News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Google and Target Partner on Voice; Amazon’s Future in Search Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google and Target Offer the First Voice-Activated Coupon on Google Assistant… Amazon Could Dominate Product Search Ads by 2020… LA Times: ‘Programmatic Is Going to Be a Big Part’ of Publisher’s Future..
How Dunkin’ Thinks About Google Assistant Integration and the Future of Mobile Ordering
“Increasingly, brands are being judged by the experience they deliver as much as the product,” said Paul Murray, Dunkin’ brands director of digital experience. “This is a really good example for us where we’re delivering on a great product and we’re also delivering on the experience, and we’re leveraging new technology to do it.”
Commentary
Where Do Business Listings Come From?
At some point in the future, local data must become purely digital, because the phone book will not be around forever. But until a critical mass of U.S. businesses understands the rationale for managing online data, this fundamental problem will continue. We need the concerted effort of all local search players to educate the local business community and advocate for the transition to digital data…
Data That Thinks ‘Big,’ But Acts Local
Local media is increasingly colliding with the emerging super-sector known as “Big Data.” This will define the “mobile+local” promise we keep hearing about — that location targeted ads will boost relevance, performance and thus monetiztion. But one thing often missing from the discussion is what the heck we mean by “location targeted?”
Can Mobile Technology Fix What’s Broken in Loyalty Programs?
New mobile and in-store technology allows merchants to utilize relatively low-cost devices, such as an iPhone or an iPad, to take advantage of data-driven programs that do more than simply count down the punches until a customer’s next free sandwich. Here are two ways in which mobile tech has improved loyalty programs for small merchants…
Latest Posts
Breakfast, a Marketing Agency and Hardware Shop, Offers a Peek Into a Post-Mobile World
Last week, Fast Company named Breakfast, a small marketing agency in Brooklyn, one of the top 10 most innovative companies in local. The firm’s newest project, a digital signage system called Points, is the culmination of the company’s two-year-long effort to integrate the Internet into the physical world, and an demonstration of a wider shift in the technology and marketing communities beyond the small screens of the mobile phone into a burgeoning Internet of Things…
Looking to Woo Mobile Developers, Esri Releases New Tools
Two years after acquiring the Portland-based startup Geoloqi, Esri is putting the startup’s technology to use. The forty-five year-old mapping firm released a new geo-trigger service and a redesigned developer site this morning in an effort to build a wider developer tool kit that might serve as an alternative to the native location tools provided by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android…
Street Fight Daily: Same-Day Delivery Stays Hot, China’s Tencent Bets on Local
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Postmates Closes New Financing Round and Passes 10,000 Deliveries a Week (New York Times)… China’s Tencent firms up online-to-offline muscle with review site buy (Reuters)… AP Brings Olympics Coverage to Local News Outlets With Customizable, White-label Microsites (Poynter)…
Location, Relevancy, and the Search for Personalization
Marketers today have access to an unprecedented amount of data about consumers and their environment that go well beyond location, ranging from their demographics and shopping behavior to the time of day and weather. However, local marketers continue to fail to leverage this throve of new data to create and deliver relevant, quality and personalized ads to consumers. And it’s a big missed opportunity…
3 Key Trends That Are Transforming Local Online Marketing
Small businesses face increasing marketing complexity driven by more fragmented media outlets and more online channels, and a vast array of marketing technology that is supposed to “help” them simplify this dynamic. SMBs are being forced to rethink where they advertise and how to stay in touch with existing loyal customers….
Street Fight Daily: Airport Tracks Travelers, Yahoo Looks to Contextual Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.…At Newark Airport, the Lights Are On, and They’re Watching You
(New York Times)… More on Mayer’s Search Plans for Yahoo: The “Three S’s” and Slipping Through a Microsoft Loophole (Recode)… Apple’s IDFA Crackdown Reverberates Through Mobile Ad Ecosystem (AdExchanger)…
6 Ways Merchants Can Encourage Customers to Complete Mobile Transactions
Just 3% of SMBs in the U.S. have websites that can handle mobile transactions, according to a recent survey by hibu and Impact Research. One of the reasons why merchants have been reluctant to adopt the right tools for dealing with mobile transactions is because they don’t understand what’s in it for them. Here are ideas for local merchants who are interested in how they can encourage more customers to complete transactions via mobile…
Street Fight Daily: Baseball Bets on Beacons, Square Ramps Up Salesforce
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Major League Baseball Completes iBeacon Installation at First Two Ballparks (Recode)… Square Cuts More Custom Pricing Deals For Merchants And Ramps Up Sales Hiring (TechCrunch)… On-Demand Ride-Sharing Startup Lyft Is Raising Another Big Round Of Funding (TechCrunch)…
Could a Hybrid Model Scale Community News and Keep the Passion?
Neither big media nor independent journalistic entrepreneurs have succeeded in finding a scalable model for hyperlocal news and information. So why couldn’t we try a hybrid approach that adopts what’s best about each? It begins with editor-publishers who have a passionate commitment to community, and would be balanced by a scaled business model that will pay attention to cost curves and be open to new revenue opportunities…
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