News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Alphabet Mulls Big Investment in Lyft, Pubs Not Making Money on Facebook
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amid Waymo-Uber Drama, Alphabet Considers Lyft Investment of About $1 Billion… Study Finds Publishers Are Not Making Much Money on Facebook… Why Amazon Is the New Google for Buying…
Will Local News Providers Make Virtual Reality an Actual Strategy?
Trying to predict how popular VR will become is difficult because the most accessible virtual experiences so far, like those achieved with Google Cardboard and the New York Times’ “360 videos,” reveal only a glimpse of VR’s potential.
How Brands Are Targeting Moms with Localized Campaigns
Moms control the purse strings year-round, but their influence on the retail sector is especially strong during the fourth quarter, when back-to-school and holiday shopping give the industry a much-needed boost. Here are five examples of hyperlocal strategies that brands are using to target moms right now.
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Extracting Key Metrics to Make Your Hyperlocal Site More Valuable
“Quantitative” data — those UVs and PVs — work effectively for advertisers who want volume, Lofgren says, but most hyperlocals aren’t big enough to deliver multi-millions numbers in audience. “Qualitative” data, he says, tells you who your customers are — by their activity on the site, as it’s actually happening — or their identity, with information neatly served up from sign-up info. But it can tell much more if the publisher surveys a sampling of site visitors with multiple-choice questions…
Online Retailer Uses Daily Deals, Facebook Ads to Grow Business
When Anthony Bronzo was brought on to manage marketing and advertising for Born to Run, a Seattle-based athletic shoe retailer with two physical locations and a popular online store, he was tasked with finding new ways to reach the company’s core customers—active trail runners and CrossFit devotees. In his few short months on the job, Bronzo has managed to reach those customers using a combination of targeted ads on Facebook and Google AdWords, and by running daily deals with companies like Group Commerce and CBS Local…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon Pays Up, Yelp Shines in Apple Maps
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Groupon Promising Merchants “Lowest Cost” Payments Service (And It’s Using an iPhone) (All Things D)… You May Hate Apple Maps, But the Yelp Integration is Something to Love (Venture Beat)… How Better Location Data Could Mean More-targeted Mobile Ads (GigaOm)…
Report: 72% of SMBs Plan to Increase Mobile Spend in Next 12 Months
Much of the survey reinforces what we already know – namely, that location targeting is a big value driver for SMBs and web sales models like cost-per-click and cost per impression will not fly in a mobile environment. The survey conducted by Borrell Associates on behalf of Pontiflex also found that 46% of SMBs would be interested in a self-serve option for mobile advertising, which is good sign for the entire local marketing space…
Hyperlocal Sites Making a Church-and-State Mistake?
Hyperlocal news sites are struggling to earn money. In part, that’s because they have imposed the artificial burden of a full church-state separation (ads / news) like the New York Times and other top-flight pubs. In an ideal world, this separation works. But in small town papers or small papers covering hyperlocal areas, church and state will never be separate – and never have been.
Street Fight Daily: Criticism Over Apple Maps, Yahoo Won’t Be Checking-In
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Apple’s Maps Are A Disaster Waiting To Happen (SAI)… Looks Like Yahoo Won’t Be Buying Foursquare (Screenwerk)… Official: Yellow Pages May Be Worthless (Paid Content)…
What Do SMBs Really Need From Digital Platforms?
Amidst the fog of buzzwords and the scramble for investment dollars, are locally targeted startups solving problems that are worth the effort? Within that industry we all generally have a conviction that our products and services matter, but we do spend a lot of our time within a circle of people who don’t need convincing. If our ultimate constituency is the business owner, the question we should ask is: “What really matters to SMBs?”
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…
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature