It was just a matter of "when," but Groupon has finally relieved Andrew Mason of his CEO duties after a quarter in which Groupon widely missed its mark because of its very high expenses and serious international issues, despite growing…
Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki told the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting today in Phoenix that "we are a B2B business but we need to move as fast as consumers do." Choice, control, charm, connectedness and calibration are the 5…
Ad industry heavyweights at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Phoenix this week wrestled with the meaning of Big Data on advertising. The industry's fascination with Big Data was certainly fully on display. "Big Data is the new black," joked…
The shift to online and mobile is having very specific impacts on the physical world for the first time, and represents "the lowest competitive bar and the highest opportunity" in the 20 years since the Web became commercialized, according to…
We don't generally reciprocate the blogospheric practice of publishing posts purely on random items of interest, as our style gravitates more towards exclusive interviews or news items in local media. But in the spirit of doing this more often, here…
We're less than a month away from our Leading in Local conference, March 18-20 in Boston, and we're really gearing up for the show. Among many other exciting parts of the conference, and the recent announcement of our Foursquare keynote,…
In BIA/Kelsey's Feb 21st webinar, National Marketers Refining Localization Strategies – A ‘Leading in Local’ Conversation, (available on-demand), the discussion focused on how national brands are increasing their efforts in marketing their products on a local level. Balihoo's Marketing Director,…
Fresh off $14 million in funding, Verve Mobile today launched Place Insights, a new ad targeting technology that better utilizes data about specific locations. This is part of the ongoing progression of "Big Data meets Local" which we're watching closely.…
BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local: The National Impact event March 18-20 in Boston has gotten closer to a "final" lineup, with several great new adds to an already powerful, lineup consisting of 45, hand-picked speakers. One of our big new "gets"…
Living Social has won a lifeline from some of its existing investors today with a new infusion of $110 Million. The new cash lets the #2 deals company, which has been 31 percent owned by Amazon, proceed after sustaining very…
I had the fun of buying Amex's $25 gift card for $15 the other day on Amex Sync, the new Amex Twitter Store. All I had to do was sync my Amex account to Amex's Twitter Store page, joing the…
Over the past six months, we've covered the handful of installations from the Path to Purchase study co-produced by Telmetrics, xAd and Nielsen. --Telmetrics/xAd Mobile Local Data, Take 3: Restaurants --Telmetrics and xAd Release Second Wave of “Path to Purchase” Study…
The French search and directory company PagesJaunes Groupe has launched a new corporate brand along with its 2012 earnings announcement. The company is now called Solocal Group, an obvious play on SoLoMo (social, local, mobile). The new corporate brand coincides…
Last week, we reported on Google's new Enhanced Campaigns which create a more federated process for running paid search campaigns across mobile, desktop and web. As promised, there are lots of implications behind the announcement to be explored. In addition to lots…
BIA/Kelsey's upcoming "Leading in Local: The National Impact" event March 18-20 in Boston keeps building and building. We've now crossed the 40 speaker threshold - and the lineup truly reflects the rapid shifts and progress we've been seeing in local,…
Red Beacon founder Ethan Anderson has unveiled his latest project, MyTime, a "scheduling supermarket" that sets dynamic pricing for unfilled appointments. Online scheduling intrigues us as a gateway towards promotions and transactions, but it remains underutilized by SMBs and the…
Two global directory companies at different stages of transformation reported their 2012 earnings this week. Eniro and Yellow Media both reported deep print declines, as well as progress in repairing balance sheets burdened by debt. Mobile development was a high…
Last week, Peter Krasilovsky and I had the chance to catch up with Retailigence about its activity since our last writeup. For those unfamiliar, Retailigence provides local retail product and inventory data to consumer-facing shopping sites, apps, and advertising. It…
Google today announced a significant change to AdWords. Known as "Enhanced Campaigns" advertisers will now run the same -- though conditionally governed -- SEM campaigns across desktop, mobile and tablet. Previously, advertisers were able to run separate campaigns across these devices, altering…
Today I had the chance to talk to Mary Beth Brendza, founder of AppExpress, regarding the company’s announced partnership with the interactive unit of television operator Cordillera. At first glance the partnership provides a key sales channel to scale AppExpress’s…
