Commentary
Survey ‘Paywalls’ May Not Be as Good as They Sound for Local Media
While surveys may be a good source of revenue, it’s not a long-term solution for local news sites:There is an inherent supply-and-demand issue — not very different from the one that arises with online display ads. As more and more publishers adopt Google Consumer Surveys, Google can begin dropping its publisher payout because it has enough supply…
Understanding the Local Consumer’s Online Path to Purchase
Consumers are using the web to become highly informed about everything they buy, and what they see (or don’t) about a business online affects whether they purchase from that company. It’s much more complex and time-consuming for small businesses to reach these digital consumers than ever before, so it’s up to solutions providers to help clients create and sustain a total web presence…
Selling Local Is Hard — Here’s What You Need to Do to Make It Work
For the past couple of months I’ve been testing a new targeted local online advertising product as part of my fellowship project at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.The test has been essentially to sell the product to regional businesses within a given market. And at the end of the two-month trial, after calling on more than 150 businesses multiple times, I have a much greater appreciation not only for local salespeople but for the brands in the marketplace that can sell local…
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Two Years After Private Equity Carve-Out, What’s Next for YP?
Two years ago, AT&T shed its local marketing business, selling a majority stake in its print and digital yellow pages assets to Cerberus Capital for $950 million in cash and debt. During a conversation with Street Fight, the company’s CEO David Krantz said the company is well-ahead of where its private equity parent expected it would be, and discussed how YP planned reprise its role as a leading consumer brand…
Finding the Right Point of Contact At: A Retail Chain
For hyperlocal vendors grappling with expansion, a national retail chain can represent the big whale. With the potential to have their platforms adopted at hundreds of locations throughout the country with just single sale, it’s no wonder hyperlocal startups are willing to devote so many resources to developing partnerships with big-name clients. Here are five strategies for finding the right person to pitch at a retail chain…
How CardStar’s Contextual Mobile Experience Increases Ad Engagement
Ad units that work on the web do not work on mobile. Powered by Skyhook Wireless’s Context Accelerator SDK, CardStar launched a new interface that intuitively populates users’ loyalty cards, key tags and deal content based on their proximity to nearby geofenced venues. It resulted in a 2x lift in average session length, 57% growth in daily users and 79% growth in sessions per day…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook ‘Moves’ Privacy Policy, Nokia Invests in Connected Car
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… After Facebook Deal, Moves App Changes Privacy Policy (Wall Street Journal)… Nokia Joins Musk to Google in Investing in Intelligent Cars (Bloomberg)… Retailers Look to Merge Offline and Online Shopping Experiences in 2014 (eMarketer)…
Shopify CPO: Next 5 Years Will Be More Exciting for Retail Than Previous 150
This May, Street Fight will take a look at the companies, technologies and ideas that are shaping the way we buy and sell goods in the real-world. To kick-off the series, we caught up with Harley Finkelstein, chief platform officer at Shopify, to discuss the blurring line between e- and local commerce…
Facebook’s Path to Dominating Mobile (Local TBD)
Facebook Audience Network will apply Facebook’s audience targeting to third party apps, such as those using Facebook Connect for log-in authentication. The beauty of such an off-site network is that it uses Facebook’s data and positioning to continue milking demand for mobile ads, without killing the cow…
Street Fight Daily: PayPal’s Agrawal Departs, Google Expands Shopping Service
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… PayPal’s Strategy Exec: I Quit Before Twitter Tirade (Recode)… Google Shopping Express Comes to NYC, L.A. (USA Today)… Rare Yelp Lawsuit Over Alleged Fake Reviews is Put on Hold to Debate Merits (Ars Technica)…
In Foursquare’s ‘Unbundling,’ Does the Tail Wag the Dog?
Foursquare announced plans Thursday to spin off the company’s trademark social networking service into a separate app and focus its branded application entirely on local search and discovery. The move — what the company has called ‘the unbundling’ — represents a pivotal adjustment by Foursquare to the sensitivities of a mainstream consumer in an increasingly connected real-world experience…
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The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation