Mobile Mapping Wars Reach a New Phase
There's been lots of talk about Apple's mapping swicheroo, and how its new app is so far is a big #fail. The emphasis there is on so far, as the company has responded by emphasizing the cloud based nature of…
It’s All Local: Why Apple Has to Get Maps Right
As the New York Times noted this morning, Apple’s initial iOS6 foray into mobile maps has been greeted with a thumbs down by iPhone 5 reviewers, who prefer the polished Google Maps experience that was the prior default. But maps…
SMB Digital 2012: SMBs’ Mobile Needs Vary Widely
The "Making Sense of Mobile Advertising for SMBs" panel at SMB Digital Marketing 2012 was aptly named, as the mobile needs of small businesses vary widely by category and level of sophistication, among other dynamics. Dick Larkin (VP, American Marketing…
SMB Digital 2012: Performance Marketing
Pay for Performance is the Holy Grail in SMB advertising. SMBs only want to pay for leads that their advertising programs deliver. But moving SMBs from inclusion to performance has never been easy. Recent progress in lead quality assessment has…
SMB Digital 2012: Making Social Work For SMBs
To kick off the afternoon of Day 2 of SMB Digital Marketing, a duo of social media experts explicated the fluid dynamics of delivering social media to SMBs. Mike Nabasny, Director of Midwest Sales, Wildfire Pamela Springer, CEO, Manta Moderator…
SMB Digital 2012: DexOne’s Checklist for Transforming a Sales Force
Kicking off Day 2 of our SMB Digital Marketing Conference, DexOne's EVP of Sales & Marketing Richard Hanna offered insights into the changing realities of selling advertising to SMBs. This is particularly timely in the immediate wake of his company's…
SMB Digital 2012: Reach Local on The Virtues of “Product-First”
ReachLocal President Nathan Hanks kicked off BIA/Kelsey's SMB Digital Marketing festivities with a stirring keynote about what's working and not working in local media. But to tell this story requires going past the boundaries of local media. There are learnings…
YP: 1-2 Miles is the ‘Sweet Spot’ for Mobile Display Targeting
We're all in conference prep mode and looking forward to a robust SMB Digital conference starting Monday in Chicago. We hope to see you there. In the meantime, though there isn't time to disect it meaningfully, I'd like to point…
iPhone5: The Local Angle, and Specs Galore
As widely expected, we have a new iPhone. Unlike the naming convention across Apple's product line (most lately the iPad), the company is sticking with the numerical-based system. So we now have an iPhone 5. Also widely expected in the…
Gannett Gets into Mobile Loyalty Space Via Key Ring
In the loyalty space, we're closely watching how major tech players are vertically integrating loyalty offerings into their SMB product suite. Google, Facebook and Amazon each have acquired loyalty startups and will likely make them part of their SMB suite.…
Telmetrics and xAd Release Second Wave of “Path to Purchase” Study
Last month, Telmetrics and xAd released a Nielsen-administered study that covered a wide range of mobile local usage data (see our interview with Telmetrics' Bill Dinan). As advertised, today they follow that up with the first of three category-level breakdowns…
More on Big Data and Local
The discussion continues on the implementation of big data to improve mobile local content delivery. This is something we continue to cover and will be an important part of the mobile local monetization picture. See below for the latest; my…
This Week in Mobile Milestones: Willow Tree and Mofuse
One of the biggest areas of mobile growth will be to help businesses establish, optimize and host a mobile presence. That includes both websites and apps, and is pronounced by the low penetration of optimized mobile sites, compared to ramping…
Trulia’s S1: Strong Focus on Monthly Fees, Mobile Monetization
Trulia, which provides real estate Web and mobile leads, display advertising and real estate-oriented social media services, has followed in the footsteps of its rival, Zillow, and issued an S1 in preparation for going public and raising $75 Million. Zillow's…
Big Data, Meet Local
Local advertising continues to get smarter as data sets are unlocked to provide more context around places and their interconnectedness. This goes into hyperdrive as smartphone penetration turns the corner on 50 percent of mobile users -- more signals and…
SpotOn: Loyalty Site Argues Against Card Links
A major feature of the current crop of loyalty and rewards programs is that they link to credit card or debit card accounts. This gives them the ability to process transactions and provide deeper analytics. But a number of players…
Mobile Local Data Galore: A Conversation with Telmetrics
Last week, xAd and Telmetrics released new data from a report administered by Nielsen that measures mobile local user behavior. Earlier today, we had the chance to catch up with TelmetricsCEO Bill Dinan to get some more color on the…
What Square/Starbucks Deal Really Means
As you've probably heard, earlier this week Starbucks knighted Square as the core payment processing engine at its 7,000 U.S. locations. Now a few days later, its time to clear some things up and talk about the finer points: boosted…
When Will Yelp Monetize Mobile?
Earlier this week, Yelp announced its Q2 earnings. One of the most notable moments of the earnings call was CEO Jeremy Stoppelman's assertion that mobile monetization is finally coming. This is something we've been looking at for some time, because…
The Morning After…What We Really Learned from Facebook’s Earnings Call
Facebook investor and press events have become spectacles unto themselves, where distilling signal from noise is a tricky task. But that's what we'll flesh out here in the aftermath of the company's first earnings call post-IPO...a call that featured an…