News and Analysis

Raise Report: New Funding for DoorDash, ZenBusiness, Tinyclues

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Intello, Industrious, Justworks, and Virtualitics.

Street Fight Daily: Investments in Search Will Diversify, Inside Uber’s Social Strategy

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Search Spend to Diversify, Spreading Among Platforms Beyond Google… Uber Relies on Automation to Keep Its Paid Social Strategy Humming… Getting Detailed Insights Is Top Challenge for Programmatic Marketers…

What January’s New York Retail Traffic Patterns Mean for Media Delivery

In an effort to learn more about shopper behaviors and patterns, the data science team at the mobile location firm Blis analyzed post-holiday foot traffic patterns at Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Saks, and Lord & Taylor in New York City.

Commentary

Why Niches Are Becoming More Important for Deals

In the month since Groupon’s S-1 filing, there has been a lot of criticism directed at the nascent daily deals industry. Some say that the deals model is unsustainable, while others claim that running a deal can cripple a small business. But before jumping on that bandwagon, it’s important to remember that online deals are still in their infancy…

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.

Latest Posts

LBMA Podcast: Retailigence Does Offline Pickup, Fooda Does Hyperlocal Food

In this week’s episode, Jack in the Box uses time as a marketing factor with Pandora; Netclearance lets you do indoor location with WiFi and BLE; Disney harvests energy from your finger. Run to the beat of the right song with our app of the week, TempoRun. And special guest Dave Roesch of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority teaches us how cities should be using location based marketing…

Street Fight Daily: China’s Yelp Talks IPO, Twitter Hires Retail Chief

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyDianping Sees IPO Larger Than Yelp as Users Tap China Reviews (BusinessWeek)… Twitter Hires Google Exec As Head Of Retail (Bloomberg)… There’s No Such Thing as a “Permanent” Local Data Record (Yext Blog)…

On The Heels Of New Funding, Swirl Rolls Out In-Store Mobile Marketing Platform

Boston-based Swirl Networks has announced has released a new in-door marketing tool, which provides tools for retailers to create and deliver personalized content to their customers based on the customer’s in-store location. The company launched a pilot program of the platform in May for retailers including Kenneth Cole and Timberland, and has now released the service to the general public…

How a Hyperlocal Editor-Publisher Team Scored Big in Suburban Nashville

One of the highest revenue producers on Michele’s List of independent hyperlocal sites is BrentWood Communications, which publishes four-year-old Brentwood Home Page in suburban Nashville, Tenn. Founders Kelly Gilfillan and Susan Leathers launched a second suburban site, Franklin Home Page, a year ago and a third, Nolensville Home Page, this summer. Total revenue for the sites is $251,000-$500,000 annually, a range attained by few hyperlocals, whether independents or part of corporate networks. Here’s how Gilfillan and Leathers did it…

MapBox Raises $10 Million in Series A Round

MapBox, a cloud-based map platform that allows users to design customized and interactive maps, closed a $10 million Series A round led by Foundry Group today. The Washington, DC. and San Francisco based company, which develops its service entirely on top of the open-source mapping platform OpenStreetMap, has plans to use the funding to grow its 35 member team….

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)…