News and Analysis
PlaceIQ Study Examines the State of Integrated Marketing
A generational shift is impacting the way consumers interact with brands, downplaying the role that physical stores play in the traditional retail environment. According to Duncan McCall, CEO of location intelligence firm PlaceIQ, the changes that brands have seen thus far are just the tip of the iceberg.
Street Fight Daily: Digital Habits Disrupt Grocery, What New iPhones Mean for Brands
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Deloitte Study Shows 51% of Grocery Purchases Influenced by Digital, Urges Action… End of an Era: Amazon’s 1-Click Patent Expires, Opening Practice to Rivals… Google Relaxes Policy on Subscription Sites, Lending Publishers a Hand…
Latest Posts
Groupon’s Mason: It Would Be ‘Weird’ If Board Wasn’t Discussing My Job
“There’s no question that we’ve had bumps in the road, but Groupon has created not just a business, but an entirely new category,” said the CEO. “If I ever thought I wasn’t the right guy for the job, I would be the first guy to fire myself. I care much more about the success of Groupon than being CEO.”
The Steaks in Square’s Future
Back in June, social/local analyst Rocky Agrawal bet Reuters financial journalist Felix Salmon a steak dinner that Square would be acquired by a company other than PayPal in 2012. At this point, a sale seems pretty unlikely before the end of the year — and I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. So if someone wants to bet me that Square gets acquired before this time in 2013, I’ll take that bet…
A Quick Guide to SMB Success on Mobile
Less than 5 percent of local businesses have a website optimized for mobile devices. In some cases, a company’s site isn’t even “findable” through searches on mobile devices. Worse, consumers, when they do find the local business’s website, can only see a desktop-specific version. Here are a few tips to help demystify mobile for business owners and help them get started right away…
Conference Notebook: Yelp ‘Focused,’ Foursquare Denies Slower Growth
It doesn’t look like Yelp has plans to push across the local marketing stack anytime soon. Responding to a question of whether Yelp planned to position itself as a local operating system for local business like Groupon, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said it was “hard to say what tangential businesses [Yelp would] get into” but “its safe to say we’re focused.”
Street Fight Daily: Groupon CEO on Hot Seat, Apple Maps Manager Out
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Is Andrew Mason on the Bubble as CEO of Groupon? (AllThingsD)… What Kinds of Local Stories Drive Engagement? The Results of an NPR Facebook Experiment (Nieman Lab)… Apple Fires a Manager Over Its Misfire on Maps (New York Times/Bits)…
How Mobile’s Demographic Shift Impacts Local
It seems that young people in the 18-24 demographic spend, on average, more time on mobile devices today than they do watching television. It also appears that mobile usage is far ahead of “playing games and computer use for leisure.” What does this mean for the future of local search and local media? I would say it’s not unlike the lessons the Republican Party was forced to confront in the aftermath of its recent election defeat…
Wifarer CEO: Indoor Location Is a Multibillion-Dollar Market
Indoor mapping has the potential to become a big business. But it’s early days and big questions are still looming — particularly regarding Apple. Last year the tech giant closed off iOS’ wifi API, the data most companies use to determine a user’s position indoors, dealing a major blow to a number of startups. Street Fight recently caught up with Phillip Stanger, the CEO of indoor mapping startup Wifarer, to discuss why indoor location matters for marketers and how companies can navigate around Apple’s obstruction…
5 Hyperlocal Tools to Help Retailers Curb Showrooming
The biggest threat to the average local retailer this holiday season isn’t the big box store down the street, but the e-commerce outlet selling the same products for less money online. In an effort to help curb “showrooming” and entice customers to make more in-store purchases, local retailers are increasingly utilizing hyperlocal solutions. Here are five tools that retailers can use in their efforts…
Street Fight Daily: DNAinfo Launches in Chicago, Zillow Acquires HotPads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… After a Few Twists, DNAinfo Officially Launches (Crain’s Chicago Business)… Zillow Acquires Rental And Real Estate Search Site HotPads For $16 Million To Grow Its Rental Marketplace (TechCrunch)… Not Just Another Web 2.0 Company, Yelp Basks In Its Star Power (Fast Company)…
Mobile-Local Shopping Comes Into Focus
Customers are getting poached right under retailers’ noses by Amazon and the rest of the showrooming brigade. So what are retailers doing to combat these challenges as we enter the biggest shopping season in the biggest year of local retail transformation since the invention of the department store? The results so far are mixed…
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation