News and Analysis

LBMA Podcast: Casper, Urgent.ly, Samsung, PlaceIQ

This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: ComScore, Swarovski, KFC, Target with Pinterest. Special Guest: Herve Utheza – Here Technologies.

Street Fight Daily: Google Builds an Anti-Amazon Retail Alliance, Inside the War on Delivery

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Takes Voice-Activated Shopping Nationwide with Google, Joining Walmart… How Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Others Are Fighting to Forge Best Delivery Practices… Lyft Will Use Google Maps as Default Navigator for Drivers…

Brands Aren’t Effectively Planning for Personalization and Segmentation Ahead of the Holidays

A report from B2C marketing and analytics company Zaius shows that many companies, though they claim to be spotlighting personalization and segmentation as a way to engage customers, are actually not capably following through.

Latest Posts

Can Businesses Use Hyperlocal to Leverage Customers’ Politics?

There has been significant coverage about the differences in Democrats and Republicans, but to date there hasn’t been any analysis on real world activities associated with political affiliation. From grocery stores to restaurants, from retailers to gas stations, voting Democrat or Republican plays a part in which establishments we step foot in and which ones we don’t…

Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Layoffs, Google Buys Couponer

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.LivingSocial expected to lay off 400 in U.S. (Washington Business Journal)…
Google Buys ‘Coupon’ Platform Incentive Targeting For Closed-Loop Marketing (Screenwerk)… The Story Of Adku, And Why Andrew Mason Isn’t The Problem At Groupon (TechCrunch)…

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…