Kelsey Local Media Blog
Dex One and SuperMedia have each entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a pre-packaged deal as the two companies moved toward merging by mid 2013. The prepackaged route was necessary because the companies were not able to convince all…
Directory assistance is going through major upgrades, as more companies seek the power of leads from pay per call advertising, while relying on new technologies, such as cloud based- and mobile services. One of these is Soleo, which provides local…
The London Evening Standard is reporting that an attempt to engineer a buyout of Hibu's U.S. operation (Yellowbook) is behind the recent dismissal of two senior Hibu U.S. executives. In an internal memo last week, Hibu CEO Mike Pocock announced…
When they first launched in 2005, the independent sales channels were almost entirely about reselling search and YP ads. SMBs showed confusion over the value of these campaigns however, and it didn't help that Google (and its lower margins) dominated…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Seat Pagine Gialle, Italy's leading directory publisher, has announced it is insolvent and unable to meet its debt obligations. Specifically, the company was not able to meet its 2013 debt obligations totaling 200 million euros. Seat will now seek protections…
Capping off a recent string of webcasts, we held one yesterday to discuss the main takeaways from our monster report on mobile local advertising. It was enhanced by the participation of xAd's Monica Ho, and her discussion of xAd's efforts,…
Deals are fading for many publishers. Group Commerce Inc., for instance, is just the latest company to cut back on its support of local deals. But for local businesses, deals remain potent building blocks for a wide range of promotional…
Various companies have built SMB websites and landing pages by scraping the Web. PaperG comes to mind. How about using Facebook. BIA/Kelsey data from our Local Commerce Monitor shows that more than 40 percent of U.S. SMBs have Facebook pages.…
In keeping with tradition, BIA/Kelsey released its annual "Picks and Predictions" report this week, offering a collective view on the events that will drive the 2013 agenda in our local media coverage areas -- directional, interactive, mobile, social, vertical and video.…
The French search and directories firm PagesJaunes has expanded its presence in the dining vertical by acquiring Chronoresto, a site that allows consumers to order takeout food online. The acquisition follows the company's strategy of building deep content and transaction capability in…
Al Jazeera's apparent $500 million deal to acquire Current TV's 40 million U.S. cable homes, as reported in the New York Times, essentially values U.S. cable network distribution at $10.25 per cable home. Is this transaction a good deal? And…
BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor of SMBs shows that in our core sample (up to 100 employees, no minimum ad spend level), the number of marketing media used for advertising and promotion is on a path to double in 2013. The…
As I argued in a recent TV Technology article, "It's inescapable that today's video consumer expects cross-platform access to content. If that's where the audience and advertisers are, then broadcasters need to be there, as well. What broadcasters need to…
Another bank has telegraphed its strategy in the offers and loyalty space. JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s second largest bank after Bank of America, announced today that it had purchased Bloomspot. The acquisition follows MasterCard’s recent purchase of TruAxis and…
What is "native advertising"? A Google search returns 109 thousand hits for a term that is just over a year old. Some credit Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson with coining the term in September 2011. Wilson argued at the time…
