News and Analysis

#SFSNYC: Verve’s Mark Fruehan Talks Being a Tactician in Location-Based Advertising

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Mobile and local offer huge opportunities in potential revenue to advertisers smart enough to capitalize on them. But location data will ultimately hold value for marketers only if its collection and analysis rests on accurate audience identification, said Mark Fruehan, executive vice president of enterprise platforms at Verve, at Street Fight Summit Wednesday.

#SFSNYC: Broadly CEO: Brick-and-Mortars Need to Become Messaging Centers

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Phone calls and contact forms are dead, but what about websites? Not so much, said Josh Melick, CEO of Broadly, at Street Fight’s annual summit in New York Wednesday. With this trend showing no signs of stopping, websites—especially those of local businesses—need to become messaging centers.

#SFSNYC: The Growing Power of SMB OS

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Until recently, brick-and-mortar shopping relied on the digital world for advertising functions and not much else. But now, local retail has a new digital arena—the full-service operating system. Three leaders in this expanding set of technological solutions for SMBs laid out the state of the field, known as SMB OS, at Street Fight Summit in New York Wednesday.

Commentary

How to Win The National-to-Local War with Technology and Services

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Enterprises still face the same issues as they did 30 years ago — namely, ensuring a consistent national-to-local implementation at “the last mile.” With more moving parts in digital media today, it is much harder to implement a successful national to local digital marketing program unless dealers (or franchises, contractors, physicians, etc.) are onboard, active participants and investing in the program…

SMBs Have Some Major Advantages Over Brands in Social Marketing

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Social media is merely a digital extension of local conversations. We talk about the weather, the 4th of July parade, the upcoming festival, local news, et cetera. SMBs need to always be thinking about how they can join/start these conversations in order to build fans, follow leads, offer discounts, improve their reputation and, most importantly, compete with national brands…

Why Mobile Ads Are ‘A Little Scary’ (And Potentially So Valuable)

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Mobile isn’t a mass marketing vehicle; it’s my one-to-one, highly intimate connection with the Web. It’s a personal device, and its connection to me is private (or not), powerful, and controllable entirely by me. It is, in fact, a portable, electronic version of me, and I will not permit interruptions in the name of commerce for long…

Latest Posts

LBMA Podcast: Bonnaroo’s Beacons, Autograph’s Henry Lawson

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Top stories of the week include: Heineken’s @wherenext twitter service; Clear Channel launches its “Connect” platform; Petpace tracks the health of your pet; AdNear teams up with Mindshare for location targeting in Asia; Samsung launches “CentreStage” in BestBuy; Marriott launches LocalPerks; and Birchbox opens up a real-life store in SoHo…

Street Fight Daily: Zillow Eyes Trulia, Facebook and Uber Discuss Partnership

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyZillow Seeking to Buy Rival Property Site Trulia (Bloomberg)… Facebook and Uber Discuss Integration of Car Service Into Messenger (Recode)… LivingSocial’s Losses Narrow in the Second Wuarter (Washington Post)…

Three Months After IPO, Grubhub is Growing — And Profitable

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Shares of the company rose 4% Thursday morning as the online ordering firm reported solid revenue growth, and a stronger-than-expected jump in profit during its first full quarter as a public company…

WPP Mobile Exec: Location Already ‘Not Special’ in Ad Tech

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In a conversation this week, Michael Lieberman, chief executive North America at WPP’s Joule, discussed the copy-cat syndrome among mobile-local ad tech, how brands have ditched geo-fencing, and why influencing consumers’ impulse purchases might be the next big growth market for digital marketing dollars…

How Community Involvement Can Pay Off for Local Publishers

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Commuter traffic tie-ups and convenience store holdups can’t be the heart of a community news product. “Duty” coverage is still part of many sites’ content menu, but, by itself, it can’t build a solid relationship with community. The trick is to empower users “to take action to improve their communities”…

Street Fight Daily: The ‘New’ Foursquare, Apple Eyes Mobile Wallet

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyThe Next Age of Foursquare Begins Today (Verge)… Apple’s Mobile Wallet Talks Heat Up (Information)… New Google Maps for Android and iOS Takes a Jab at Foursquare (Mashable)…

Study: The Problem With Mobile Payments Isn’t Awareness — It’s Utility

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A new study from Thrive Analytics shows that the sluggish growth of mobile wallet initiatives is largely a product — not a marketing — problem. Among the 32% of respondents who used a wallet app, usage was, for the most part, intermittent…

Conference Notebook: Navigating a Future For Indoor Mapping

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In a world overflowing with data, it’s ironic that the last bastion of opacity — the place about which businesses know the least — is also the place where we spend the majority of our money: the physical store…

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s New Wallet, Linkedin Buys Bizo

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyPassbook Redux: Amazon Copies Apple’s Underwhelming Digital Wallet (Pando)… LinkedIn Makes Another Deal, Buying Bizo (New York Times)… For Its First Google Glass Effort, EBay Adapts Its RedLaser Product Finder App (TechCrunch)…

How SMBs Can Create Comprehensive Local Marketing Strategies

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When it comes to creating marketing strategies that include two or more hyperlocal solutions, many local merchants don’t even know where to begin. Here are five strategies that SMBs should consider…