News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Amazon and Google Announce New Initiatives Focused on SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Introduces Startup Campaigns for Small Businesses… Amazon Plans Startup SMB Delivery Services for Its Own Packages… How a Proposed California Privacy Regulation Could Impact User Data-Driven Business…

With GDPR In Place, Will Push Marketing Recede?

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Retailers love push marketing. But the practice relies on consumer data in order to work, and that’s becoming a major problem with the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation firmly in effect.

Study: Challenges Persist with One-Partner Programmatic Strategy

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84% of brands want to bring their programmatic ad spending in-house as a way to gain more control over what’s become an opaque process. The problem? A study by Visto shows that advertisers who use just one platform are losing out on opportunities to lower inventory costs and efficiently delivery on KPIs.

Commentary

Selling Search to Small Businesses

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It’s no secret that national brands are investing heavily in local marketing and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are feeling the increased competitive pinch. After all, there are only so many people looking for a given product or service in one’s neighborhood. But while national brands will likely continue to dominate TV, print and radio advertising, digital marketing offers SMBs a rare opportunity to compete with national brands on equal footing…

What Local Publishers Can Learn From Starbucks

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Publishers shouldn’t think about “what thing” they should do to make money, but rather “what experience am I delivering and how can I extend that experience thoughtfully?” If something adds value for readers, adds value for advertisers, and strengthens your other efforts then you should be doing it today…

How Online Review Sites Can Regain Consumers’ Trust

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As long as there are economic incentives to create bogus reviews, unscrupulous people and businesses will continue to exploit the platforms that make it easy to deceive. For the local players seeking to help users in selecting a great business, use the offline world as a guide. Require an identity, build communities of real people sharing advice, and give legitimate customers a megaphone to honestly rate the service received…

Latest Posts

Poncho, a Weather App That Speaks for Itself

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The year-old company only has six full-time employees, but it has accrued “tens of thousands of subscribers” due in part to word of mouth and an effective referral program. And according to the founder of Poncho, Kuan Huang, that user base is engaged, with an email open rate of 50%…

Street Fight Daily: Square Orders Ahead, StubHub’s Editorial Strategy

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologySquare Rolls Out Order App, Targets Coffee Shops (Bloomberg)… Stubhub Hires Its First Editor-in-Chief, Looks to Become a Destination For Sports and Music Fans (PandoDaily)… Pull Over, Google Maps: Nokia Here Maps Zooms on to Samsung Galaxy Phones (GigaOm)…

Former Visa Exec Wants Mobile Shoppers to Make the First Move

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In the marketing industry, startup types wax poetic about the the power of bluetooth beacons to revolutionize the way we shop. But Dave Wentker, the former director of Visa’s emerging technology division, is questioning whether beacons are truly enough to really change consumers’ shopping habits. Wentker’s company, Tapcentive, has developed a system that lets consumers choose when to receive messaging, content, and deals…

The Benefit of Beacons Is in the Past and the Future — Not in the Present

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The discussion around bluetooth beacons and other proximity messaging technologies has largely centered on real-time advertising. But the benefit of beacons extends well beyond the “here and now” scenario; the devices create new opportunities for marketers to build deeper audience segmentations and more advanced location targeting that we’ve barely begun to explore…

Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Hyperlocal Ads, Yext Hires for IPO

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Facebook Launches Hyper-Local Ads Targeted To People Within A Mile Of A Business (TechCrunch)… With This Hire, Yext Seems Poised for IPO (New York Business Journal)… San Francisco Legalizes Airbnb (Recode)…

Beacons Do Pose a Privacy Threat — But It’s Not the One You’re Worried About

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Earlier this week, Buzzfeed published a scathing report detailing an initiative by outdoor advertising giant Titan to install bluetooth beacons in hundreds of phone booths across New York City. But the report does more to underscore the shortcomings of the local technology industry in explaining the new technology than to expose a new, meaningful threat to the consumer privacy…

Former Apple Geo Exec Launches Curbside, An App for In-Store Pickup

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Curbside, a new company founded by the former head of Apple’s geo team, Jaron Waldman, launched a mobile commerce app yesterday in San Francisco that allows users to find products that are in stock at multiple stores in their area, purchase them with their mobile device and then pick them up at the location without ever getting out of their car…

Street Fight Daily: Video Spending Thrives, Uber Hires Former Lyft COO

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Video Growth Drives Display Advertising Spending To $37.6 Billion In 2019 (Forrester)… Uber Hires Former Lyft COO VanderZanden to Spur International Growth (Recode)… Will Apple’s “Location Warnings” Be Educational Or Scary? (MarketingLand)…

Why a Former Current TV Exec Believes in the Economics of Local Video

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Street Fight recently caught up with Mark Goldman, the former COO of Current TV and current chief of online video platform ExtendTV, to talk about missed opportunities with Current, why he believes digital will not kill television (completely), and where he sees the local video market heading in the next few years…

Street Fight Daily: Square Raises $150M, New York’s Secret Beacons

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Square Raises $150 Million at a $6 Billion Valuation (New York Times)… Hundreds Of Devices Hidden Inside New York City Phone Booths (BuzzFeed)… Marriott Settles FCC Complaint About Blocking Rival Wi-Fi Networks (Recode)…