We've been tracking the transition of automotive marketing to digital for ten years or more, but have just recently seen major pickup at local dealers. There has been a definite lag at the dealer level compared to the car manufacturers.…
When a new leader is announced for the giant oceanliners in technology, we tend to sift through the tea leaves to see what kind of insights, perspective and focus they will bring via SMBs and local. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, for…
When a new leader is announced for the giant oceanliners in technology, we tend to sift through the tea leaves to see what kind of insights, perspective and focus they will bring via SMBs and local. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, for…
SMBs that use video advertising have bigger ad budgets, tend to be early adopters in their use of digital compared to their counterparts and are savvier in how they leverage data and analytics to engage and interact with their customers.…
We have all gotten used to looking at our phones and seeing several notifications on our home screens. From text messages, to emails, to sports updates, we are able to receive notifications for almost anything. More than ever, local businesses…
A few things that characterize mobile payments are early stage experimentation and standards battles. That's to be expected in any embryonic sector. There's NFC, mobile card readers, POS hardware that scans the barcode on your screen (a la Starbucks), to…
This week, mobile location ad platform xAd put out yet another proof point of the legitimacy and growth of the mobile local opportunity -- and of course, their part in it. The company announced it more than doubled revenue in…
Is Apple getting into the mobile payments space? I don't mean for digital goods, such as songs and other virtual goods, which it already sells on mobile devices through iTunes, but rather for physical goods in the offline world. CEO…
On yesterday's Facebook Q4 earnings call, COO Sheryl Sandberg reiterated a point she's made repeatedly, "SMBs are the holy grail of online advertising and a segment that I've been particularly focused on throughout my career." She then noted that Facebook…
This year will be the beginning of the end for printed Yellow Pages and the end of the beginning for native advertising. This reflects just two of the "Analyst Picks & Predictions" that BIA/Kelsey published this week. Other 2014 analyst…
Like we do every January, BIA/Kelsey analysts huddle to formulate predictions for the coming year in respective areas of domain expertise. Earlier today, we released a report that highlights picks across local media coverage areas, and Thursday we'll do a…
This year is the year of many things. The year of attribution. The year of native advertising. The year that term "SMB" loses its meaning. The year that marks the tipping point in digital transformation. It's going to be a…
Square's million share tender offer values the company at a whopping $5 billion and illustrates just how hot the mobile payments space has become. BIA/Kelsey's survey data certainly captures this momentum, showing that both consumers and small-businesses are embracing mobile…
One of the hottest topics in tech & media is the quickly evolving state of mobile advertising. Meanwhile, some of mobile's early promises include high intent users, and more trackable advertising. The latter is where things are really getting interesting.…
Innovation is a buzz word high on the radar of every technology company, and that includes those in the local online ecosystem. Constant Contact has a dedicated 15-member team working to foster innovation internally and is now expanding its initiative…
Call Based Marketing Automation provider Invoca announced today that it received $20 million in Series C funding led by Accel Partners. Following a recent rebranding (formerly RingRevenue), Invoca will use the funding to scale operations and tackle the enterprise opportunity,…
As briefly mentioned earlier today, voice based marketing automation provider Ifbyphone has secured a $9 million series D funding round. It was led by River Cities Capital, and it brings Ifbyphone's total funding to date to $30 million. This is…
What does a newspaper company do when it loses its affiliation with a major vertical brand? That was the question for The San Jose Mercury News and some of the other Digital First Media papers on New Years Day, when…
Local search and advertising company,YP, has announced that it has acquired Sense Networks, a mobile ad company. Sense Networks was founded in 2003 and has evolved into a data aggregator and mobile ad targeting platform. It offers real-time bidding and inventory via mobile…
I'm working on a big white paper and forecast on call based monetization -- an update to the report we released last year. Phone calls as a lead source are getting more attention in the age of smart phones, and…
