UBL will provide stock and cash in consideration of the merger. While both companies initially keep their own identities, they intend to work towards an integration of operations and a single brand. Both companies earned approximately $8 million apiece in 2014. Charlotte-based UBL has 38 employees while Advice Interactive has 85 employees in Dallas and Newport Beach.

Billed as a “combination of equals,” UBL CEO Doyal Bryant will be the new entity’s CEO, while Advice CEO Bernadette Coleman will run marketing, tech and operations. Bryant notes that the deal allows UBL to focus on a growing global market in syndicated business profiles; an area that has gone beyond search engines to also include mobile apps, GPS search and online maps, video platforms, marketing platforms and social networks. UBL currently has operations in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and says it will soon add four more countries.

Advice, meanwhile, is set to leverage UBL’s listings/video and mobile-rich database, and provide a one stop for a wide range of activities for its business and enterprise customers. These include local search, PPC & SEM, reputation management, SEO, Web design, content marketing and social media. The majority of Advice’s customers come from local channel partners; its strength and technology platform are expected to enhance UBL’s current efforts in the space, which are not a main emphasis.

The merger gives Advice “a major edge over everyone in the (SEO) space,” says Coleman. As marketing moves to hyperlocal capabilities, it isn’t just about search anymore, she emphasizes. “Clients need to have data syndication; optimized profiles; and customized linking and meta data — all in one place.”

Advice Interactive Group CEO Bernadette Coleman is speaking at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, which takes place March 25-27 in Dallas.

The post UBL, Advice Interactive Group Will Merge; SEO + Syndicated Listings appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

UBL will provide stock and cash in consideration of the merger. While both companies initially keep their own identities, they intend to work towards an integration of operations and a single brand. Both companies earned approximately $8 million apiece in 2014. Charlotte-based UBL has 38 employees while Advice Interactive has 85 employees in Dallas and Newport Beach.

Billed as a “combination of equals,” UBL CEO Doyal Bryant will be the new entity’s CEO, while Advice CEO Bernadette Coleman will run marketing, tech and operations. Bryant notes that the deal allows UBL to focus on a growing global market in syndicated business profiles; an area that has gone beyond search engines to also include mobile apps, GPS search and online maps, video platforms, marketing platforms and social networks. UBL currently has operations in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and says it will soon add four more countries.

Advice, meanwhile, is set to leverage UBL’s listings/video and mobile-rich database, and provide a one stop for a wide range of activities for its business and enterprise customers. These include local search, PPC & SEM, reputation management, SEO, Web design, content marketing and social media. The majority of Advice’s customers come from local channel partners; its strength and technology platform are expected to enhance UBL’s current efforts in the space, which are not a main emphasis.

The merger gives Advice “a major edge over everyone in the (SEO) space,” says Coleman. As marketing moves to hyperlocal capabilities, it isn’t just about search anymore, she emphasizes. “Clients need to have data syndication; optimized profiles; and customized linking and meta data — all in one place.”

Advice Interactive Group CEO Bernadette Coleman is speaking at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, which takes place March 25-27 in Dallas.

The post UBL, Advice Interactive Group Will Merge; SEO + Syndicated Listings appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In the mobile era, listings are increasingly useless without context. Businesses need to be found via LAT/Long; and they need to shape their business identity using all the tools at their disposal. In recent years, it has gotten even more complex with the addition of social media, content marketing and other channels.

No one has emphasized these realities more than UBL CEO Doyal Bryant. Hence UBL’s newly announced global partnership with MomentFeed, a provider of a digital marketing platform that connects brands and consumers at the local level for top brands ranging from 7-Eleven and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to JCPenney and The Home Depot.

Together, UBL and MomentFeed are seeking to establish a new mobile social anchor for business search and discovery. Besides the Enterprise customers both companies are working together on, they will be working with UBL’s SMB channels to integrate social media with its presence and profile management.

BIA/Kelsey talked this week with UBL CEO Doyal Bryant and MomentFeed CEO Robert Blatt to get their perspective on why this partnership will be compelling.

“When we began (several years ago), it was all about the website,” said Bryant, who noted he has already sent “thousands” of customers to MomentFeed. “You built a profile and focused on being found and having it all sync correctly. But it’s changed due to what is happening with social media and fragmentation.” The change has become “core to the business,” he said.

MomentFeed’s Blatt seconded the thought. “It is amazing how much we have moved from the search paradigm of 18-24 months ago,” noted Blatt. “Now search has moved to mobile devices. It has moved off the browser onto the App.”

