News and Analysis

BUST: A Hard Landing as Soft Surroundings Files for Bankruptcy

Could Revamped Loyalty Programs Save the Retail Industry?

Share this:

As retailers grapple with finding ways to reinvent the real world shopping experience, some are revisiting their loyalty programs, which have gotten stale over the years. Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, and Sephora are just a few of the well-known brands trying to create added value by offering services through their loyalty programs.

Street Fight Daily: Uber Suffers Major Legal Setback, Best Buy Leads the Anti-Amazon Resistance

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Suffers Major Setback as EU Court Rules It Must Be Regulated Like Taxi Companies… Best Buy versus Amazon: Holiday Edition… Improving Search and Advertising Are the Next Frontiers for Voice-Activated Devices…

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Releases New Creative Tools, Bloomberg Launches TV Service on Twitter

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Instagram Wants People and Brands to Get Creative for the Holidays… Bloomberg Launches 24/7 News Channel on Twitter… The Guardian’s David Pemsel Says Facebook Doesn’t Value Quality…

Latest Posts

With New Products and Integrations, Belly Looks Beyond Loyalty

Share this:

A year and a half after launch, and Logan LaHive, chief executive of Belly, has a clear message for the competition: we’re winning. The Chicago-based company has rolled out new integrations with Yelp and Facebook this morning, marking the beginning of the company’s push to move beyond loyalty toward an open, social CRM…

Why Mobile Ads Are ‘A Little Scary’ (And Potentially So Valuable)

Share this:

Mobile isn’t a mass marketing vehicle; it’s my one-to-one, highly intimate connection with the Web. It’s a personal device, and its connection to me is private (or not), powerful, and controllable entirely by me. It is, in fact, a portable, electronic version of me, and I will not permit interruptions in the name of commerce for long…

Street Fight Daily: Google Buys Waze, UBL Snaps Up Local Incite

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Why Google Wanted Waze: The Local Ad Market Is Going Mobile (AdAge)… UBL Acquires Local Incite – Adds Chicago Presence (UBL)… HP and Google Team Up to Offer Small Businesses “IT in a Box” (AllThingsD)…

A Year After Big Scores by SinglePlatform and Yext, Locu Makes a Quiet Push

Share this:

It’s been nearly a year since Yext announced a massive round of funding and SinglePlatform sold to Constant Contact within a week each other, and the value proposition for a real-time data and content network continues gain steam. As both firms put that capital to use, a third company, Locu, is trying to carve out its own share of the market with a similar model and sizable — albeit smaller — stack of cash…

It’s 2004 All Over Again: Mobile Spending to Double in 2013

Share this:

According to a Borrell Associates client memo made available to Street Fight, local mobile advertising will increase 100% this year. That’s right; double. In some markets that number may translate into tens of thousands of dollars; in the largest, it’s $100 million or more. Gordon Borrell told us that what’s happening with advertising at the local level is “nothing short of phenomenal.”

Case Study: Meineke Partners With Full Slate for Online Scheduling

Share this:

As consumers get more comfortable going online to book appointments and services, companies nationwide are rushing to keep up with demand. For larger businesses with multiple locations, however, instituting an online scheduling system isn’t always a cut and dry process. Rather than jumping in head first, Meineke Car Care Centers has taken a measured approach to online appointment scheduling. The company partnered with Full Slate and launched a pilot program at 30 Meineke locations…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Moves iOS Into Car, Yelp Revamps Nearby

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Apple Announces ‘iOS in the Car,’ Offers Access to Maps, Messages, and More (Verge)… Just like Foursquare, Yelp Now Recommending Nearby Places (CNet)… Mobile Companies Crave Maps That Live and Breath With Data (New York Times)…

The Uber-ization of Local Commerce

Share this:

Last week, ReachLocal took its new commerce platform for home services, ClubLocal, off of its training wheels, expanding the program into the Bay Area. Pitched as an Uber for home services, the company aims to create a self-service platform to facilitate the booking of home repairs and plumbers — but its execution overlooks some of the dynamics that make some industries, like taxicabs, more fitting to the model than others…

5 Strategies for Tracking Hyperlocal Marketing Success

Share this:

What merchants really need is a clear-cut way to compare the effectiveness of their hyperlocal marketing initiatives, so they focus their energies on the platforms that work. To answer that question, we consulted with experts from inside the industry. Here are five strategies that merchants can use to track the success of their digital marketing initiatives…

3 Ways Local Search is Helping Preserve Your Brand’s Image

Share this:

In the increasingly mobile and locally-driven digital world in which we find ourselves, it is an absolute necessity to ensure the visibility and accuracy of your brand’s online identity while constantly working to build and preserve a socially-integrated and supported reputation. At the core of it all is the consumer’s mobile and local search behavior…