During a late morning panel on Day 2 of ILM West, local video providers batted around the opportunity in bringing video advertising to the "other 99 percent" of small merchants. "We know it's evolving," said moderator Steve Passwaiter of this…
In the midst of ILM West happenings, call measurement ad provider Telmetrics announced today that it's bringing its m.Call platform to iOS. M.Call gives local search publishers and app developers the ability to capture data around the phone calls they're…
The emergence of deals has reinvigorated local merchant promotions, but traditional promotions leaders think they can absorb some of the best parts of deals as part of their “offer cloud” while strengthening their existing direct marketing businesses, according to panelists…
Dex One Chief Strategy Officer David Sharman shared with us today some of the key challenges the longtime traditional directory publisher is facing as it evolves its business into the digital world. The primary challenge that he sees in the…
Search engine marketers are no longer selling calls to merchants but conversion. Prior discussions among industry insiders focused on calls, but according to a Manta survey, 49 percent of merchants named referrals as the most valuable lead source. This was…
Two compelling speakers made the case this afternoon at ILM West that newspaper companies can successfully transform into digital media businesses. One problem is that most newspaper companies are not willing to make the tough decisions necessary for this transition.…
Day 1 at ILM West came to a close with a session on how SMBs are using Facebook and social media. This most notably culminated with "3 big ideas" for driving social commerce, from Oodle CEO Craig Donato. These are derived from…
Venture capital leaders at ILM West in San Francisco today expressed optimism about the environment but said there are some challenges coming up. “It is a great time to start a company and fund a company,” said Michael Yang of…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's ILM West conference, prolific Wall Street Journal tech blogger Kara Swisher acknowledged many of the challenges for local media, but was quick to point out that none of these is new. Some of the sleeping giants moving…
137 billion. That's how big the local media market is. Steve Marshall and Matt Booth highlighted findings from "Wave XV" of BIA Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor during this morning's session, "New Directions for Interactive Local Commerce." Not surprisingly, there is…
In the run-up to any given BIA/Kelsey conference, I'm continually asked about the makeup of our typical audience. This is a good question from both attendees and speakers trying to devise the proper tone for their presentations or prepared panel…
How many small businesses have done a deal at this point? Twelve percent, according to a new survey of 2,500 SMBs by MerchantCircle. That’s about a third higher than MerchantCircle’s June survey. The survey also found a lot of Facebook…
There's a growing crop of mobile ad networks specializing in local ad inventory and location-based ad placements. This is a subcategory of larger, more broadly defined ad networks like AdMob and Millennial. The idea is that this targeting provides better…
The Toronto-based call measurement firm Telmetrics today announced a major expansion of its business into Europe, launching its solution in 10 markets. The launch follows a six-month beta test in which Telmetrics proved out the value of its service for…
Companies are beginning to focus on loyalty programs for existing customers, rather than simply using deal a day to acquire new customers. Closely and WildFire App are both pursuing loyalty programs. A loyalty start-up we like is Punchcard, which launches…
Seems every year is a year of transformation in the global Yellow Pages industry. This year is no different, with more leadership changes, financial turmoil, and a much more aggressive push into new strategies and new products. There is a…
The idea of an online marketplace has continued to evolve dramatically in 2011. With the emergence of deals, we now have full-fledged interactive local commerce in place, in addition to advertising. It seems that everyone has jumped into the pool.…
One of our big complaints against hyperlocal sites is they haven’t really invested in the commercial lifeblood of their community. They’re more like the (almost totally irrelevant) equivalent of a public access cable TV channel. That’s why we like the…
As we do every year across BIA/Kelsey's coverage areas, our analysts put their heads together in cross-disciplinary fashion to handicap the 2012 local media space. It's a solid exercise and great preparation for our ILM West conference less than two…
Amazon’s a sleeper bet to really shake up local commerce. But what does that look like? For sure, we see the pieces being assembled…the focus on Amazon Stores, the $175 million LivingSocial investment, the Kindle Fire rollout, the expansion of…