News and Analysis

Drawbridge Partnership Brings Identity Graph to Latin American Market

Latin America has become a hot spot for mobile advertising, with forecasters predicting that ad spending in the region will grow at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world through 2019. Today, the cross-device identity firm Drawbridge is expanding into the market in a big way.

Case Study: How an Unusual, Soft-Sell Sponsored Post Turned Readers Into Customers

“I tried to think about everything I hated about sponsored posts and do the opposite,” says Aaron Seyedian, the founder of Well Paid Maids. “As a reader, I find that sponsored posts on blogs are often lengthy, impersonal and overly centered on sales. I set out to write a post that would be succinct and personal.”

Street Fight Daily: How Google Cashes in on AI, Uber CEO Says IPO 18-36 Months Out

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google and Microsoft Can Use AI to Extract Billions More in Ad Dollars from Clicks… New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months… Coming Soon to Facebook Watch: Sponsored Shows…

Latest Posts

Where to Look if You’re a Job-Seeking Professional in Local

Based on our conversations with presidents and CEOs and other data we track in the marketplace, we have seen a strong demand in two key areas: sales and technology. Companies continue to build up both inside, outside and national sales forces across the country. On the technology front, if you have experience with a consumer driven web company, you know how robust the job market currently is for people with your skill set. Learn more about who’s hiring and who’s not…

Street Fight Daily: Trulia Files for IPO, Groupon Investors Exit

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Trulia Files to Go Public (New York Times)… Groupon Investors Give Up (Wall Street Journal)… Layoffs At Plum District Point To Changes In Hyperlocal Deals Market (TechCrunch)…

All Geotargeting Methods Are Not Created Equal

The social-mobile-local movement will most certainly drive even stronger interest in and use of geotargeting. But with all the options available, what factors dictate when marketers should use one method over another? It depends on what message they want to convey to whom and when, along with how much contact and engagement they want with the consumer…

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Square, RapidBlue

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan discuss the Starbucks/Square tie-up. Meanwhile, RapidBlue wonders if in-store movement the next battleground for location. Plus a special clip of “Fast Shopper, Slow Store” author Gary Schwartz…

Street Fight Daily: Square Offers Flat Rate, Food Network Goes Local

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology...

Square Offers Flat-Rate Plan for Small Businesses (New York Times)…

Food Network Goes Local, Builds Its Own Meal Finder App (GigaOm)…

Instagram 3.0 Bets Big On Geolocation With Photo Maps (TechCrunch)…

Will ‘Breaking Promos’ Help Hyperlocals Bring New Customers to SMBs?

SMBs have been flocking to social sites like Facebook, where they can set up neat pages about their products and service. That’s fine, says Scott Karp, but “the only customers they reach are existing ones.” To solve this, his service Breaking Promos lets SMBs create pages on a social site that runs within the pages of hyperlocal news sites….

Case Study: Salon Keeps Customers Coming Back With Wacky Rewards

As a co-owner at Red 7 Salon, Jason Hall likes to think of his business as the “Cheers of the salon world.” Rather than encouraging loyalty with cash-back incentives, Hall has partnered with Belly to give away “fun” rewards — like the chance to shave one of the salon owners’ heads — that don’t cost his business a dime…

Street Fight Daily: Retailers Get Into Mobile Payments, Holovaty Out at EveryBlock

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology... Target, Walmart and Co.: Why Leave Mobile Payments to Others? (GigaOm)… Did Yelp and TripAdvisor Push Google to Compete? (New York Times/Bits)… Founder Adrian Holovaty Leaving EveryBlock After 5 Years (Holovaty.com)…

Deep Data and the Semantics of Local

In the case of local search, there is no prevailing reason beyond lack of attention to prevent the industry from doing a better job of serving the full range of consumer needs. For the time being, industry attention is still directed in a self-fulfilling way toward the activities that have always received attention. This is the safe bet, but safe bets don’t lead to progress…

New Klout Further Breaks Down Social Influence, Still Needs to Get More Local

Klout was gracious enough to put me on the beta list for their new version and I spent the better part of Tuesday trying it out. The revision is still in beta but should go out to the entire Klout userbase shortly. My impressions were largely positive, although I still reserve judgement on the utility of Klout. Putting my hyperlocal hat on, I’d like to see impact from even more social graph inputs such as FoodSpotting, for example, and Yelp — also tagged to geography…