News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: How Businesses Can Prepare for Voice-Driven Commerce, Google Pursues OOH in Big Way

TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… As Local Search Enters the Voice Era, Three Content Channels Dominate… Google’s Targeted Ads Are Coming to a Billboard Near You… DexYP (and Other Publishers) Transition to Digital, But Limited Revenue Suggests Bleak Long-Term Prospects…

Hires and New Openings at Dream Local, Adsquare, PubMatic

Every two or three weeks, Street Fight rounds up some of the latest hires and new openings in the hyperlocal marketing, tech, and media industries.  This week’s roundup includes hires and new openings at Gravy Analytics, GasBuddy, Swrve, Episerver, and Swrve.

Raise Report: Dynamic Yield, Optoro, Gusto Score New Funding

Every two or three weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s report also includes funding for Spark Neuro, StreetLight Data, Shedul, and Teamleader.

Commentary

The Shifting Line Between Free and Paid Local Marketing Services

The manipulation of organic reach on Facebook is one of many examples of the shifting boundary between free and paid local marketing services. In “pure” local search, that boundary has tended to be relatively clear: look for a local business in your typical IYP and you’ll see sponsored listings at the top of the results page, followed by organic results. But that boundary is likely more clear to those of us who know what to look for than it is to the general user…

Probabilistic Device Matching Isn’t Perfect — But It Works

The use of probabilistic matching or statistical IDs to link multiple devices to an individual is often dismissed based on dubious accuracy. It’s true that the practice will never be 100% accurate, but even taking the conservative estimate at the lower end of this range, probabilistic matching enables marketers to scale their mobile advertising campaigns with reasonable expectations of performance…

Is Facebook Paper the Wake-up Call Publishers Need?

Media companies and publishers need to take a page from Facebook and other fast-moving digital properties. These digital entities are giving readers what they want while using what they know about users to “make a killing” with ads. Publishers who were virtually sidelined by these digital powerhouse companies can now get back in the game by adopting a Zuckerberg move: creating the right conditions and culture…

Latest Posts

Why Brand Names Matter Less and Less on Main Street

The “brand era” that gave rise to some of the tentpoles of the American economy may soon come to an end. The web, now reachable wherever and whenever through smartphones, can help consumers answer many of the questions that brand once answered…

Did Apple Just Transform Pay-Per-Call (Without Anyone Noticing)?

OSX Yosemite’s “Continuity” feature has received surprisingly little media attention in general and zero coverage for its implications for call monetization. But it could be a glimpse into the sector’s future.

Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Smear Tactics, Groupon Buys (Other) Swarm

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyUber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists (BuzzFeed)… Groupon Acquires In-Store Analytics And Marketing Startup Swarm Mobile (TechCrunch)… U.S. Mobile Payments Market to Boom by 2019, Research Firm Says (New York Times)…

Pay-Per-Call’s Role in Improving Marketing ROI

Call-generation company Soleo in conjunction with Street Fight Insights released a white paper today about pay-per-call and how it improves marketing ROI by deploying advertising budgets more effectively. The paper, “Pay-Per-Call’s Role in Improving Marketing ROI” covers insights into creating an effective pay-per-call campaign; sourcing and deploying effective research and analytics; and using data to better manage a campaign once launched, as well as how to evaluate potential solutions providers…

The Democratization of Local Commerce and the Future of Physical Exchange

While the analyst community obsesses over the share of spending that physical stores are losing to ecommerce, they overlook the vast transformation in the stores themselves. There’s a deeper shift underway in the way we sell and consume products locally that could have a substantially larger impact on the wider economy…

Street Fight Daily: Airbnb’s Print Magazine, Yik Yak Eyes Big Round

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Airbnb Introducing Print Magazine, Pineapple (New York Times)… Yik Yak Is Close To Closing On Roughly $75 Million (TechCrunch)… Uber and Spotify Are Partnering (Recode)…

Can Traditional Retailers Nail Digital Before Amazon Figures Out Brick-and-Mortar?

It was never a question of if, but when. Anyone tracking the retail industry knew the day would come for Amazon to open… ahem… a brick-and-mortar storefront. Now Amazon’s familiar slanted smile logo will hang from a shingle in Manhattan right down the street from Macy’s flagship Herald Square store, just in time for the […]

Apple Pay Doesn’t Have to Kill the Wallet to Be Worth SMBs’ Adoption

More and more, software is influencing the way consumers evaluate the places where the shop in the real-world. As the small business technology ecosystem grows, it is crucial for small businesses to break down any potential barriers surrounding purchase, especially when consumers are offered numerous alternatives including national chains and ecommerce giants.

LBMA Podcast: Factual Teams With EQ Works, Digital Element Partners With Skyhook

On the show: Bionym pioneers wearable payments; Adsquare raises $4.3M; The NHL is testing virtual Dasherboards; Tip.ly makes tipping a visual thing; Clear Channel offering free content in Singapore; Copresence brings peace to Android and iOS sharing; Boxpark does the pop-up mall. Our resource of the week looks at the impact of Apple Pay on Whole Foods…

Street Fight Daily: Google Kills The Carousel, Facebook’s Local Ambitions

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Google Debuts New Look For Hotel Booking Ads As The Carousel Disappears (Search Engine Land)… Facebook’s New Privacy Rules Clear the Way for Payments Push and Location-Based Ads (Recode)… Can Tech Companies Solve Their Temporary Labor Problem? (Pacific Standard)…