News and Analysis

Location Analytics Tracks Human Movement Before Hurricane Irma

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In the wake of an unusually active Atlantic hurricane season, Placed looked at offline consumer behaviors in the days leading up to Hurricane Irma, which slammed into Florida in September. The results paint a picture of predictability around unpredictable situations.

Street Fight Daily: Microsoft Releases Tool for SMBs, Google’s Local Services Feature Rebrands

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Microsoft 365 for SMBs Is Now Available… Google’s Contractor Marketplace Expands, Rebrands to ‘Local Services’ in Search… Loyalty Economics: More than the Value Customers Bring to Brands…

How to Visualize Cause and Effect in Local Brand Marketing

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Mark Stouse, CEO and co-founder of Proof Analytics, says there are ways for chief marketing officers to gird themselves in case of market downturns by using data to support their value to the businesses they serve. This is especially critical, he says given the growing control over tech spending that CMOs now command.

Latest Posts

Conference Notebook: Location Data Takes Center Stage

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Scaling access to a small business’s customer data, and using that data to drive marketing, is quickly becoming a differentiating asset in the industry. Data should play a key role in not only defining the audience to whom a message is delivered, but in shaping the content of that message as well…

Local Companies Reluctant to Add New Jobs

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Just a couple of years ago, local companies like Groupon and LivingSocial (and many others) were expanding rapidly and staffing up — eager to put hundreds of salespeople on the street as quickly as possible and grab share of their new market. But in 2013 those boom times have faded a bit, as local companies have adjusted to a period of economic uncertainty and are reluctant to add new positions to their cost structure…

Street Fight Daily: Mobile Payments Lack Winner, Groupon’s Temp Leadership

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Mobile Payments Still Lack Clear Winner (Media Post)… The Reward for Fixing Groupon? Not Much (Wall Street Journal)… Square’s Launch in Canada v. US: Higher Adoption Rate and Larger Transaction Size (The Next Web)…

5 Tips for Building a Smarter Geofence

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The number of advertisers using “geo-aware” technology in their mobile ad campaigns jumped from 17% in 2011 to 36% in 2012, according to a report by Verve Mobile, and yet there is still confusion in the marketplace over what makes a geofencing campaign useful, and when location targeting is necessary to achieve a high ROI. Here are five strategies for creating a smarter, more strategic geofencing campaign…

Going Beyond Standard Location Targeting to Reach Mobile Audiences

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It’s important to focus on not just the reach of a geofence, but also on effectively targeting your business’s relevant mobile audiences. A little extra strategic effort goes a long way, and there is much to gain from leveraging the variety of data currently available and layering it appropriately to suit your campaign’s specific strategies and tactics…

Conference Notebook: Foursquare CRO Sees ‘Off the Charts’ Engagement With Native Ads

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In describing why Foursquare chose to build a native advertising product, the company’s chief revenue officer Steven Rosenblatt yesterday pointed to the difficulties with some mobile ad formats, like pop-ups, saying that it was really easy to screw up the mobile user’s experience with poor ad delivery. As a result, the company has instead moved ahead with its “promoted updates” native advertising product, which launched in August. Rosenblatt said that over 52% of the people who engage with ads are checking in within 24 hours…

Street Fight Daily: SMB Spend Still Offline, Factual and TripAdvisor Hook Up

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Small Business Web Ad Dollars: Still Way Too Small (AllThingsD)… Factual and TripAdvisor to Scratch Each Other’s Backs With Global Restaurant Data Partnership (PandoDaily)… Uncovering the Buffett Equation for Newspaper Survivability (Ebyline)…

What SMBs Need to Know About Facebook’s News Feed Redesign

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In the hopes of creating a better user experience (and ultimately more monetization opportunities), Facebook recently overhauled the design and functionality of its news feed — aiming to become the “personalized newspaper” of the digital age. The redesigned layout will include bigger photos, maps and news articles and users can now sort through feeds based on interests — so SMBs currently managing a page should definitely adjust the way they approach their Facebook marketing and creative strategy…

Alt-Weeklies Struggling — Can They Leverage SMB Relationships to Connect Online?

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While alt-weeklies really used to own the market for irreverent commentary and events listings in cities around the country, the introduction of online competition over the past decade has really degraded their snarky monopolies. Tiffany Shackelford, executive director at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN), spoke to Street Fight recently about how alt-weeklies need to evolve their strategic thinking…

Study: Brands’ Spend in Mobile-Local Media to Eclipse Online in 2017

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National advertisers will spend more local dollars on mobile than online media in 2017, according to a new study by BIA/Kelsey. The report projects that national spend on local-mobile media will increase six-fold over the next five years, jumping from $1 billion in 2012 to $6.4 billion five years later…