Commentary
Google’s Local Offerings Have Gotten Too Complicated
The extended Google+ Local rollout has been more troublesome than most. Usually when Google has experimented with social services in the past, such as Google Buzz and Google Wave, it has done so in a tangential way that does not threaten core functionality. With Google+, the gamble is to make social the center of all search activity, and yet the full realization of a social context for Google’s local search tools has yet to appear…
Daily Deals vs. Happy Hours: The Impact of Internal Marketing Promos
To get a sense of how happy hour compares to daily deals, Copilot Labs analyzed the point of sale data from a restaurant that has consistently run both happy hour and daily deals for more than a year and half. From April 2011 to October 2012 this business ran three deals and has had an active deal and happy hour every month…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: CBS Outdoor Goes Public, Alibaba Invests in Retail
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… CBS Outdoor Shares Rise in First Day of Trading (Wall Street Journal)… Alibaba Invests $692 million in Chinese Department Store Operator (Reuters)… Uber’s Biggest Problem Isn’t Surge Pricing. What If It’s Sexual Harassment by Drivers? (Daily Beast)…
How a Connecticut Network Helps ‘Indie’ News Sites Bridge Revenue Gap
Networks of independent community news sites are growing up and expanding out, and one of the biggest is the three-year-old Independent Media Network, which provides multiple layers of services — in advertising, editorial, business and tech — to more than a hundred community and other news operations in Connecticut…
Street Fight Daily: DailyCandy Shut Down, An Omnichannel Rollup
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… NBCUniversal-Owned DailyCandy and Television Without Pity Will Be Shut Down (Recode)… Nomi Acquires Media Armor To Add Online Marketing Data To Its Offline Marketing Tools (TechCrunch)… GoDaddy Partners With Dwolla On New E-Invoicing Option For Small Businesses (TechCrunch)…
For Local Tech, Fragmentation Is a Problem to Solve — Not Avoid
There’s been a noticeable increase in the number of partnerships, ecosystem-driven startups, and overall coordination among the companies looking to help us buy and sell stuff in the real-world. The shift could have deep implications for existing companies, and may create new opportunities for a number of new startups…
Case Study: Local Bakery Chain Scales With Hyperlocal Tools
At Cako, a mini bakery chain in the midst of expansion, co-owner Albert Chen says it’s difficult to provide the same level of customer service when he can’t be present inside all of his stores on a 24/7 basis. One way that Chen is working to avoid the mistakes that other growing businesses have made is by utilizing hyperlocal tools that provide him with data about what products and flavors his customers are buying…
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Ads Tap Twitter, Airbnb Courts Cities
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare’s New Ads Tap Twitter And Require $100K Commitment (AdWeek)… Airbnb Cozies up to Cities (Fortune)… Charting the Years-Long Decline of Local News Reporting (Washington Post)…
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…
How One Startup Uses Carrier Data For Real-World Analytics
For the most part, in-store tracking startups rely on a device in-store — a wireless router, video camera, or bluetooth beacon — to count customers as they shop. But Canadian startup Viasense has created a new system using existing data from cellular networks to provide businesses with information about their foot traffic — and, more importantly, where that traffic goes next…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing