Top insights into franchise marketing were provided today at SMB Digital Marketing, courtesy of Hunter Rose, owner of three Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores, and longtime local executive and consultant Robyn Rose. Hunter Rose, a former Gartner analyst, is also…
A central theme emerged this morning at SMB Digital Marketing. It began in the Focus on Profits session, where former BIA/Kelsey analyst and current Yellowbot CEO Matt Booth declared, "In ten years, this conference will be all about software and…
Transaction marketing leads to a new level of revenue and engagement, according to LevelUp CEO Seth Priebatsch, who keynoted today at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing Priebatsch has based LevelUp's success on driving more loyalty transactions, using lower Interchange…
Today at SMB Digital Marketing, BIA/Kelsey Entrepreneur in Residence Warren Kay led a panel of heavy hitters to bat around operational and financial strategies for local media companies and early stage startups. Matt Booth, CEO, YellowBot Mike Dodd, Partner, Austin…
As I mentioned last week while writing about PayPal's new app updates, we just published a big report on the state of the union of mobile shopping and payments. This is of course an exploding area with lots of interest…
Can the state of mobile advertising be indicated by the stock price of some of the industry's leaders? Google and Facebook -- the top two market share leaders -- have faced some investor unease due to users flocking to a…
Let's just concede that Silicon Valley is the biggest hub for Web activity, and that it has some real advantages over other locales in terms of engineering and programming talent, fundraising and industry attention. But Silicon Valley's tech-centric view --which…
BIA/Kelsey released a report yesterday on mobile shopping and payments (more on that in a separate post). It's choc full of analysis and case studies of the emerging standards that are competing for user and merchant attention in these early…
The $1.8 billion of leisure/recreation advertising on Out-of-Home media was its largest vertical, representing 25% of total Out-of-Home advertising in 2012, according to BIA/Kelsey's Media Ad View Plus. The Finance/Insurance vertical was the second highest, with 10% of total Out-of-Home…
We're just two weeks from our SMB Digital Marketing Conference. That means we're gearing up to hear top notch speakers from Google, Facebook, Twitter Yelp and lots of other companies innovating and disrupting the world of SMB local marketing. I'm…
We've been looking at Austin's vibrant tech scene as we prep for Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing. There is a lot going on in the "weird" city, with many companies having local tech outposts there (SignPost, Radius, Vast.com, Hoovers,…
There's been lots of speculation around Apple's moves into local search and advertising over the past year. This has accelerated in the past 30 days with the acquisition of three different local mapping-related companies (and a failed Waze acquisition). We've…
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Ryan Roch who is a member of the partner team at Bigcommerce. This firm just made headlines recently by raising an additional $40m in venture capital. Bigcommerce has its headquarters in Sydney…
According to BIA/Kelsey's Media Ad View Plus, radio garnered nearly $14.7 billion in advertising revenue in 2012, representing over 11% of total advertising spend, placing it in fourth place behind direct mail, newspaper and television. Unlike other media, radio advertising…
We've always had "marketing" as a unique silo for SMBs. Now, a number of companies are looking at a bigger, more integrated picture that includes marketing and operations. It is Quikbook meet Amex meet Groupon. The idea is once you…
I was reading an article from Roy Greenslade, a former journalist from Ireland, about the woes of the newspaper industry in that country and couldn't help but think of the challenges local media faces here in the US. I wrote…
Yesterday at the Borrell, LSA, LMA Social + Mobile event at a Chicago airport hotel, Google executives made the case for Google+ as the centerpiece of an effective SMB digital presence before a roomful of current and potential resellers. The…
Despite the well documented declines in newspaper circulation, advertising on newspaper was $22.5 billion in 2012, representing 17.1% of total advertising spend in the U.S. and second only to direct mail, according to BIA/Kelsey's Media Ad View Plus. In a…
Our Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing event in Austin Sept. 11-13 keeps building and building. We’re expecting hundreds of real and honorary Texans, and overall, an inspiring event that should help define the next wave of SMB growth. In…
Groupon has been pushing hard to upgrade its merchant base from one-time partners to permanent clients with monthly sales goals. The latest initiative? A “Partner Network” for publishers willing to highlight Groupon deals in return for a piece of the…
