News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: What the Time Sale Portends for Media, Moment of Truth Approaches for Uber
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… What the Blockbuster Sale of Time Inc Means for the Media… Here’s What You Need to Know About Softbank’s Tender Offer for Uber Coming Tomorrow… As Amazon Marketing Grows, Agencies Sees an Opportunity…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Mason Moves On, Aruba Buys In-Door GPS Firm Meridian
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Ex-Groupon CEO Mason Moving to San Francisco to Start New Company (Reuters)… Aruba Buys Meridian Apps, Eyes ‘Indoor GPS’ Services (ZDNet)… How Google Made Maps Human, Savvy, and Monetizable (Fast Company)…
Looking Up: Local Data and the Real World
Google Glass may be overpriced or simply too odd for many consumers, but it still represents a manner of thinking about the interconnectedness of the internet and the world that is an inevitable outcome of current trends. With smartphones as our constant companions, we already spend a vast amount of our time looking down to look things up.
Marqeta Finds $14M in Funding as Loyalty Plays Start Thinning Out
The flood of new loyalty and payment startups that littered last summer’s newscycle has dried up, with only a handful of companies – namely, Square, Belly, FiveStars and LevelUp – making it to a meaningful second or third round of funding. Add Marqeta to that list. The maker of a branded and white-labeled prepaid loyalty card announced that it closed a $14 million series A round led by Greylock Partners this morning, and revealed that its technology underpins the Facebook Card, the social network’s most recent stab at gifting…
Case Study: Salon Increases Average Purchase Price With Card-Linked Offers
Everyone wants a prize, and most people are willing to spend a little more to get one. At least that’s been the experience of Tiffany Amorosino. The co-owner of Bella Sante Spa uses a platform called OfferLink by Cartera to reward customers with free gift cards when they meet certain purchase price thresholds. Since opening her spa in 1996, Amorosino has seen a significant shift in the way SMB marketing is done…
Street Fight Daily: Google Unveils New Maps, PayPal Takes Aim at Square
Upcoming Webinar Puts Spotlight on SMB Adoption of Mobile
It’s no secret that SMBs lag behind all marketers in digital adoption. But the mobile chasm between consumers and these businesses is staggering: 10% of media consumption is spent on mobile; while just 1% of marketers’ budgets are dedicated to that platform. An upcoming webinar will discuss SMB optimization on mobile for business owners and marketing services professionals alike.
How Long Will Local Web Video Be Held Hostage by the ’30-Second Spot’?
The 30-second spot will be the ruin of those in local media who shift this old television workhorse to the Web. Local media companies rarely run anything less than 30 seconds, because that’s what advertisers want to buy, but this is a grave error — it spits in the face of the one who has clicked through to watch a short video…
How Marketers Can Help Merchants and Consumers Win With Local Search
For the sake of local businesses and local searchers, marketers need to come to the rescue. vSplash estimates that there is a $3.2 billion opportunity for local marketers to help clean up local search and help local businesses with their digital marketing efforts. And in that number there is some low-hanging fruit — especially for marketers that already have a foothold in local markets…
Street Fight Daily: Square Unveils New Hardware, PayPal Offers Cash for Registers
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Square Unveils Hardware for iPad Registers (New York Times)… PayPal’s Cash For Registers Tries To Outdo Square And Groupon With Its Own Bid To Rule The Register (TechCrunch)… Facebook, Waze at Odds Over Liquidation (Business Insider)…
Facebook, Waze and the Falling Cost of Mapping Technology
A lot of digital ink has been spilled about why Facebook would want to snap up Waze — namely, the company’s 40 million mobile users. But the discussions also verify the once-unthinkable reality that a startup could scale a navigation and mapping service into a billion-dollar business in five years. A number of technological trends have set the stage for Waze and other mapping and navigation startups to compete. Here’s a look at a few of them…
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation