News and Analysis

5 Platforms Using AI to Analyze Customer Reviews

Beyond the star ratings lies a wealth of information. Sentiment and opinions can be used to shape the way brands develop their highest-selling products. Given the volume of reviews posted each day, however, it would be impossible for most major brands to analyze every customer reaction individually. Instead, a growing number of brands are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to extract and analyze the sentiment from product reviews. Here are five examples of platforms that offer this type of AI technology for analyzing customer feedback posted online.

How Brands Are Using AR to Generate Buzz, Promote Loyalty

The push into AR can be seen as a way for brand retailers to differentiate themselves from Amazon, bringing the in-store experience into the online world. It’s also a way for retailers to jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing, with the hope that using innovative technologies is new ways will have a viral effect and get people talking.

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.

Commentary

Brands, Meet the Data Amplifiers

Data amplifiers distribute and publish your data to a broader audience than you could ever do on your own — what I call the “network effect.” Your brand becomes more visible because your business data becomes more open and accessible to the influencers who are in a position to help customers find your business.

Retailers Shift Focus to Offline Affiliate Marketing

Location analytics represent the new battleground in retail, but imagine if you could apply the same analytics for online attribution to offline purchases. Offline affiliate marketing does just that, giving retailers the tools to analyze data from in-store purchases similar to what they can do for online purchases.

Yodle Weighs in on How Google’s SERP Change Has Affected Online Ads for SMBs

With a few weeks of empirical data, we now have a much clearer sense of how or if this change has affected local AdWords campaigns. At Yodle, we have seen a negligible effect on the performance metrics of the search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns we run on behalf of our local small business clients.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Thumbtack Is Now a Unicorn, Amazon Leverages Existing On-Demand Workforce

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Thumbtack Becomes Latest Unicorn, Raises $125 Million at $1.25 Billion Valuation (Forbes)… Amazon Taps ‘On-Demand’ Workers for One-Hour Deliveries (Wall Street Journal)… Walmart Doubles Down on Online Grocery Shopping with Curbside Pickup (TechCrunch)…

Redpoint Ventures’ Dharmaraj: There Will Be Many Different Craigslists

“It’s about establishing trust and community. I think there will be many different Craigslists, each for your own local community. That’s where something big can be built in the local space — a Craigslist that’s organized by neighborhoods, rather than by cities,” said Redpoint Ventures partner Satish Dharmaraj about local “unicorns” waiting to emerge.

Street Culture: HR Strategies for Startups

Hiring isn’t rocket science. It’s pretty simple to create basic procedures that turn hiring into a standard company practice. But it does takes time and concerted effort. For Cat Hernandez, talent partner at investment firm Primary Venture Partners, it starts with making sure that everyone in the company is closely aligned with whatever the company is trying to achieve.

Street Fight Daily: Google’s New Ad Targeting Techniques, Uber Launches UberEVENTS

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Targets Intent with Email, YouTube, and Search Matching and App Campaigns (TechCrunch)… UberEVENTS is Launching in New York (Tech.Co)… How Much of Your Audience Is Fake? (Bloomberg)…

Openings and New Hires at Yext, Acquisio, and ServiceTitan

Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Yext hires a slew of new executives, Acquisio brings on local marketing expert Sebastien Provencher as VP of product, and ServiceTitan appoints a new head of sales.

LBMA Podcast: Apple Buys Mapsense, Wycombe Wanderers Outfits Players with GPS Trackers, Zonetail Raises $2.3 Million

On the show: Apple buys Mapsense; Wycombe Wanderers outfits players with GPS trackers; Pokemon GO brings game to the physical world; Zonetail raises $2.3M; Where2GetIt becomes Brandify. Plus, news from Under Armour, Sports Authority, and MapMyFitness; Socialgist and Foursquare; and AdMobilize and Verizon.

6 Strategies for Segmenting Website Visitors for Real-Time Personalization

Marketing strategies like real-time website personalization have gone mainstream. But marketers still need help understanding the best ways to segment website visitors to get the most out of their personalization efforts. Here are six strategies from three top industry experts that detail how to segment site visitors for real-time personalization.

Street Fight Daily: Goldman Sachs’ Advertising Report, App Search Company Tests Mobile Ads

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Goldman Sachs: Online Advertising About to Be ‘Fundamentally Restructured’ by Apple, Google, and Facebook (Business Insider)… App Search Engine Quixey Now Taking a Crack at Mobile Ads (Recode)… Shopify Partners with U.S. Postal Service to Woo More Retailers (Reuters)…

Same-Day Delivery: The Linchpin in the Battle for the Last Mile of Commerce

Consumers are more impatient and time-starved than ever. At least that’s the impression one could derive from the seemingly unending string of same-day delivery announcements from major retailers, restaurants, convenience-store chains, startup enablers, and technology companies. The driving force behind their renewed focus on ever-shorter delivery windows: conquering the elusive last mile of commerce.

How Hearst Newspapers Became the Leader in Its Peer Group

Under president Mark E. Aldam, Hearst Newspapers is going full bore on digital, creating in-house digital marketing services and betting big on programmatic advertising. In our interview, Aldam explains how Hearst has become a top performer in the still financially challenged newspaper industry.