Each month, we orient our coverage around an editorial theme. The list below represents the full range of our coverage and is updated from time to time. Click the links to view our coverage of each theme. Reach out to us if you have theme suggestions or if you’d like to offer your insight on any of our existing themes.
Beyond the Screen: The screen has always been our primary interface but the world of tech is bringing us new formats including voice, computer vision, and augmented reality. Beyond the Screen encapsulates these topics and the evolving set of front-end interfaces for local media and commerce.
Word of Mouth: The oldest and still most effective form of local marketing is word of mouth. That’s taken a new form today in the art of reputation management. Under the Word of Mouth theme, we cover topics including social media marketing, and reviews management multimedia strategies.
Targeting Location: A central issue for location-based media and commerce is the moving target of how to pinpoint and optimize strategies around device location. We cover topics under Targeting Location like location-targeted ads, attribution, paid search, and location data strategies.
Automating Local: How is AI impacting local commerce and marketing, and who’s doing what? This theme highlights topics like Amazon’s move to create intelligent and streamlined retail operations, as well as AI’s role in local searches such as voice-enabled smart devices and personal assistants.
Visualizing Local: How are marketers using visual content to boost visibility, presence, and conversions? With Visualizing Local, we examine topics like image search, visual strategies in local listings, and visually-oriented social media like Instagram Stories.
Pursuing Privacy: In the wake of Facebook’s data collection misdeeds, the privacy backlash is swift and formidable. Pursuing Privacy is our theme for key issues like location intelligence and privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.
Disrupting Retail: Physical-world retail is at a crossroads as we see a growing divergence between success stories and victims of “retailpocalypse.” The difference is a function of digital adaptiveness. With Disrupting Retail, we cover topics like in-store innovation and Amazon’s strategic moves.
Driving Local: The car is the ultimate mobile device. And it’s becoming local’s next battleground as more and more sensors are infused. Topics like autonomous vehicles are covered under Driving Local, as well as the car’s increasing role in the local search and discovery process.
Mapping the Future: Of all of the technologies and consumer touchpoints to local commerce, mapping is perhaps the most relevant. Mapping the Future addresses maps as the primary tool for local search and discovery. We discuss UX innovations, visual mapping, and mapping as a component of local search and SEO strategies.
Vertical Challenge: To verticalize or not to verticalize… that is the question in local commerce. The Vertical Challenge theme targets vertical-specific strategies and the pros and cons of zeroing in on local business categories.
Holiday Blitz: All of the local commerce innovations throughout the year are given the chance to shine during the end-of-year holiday shopping blitz. We cover topics like shopping behavior, year-over-year trend analysis, and retail strategies.
Connected Consumer: How are we as consumers increasingly tapped into networked content and data? This includes topics like personal assistant apps, smart speakers, IoT, and wearables.