News and Analysis
Shirking the Tech Giants’ Mobile Wallets, Kroger Unveils One of Its Own
Kroger is flexing on Apple and Google this week, passing on the opportunity to accept Apple Pay or Google Pay at its stores and choosing instead to launch its own mobile wallet that doubles as a loyalty card, WCPO reported in Columbus.
How Online Grocers Are Using AI to Cut Food Prices
The distinction between real-world supermarkets and online-only grocers has come down to price. The introduction of a new technology to lower prices for consumers may be what the industry needs to finally push it past the tipping point.
Local Search Association Announces New President, Bill Dinan
The Local Search Association, which brings together over 300 companies intent on connecting enterprises and small businesses alike with consumers, announced on Wednesday morning Bill Dinan as its new president. The announcement follows the retirement of its previous president Neg Norton, who held the role for 15 years.
Commentary
Making Sense of Google’s Changes that Just Blew Up Online Ads for Local Businesses
There’s really no way to overstate what a massive change Google’s ad reconfiguring is for everyone in the SEM industry. But it’s going to have a more profound — and even devastating — effect on locally-oriented businesses who had relied on Adwords as a key marketing tool.
How the Google My Business API Changes the Local Ecosystem
The move is a good thing for business owners but even more so for Google itself, which in providing a better means to gather data from business owners will improve the freshness and accuracy of its data.
Location Data Management 101: Seeing the Bigger Picture
Many brands make the mistake of viewing location data as nothing more than plumbing for their local listings — or a component of a listing management strategy. But location data management is much bigger than listing management and data syndication.
Latest Posts
Openings and New Hires at Angie’s List, Yext, and Retailigence
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Angie’s List names a new CEO, Retailigence gets a new CRO, and Dallas Morning News nabs a managing editor from Pew Research Center.
With 8 Sites in Brooklyn, ‘Indie’ Corner Media Reports Doubling of Ad Revenue
Brooklyn is home to scores of fast-changing neighborhoods that are reshaping New York City’s largest borough. Seven of these neighborhoods are the turf of Corner Media Group, the independent mini-network that entrepreneur Liena Zagare has assembled over the past several years.
ironSource’s Cunningham: You Need Every Data Set at Your Disposal to Compete with Facebook and Google
“In today’s ecosystem, there’s no fooling around anymore. You have some serious players taking 80 or 90 percent of the share, and the only way that you’re ever going to compete is with scale, targeting, a large user base, and product capabilities that can command real budgets,” said ironSource head of mobile and global brand partnerships Chris Cunningham about ad-tech consolidation.
LBMA Podcast: Ikea’s Twitter Vending Machines, Nomadic Uno’s CEO
On the show: SmarTone Telecom complicates the KISS principle; SeeLight helps the blind cross the street; Area360 raises $3.5M; Yogrt rakes in $3M. Plus news from Mondelez Shopper Futures, Unacast and Coke, Walgreens, InMarket, Millennial Media, and AOL.
Street Fight Daily: Google Introduces Android Pay, Foursquare Wants to ‘Fake’ Beacon Tech
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Android Pay Is Finally Here (Huffington Post)… Dennis Crowley Explains Foursquare’s New ‘Magic Trick’ (Business Insider)… Uber’s Chinese Rival Quietly Backs Its U.S. Rival Lyft (Wall Street Journal)…
7 Tools SMBs Can Use to Track Leads
When local merchants spend big on digital marketing, they expect to see results. Without using the appropriate tracking technology, however, it can be downright impossible to determine whether a marketing method is working. Here are seven options, each for a different type of business or marketing scenario.
Is Local a Specialist or a Full-Service Game?
Local startups have reached a tipping point — go big, or go home. The fifth annual Street Fight Summit on Oct. 20th in NYC will explore the shifting local landscape. Conversations will look at the future of beacons, retail marketing, the changing programmatic landscape, and the nascent battle in mobile.
The Same, Only More So: Apple Introduces Comprehensive Refresh of Mobile, Wearables and TV
If there is a specifically local business implication to the new products and services, it lies in this deeper level of integration with a more mobile world, where the nimbleness of apps (think computing lite) gives everyone the ability to customize and communicate on the fly.
Street Fight Daily: Analyzing Yesterday’s Apple Event, Square Plans Q4 IPO
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Same, Only More So: Apple Introduces Comprehensive Refresh of Mobile, Wearables, and TV (Street Fight)… Square Said to Seek Fourth-Quarter IPO as Twitter Decision Looms (Bloomberg)… It’s Not ‘Winner-Take-All’ for Uber or Lyft, Says the Only Investor in Both (Business Insider)…
Swipely CEO: We Want to Provide the Operating Platform That Restaurants Run On
“If you’re not going to fundamentally improve the guest experience, then there’s really no motivation for either the consumer to change the way that they’re buying in the restaurant or for the merchant to replace the operating practices they have,” said Swipely CEO Angus Davis about mobile payments.
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