News and Analysis

CraveLabs Launches Self-Service Location Intelligence Solution

In what could be seen as a signal of things to come for the mobile-location industry, CraveLabs is opening up its platform and launching a suite of self-service tools to give media planners and location analysts more open access to the company’s suite of location intelligence solutions.

Jobs and New Openings at Qualtrics, Vivial and Reveal Mobile

Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Sinclair Broadcast Group, Townsquare Media, and Balehu.

Raise Report: Nextdoor, Bizzabo, iZettle Lock Down New Funding

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Fetch Robotics, PhoneWagon, Chattermill, and Kasisto.

Latest Posts

Openings & New Hires at Amazon, AOL, WebMD, Edmunds, Swipely and more…

Ray King is an extremely clever and creative visionary in the space and as a graduate of M.I.T. majoring in computer science and later becoming the CEO of Snapnames. He is a perfectionist. His new company Top Level Design, seeks to capitalize on new “top-level” domains awaiting approval. Read about more hyperlocal execs on the move in this week’s Movers & Shakers column…

LBMA PODCAST: Tempo Founder Discusses Calendars as an OS

Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing. In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan talk about Nike’s use of 3D holographs to sell shoes in Amsterdam; paying by sound in Beijing; K-Mart uses check-ins to promote the world’s largest bake sale. And special guest Raj Singh, founder of Tempo talks about the calendar as the operating system.

Street Fight Daily: Twitter Tests Local Discovery, Bing Aggregates Deals (Again)

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Twitter Testing New Local Discovery Features — And It’s About Time (AllThingsD)… Microsoft Quietly Shuts Down Bing Deals, Launches Bing Offers As A Replacement (TechCrunch)… Belly Dance: Can Lightbank and Chicago’s Hot New Company Avoid Groupon’s Missteps? (PandoDaily)…

Do Community News Sites Really Need to Become ‘Digital Agencies’?

For answers, I went to Julie Brooks, CEO of eCape.com, who went into and then out of, an ambitious program of agency-like marketing services; Mike Orren, president of the new marketing service firm Speakeasy, which he co-founded with the Dallas Morning News; and Carll Tucker, CEO of Daily Voice, who is considering expansion of marketing services it offers.

Case Study: California Fitness Studio Drives Referrals With Digital Program

Ninety-two percent of consumers trust “earned media” — like word-of-mouth referrals — above other forms of paid advertising. At b2be Sports & Wellness, a high-end fitness studio in Chula Vista, California, Emmanuel Corona is looking to capitalize on this trend, partnering with Perkville to reward customers for referring their friends…

Street Fight Daily: Angie’s List Rolls, More Consolidation in Deals

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Angie’s List is Killing It: Revenue, Members, Growth — and Stock Price — All Up…  (VentureBeat)… Tippr Is Acquired by nCrowd in Further Consolidation of the Online Deals Space (AllThingsD)… Groupon Pits Itself Against Location-based Services with App Update (Mobile Commerce Daily)…

Local Search for Events: The Great Missed Opportunity

My jumping off point for this week’s column is a recent post from Greg Sterling, where he observes that despite all the impressive innovation around local search in recent years, no one has launched a truly useful local events service. I have had this feeling for years and wasn’t sure if it was just me. But if Greg doesn’t know about a local events service that truly works, I think it’s fair to say one doesn’t exist. So pay attention, developers and entrepreneurs: local events need a killer app…

How Consumer Messaging Is Going From ‘Push’ to ‘Pull’

The biggest battle coming in the world of marketing is a 180-degree shift in the routing of commerce-related messages. Today, we call them “advertisements,” one-directional messages FROM somebody with something to sell TO somebody who may potentially be a buyer. Tomorrow, the messages will come FROM those wishing to buy TO those with something to sell…

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Challenges Yelp, Foursquare Rethinks the Web

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Facebook Challenges Yelp With Mobile Pages Redesign Featuring Actions, Local Biz Details, And Ratings (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Revamps Business Pages to Take on Yelp as Web Visitors Hit 50 Million per Month (Verge)… Can Yelp Hold Off Foursquare and Facebook? (Screenwerk)…

Locu Adds Yelp to Its Growing List of Publisher Partners

The company has announced a new partnership with local reviews and discovery service Yelp. The partnership, which follows previous deals with OpenTable and CitySearch, means that Locu’s 15,000 local merchant customers will be able to distribute their location, coordinates, hours, and menus to Yelp with real-time updates…