News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Google Appeases Antitrust Regulators on Shopping, Brands Turn to Influencers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Offers to Treat Shopping Rivals Equally Via Auction… Why More Brands Are Adding Young Influencers to Their Creative and Marketing Teams… The Luxe Lab at Neiman Marcus Signals a Shift in Focus for Department Stores…

Street Fight Daily: Inside Uber/Lyft Funding War, Small Brands Hit Roadblock on Instagram

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Funding Talks at Uber and Lyft Complicate Ride-Hailing Allegiance… Small Brands Are Finding It Harder to Get Verified on Instagram… Never Mind GDPR, Here Comes Apple’s Intelligent Tracking…

Street Culture: Blind References Help Weed Out Drama at Zaius

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“In the hiring process, we often use the terms ‘smart, hungry, and humble,’” says Zaius CEO Mark Gally. “This notion of being humble is really a critical component of culture. We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we take our work extremely seriously.”

Latest Posts

How E-hail Apps Like Uber Could Impact the Hyperlocal Ecosystem

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It’s entirely conceivable that fast-growing ranks of Uber users would not be averse to other commerce offerings that could be paid for through the phone app. In fact, these users are probably even more used to the idea of paying over the phone than people who use Google Wallet or Apple’s Passbook, neither of which has achieved wide adoption or even viral growth…

Case Study: Restaurant Focuses on Online Menus, Reservations

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Jen Ziskin, co-owner of the restaurant La Morra, in Brookline, Mass., says she relies on a combination of email marketing, OpenTable, and menu management platform Locu to spur interest long before customers walk through her doors…

Street FIght Daily: AT&T Launches Alerts, Foursquare’s 10.4M Users

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.AT&T Launches AT&T Alerts, A Location-Based Deal Alert Service, As The Field Grows More Crowded (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Has 10.4 Million Monthly Users (AdWeek)… Groupon’s Restaurant Tools Get A VP Of Sales (Fast Company)…

SMB Social Media Is All About Branding, Not Conversions

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SMBs may become frustrated when they can’t see tangible results from social media, but they should realize that most of their potential customers are absorbing and reacting to social media conversations and understanding brands through these interactions. Brand marketing, not the 0% conversion rates, is social media’s key strength…

Conference Notebook: Commerce and Content Collide

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Selling stuff makes most editorial folks uneasy. But as the price of online (not to mention mobile) advertising inventory drops, online shops, affiliate programs, and daily deals are becoming a key revenue strategy for local and national publishers…

Street Fight Daily: Cash Crunch at LivingSocial, Startups Tackle Local

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.LivingSocial May Be Running Dangerously Low on Cash and Time. Will Amazon Come to the Rescue? (Pando Daily)… Startups Tackle the Local Neighborhood as the Next Frontier  (GigaOm)… Google Updates iPad App to Make Search More Local (Mashable)…

Using Contextual Awareness, Qualcomm Labs Targets Tokyo

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Dentsu has teamed up with Recruit Co. and Qualcomm Labs to create a massive location-based marketing campaign in Tokyo. The campaign builds upon a technology provider’s newly released contextual-awareness software development kit, Gimbal, to dynamically distribute offers to consumers by synthesizing a user’s location and social graph without draining battery life…

WNYC’s Schachter: Many Hyperlocal Startups Don’t Focus on ‘Things That Matter’

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“The amount of coverage of restaurant openings that you see in the hyperlocal space is disproportionate to the significance of restaurant openings to the world as a whole,” says the WNYC news VP. “That is probably a little uncharitable, but not too much.”

How SMBs Can Take Advantage of Apple’s Passbook

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Apple’s most recent app innovation, Passbook, allows users to aggregate coupons, gift card information, special offers and purchased deals in one convenient location. The app’s promise to drive retail business is so strong that more than 40 major brands and retailers including Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, LivingSocial, Fandango, and Starbucks have either launched or integrated their app with Passbook. But how can local businesses use this new marketing tool?

Street Fight Poll: Consumers See Coupons as Top Digital Promotion

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Memo to merchants: If you want to attract new customers, digital coupons are your best bet, according to the latest Street Fight poll. The survey asked 500 U.S. consumers which digital promotional tool last encouraged them to shop or dine at a new local business. 47% of respondents said coupons…