News and Analysis

Anne Marie Stephen Joins Street Fight as President

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Anne Marie Stephen, a veteran of tech and retail, is taking the helm at Street Fight, the premier media, research, and events company covering local marketing and technology. As president, Stephen will oversee Street Fight’s overall strategy, events, and budget as it pursues aggressive growth in 2019.

The Future of Advertising in an Autonomous Vehicle Landscape

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When autonomous vehicles begin to replace traditional cars, the local business advertising market will shift alongside. But SMB advertising might not actually look dramatically different than it does today; instead, today’s location-based, personalized marketing will reach new customizable extremes.

As Boomers Warm to Mobile, Brands Look to Capitalize

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Millennials have been shopping on their smartphones for years, but a shift toward mobile-direct shopping among consumers in the boomer generation is creating excitement for retailers and brand marketers this holiday season.

Commentary

Street Fight Hyperlocal Analyst Predictions for 2016

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With 2015 drawing to a close, it’s time again to look ahead to what we can expect in the hyperlocal space in 2016. This year, we did things a little differently. We invited our regular analyst contributors to 1) weigh in on what they felt would be a “sure thing” in the coming year, 2) offer a prediction on something that might get big (but might not happen), and 3) identify something that hyperlocal marketers and merchants really don’t need to worry about. This is the first of several predictions pieces we will feature this week.

Ad Blockers: One Big Distraction from the Real Issue

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In a year of overblown topics, the grand prize goes to mobile ad blockers. The backlash is not only disproportionate to real impact but also has fueled the wrong conversation. Instead of fighting ad blockers — or fueling them in the case of biased reports — the ad industry should ask itself how it got in this position to begin with.

Is the Humble Phone Call Actually the Killer App for Local Businesses?

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It turns out reports of voice calling’s death are greatly exaggerated. Despite an explosion in data usage and mobile messaging, voice calling — facilitated by search and virtual assistants — remains a popular activity among mobile users. A lot of those calls are going to local businesses, where they are more likely to convert to revenue than web forms or emails.

Latest Posts

6 Reasons Why Beacon Programs Fail

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Beacons have been heralded as the future of retail, with 85% of retailers expected to use the technology by 2016. But getting a successful proximity-marketing program off the ground involves more than just setting out a few digital devices. Here are few common pitfalls and tips on how to avoid them.

Mono CEO: In Local Marketing, U.S. Is Maybe 5 Years Ahead of Europe

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Since its founding in 2007, Mono Solutions has been giving SMBs a complete package — from website building, to helping with online visibility, to engaging with customers, to doing business online. We recently caught up with the company’s CEO, Louise Lachmann, to talk about how she sees the local industry evolving.

Street Fight Daily: Crowley on Foursquare’s Future, Google Still Working on Same-Day Delivery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon Reports Profit but Still Falls Short of Expectations (Wall Street Journal)… Google Puts Exec Behind ‘Buy Button’ in Charge of Express Delivery Service (Recode)… Understanding The Future Of Mobility (TechCrunch)…

Street Culture: Flexibility Helps WeddingWire as It Scales Up

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At WeddingWire, an online marketplace serving the wedding and events industry, its expanding employee base is providing new opportunities to fine-tune company policies, according to the company’s vice president of people, Jenny Harding.

Raise Report: Radius, Shopkeep, Stripe Rake in Big Rounds

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Every two weeks we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. In this edition, new investments include big votes of confidence for Twilio, Yozio, and Little.

LBMA Podcast: Beacons, WeChat and Proximity Messaging with NOD,

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On the show: Visor let’s you see what’s happening around the globe; Michigan University opens up MCity to test driverless cars; Beacons + WeChat test from Chow Tai Fook brings in $16M; Hipcamp’s landsharing services. Member news from Canadian Tire, Placed and Wendy’s.

Street Fight Daily: Small-Scale Shipping Firms Are Having a Moment, Jet.com Struggles

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Growth of E-commerce Pushes Funds Into Small-Fry Shipping Firms (Reuters)… Jet.com Runs Into Turbulence With Retailers (Wall Street Journal)… Not Just An App: The Front End Of The Trillion-Dollar, Full-Stack Revolution (TechCrunch)…

Click-to-Calls Are Clicking — And a Lot of the Sales Are Close to Home

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A new study from Marchex has put a dollar amount on the business generated when consumers tap on a click-to-call ad or search listing on their mobile device: more than $1 trillion each year.

Prompt.ly Launches App to Help ‘Solopreneurs’ Manage Their (Very) Small Businesses

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The platform, which provided scheduling, invoicing, payments and promotions, recently launched a mobile app that helps very small business owners — what CEO Richard Titus calls “solopreneurs” — easily manage their businesses on their phone.

Street Fight Daily: Uber Reportedly Losing Money Despite VC Success, Yelp and ProPublica Team Up

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Here Are the Internal Documents that Prove Uber Is a Money Loser (Gawker)… ProPublica Teams Up With Yelp to Make It Easier to Find Good Local Health Care Services (NiemanLab)… Here’s How Facebook Is Turning Its Local Ad Unit Into a Customer Service Channel (AdWeek)…