News and Analysis

Raise Report: Cuebiq, Social Native, Territory Pick Up New Funding

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Lighthouse AI, Mintigo, Jinn, and Appear Here.

Street Fight Daily: Instagram Beats Facebook for Brands, Twitter Aims to Jumpstart Ad Strategy

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Instagram Gives Brands and Celebrities Up to 400% More Engagement than Facebook… Twitter Hires AdTech Veteran Bruce Falck to Rejuvenate Advertising Tools… Identifying Mobile Shoppers is a Top Priority for 70% of Retailers…

After Fits and Starts, Collaborative News Is Finally Making Headlines

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For years, there’s been a lot of earnest talk about digital news sites collaborating to produce editorial content that had more value for users — and to help the collaborators make their often-precarious operations sustainable. But the talk produced as many fits as starts. That’s changing, and for the better.

Latest Posts

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Groupon, Banjo

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In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Groupon’s recent acquisitions, Google’s launch of a product fit for 2008, Toyota going extreme in Belgium, Caterina Fake’s Pinwheel and a report that shows the futility of mobile ad display + Banjo founder Damien Patton…

Yelp Sets Share Price at $15 for Friday IPO

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Though Yelp’s SEC-sanctioned “quiet period” has seen less criticism than Groupon endured, many analysts remain unconvinced that Yelp’s model can continue the rapid growth achieved over the past few years. What concerns many critics is less the company’s lack of profitability and more the direction in which its losses are heading…

Media Surveys Give Hyperlocals Short Shrift

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What’s needed is a survey that’s as thorough as Pew’s but which is confined to those communities with at least one credible independent site as well as a network site — like a Patch or Main Street Connect outlet — and at least one “legacy” (newspaper or local TV) site…

Case Study: Food Truck Says Single Deal Campaign Saturated Market

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Kate Carrara, owner of Buttercream, a cupcake truck in Philadelphia, tapped into the daily deals craze in 2011 with campaigns through both Groupon and LivingSocial — which she’ll never do again. “I think I’ve saturated the market with it. I did it solely for the marketing,” she says, pointing to the 9,000 Twitter followers accumulated after the Groupon deal. Since then, she’s also used Xipwire and LevelUp to combine hyperlocal marketing and commerce, two experiments with open outcomes…

Street Fight Daily: 03.01.12

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

LevelUp Now Seeing $1M Per Month In Transactions; Launches API (TechCrunch)…

Facebook Premium: Ads Everywhere, Ads Everywhere, Ads (BetaBeat)…

Foursquare Dumps Google, Goes Open-Source for Maps (ReadWriteWeb)…

Local Marketing Shifts From Ads to Interactions to Requests

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There’s a huge opportunity to aggregate potential leads across these siloed services in real time, and notify or proxy respond on behalf of local businesses so they can service leads immediately. In this online new paradigm, small business no longer needs to wait for their customers, they cherry-pick on demand…

Digital First Taps Nimble Commerce to Power National eCommerce

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Digital First Media, which oversees the Denver-based MediaNews as well as the New York-based Journal Register Company, has inked a deal with Nimble Commerce to power an ecommerce initiative across the company’s 150 plus local sites. The deal will replace the media group’s largely fragmented ecommerce efforts with a single platform capable of launching daily deal and flash sales campaigns seamlessly across its media properties…

Study: Tablet Search Becoming Vital to Local Business

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The 2012 Local Search Usage Study, a combined effort from from comScore, 15miles, and Localeze, found that “86% of tablet users made a purchase from their most recent tablet-based local search.” That is an impressively high number, especially combined with the fact that 64% of tablet users conduct searches on a weekly basis…

Street Fight Daily: 02.29.12

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Dennis Crowley: Every Map Should Have Foursquare Dots on It (Mashable)…

Hyperlocal News Sites Stay Away From Election Endorsements (OJR)…

Groupon Acquires Travel Search Company Uptake (AllThingsD)…

Seamless Rolls Out iPad App, Offers Glimpse into New Strategy

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Delivery and takeout service Seamless is rolling out its first iPad app this morning, rounding off an eight-month rebranding process after food-service giant Aramark sold its majority stake in the company to Spectrum Equity Investors for $50 million in June. The application is a debut of sorts for Seamless’ revamped strategy, which aims to position the service farther up the purchase funnel…