News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Where Mobile Is Heading, Eric Schmidt to Step Down at Alphabet

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Forrester: These Are the Ways Marketers Still Struggle to Understand Mobile… Eric Schmidt to Step Down After 7 Years at Helm of Alphabet… Why Quartz Will Not Be Jumping So Fully onto the Programmatic Bandwagon…

LMA Goes Small to Spread Disruptive Ideas Among Local Publishers

A recent Innovation Mission to San Francisco/Silicon Valley drew 13 senior executives in the news business (newspapers, TV, radio and research and development). It was built around three themes: audience engagement, platform strategies and using human-centered “design thinking” to solve thorny problems that bedevil most news providers.

Street Fight Daily: Walmart Continues to Innovate, Mobile Video Ad Spend Overtakes Display

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Walmart Develops a Personal Shopper Service and Store Without Cashiers… Mobile Video Ad Spend Overtakes Display… Former Orbitz CEO Joins Uber as the Company’s First COO…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Google Maps to Get Overhaul, PlaceIQ Raises $6.75M

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Google Maps To Get A Major Design Overhaul (SearchEngineLand)… PlaceIQ Raises $6.75 Million To Serve You Ads Based On Your Location (PlaceIQ)… Yelp and the Wisdom of “The Lonely Crowd” (The New Yorker)…

Yext Redesigns App in Shift from Data to Content

A week after scoring a big integration with Facebook, Yext has redesigned its mobile application to focus on content creation. The move comes as the company looks to transition its network from a tool for merchants to occasionally update a phone number or address across multiple properties to something akin to a content marketing network where brick and mortar businesses can create and distribute photos and posts from a single location…

5 Platforms Local Retailers Can Use to Connect With Online Shoppers

Merchants with physical outposts are increasingly relying on hyperlocal solutions as a way to connect with consumers who prefer shopping online. These platforms give retailers a way to put their products in front of local shoppers, without actually requiring them to set up an online store or negotiate the logistics of shipping and delivery. Here are five platforms that merchants can use to get the job done…

What Will It Take to Make Self-Serve Ad Platforms Work for SMBs?

Self-serve advertising platforms have been seen as a potential lynchpin for creating successful hyperlocal business models —potentially bringing down the cost of merchant acquisition to the point where serious profit can be made. But self-serve is easier proposed than done. We asked a few different leaders in the local marketing space what they think will be the key to establishing a self-serve model that works…

Street Fight Daily: FoodPanda Raises $20M, TripAdvisor Schemes for More Reviews

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Rocket Internet-Backed FoodPanda Raises $20M+ As It Prepares For The Next Course In Its Food Delivery Ambitions (TechCrunch)… TripAdvisor’s plan to get another 100 million reviews: Have hotels do the work (Skift)… Local Ad Network Sees Shift To Tighter Mobile Targeting (MediaPost)…

How Does Yelp Make Money and Where Is It Going Next?

Yelp combines the nimble and engineering-driven product focus of a Foursquare or Facebook, with the direct SMB sales of a YP. It’s a powerful combo that few companies have, and few people talk about in blogospheric proclamations of category killers…

7 Ways to Increase Engagement With Mobile Ads

Marketers of all sizes are flocking to mobile ads in an effort to reach consumers on their home turf, sending targeted messages to smartphone users inside certain establishments (like coffee shops or bookstores) or within the confines of geotargeted perimeters. Here are seven ways that brands of all sizes can increase engagement with mobile ads…

Street Fight Daily: Square Looks to Discovery, Mobile-Local Traffic Accelerates

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Square Sets Its Sights on Check-ins: ‘We Can Do Something Better’ (Verge)… Report: Mobile Traffic To Local Sites Growing Faster Than To Total Internet, Now At 27 Percent (SearchEngineLand)… Study: Daily Deals Sites are Bleeding Each Other Dry (PandoDaily)…

Local Search Is Becoming a Mobile Experience With a Social Layer

One of the more surprising revelations from a recent comScore study is that Facebook is now the #2 mobile app for local search, behind Google Maps. This puts it ahead of Mapquest, Bing, and Apple Maps. Yelp isn’t even in the top five. Are people really using Facebook for local search? This may seem counter-intuitive to some, but consider that Facebook is by far the most popular mobile app in the world…

LBMA PODCAST: Visualizing Your Check-ins & Twist’s Edward Marks

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan looks at Swipp, Punch.in and Fiz. Meanwhile, Visa works with Fandango for location-based offers, and independent fuel retailers band together to create their own payment and loyalty initiative. Resource of the week is the history of location-based games in one infographic, and an interview with special guest Edward Marks of Twist…