“Your top priority is suddenly claiming your Google Plus page, and making sure the Facebook Local Page is running, and that there is a place page for each location on your website,” said Blatt. “And that there is accurate and engaging content and interaction for all three places between suppliers and retailers at both the national and local level. That’s the future of digital shop and marketing.”

Blatt feels that MomentFeed’s partnership with UBL allows businesses to get the best of both worlds. They can help businesses “do the job” on Facebook, Google, Foursquare, Instagram, Twitter, Yelp (and soon, Bing), as well as the multitude of listing networks that are often vertical market specific, such as restaurants and travel.

Looking forward, the focus will be on the engagement piece. MomentFeed has taken a lead in turning Instagram into media, for instance. “We let businesses do it, curate it, and then send a follow-up letter,” he said.

Tracking business results via analytics will also be key. It all leads to a linkage between marketing activity and business results, said Blatt. The company will correlate the marketing activity around a location with the revenue and foot traffic at that location.

The post UBL, MomentFeed Partner to Leverage 'National Local' appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In the mobile era, listings are increasingly useless without context. Businesses need to be found via LAT/Long; and they need to shape their business identity using all the tools at their disposal. In recent years, it has gotten even more complex with the addition of social media, content marketing and other channels.

No one has emphasized these realities more than UBL CEO Doyal Bryant. Hence UBL’s newly announced global partnership with MomentFeed, a provider of a digital marketing platform that connects brands and consumers at the local level for top brands ranging from 7-Eleven and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to JCPenney and The Home Depot.

Together, UBL and MomentFeed are seeking to establish a new mobile social anchor for business search and discovery. Besides the Enterprise customers both companies are working together on, they will be working with UBL’s SMB channels to integrate social media with its presence and profile management.

BIA/Kelsey talked this week with UBL CEO Doyal Bryant and MomentFeed CEO Robert Blatt to get their perspective on why this partnership will be compelling.

“When we began (several years ago), it was all about the website,” said Bryant, who noted he has already sent “thousands” of customers to MomentFeed. “You built a profile and focused on being found and having it all sync correctly. But it’s changed due to what is happening with social media and fragmentation.” The change has become “core to the business,” he said.

MomentFeed’s Blatt seconded the thought. “It is amazing how much we have moved from the search paradigm of 18-24 months ago,” noted Blatt. “Now search has moved to mobile devices. It has moved off the browser onto the App.”

“Your top priority is suddenly claiming your Google Plus page, and making sure the Facebook Local Page is running, and that there is a place page for each location on your website,” said Blatt. “And that there is accurate and engaging content and interaction for all three places between suppliers and retailers at both the national and local level. That’s the future of digital shop and marketing.”

Blatt feels that MomentFeed’s partnership with UBL allows businesses to get the best of both worlds. They can help businesses “do the job” on Facebook, Google, Foursquare, Instagram, Twitter, Yelp (and soon, Bing), as well as the multitude of listing networks that are often vertical market specific, such as restaurants and travel.

Looking forward, the focus will be on the engagement piece. MomentFeed has taken a lead in turning Instagram into media, for instance. “We let businesses do it, curate it, and then send a follow-up letter,” he said.

Tracking business results via analytics will also be key. It all leads to a linkage between marketing activity and business results, said Blatt. The company will correlate the marketing activity around a location with the revenue and foot traffic at that location.

The post UBL, MomentFeed Partner to Leverage ‘National Local’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

UBL’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman, Doyal Bryant said “UBL’s partnership with MomentFeed represents a boon for brands worldwide and serves to support our Company’s objective of providing best-in-class local SEO solutions for our global customer base. By combining the power of Universal Business Listing’s expertise in listing syndication and claiming, along with our patent-pending ClaimCard? solution, with MomentFeed’s robust marketing platform and PinSync technology for setting accurate map points across local sites and mobile apps, we have created what we believe is a true game-changing paradigm for companies to effectively reach and engage customers where they work, live and play, however they may choose to connect.”

This partnership is beneficial to any brand (national and/or local) with multiple locations. This partnership is designed to assist brands that have a broad range of challenges across multiple networks and channels that they use to communicate with their consumers, whether it be social and/or mobile.

Robert Blatt, CEO of MomentFeed, said, “The partnership between UBL and MomentFeed will help SMBs manage the digital identity of their physical locations and make sure consumers can easily get the right information about these businesses across channels and ultimately get to the locations.”

To read more about the new partnership click here for the press release.

