mediative.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Might Crowdsource Delivery, Square Introduces Apple Watch App

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Flex Could Be a New Way to Get Your Packages, Report Says (Mashable)… Square Cash for the Apple Watch Lets You Send Money From Your Wrist (The Next Web)… Here’s How the Post Office is Taking On UPS, FedEx, and Amazon (Fortune)…

Why Online Marketplaces Will Continue to Beat Word-of-Mouth Platforms in the Battle for Local Business

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People seek the opinions of their friends. They care what they think, and they trust them to make recommendations on everything from a good meal to a good mechanic. It’s word of mouth marketing — the most prized of its kind since the Stone Age. And its staying power undeniably supports the rationale for a […]

7 Ways For SMBs to Maximize the Benefits of Online Scheduling

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Before adding new platforms to the marketing mix, merchants should fully utilize the scheduling systems they’ve already implemented at their businesses. Here are seven examples of ways that merchants can maximize the benefits of online booking tools.

Street Fight Daily: Uber Launches Food Delivery, Facebook’s Ad Tech Strategy

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… UberEats Comes to San Francisco, Where Food Delivery Is Hot (Recode)… With Retooled Atlas Under the Hood, Facebook Closes in on Linking Ads to Sales Across Devices (AdAge)… Retail Tech Meets Consumer Reality: Cracking the Consumer Path to Purchase Code (PYMNTS.com)…