The tech media and blogosphere have a love/hate relationship with beacons. They have become a shining example (excuse the pun) of local's holy grail to "close the loop" in the consumer journey. They pick up where GPS leaves off, in…
Wrapping up National Small Business Week, the Local Search Association (LSA) published a great infographic that compiles research on the state of small business marketing. LSA's infographic reports 71 percent of SMBs manage their digital marketing internally and they use 7.8 marketing channels.…
The Brand-to-local playbook is constantly changing in a multi-screen and millennial-impacted world. This was one of the underlying themes at the recent BIA/Kelsey BRANDS. One of those screens continues to be television. In fact, it's not just one screen: TV itself…
When it comes to online advertising, Google is on top... at least in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market. Google was the top biller in Dallas-Ft. Worth in 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey’s new Local Competition Report on the Dallas-Ft. Worth television market. According to BIA/Kelsey,…
It doesn't get much more "local" than all of the devices that surround us and sit in our pockets. And the continued march of Moore's Law means that more and more items will be connected. This is the promise of the…
New businesses* are heavy users of free or (relatively) low cost advertising, according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey of SMBs. While most of the small- and medium-sized businesses in the survey report using a Facebook page and website for advertising and…
Sales transformation is all about people, process and product. That's according to BIA/Kelsey sales transformation guru Stacey Sedbrook. As discussed last week, people is a big one and sometimes requires hard decisions. But product is also critical. "Product is really the issue…
Martech's unofficial but authoritative chief evangelist, Scott Brinker, just released Hacking Marketing, a book that essentially provides a recipe for adapting software's agile philosophy and methodology to marketing problems. And since marketing is now dominantly a software and data problem, this…
Transforming ad sales from legacy media to digital aint easy. This can be seen in the relatively low success rate among media companies that sell both (i.e. newspaper). Meanwhile the debate rages on: separate or combine digital and traditional ad sales…
Nielsen's latest Watch Report on the media touch points of digital shoppers found live TV, specifically local news and broadcast, continues to be an effective medium to reach digital auto shoppers. According to Nielsen, consumers' decisions like shopping for a…
Virtual reality is assumed to be a gaming technology and most people expect it to be proven first with game enthusiasts. But the real economic opportunity for VR lies in the enterprise and local engagement with customers, who will be…
The Brand-to-local playbook is constantly changing in a multi-screen and millennial-impacted world. This was one of the underlying themes at the recent BIA/Kelsey BRANDS. But what about the "monday morning" action items to begin to implement right away? Consumer data collection,…
In our Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) Wave 19 survey of small businesses, when we look at small businesses who use direct mail, almost 60% pay a third party to manage their digital advertising. 30% of these small businesses say they…
Sinclair Broadcast Group and USIM successfully completed an initiative to compete for network television ad dollars in favor of more effective spending in local television. The initiative comprised a three market buy comparing measurement services and methodologies to help evaluate campaign impact relative…
Most display ads on desktop and mobile are now bought programmatically. And the practice is extending into other ad mediums like local television. With this backdrop, BIA/Kelsey ran a workshop at the recent Programmatic I/O and the session video is available. As BIA/Kelsey managing director…
John Allan was brought on to reform the Australian directory company Sensis into a business that could survive in a future that demands nimbleness and efficiency across the enterprise but particularly in the sales organization. Directory sales organizations were always seen as a great asset. Countless solutions providers…
As discussed at December's BIA/Kelsey NEXT, millennials are what's really next. Suddenly, they* fully occupy the coveted and buying-empowered 18-34 demographic. This makes their behavior and proclivities a core design principle for marketers everywhere. But with this generation's rise has come…
Jeff Biesman knows it sounds cliche, but local companies still don't do it: "Have the local business owner's interests at heart." As VP of Customer Marketing and Acquisition at YP, he has perhaps more perspective than anyone in local about selling…
Google was the top biller in Boston in 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey’s new Local Competition Report on the Boston television market, with nearly $238 million in local advertising revenue* - more than double its nearest competitor, Hearst Television, in 2nd place…
Last week's AdExchanger's Programmatic I/O conference drew an unexpectedly large audience of about 900 publishers, brands, agencies, adtech and other industry executives to focus on all things programmatic. Programmatic's main innovations are data-driven advertising and automated workflow in public and private exchanges…