News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Leave In-Store Shoppers Alone, Google Courts Publishers as Facebook Flails
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… In-Store Shoppers Lean on Tech, Want to Be Left Alone in Stores… While Facebook Battles Fires, Google Rolls Out Pro-Publisher Initiatives… Media Rating Council Considers Bumping up Video Ad Standards…
Commentary
Mobile Local Monetization Is Starting to Happen — For Real This Time
Facebook’s mobile Sponsored Story is already showing boosted performance over display ads. For many others, the mobile-first principle will come from location targeting, as its congruence with the use case similarly boosts performance and thus ad rates. For that and other reasons, I’ve forecast location-based ads to lead mobile ad revenues by 2016…
Getting Location Analytics Up to Speed for the Mobile Ad Revolution
The inability to apply value to the key differentiator of mobile (location) is part of the reason why mobile CPMs are still at 20% of desktop CPMs. It’s critical that media buyers push mobile inventory sources to provide location analytics that enable them to make buying decisions based on the unique features associated with mobile…
How Mobile Is Transforming Local Marketing
By using mobile-location data and predictive analytics, advertisers can reach users with deals based upon where they work, live and socialize. If a relevant ad is delivered and the transaction can be completed in one-or-two clicks, mobile advertising will provide what local merchants are willing to pay for – real sales results…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Patch Lays Off Hundreds, Amazon Bets on Real-World Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… New Owner of Patch Lays Off Hundreds (New York Times)… Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers (Wall Street Journal)… Facebook Officially A Mobile Ad Firm With 53% Of Ad Revenue Now Coming From Its 945M Mobile Users (TechCrunch)…
How the Internet of Things Could Spawn a New Kind of Analytics
A new set of technology companies are working to help transform the way businesses understand consumer behavior in the real world. Powering these new technologies is a burgeoning web of connected devices — from smartphones and thermostats to wireless routers and traffic cameras — that constantly collect a river of information about their surroundings…
As Online Shopping Booms, Will Amazon End Up Supporting SMBs?
Amazon and the other large e-tailers and big box chains that have squeezed smaller retailers need to demonstrate a commitment to sustaining local retail as a community service. Amazon has won over the consumer, their next challenge is to win over the small business community simply by helping them making more money…
Street Fight Daily: Walmart Tests In-Store Pickup, LivingSocial’s Future
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Walmart Begins Testing Online Grocery Shopping With Local Store Pickup Option In Denver (TechCrunch)… Despite Its Woes, CMO Barry Judge Sees A Future For LivingSocial (Forbes)… Google’s Newest Secret Weapon For Local Ads (Digiday)…
Placemeter CEO: How ‘Computer Vision’ Is Making Our Cities Smarter
Thanks to rapid developments in “computer vision,” a technology that uses machine learning to identify patterns in video streams, a small team of technologists at Brooklyn-based startup Placemeter have built a system that uses over 500 personal and private video cameras sited throughout Manhattan to measure everything from the crowd in Times Square to the line outside of Shake Shack…
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Reportedly Eyes Local, Apple CEO Fuels Rumors
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.
… Buy AOL? A More Likely Scenario for Yahoo’s Mayer Is a Big Local Search Acquisition to Spur Growth. (Recode)… CEO Tim Cook Says Touch ID Was Part Of Apple’s Thinking Around Mobile Payments (TechCrunch)… Uber Sued Over Death of 6-Year-Old on San Francisco Street (Businessweek)…
What Obama’s 2012 Election Can Tell Us About Using Data to Build Communities
The campaign’s technology team, comprised mostly of political newcomers, used data analytics to rethink the way television ads were bought, and where its army of volunteers were sent. One of the big breakthroughs, says Carol Davidsen, was in using data to navigate the twisted world of local television, finding audiences in unsuspecting — and often far less expensive — places…
6 Strategies to Encourage SMBs to Offer Same-Day Delivery
Small businesses account for 54% of all sales in the U.S., and unlike their big box competitors, many SMBs don’t already have existing shipping networks or points of distribution. Here are six strategies for how same-day delivery vendors can successfully encourage local merchants to become a part of their programs…
Street Fight Daily: Apple Preps Mobile Payments, Starbucks Readies Order Ahead
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Apple Pushes Deeper Into Mobile Payments (Wall Street Journal)… Starbucks is Getting Ready to Let You Order Coffee Before You Get to the Store (Quartz)… Care.com, The ‘Amazon Of Caregiving Services’ Popped 43% On Its IPO Day (Business Insider)…
How Patch’s New Owners Can Reverse Its Fortunes
Patch doesn’t have to wind up in the “bone yard.” I believe the hyperlocal network recently unloaded by Aol can, within five years, be a seriously profitable venture. It will happen if the company’s new owners, Hale Global, go all out for engagement-worthy community journalism that’s responsibly budgeted. And it will happen if they adopt a revenue strategy that’s responsive to fast-evolving trends in ad spending…
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