News and Analysis

New iPhones May Open the Door for Brands to Experiment With AR

The new iPhones are an opportunity for brands to reach potential customers in new ways, especially when merged with location, says Wendell Lansford, co-founder of Wyng, a digital campaign platform for agencies and brands.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Guides Retailers on Mobile, US Ad Firms Prepare for Data Regulation

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… A New Facebook Feature Will Help Print Catalogs Translate to Mobile… GDPR Is Coming, and Many U.S. Ad Tech Firms Are Not Ready… Yelp Claims Google Broke Promise Made to Regulators…

The New ‘Location, Location, Location’ in Retail

“The new consumer (and search) paradigm favors small-scale, hyper-focused boutiques close to population centers as opposed to horizontal big box retailers on suburban commercial strips,” David Mihm says to Mike Blumenthal in their bi-weekly conversation.

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As Obama vs. Romney Heads to Homestretch, Campaigns Get Hyperlocal

With seven weeks remaining until Election Day, it’s seeming clear that the ballots of specific swing voters in specific neighborhoods in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and other battleground states could once again decide the presidency. Recent polls show the two candidates neck-and-neck in several states, and campaigns, super PACs and other interest groups are employing geographically targeted political ad platforms more than ever…

Street Fight Daily: Square Goes Big, eBay Connects Its Local Dots

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Square Goes Big: Raises $200M at $3.25B Valuation (GigaOm)… EBay’s RedLaser Takes On Shopkick, Adds Geofencing And Deals With Best Buy To Barcode Scanning App (TechCrunch)… Amazon May Follow Apple, Give Google Maps the Boot (Wired)…

Hibu Hooks Up With Closely, Continuing Partnership Push

Amid reports of a creditor takeover, Hibu — formerly the Yell Group — has inked partnerships with Denver-based promotions startup Closely, as well as a U.K.-based payments processor Global Payments to solidify its local marketing suite for small businesses. The moves come four months into the debt-laden publisher’s rebranding efforts…

Forecast: Consumer Daily Deals Spending to Reach $5.5 Billion by 2016

“We’re leaving phase one, in which deals companies basically sent out sharply discounted deals to large mailing lists,” said BIA/Kelsey’s Peter Krasilovsky. “Deals companies are now beginning to also focus on the merchant relationship, offering them a variety of business services, from reporting and payment processing to loyalty programs and continuous, instant deals.”

6 Social Media Tools for Hyperlocal Publishers

For a hyperlocal news publication to be successful, its editors have to do more than break news and tell fascinating stories. Using social media to promote great content and interact with local community readers is key. Here are six social media marketing tools that hyperlocal publishers can use to improve reader engagement…

Street Fight Daily: Hyperlocals at Financial Precipice, Rethinking the ‘Patch Experiment’

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.At Precipice, Hyperlocals Face Financial Realities (NetNewsCheck)… The Patch experiment: Don’t drink the Kool-Aid (Amy Jo Brown)… The Mobile/Social/Local/Cloud Land Grab Is Over (TechCrunch)…

MinnPost CEO: ‘Go After Every Stream of Revenue That You Can Think Of’

With five years under its belt, Minnesota- and Twin Cities-centric local site MinnPost has a non-profit model that seems to be working well. The site combines advertising, donations and sponsorships to support its journalism, and it ended 2011 with a slight budget surplus for the second year in a row. Veteran newsman Joel Kramer, the site’s CEO, spoke with Street Fight recently about the importance of not relying on just one revenue model, and about how to treat local news sites like the businesses they are — matching ambitions with the available potential revenue in a given market.

Who’s Coming and Going at Groupon, Delivery.com, LocalVox, YP & more

Big changes at Delivery.com with several new members of the management team; a new head of marketing at LocalVox; Groupon brings on an executive to focus on accounting from the C-level; and lots of jobs on offer in sales, marketing and business development at Foursquare, Patch, LocalVox, Factual, Apple and more.

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Choco-locate

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at what an airport’s location tech might have to do with James Joyce. Australia shows us how to do disaster notifications with LBS. STMicroelectronics kills us with air pressure — in a good way. All this plus a few deals, an acquisition, Tasti D-lite’s new book and special guest Lalita Krishna of Choco-locate…

Street Fight Daily: Tribune Halves TribLocal, Yelp Pushes Into Asia

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.In Wake of Journatic, Tribune Reduces Number of TribLocal Editions (Crain’s Chicago Business)… Yelp Expands into Asia With Singapore Launch (CNet)… UBL Going After Huge Offline Co-op Ad Budgets (Screenwerk)…