News and Analysis
6 Customer Data Platforms for Brands
Customer data platforms dominated the conversation at the MarTech Conference in California earlier this month, as marketers shared how they’ve been able to pull data from multiple sources, combine that data into single customer profiles, and then make that data available to other marketing systems.
With so much hype surrounding customer data platforms right now, we decided to dig into the market and learn about some of the hottest players in the space. Here’s what we found.
Voice-Readiness Study Indicates Vast Majority of Businesses Fail Basic Listings Test
It only takes listing correct and comprehensive information on Google, Yelp, and Bing for a brand or small business to earn 90% on location management solution Uberall’s voice search readiness test. Yet only 4% of the businesses in the company’s latest study, which examined the voice preparedness of 75,000 listings, had correct info on all three of those major directories.
Government Regulation Is Marketers’ Most Common Concern About Data-Driven Initiatives
Changing political headwinds and increased media attention on data collection and privacy are apparently rattling marketers, who named government regulation as an obstacle to data-driven campaigns more than any other single factor. That’s per a survey of U.S. marketers by Winterberry Group and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, eMarketer reported.
Commentary
Scaling the Neighborhood: A Community Focus for Local Services
So far, digital services, even those focused on local, have done more to atomize local communities than unite them, training us to rely on anonymous resources for the information and recommendations we used to get from our friends and neighbors.
Survey: Some National-to-Local Marketers Still Need Convincing on Digital Effectiveness
Street Fight surveyed over 200 managers and decision makers at big companies in retail, financial services, and other industries. We asked them about spending patterns, perceived effectiveness, pain points, etc., around their local marketing and advertising efforts.
Sussing Out Google’s Master Plan in the Post-App Era
Google’s counter-attack to the world of apps can be seen in several places. In fact most Google moves are to drive mobile behavior through its front door. This principle underpinned nearly every announcement at Google I/O.
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Misalignment Between Brands and Local Affiliates May Be Wasting Massive Amounts of Co-op Funds
National brands rely on a complex web of local affiliates for representation, distribution, and channel marketing and sales. In these sometimes shaky partnerships, it turns out that massive resources in the form of co-op and market development fund (MDF) programs often go unused or get misdirected, largely due to misalignment between brands and their affiliates.
Case Study: Westport Restaurant Views Social Marketing as Digital Word-of-Mouth
Local merchants in every vertical are relying more on social media marketing for customer acquisition and retention, but restaurants in particular have become heavy users of social platforms. This year, 50 percent of casual dining and fine dining operators said they planned to devote even more resources to social media marketing. Hyperlocal vendors like Perch are providing business owners with a way to consolidate most social marketing tasks in one centralized app.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Location-Centric Notifications Update, Etsy’s Same-Day Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… With Updated Notifications, Facebook Pulls People Down the Rabbit Hole (GigaOm)… Etsy ASAP Brings Same-Day Delivery to NYC (The Next Web)… Square Reports Another Loss as IPO Roadshow Approaches (Wall Street Journal)…
Getting Pushy with Notifications Can Pay Off with Millennials
With the volume and velocity of messaging in the digital economy increasing seemingly exponentially, brands everywhere need to weigh not only what information and content they share but also how much and the delivery channel they use. When it comes to highly connected millennials who use location-based apps, a new study indicates brands and retailers stand a good chance of cutting through the clutter with push notifications.
Local Papers Unload on Viewability Bad Actors and ‘Garbage Inventory’
Ever since a 2014 Google study documented that 52 percent of ad impressions actually were not seen by users, viewability has been a front-burner issue for marketers and publishers alike. The digital platforms of local newspapers serve up billions of ad impressions monthly, putting these publishers right in the middle of the issue. To find out how they’re responding, Street Fight spoke with Tobias Bennett, the Local Media Consortium’s advertising expert.
#SFSNYC Recap: 5 Key Takeaways from This Year’s Summit
The annual Street Fight Summit assembled more than 350 marketers, solutions providers, technologists, and media executives to discuss pressing issues and developments in the connected local economy. Here are five key takeaways from the day’s keynotes, panel discussions, and fireside chats.
Street Fight Daily: Uber Seeks to Raise Another $1B, Is Amazon Building Its Own Shipping Network?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Said to Plan Another $1 Billion in Fundraising (New York Times)… Amazon May Be Building a Team That Will Help It Replace FedEx and UPS (Business Insider)… Mobile Payments Will Triple in the U.S. in 2016 (eMarketer)…
Street Culture: Humility and Good Conversations at Instacart
On-demand grocery shopping and delivery service Instacart is make headway at disrupting a multi-billion-dollar industry. Driving that effort is a relentless focus on satisfying customers. “One policy we’ve implemented at Instacart is that every employee, from the engineers up to our CEO, goes out shopping once a quarter to get an understanding of being a shopper and how our service affects the customer. Everybody here does it,” says vice president of people Mathew Caldwell.
Openings and New Hires at Thumbtack, Polar, and Yodle
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Bing loses Duane Forrester, senior product manager in charge of webmaster outreach, newly minted unicorn Thumbtack appoints a CFO and general counsel, Polar hires a Googler as president of international, and Yodle brings on a president for its Brand Networks business.
LBMA Podcast: Pinterest Adds Location to Every Place Pin, Niantic Labs Raises $20M
On the show: Pinterest Place Pins to add automatic location data; Niantic Labs raises $20 million from Google, Pokémon, and Nintendo; Australia’s Westfield malls and CommBank team up for beacon play; Drinkeasy SMS craft spirits delivery service; Onomichi map provides “cat’s-eye view;” MoveLoot does the heavy lifting; RetailNext acquires Pikato. Plus, news from Shoe Carnival and SIM Partners; Tostitos Canada; and Gimbal and Phigital.
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