Urban Airship Rebrands as Airship, Offers Broad Suite of Mobile Customer Engagement Solutions
In a bid to expand its solutions well beyond push notifications, marketing firm Urban Airship is dropping the qualifier Urban from its name and launching a new identity as Airship, a customer engagement company that works with brands to target and coordinate customer interactions across apps, websites, SMS, email, mobile wallets, and other emerging channels.
Urban Airship Acquires Accengage, Becomes World’s Largest Mobile Customer Engagement Company
Urban Airship, which serves Fortune 25 brands such as Adidas, BBC, and Vodafone, indicated that it would use the combined resources now at its disposal to expand the technical capabilities of its slate of mobile solutions. It will also take advantage of Accengage’s native expertise in the European market, particularly at a time when increased regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is underscoring the importance of strong policy and PR teams.
USA Technologies Links With Apple Pay to Offer Rewards on the Go
USA Technologies, which serves cashless and mobile transactions in self-serve retail, announced this morning that it has integrated its rewards program with Apple Pay. Now when consumers use Apple Pay at a self-serve vending machine, they will be able to instantly enroll in USAT’s MORE loyalty program.
Beacons to Shine a Light on Consumers’ Murky Path to Purchase
Retail activity this holiday season promises to be more omnichannel than ever, courtesy of the ever-present smartphone. That raises the stakes for retailers in terms of their preparedness and complicates their attribution metrics. With online-to-offline shopping dynamics in focus, this may be the long-awaited breakout year for beacon technology.
Openings and New Hires at Moasis, EBTH, and Tout
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Moasis hires two ex-Googlers to its c-suite, Everything But The House makes a spree of executive hires, and video network Tout woos away a Deseret Digital Media leader.
Six Months After Spin-Off, Gimbal Continues to Grow
It’s been a busy few months for Gimbal, the beacon company formerly owned by Qualcomm. After being spun off from the tech giant in May, the company went on a hiring spree, bringing its team to more than 30 employees. Then earlier this month, the company entered into its first big partnership with push notification company Urban Airship…
Street Fight Daily: Gannett Buys Rest of Cars.com, Angie’s List Struggles
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Gannett Buys the Rest of Cars.com for $1.8 Billion (Businessweek)… Why Angie’s List Is In Trouble (Time)… PayPal Taps an Outsider to Push It Into a New Era (New York Times)…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp’s Case Against Google, Urban Airship CEO Resigns
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Leaked Documents Show How Yelp Thinks It’s Getting Screwed By Google (TechCrunch)… CEO Of Startup Urban Airship Leaves Company After Being Accused Of Sexually Assaulting His Ex-Girlfriend (BusinessInsider)… Finding Ways to Use Big Data to Help Small Shops (New York Times)…
Street Fight Daily: Snapchat’s Local Play, Bonobos Raises $50M For Brick-and-Mortar
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snapchat goes local: Firm Tests Secret ‘Stickers’ for Popular Locations (DailyMail)… Bonobos Gets $55 Million Investment to Open More Clothing Stores for Dudes (Recode)… In 2014 More Money Will Be Spent on Mobile Ads Than Newspapers, Magazines and Radio (Pando)
Street Fight Hosted Three Events in 2013 — Here’s What to Remember
Street Fight hosted three events in 2013, two in New York during the winter (thanks to Hurricane Sandy) and fall, and another in San Francisco in late spring. The programming for the events, and the stories flowing out of them, reflect the continued transformation of the local marketing industry and the emergence of a new, technology-driven local ecosystem. With the year coming to a close, here is a look back at the biggest stories that came out of Street Fight’s Annual Summits…
What Brands Are Doing Wrong On Mobile
As consumers spend more time using mobile devices than browsing the web and even watching television, a mobile strategy isn’t an opportunity; it’s a matter of survival, says Urban Airship chief marketing officer Brent Hieggelke. During a keynote at Street Fight Summit in New York Thursday, Hieggelke argued that brands need to change the way they approach mobile, shifting from looking at the platform as yet another marketing channel to treating it as a central tool in creating a better consumer experience…
LBMA Podcast: Google Pay, Rival & Ticketmaster, Sears & Amazon
On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Urban Airship + Google Pay, Aceby app, JetBlue’s pizza to LA, Rival takes on Ticketmaster, 7-Elven goes AR for Deadpool 2, Google Duplex, Sears and Amazon team-up.