News and Analysis

Survey: Small Retailers Struggling to Compete this Holiday Season

The holiday season isn’t just an important time for small businesses, it’s the important time. Nearly one-third of store owners say they are completely dependent on revenue earned during this period, according to a new survey by Vistaprint.

Street Fight Daily: Retailers Can Win Big After Christmas, Brand Safety Trips Up Publishers

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Search Data Suggest Retailers Stand to Win Big Week After Christmas… Publishers Find Themselves Caught Up in Brand Safety Nets… Brands Are Learning How to Master Push Notifications Like Publishers…

With Tapad Partnership, Freckle IoT Extends Scale of Audience Data

Until now, Tapad’s Device Graph has primarily been used by media companies looking to understand and measure their audiences. With this new partnership in place, however, Freckle’s large retail clients will have the ability to monitor consumer behaviors and determine which channels are most successful in driving sales.

Latest Posts

Layar Shifts Focus From AR to Print, But Has Hopes for Geo-Located Future

When Layar launched in 2010, a lot of excitement about the Dutch company stemmed from its augmented reality browser. But while the concept was very cool to local-focused techies, it didn’t quite catch on with regular users the way that it needed to…

Street Fight Daily: HopStop Channels Waze, Should Groupon Buy Foursquare?

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.HopStop Live Brings Real-Time Crowdsourced Transit Information to the iPhone (Verge)… Check In, Flame Out: How To Save Foursquare (TechCrunch)… Patent filing Suggests Apple is Working on ‘Street View’ mMapping Technology (Apple Insider)…

Why the Commoditization of Local Information Is an Opportunity for Journalism

Some have seen the shift of local information — from something that was unique to newspapers to a commodity that is available from a variety of sources — as the end to local news. But I actually think it presents a great opportunity for journalists to do what they do best: put information into context and tell us why it matters…

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Beergram

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan discuss the Singapore government’s plan to roll out location-based services; Google’s Niantic Labs gets into book publishing; Locu uses big data to track Pabst Blue Ribbon consumption (and identify the Hipster density). Plus special guest Andrea Sanchez, founder of Beergram.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Home’s Local Angle, Why Yelp Needs Help

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Facebook Home: The Local Angle (Screenwerk)… After Ditching The Groupon Model, Zozi Lands $10M To Build Out Its Marketplace For Celebrity-Guided Adventures (TechCrunch)… Why Yelp Needs Help (PCMag)…

How Partnerships Can Help Hyperlocal Sites Expand Their Reach

There’s a saying that’s echoing more insistently today in hyperlocal publishing: “Don’t compete – collaborate.” Editor and publisher Susan Mernit puts that saying into practice at Oakland Local, partnering with other media and non-profits to juice content, build visibility, and generate revenue…

Case Study: Nonprofit Uses Hyperlocal Content to Reach Families

What started out as an online cookie sale in 2008 turned into much more for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, when the pediatric cancer research nonprofit formed a partnership with hyperlocal content network Macaroni Kid to promote its local bake sales across the country in 2010…

Report: Local Mobile Ad Revenue to Hit $9 Billion by 2017

Local mobile advertising is set to generate $9 billion in revenue by 2017, but it will take a smaller portion of total mobile ad spend than previously expected, according to a new study by BIA/Kelsey. The research firm revised its earlier estimates for local-mobile spends share from 44% to 38% of total mobile ad dollars in 2012 to account for slower than expected adoption of local strategies among national advertisers and an increase in mobile advertising as a whole.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Nearby Now “Local Search,” Mobile Shift Threatens Google

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Facebook Nearby Is Now Facebook “Local Search” (InsideFacebook)… As Web Search Goes Mobile, Competitors Chip at Google’s Lead (New York Times)… Arthur Frommer Gets His Brand Name Back from Google (Skift)…

Managing Local Presence on Mobile Devices: A Developing Challenge

The continued strong growth of mobile local search combined with the high value of mobile customers indicates a shift in attention is required on the part of local search publishers, in order to make it easier for businesses to manage their listing content on the devices consumers are turning to in ever increasing numbers.