News and Analysis
What’s Visual Search, and How Will It Play Out in 2019?
While visual search isn’t exactly catching on like fire yet, its evolution is buttressed by powerful developments of late in the tech industry. Among these: smartphones are increasingly ubiquitous, more efficient, and we’re all more accustomed to using them; investment in AI from both big companies and startups is widespread, making machine vision more effective; and augmented reality (AR), a similar modality in which tech overlays graphics onto images captured via camera lens, is taking off. Below are a few ways visual search will play out in local and retail in 2019.
Voice’s Local Impact in 2018 and 2019
Street Fight’s Mike Boland explained in a white paper on voice this year that there’s a number of misconceptions regarding how the medium will play out in local search and commerce, and there’s plenty of research out there to illuminate where voice is really headed. I outline some key insights about voice as brands and SMBs alike make plans to tackle it in the months to come.
How Predictive Analytics Reshaped Decision-Making in 2018 and Will Evolve in 2019
In this Q&A, we dig into what Sriram Parthasarathy, senior director of product architecture and predictive analytics at Logi Analytics, envisions as the future of predictive analytics and what he believes still needs to happen before AI-enabled applications move into the mainstream.
Commentary
Forget DIY, DIWM, and DIFM: ‘Do Nothing’ is the Best Approach to Capturing the SMB Market
The future of SMB marketing solutions isn’t do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, or even do-it-with-me. Rather, it lies in a new go-to-market model called “do nothing” that combines context, content, software, and automation into solutions that are low-cost, have next to no barriers to entry, and require little in the way of learning or doing from customers.
DEBATE: The Marketing of SMB Marketing Solutions
Speculation over the best model for providing and marketing SMB solutions — do-it-yourself (DIY), do-it-for-me (DIFM), or the middle-ground option, do-it-with-me (DIFM) — has been swirling for years. Columns from two Street Fight contributors indicate that while technology is part of the current problem, it’s undoubtedly part of the solution as well.
SMBs and Self-Service: Are We There Yet?
The question of whether or when SMBs are going to self-provision online marketing has been a topic of intense debate for at least a decade. Signs now point to the emergence of solutions simple enough to make self-service viable within three to five years. Ultimately, rather than a do-it-yourself vs. do-it-for-me dichotomy, we’re likely to see an increasingly stratified local market that looks a lot like a three-cabin airplane seating chart.
Latest Posts
Why All SMBs Need an Ecommerce Strategy
While online research to offline purchase is the more common path-to-purchase, future-looking SMB retailers will holistically consider an ecommerce strategy as more and more consumers embrace online shopping.
Case Study: SMB Marketing Firm Uses Chat App to Convert Clicks to Leads
With the goal of retaining and converting more leads for his agency, Outlook Bench Group’s Nii Akwei went in search of a product he could use to connect with website visitors in real-time.
Street Fight Daily: Food Delivery Wars, Nokia’s Mapping Tech
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Billion Dollar Food Delivery Wars (TechCrunch)… Everybody Wants to Own Nokia’s Mapping Technology (Skift)… Mid-year Report: The Newspaper Industry’s Billion Dollar Challenge (Poynter)
Boston-Based Dispatch Retains a Startup Mentality as It Sets Its Sights on Big Growth
Dispatch grew from three employees to 25 in the past 10 months, and the company is on an upward trajectory. As it scales, the executive team is hoping to maintain the small-time ambiance of a startup while segmenting responsibilities.
Raise Report: New Funding for Yieldify, Zosi, Adored, and Airbnb
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 Onefinestay and UrbanClap.
LBMA Podcast: Beacons on Buses, Apple’s New Patents
On the show: Selfridges Tiffany & Co brings flagship store to augmented reality; Starbucks taps Lyft for free frappucino deliveries; Uber acquires mapping team from Microsoft; TCS acquires Loctronix. Special guest is Jeff White of Gravy.
Street Fight Daily: Google’s Plan for Mobile Search, Uber’s “Lead Generation” Defense
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Reinventing Google for a Mobile World (New York Times)… Uber: We’re Not a Taxi Service,“We’re a Lead Generation” App (Business Insider)… Location Is Everything: Talking Mobile Programmatic With Avazu’s Yi Shi (AdMonsters)…
McClatchy Says It’s a ‘Digital’ Company, but More Work Still Remains
There is no doubt that McClatchy is putting an enormous amount of energy and talent into digital — but will it be enough when print is shrinking so rapidly? Street fight spoke to the company’s VP of products, marketing and promotion, Christian Hendricks, about where McClatchy is in its digital evolution
Why All Brands Need to Prepare for the Localization of Marketing
In order to fully appreciate the significance of localized marketing, we first need to understand the dominant forms of marketing that preceded it. There have been three major technological disruptions over the past century that fundamentally changed the marketing landscape.
On the Road: The Future of On-Demand Delivery Is in Motion
Figuring out how to consistently and quickly deliver services to a driver when the destination is unsure means a provider needs to develop a mesh network of always-in-motion providers of services and also serve customers in a place they are unaccustomed to doing business.
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature