News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Google Expands Into Fresh Food Marketing, Snap Expands Commerce for Brands
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Enters Deal with Carrefour to Sell Food Online in France… Snap Expands Commerce for Brands Within Stories… Report: Social Attracting Most Widespread Investment from Advertisers, Topping Search…
Commentary
The Local Search Shadow Economy
We know that there exist a great number of businesses in our local communities that service a variety of needs at their clients’ homes or business locations. Aside from specialized services like Angie’s List and Service Magic, there are few local search outlets that serve potential clients or service providers well in terms of their ability to connect a need with the appropriate provider…
Mobile Local Advertising: Not Just for Early Adopters Anymore
Over the past few years I’ve done some axe-grinding about the lack of location targeting in mobile advertising — and the fact that desktop ad strategies have largely been ported over to the small screen, particularly among large brands and agencies. But in recent months we’ve started to see some of those habits break down, beginning with newer companies in mobile that don’t have to “unlearn” anything to get there…
It’s Local Media That’s Broken, Not Hyperlocal
In mid-sized cities across America for nearly 100 years, the daily newspaper was the purveyor of enterprise journalism, the opinion maker and a focal point for advertising. In many cities they were monopolies: they set the pricing for advertising, they promoted and punished political officials, and they decided the news cycle every day. But as digital has overtaken American life, mid-sized American newspapers have not kept pace…
Latest Posts
WPP Mobile Exec: Location Already ‘Not Special’ in Ad Tech
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
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
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The 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)…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s New Wallet, Linkedin Buys Bizo
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Passbook 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)…
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Buys Flurry, Urban Compass Raises $40M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Acquires Flurry to Bolster Mobile Offerings (New York Times)… Urban Compass Raises Money at $360 Million Valuation (Bloomberg)… Airbnb Drops Homejoy From Cleaning Trial, Handybook Remains On In Three Test Markets (TechCrunch)…
Yelp, Foursquare, and the Downsides of Mobile-First
In an era where the “mobile-first” motto borders on dogma for tech companies, the virtues of the desktop internet often are overlooked. While Yelp continues to benefit from desktop search, mobile-first Foursquare has struggled to sustain the explosive growth it saw early on — partly because its influence on the web ecosystem remains relatively weak…
Mapkin Wants to Put Community Into Local Navigation
How many times have you missed a turn when using a GPS device, or been uncertain that you even understood the directions? Mapkin a Cambridge-based startup, aims to fix that. Mapkin’s mission is to provide an improved GPS-app experience that’s “as human as possible” using nuanced navigation provided by locals…
















































Authentic Storytelling: Real-Life Scenarios Showcase Brand Values and Build Trust