The post UBL's New Partnership with MomentFeed Offers Combined Local Solutions for SMBs appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

UBL’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman, Doyal Bryant said “UBL’s partnership with MomentFeed represents a boon for brands worldwide and serves to support our Company’s objective of providing best-in-class local SEO solutions for our global customer base. By combining the power of Universal Business Listing’s expertise in listing syndication and claiming, along with our patent-pending ClaimCard? solution, with MomentFeed’s robust marketing platform and PinSync technology for setting accurate map points across local sites and mobile apps, we have created what we believe is a true game-changing paradigm for companies to effectively reach and engage customers where they work, live and play, however they may choose to connect.”

This partnership is beneficial to any brand (national and/or local) with multiple locations. This partnership is designed to assist brands that have a broad range of challenges across multiple networks and channels that they use to communicate with their consumers, whether it be social and/or mobile.

Robert Blatt, CEO of MomentFeed, said, “The partnership between UBL and MomentFeed will help SMBs manage the digital identity of their physical locations and make sure consumers can easily get the right information about these businesses across channels and ultimately get to the locations.”

To read more about the new partnership click here for the press release.

The post UBL’s New Partnership with MomentFeed Offers Combined Local Solutions for SMBs appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Brands can work with sales-related promotional media that rely in part on feeds, such as ShopLocal; they can pay to rise the top of search ratings in Google Shopping; or they can support companies that track local inventory, such as eBay’s Milo.com, Retailigence and Wishpond.

How about simply highlighting them in retailer listings? UBL, which might be thought of as an enhanced listings company, is bent on matching brands with the retailers that carry them. It sees this effort as an extension of their coop support for local advertising. For example, a swimming pool owner may know what kind of chemicals he wants, but needs to know where the local pool supplies outlet is that carries them, suggests UBL President Chris Travers.

It applies to any search that is more brand dependent on brand names than SKUs. You don’t look up John Deere tractors based on the latest model number, suggests Travers. Similarly, a search for Carnival Cruise lines may be more relevant than a search for a local travel agent.

Coupons and other promotions-based media for brands also benefit: the brands are known, but the retailer is not. Consumers need to know where to pick up an item that they’ve printed out a coupon for.

UBL’s effort isn’t the first time that listing companies have sought to extend their lines of business. But the rise of social trends, mobile search and other channels may have made them more timely. “Business listings are more dynamic than they used to be,” notes Travers, citing innovators such as Constant Contact’s Single Platform. “Other data fields represent an opportunity as well.”

Travers suggests that the money may already be there to extend such efforts. Roughly $1.7 Billion of coop spending goes unspent, he says.

The post Will Brands Dig Into Listings to Target Locally? appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Universal Business Listing first launched as a “list once, be found everywhere” label to enable SMB listings to comprehensively populate the “fragmented Web.” However, with social media fueling an even more fragmented Web, UBL is now coupling listing enhancement with presence management — a move that puts it in competition with such players as Marchex, MerchantCircle, Yext Rep and ReachLocal (through its acquisition of SMB Live).

It is also expanding beyond the U.S., with operations set to begin in the U.K. and several other European countries. European operations will focus on “business ID management” — not just getting SMBs distributed and discovered, but also enhancing, monitoring and modifying their online storefronts.

Inner Balloons founder Robin Allenson has been recruited to serve as managing director of UBL Europe. He told BIA/Kelsey that moving into the U.K. and Europe represents a natural business extension because of the “awareness of the need” for similar products internationally that transcend simply being found and “encapsulate” the diffuse Web.

The European launch is under way in 10 markets in the U.K., with expansion into Germany and the Netherlands this year, followed by Austria, Switzerland and Belgium in 2011. Further U.K. market penetration will pivot on partnerships, as the majority of UBL’s business comes from white labeling platforms for SEO, CPC and other search providers to utilize for their SMBs. 

While some would believe that UBL competes with listings companies, Allenson insists they are valuable partners with existing advertiser relationships that can build off UBL’s platform to achieve wider distribution for their clients. 

Pricing ranges from 30 pounds ($46) per year for bulk purchase to 35 pounds ($54) for a smaller number of listings to 45 pounds ($69) for a la carte. Partners receive a one-two punch of services that begins with universal platform distribution and widens to presence management. 

UBL CEO Doyal Bryant emphasized that while there is pressing need for presence management, standard listing enhancement also requires more detail and texture than ever. SMB profiles now have numerous rich media and sharing capabilities, from video and photo uploads to blogging to social media connectivity. Mobile and GPS accuracy are also vital for listings to be discovered. Altogether, these features can improve SEO and empower online sellers to use pay-per-action (PPA) models for higher conversion.

The post UBL Ventures to Europe Touting ‘Business ID Management’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.