News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Rides Mobile to Riches, Amazon Picks an Agency
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Registers Soaring Ad Revenue, Buttressed by Mobile… Amazon Consolidates Billion-Dollar Media-Buying Business with IPG Mediabrands… For First Time, More Holiday Shoppers Will Use Mobile Than Desktop…
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Street Fight Daily: Local News Lost, Groupon Bundles SEO
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… American News Consumers Have Gained the World but Lost Their Backyards (Atlantic)… Groupon Offers SEO Deal to Businesses (Upstart)… Barista Problems: Why Starbucks Isn’t the Energy Shot Square Needed (PandoDaily)…
Patch: Here’s Ten Things We’re Doing RIGHT
Anyone paying attention to this column knows I’ve dedicated plenty of thought to AOL’s efforts in local, primarily via its Patch effort. Some at Patch/AOL were unhappy. Others mailed me with even more colorful complaints, or “can-you-believe-this” vignettes. So I wanted to turn the tables on myself a bit and challenge Patch to sell us on what is going right…
Borrell: Promotions Will Dominate Local Media Ad Spend in 2013
Local advertisers are set to spend 81% more on promotions than media-based advertising this year, according to a new study by Borrell Associates. The report forecasts that growth in digital promotions will outpace digital advertising by 65% over the next four years, jumping from $32.2 billion in 2012 to over $80 billion in 2017…
Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Buys Livestar, Starbucks’ Shoddy Square Rollout
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Pinterest Acquires Local Recommendation App Livestar (AllThingsD)… Starbuck’s Shoddy Square Rollout Baffles Baristas, Confuses Customers (Fast Company)… Yelp: Study Says Our SMB Advertisers Make $23K More per Year (Screenwerk)…
Conference Notebook: Location Data Takes Center Stage
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
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
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
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
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
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…
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