News and Analysis

How EU Data Regulations Could Benefit Global Brands

With less than three months to go until the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect, businesses around the globe are looking for information on how to stay in compliance with what’s been described as the most important change in data privacy regulations in the past two decades.

5 Shopper Personalization Solutions for Brands

Here are five examples of hyperlocal vendors offering the latest personalization solutions for brands and retailers right now.

Street Fight Daily: All Marketing is Local, How GDPR Will Affect Brands

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Digital Advances Have Ushered in the Golden Age of Local Marketing… How to Open Your Mind to Amazon’s Marketing Potential… Collateral Damage from Facebook’s News Feed Changes Piles Up..

Commentary

Hyperlocal Post-Mortem: Lessons Learned From InJersey

When we made the decision this week to shutter InJersey.com — a network of hyperlocal sites across the garden state that I helped build, nurture, and raise like a child -—my biggest fear was that the effort would be branded a failure. In the age of Twitter, I was braced for the #epicfail hashtag. It came instead via Slate, in the form of a Jack Shafer missive…

Surveys All Say: Hyperlocal’s Taking Over Ad Spending. Duh.

A new survey released this week by the hyperlocal network Topix says what is increasingly clear in every new data that emerges: ad dollars are shifting to local, and of that, most are going online. The Topix survey of ad agencies found 90% said they are buying more local ads (“geographically-targeted”) than they ever have.

Google Offers: Not a ‘Groupon Killer’ (But Still Pretty Killer)

It’s been widely reported over the past few weeks that Google has launched a deals platform known as Offers. But most of this coverage has missed the point — falling into the tired but pervasive trope of “[insertnamehere] Killer” claims (in this case, Groupon). Offers will be similar to Groupon in some ways, but its economics and mobile integration are quite different. Comparisons aside, the real story is how Offers plugs into Google’s massive distribution network of search, Gmail, mobile and about 26 other products.

Latest Posts

RetailNext CEO: Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Are Not Under Threat

Online retailers have traditionally had a big advantage in terms of data, but in-store retail analytics company RetailNext has built a model that allows owners of brick-and-mortar stores to collect, analyze, and visualize in-store customer engagement data. The San Jose-based company, which has raised over $24 million, aggregates the data that is collected from customers and makes it actionable for retailers such as American Apparel, Bloomingdales, Verizon Wireless, and Family Dollar…

Street Fight Daily: Patch Staffs Top Sites Only, BrandNetworks Acquires Optimal

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyPatch Will Staff Outlets In Top-Performing Areas Only, Memo Says (Poynter)… Social Ad Companies Team Up As Brand Networks Acquires Optimal For $35M (TechCrunch)… In-Store Analytics Firm Nomi Raises $10 Million, Looks Beyond Retail (Mashable)…

7 Strategies For Measuring the ROI of Indoor Location Campaigns

Discounts. Shopping cart and cubes with percentNational retailers and CPG brands are willing to spend big on indoor location campaigns, but only when the platforms they’re using are providing an excellent return on their investments. As the industry continues to expand, vendors are being forced to get smarter about the ways they demonstrate ROI and sales lift. The more precisely an indoor platform can demonstrate its value on a per campaign basis, the easier it is to justify its price to skeptical corporate clients. Here are seven strategies for measuring the ROI of an indoor location campaign…

Case Study: Natural Food Chain Sees Steady Growth In Mobile Coupon Redemptions

One-in-five consumers has downloaded a supermarket app, and the majority of those consumers use their mobile apps at least twice a month. In an effort to get in on the trend, PCC Natural Markets, a health food co-op with nine locations in Washington, partnered with Chinook Book earlier this year on a mobile coupon app. “Print coupons are still very popular — we get a ton of them that come through our registers — but it’s inevitable that digital coupons will become more prominent,” says Tom Monahan, marketing manager at PCC.

Street Fight Daily: GoDaddy Continues Buying Spree, Walmart Expands Same-Day Delivery

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyGoDaddy on an Acquisition Tear: Five Companies Since February (Screenwerk)… Walmart Expands Same-Day Grocery Delivery To Denver (TechCrunch)… Savings.com Launches Favado Mobile App, Aims To Solve Grocery Savings Once And For All (PandoDaily)…

The Government Shutdown and the Local Data Economy

For the most part, local search appears to demonstrate with flying colors the benefits of getting things done in the private sector. Not only is it a self-sustaining and profitable industry; it exhibits a drive to innovate that brings ever-improving services to our desktops and handheld devices at a dizzying pace. Imagine if local directories and apps were run by the same bureaucracy that manages the Postal Service, the IRS, and the Census Bureau. We’d probably still be using phone books. Yet at a fundamental level, governmental authorities still act as objective reference points when it comes to information of interest to the public…

5 Mobile Payment Platforms With Integrated Marketing Solutions

When a cashier swipes a customer’s credit card at a mobile point of sale terminal, he’s doing more than just processing a financial transaction. He’s transmitting data about who that customer is, what he’s buying, and when he’s buying it. Although this data has traditionally been closely guarded by legacy POS vendors, an increasing number of providers are opening up their doors and giving merchants a peek inside—using the data they gather through customer transactions to fuel integrated marketing programs for merchants…

The Local Conference You Don’t Want to Miss

It’s that time of year again when the most exciting companies in local gather in New York City to hash through and celebrate the best ideas and strategies. Street Fight Summit is coming next Thursday and Friday to TriBeCa, and one of the themes we’re focusing on this year is partnerships. Partnerships are a key reason we have been bringing people together for the last few years, but never have they been such a high-profile, essential element of success as they have become over the past year…

Street Fight Daily: PayPal Teams With Revel, Drones Deliver Same-Day

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyPayPal Expands “Real World” Presence Via Integration With iPad Point-of-Sale Maker Revel Systems (TechCrunch)… Zookal Starts “World First” Delivery-By-Drone Service In Sydney (PandoDaily)… Report: Google Smartwatch “Heavy Into” Google Now Functionality (GigaOm)…

Foursquare Introduces Ads For Small Businesses

This morning the company rolled out its flagship small business advertising product, capping a two-year effort to solve the company’s toughest challenge yet: making money. With the new product, which the company has been piloting in New York since May, local businesses will be able to buy ads that surface in the search results pages or home screen of its popular mobile app…