News and Analysis

The Line Between Cool and Creepy: How Much Personalization is Too Much?

With its new study, the Personalization Pulse Check, Accenture aims to help brands understand the border between cool and creepy advertising, providing insights into what the customer thinks of personalization tactics in marketing campaigns.

Street Fight Daily: How to Target Customers Without Being Creepy, Keys to Brand Success with Voice

TOP LOCAL TIPS AND STORIES… The Line Between Cool and Creepy: How Much Personalization is Too Much?… IBM Says Data and Utility Are the Keys to Brand Success in Voice… Google Has Asked Ad Tech Firms to Guarantee Broad GDPR Consent, Assume Liability…

Street Fight Daily: A Glossary for SEO, Why Brands Favor Hybrid In-House Marketing

TODAY’S LOCAL HEADLINES… The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Conquering SEO: The Glossary… Why Brands Favor Hybrid In-House Marketing… MediaMath Has $180 Million to Spend on Acquisitions—What’s Next?…

Commentary

5 Things SMBs Can Do to Optimize for Mobile Search

Recent data from Google found that 94% of smartphone users have searched for local information, 70% have called a business after searching, 66% visited in person, and 90% of these users acted within 24 hours. So what do SMBs need to do to ensure they’ll get calls from potential customers who are searching on mobile?

Geo-Intent: Going to Where the Puck Will Be

So what can make a business geo-disruptive? Beyond location awareness, it is far more important to know where a person is headed and his needs and wants at the destination. Let’s call this “geo-intent.” For the geo and mobile world to move towards its promise, web designers should be focusing more on creating engaged, opt-in behavior, and gaining robust information on geointent. With better information on geo-intent, solutions can be well targeted, and privacy concerns are more likely to fade…

Legacy Media’s ‘Agency’ Business: Just More Brand Extension?

When we clear aside all the hype, legacy companies with “agency” offerings are just creating clutter in the marketplace without offering anything of substantial new value for merchants. Media companies are far too busy playing defense to consider offense, and defense always includes copying what the other guy across town is doing…

Latest Posts

Apple’s Big Day: What It Means for Local Tech

It’s that time again. After plenty of buzz, Apple is set to release several new products amidst the usual pomp and circumstance. Here’s a look at how all of Apple’ expected announcements might impact the way local is done…

Pinterest’s Plan to Win Over Small Businesses

Four year-old scrapbooking site Pinterest has managed to succeed where many other social media — from Path to Google — have failed. In an interview with Street Fight, Joel Meek, who heads up the company’s small business efforts, discusses the role be believes the company can play an local discovery engine, and why its uniquely positioned to help small businesses reach users in the earliest stages of the purchase process…

Street Fight Daily: Uber’s ‘Gentler’ Approach, The Return of Directories

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyUber CEO Thinks It Needs To Be Kinder And Gentler Now That It’s On Top (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Reintroduces Leaderboards in Swarm Update (Mashable)… Post-Pigeon Best Practice: How To Optimize For Internet Yellow Pages & Directories (SearchEngineLand)…

Forrester: Attribution Still Holding Back Spending in Mobile Advertising

A new report from 4INFO, Acxiom and Forrester says that a lack of confidence among marketers in the ability to measure effectiveness and return on investment might be holding back the growth of cross-channel advertising…

6 Group Dining Programs for Neighbors

Airbnb users are sharing their homes with strangers, Lyft drivers are sharing their cars with strangers, and now a handful of group dining programs have people inviting virtual strangers inside their kitchens. These hyperlocal marketplaces offer a win/win proposition for people who are interested in getting to know their neighbors while making extra money on the side…

Street Fight Daily: Millennials Drive Mobile Growth, Catalina Buys Coupon Company

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyMillennials Are The Largest Group Of Smartphone Owners, And Adoption Is Still Growing (TechCrunch)… Catalina Acquires Cellfire To Tie Mobile Offers To In-Store Sales (AdExchanger)… Apple iPhone’s Mobile Payments Expected to Include CVS and Walgreens (Recode)…

How LymeLine Succeeds Against a 133-Year-Old Daily

The community news site in southeastern Connecticut competes against a long-established daily and Sunday print and online newspaper — and is thriving. Publisher/editor Olwen Logan tells Street Fight how she does it…

Boxscore: Apple Will Dominate Payments, Says Everyone Except Apple

A weekly recap of the week that was in local tech with a mix of news bits, analysis and hearsay.

LBMA Podcast: Google’s Local Ads, 7Eleven Rolls Out Belly

On the show: Sprooki rolls out beacons in Singapore malls; Philipp Schmitt’s location-based light painting project; Runkeeper partners with KIIP; PitneyBowes’ location start-up incubator in India; QR codes to help Alzheimer sufferers from getting lost. Special guest is Peter Cahill, founder of Life Line Response…

Street Fight Daily: xAd Raises $50 Million, iWatch to Include Payments

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyLocation Is Everything, As Mobile Ad Startup xAd Raises $50M Led By IVP (TechCrunch)… Apple Watch to Allow Mobile Payments (Wall Street Journal)… Interpublic Invests in Mobile Measurement Company Placed (MediaPost)…