News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Uber Hid 2016 Data Breach from Users, Huge Ad Fraud Scheme Uncovered

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Hid a 2016 Data Breach That Affected 57 Million People And Paid Off the Hackers… Fake-Ad Operation Used to Steal from Publishers Is Uncovered… The NYT Is Making All of Its Ads Available Programmatically…

Street Fight Daily: Chatting with SMBs on Messenger Booms, Good News for Brick-and-Mortars

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 330 Million People Connected with SMBs via Messenger for First Time in 2017… Brick-and-Mortar Chains Put E-Commerce on Defensive for Once… Google Collects Android Users’ Location Data Even When Location Services Are Disabled…

How Facebook Turns ‘Likes’ Into Dollars Right Down to the Local Level

Local news publishers typically know many of their community restaurateurs on a first-name basis, and are regular diners at the establishments. But they can’t offer the precise targeting capability of Facebook, whose services are, in most cases, fully automated — greatly lowering their cost.

Latest Posts

Case Study: Restaurant Chain Uses Mobile Program to Target Nearby Customers

At 54th Street Grill & Bar, a regional chain with 19 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Texas, marketing director Kelly Reid used a mobile loyalty platform called Front Flip to send discounted offers to consumers who’d visited businesses within a five-mile-radius of any 54th Street locations without checking-in at one of her restaurants, and had managers ask those customers why they hadn’t come in before. Here’s more about what she learned….

5 Ways SMBs Can Find Success With Social Media Marketing

A debate has been brewing on Street Fight over whether small business owners should be spending money on social media, and its general overall importance as a marketing strategy. We figured it might be worth it to check in with a few social media marketing companies to get their latest and best tips and insights for SMB success in social media…

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Talkbits, Moves

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Talkbits — this generation’s version of the CB radio. Meanwhile, Weve wastes no time and starts working with Virgin Records; big quick-serve restaurants Olive Garden and Applebee’s get into the location marketing game; Yahoo! destroys (er, acqui-hires) Alike; and a glimpse of the future of the insurance industry from Spain. Plus, Sampo Karjalainen, founder of Moves stops by, and our resource of the week shows the power of big data…

Street Fight Daily: Life After Patch, What Really Happened at LivingSocial?

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Life After Patch.com: A Newspaper Editor Returns To Newsprint (The Awl)… What Really Happened at LivingSocial? (Fortune)… The Newsonomics of The Boston Globe Sale (Nieman Journalism Lab)…

Euclid Raises $17 Million to Deepen Analytics for Brick-and-Mortars

Netscape founder Marc Andreessen may think retail’s demise is inevitable, but Benchmark Capital has just made a big bet on its future. The venture firm has led a $17.3 million series B round in Euclid, a startup that uses wi-fi analytics to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with web-like reporting on in-store traffic…

In an Effort to Woo Brands, Verve Mobile Launches Audience Solution

The targeting tool allows advertisers to use location data to reach specific audiences – say, middle-aged moms or travelers – with a higher-funnel branding message, rather than the lower funnel “call-to-location” messaging endemic of traditional geo-fencing campaigns.

A Decade Old, iBrattleboro Keeps Journalism First, Profits Second

For co-founders Chris Grotke and Lise LePage, the bottom line is not what’s found in the last entry on a profit-and-loss statement.. “Journalism is a little more important than money,” Grotke says. “If you’re doing [hyperlocal] to make money, I suggest you not do it in a small town. Go to a big city.”

Street Fight Daily: Square Puts ‘Business in a Box,’ Google Opens Glass

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Square’s ‘Business in a Box’ Offers a Digital Register for $300 (Wall Street Journal)… Google Will Offer Its Glasses to Select Few (New York Times)… Patch Reportedly Cuts Editors in Lead Up to Pivot (Business Insider)…

After Harrowing Ride, LivingSocial Raises $110 Million to Press On

In a memo to employees on Wednesday, CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy said the company raised a new round of funding from “existing investors.” O’Shaughnessy did not say whether Amazon, which wrote down its $175 million investment in the company in Q3, had invested in the latest round…

How Big Brands and SMBs Can Use Vine Videos to Reach Local Consumers

Vine has not only cracked the code on mobile video. It has created an entirely new medium. The question for brands and local businesses alike is how to leverage it as a marketing channel. Here are a few ideas about how to test the new app and what to look for as it matures…