With destination sites, white-label providers and aggregators all crowding into the deal-a-day space, the struggle to differentiate and scale is complex. DealOn, which operates its own group buying sites in 16 markets and also offers white-label branding, thinks it has…
Last month I had lunch with Infogroup's Pankaj Mathur to discuss a range of topics in mobile and local media. One thing we discussed was a new Twitter partnership that was then under wraps. Today the wrapping was taken off.…
Carter Maslan, Google product director for local search, took the stage during last week's ILM:10 conference to track and extrapolate the advancement of online local media. The aha moment for Maslan was when he was at Microsoft and his friend…
One of the challenges presented by online video in the directory space is that the video content is often buried inside the IYP listing. This has always seemed like a suboptimal way to present valuable content in a format that…
To date, most location-specific advertising requires in-store check-ins to unlock discounts and special offers. Naturally, that necessitates having a storefront that lends itself to walk-in -- and check-in -- traffic. Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and others have garnered first-mover hype with these…
Our ILM:10 conference probably hit something of “a perfect storm” for the 681 senior level execs and entrepreneurs in attendance. While we’ve been cheerleading the local opportunity since the mid-1990s, the big money has now really focused on the local…
Local and vertical content is eagerly sought by national players, from The New York Times to Yahoo, MSN/Bing to AOL. Now, Thompson Reuters is leading the local, vertical charge for wire services. In an aggressive push to lure traditional U.S. media…
During the 72-hour whirlwind that was ILM:10, several other announcements also came down the pike. Among them: - Group buying giant Groupon continues its flurry of partnerships. The Chicago-based deal a day inked separate deals with the Chicago Tribune Media Group and…
In the context of Google’s reported $6 billion acquisition offer to Groupon, questions were raised at ILM:10 about the true potential of deal a day beyond its current two or three daily deals and banner ad e-mails. For Nimble Commerce…
In the wake of Groupon's rejection of Google's reported $6 billion offer, Groupon VP of Business Development Sean Smyth told ILM:10 attendees that one positive aspect of the news coverage was the incredible exposure Groupon received. “We had 3 million…
Facebook sees strong potential in local advertising and will develop an aggressive local strategy, according to Facebook Local Leader Emily White, a Day 3 keynoter at ILM:10. White, who left Google four months ago, said businesses are always being told…
The ILM:10 conference in Santa Clara ended with what is arguably the most important topic of the conference. How can businesses take all of the incredible users experiences emerging in local and social media and convert them into SMB sales?…
Here are some other key announcements made in conjunction with ILM:10. On the eve of ILM, Telmetrics issued a release detailing its forecast for local search trends in 2011, which include the prediction that SEM churn rates will improve next…
While 2010 has been lauded as "the year of local," it has also seen an influx of interest and spending by national brands to drive neighborhood-level store traffic. These initiatives have taken diverse (and sometimes highly publicized) forms: Gap's deal-a-day offer…
So why do people check in? Is it, as Gowalla's Andy Ellwood jokingly suggested, because "I am in my 20s and you should just care where I am"? Or are the reasons more substantial? This afternoon's panel on location-based services…
Panelists on the Home and Trade Revolution panel this afternoon echoed the sentiments BIA/Kelsey CEO Neal Polachek expressed during his opening presentation yesterday about the importance of trust. Increasingly, this level of trust is achieved through the process of service…
Cox Target Media’s Valpak business is "better than ever, with free cash flow better than it has ever been,” according to COO Jim Sampey, who was keynoting the Deal-a-Day SuperForum at ILM:10 in Santa Clara. But the company, which puts…
Content farms and aggregators are a major part of the new, scalable local ecosystem. But the rules of the road are different for local content than for general content, according to executives speaking at ILM:10 in Santa Clara. MerchantCircle Local…
At ILM:10, Pandora's Cheryl Lucanegro (senior VP of ad sales) and Brian Mikalis (VP of performance sales) made it very clear where the popular Internet radio service is headed next -- to your car dashboard. The company is leveraging two…
The Internet, and now mobile, has long been an excellent way to present the proverbial "hyperlocal" news content, those stories that are just too parochial to make the local news broadcast or the pages of the local metro daily. Finding…
