News and Analysis

Cultural Shifts Underlines Google’s Local Enterprise Play

“Google at one time talked about a suite of GMB products called the Business Builder but it got left on the cutting room floor of the forced march to Google Plus and the subsequent ugly separation,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “It’s refreshing to see a similar strategy finally coming to fruition. I think we are seeing them being slowly tied together.”

Street Fight Daily: Brands Make Best of AR, Facebook Boosts Brand Intelligence

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Brands Are Using AR to Engage Consumers and Measure Results… Facebook Lets Brands Dive Into People’s Posts… Yext for Food Makes Menus Visible in Searches on Google, Facebook, Bing…

How Brands Are Using Hyperlocal Marketing to Reach Millennial Shoppers

Members of the millennial generation—generally defined as those born between 1982 and 2004—are more comfortable receiving targeted digital ads than consumers in other generations, and they’re warming to technologies like NFC and mobile payments. Here’s how five brands have targeted millennials with location-based strategies, along with insights into what made their tactics so successful.

Latest Posts

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

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

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

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

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

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’

“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

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

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…

Street Fight Daily: Urban Airship Acquires Tello, Locu Snags Google Exec

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Urban Airship Acquires Tello, Maker Of PassTools For Apple’s Passbook, Because Not All Brands Need Fully Featured Apps (TechCrunch)… Locu snags Google Now exec Keir Mierle to head engineering  (Pandodaily)… As Mobile Maps Competition Heats Up, Google Fine Tunes Maps API for Android (GigaOm)…

5 Analytics Platforms SMBs Can Use to Parse Customer Data

A number of platforms are making it easier for local merchants to track consumer behavior on mobile devices, allowing retailers to analyze the influence that check-ins, mobile apps usage, and foot traffic patterns have on their bottom lines. Here are five platforms that give businesses ways to utilize online data for better consumer targeting…