News and Analysis

Study Finds New Opportunities For Firms Integrating Ad, Marketing Tech

As more people use mobile devices in their everyday lives, many tried-and-true techniques for marketing to consumers are becoming less effective, and brands are looking closely at how they can use integrated cross-device solutions to develop deeper connections with customers on a one-to-one basis.

#SFSNYC: How SOCi Ties Local Reputation and Social Media at Scale

A high volume of reviews and feedback give voice to customer sentiment, especially at a national or global level. The trouble is sorting out how those comments relate to individual store locations, if at all, or if these are responses to specific marketing campaigns.

Street Fight Daily: Apple and Google Spook Publishers, Pinterest Lands $150M for Visual Search

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… As Apple and Google Take Aim at Ads, Publishers Tremble… Pinterest Raises Another $150 Million As It Aims to Conquer Visual Search… Analytics Tools Are Still a Challenge for Many…

Latest Posts

Could Pinterest Follow Yelp Down the Local Path?

I am fairly certain that a class of local Pinters will begin to emerge who have followers and who specialize either in a city or a part of a city and, most likely, down to a specific specialty. And this will happen because Pinterest is an extension of blogging and tweeting, really. Lots of pins actually drive through to a blog post, in fact, so it’s already seen as a traffic augmentation vehicle. I see Pinterest getting integrated into social media dashboard tools that will make it easy for local merchants running Facebook pages to add a Pinterest stream to their arsenal.

Local Quotables: Armstrong, Radcliffe, Andrzejewski and more

Tim Armstrong was back out there defending Patch again this week. Elsewhere, researchers noted the rapidly growing influence of Pinterest, which is gaining on Twitter as a traffic driver. Over at Foodspotting, Alexa Andrzejewski corrects any misconceptions there might be that her company is just “Instagram” for food. Damian Radcliffe says LBS products “haven’t quite lived up to the hype.”

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing: Evi, LocalBeat, Shopcastr

Hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at the latest SIRI competitor, Evi, the location tool LocalBeat in India, Groupon’s kiosk play, a great example of relevant and smart location-based mobile marketing by the First TransPennine Express, and Matt O’Leary from Shopcastr.

Street Fight to Participate at First Euro Deals Event

There are over 1500 daily dealers operating in Europe, and Stavros Prodromou, the conference’s organizer, says that the event is meant to spur collaborations and partnerships between the various companies working in the space…

Street Fight Daily: 02.03.12

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

Mobile Ad Network Mojiva Reaches 1 Billion Devices (TechCrunch)…

Gilt City Gets New Look — Providers Members with Improved Shopping Experience (Daily Deal Media)…

Trover Updates With Curation Tools and Revamped Newsfeed

The location-based photo sharing service that launched in April has added some substantial new features to its mobile application, with lists, tagging, and a revamped newsfeed, which brings users’ curatorial activity (i.e. ‘thanks,’ comments, and list-adds) into the thread…

Case Study: Sandwich Chain Becomes a Believer in the End of the Wallet

Mobile payments and loyalty program LevelUp provides Sebastians restaurant owner Mike Conley with far more customer information — like return rates and lifetime spending histories — than he could have ever gotten from a punch-card system. More than 2,200 customers are now using LevelUp to pay at his restaurant and Conley says customers who use the platform spend more per visit…

Street Fight Daily: 02.02.12

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

AOL’s Armstrong: Some Patches DID Turn Profitable in 2011 (Forbes)…

LivingSocial lost $558 million in 2011 (Washington Post)…
Luxury Flash Sales Sites Regroup After Layoffs (BetaBeat)…

LivingSocial Sales Chief: Relationships With Merchants Are ‘Key Focus’

Mandy Cole, the company’s SVP of sales, spoke with Street Fight recently about how LivingSocial is moving away from the classic notion of daily deals, the importance of mobile, and why developing relationships with merchants will always be the company’s top priority.

Study Finds Local Online Ad Outlook Strong; Calls for Mobile Regulation

Marketers are becoming bullish about their current and future investment in local advertising, particularly in local online media, according to a study released this week by GMSLocal. However, members of Congress such as Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) believe that the mobile technology that could drive such growth may need stricter regulation…