In keeping with tradition, BIA/Kelsey released its annual "Picks and Predictions" report this week, offering a collective view on the events that will drive the 2013 agenda in our local media coverage areas -- directional, interactive, mobile, social, vertical and video.…
I recently contributed a column to Business Insider that has lots of overlap with this blog. So in the spirit of cross-pollination, an excerpt is below and you can read the whole thing here. The gist is Apple's directions in…
The French search and directories firm PagesJaunes has expanded its presence in the dining vertical by acquiring Chronoresto, a site that allows consumers to order takeout food online. The acquisition follows the company's strategy of building deep content and transaction capability in…
Today we release a report that brings together months of coverage in mobile local advertising. One important trend we've seen is how national advertisers are evolving into "native" thinking in mobile. Among the ways that's materializing, localized ad campaigns are…
During the third and final day of our ILM West Conference, Facebook director of global SMB markets Dan Levy introduced a full slate of new data. In addition to hard numbers, the standard Facebook messaging came through: Its Pages (and…
BIA/Kelsey's Matt Booth invited two exceptionally frank local advertising buyers to dish the dirt on what makes them sign the contract and what makes them ask a local media sales person to leave their office --- immediately. No words were…
BIA/Kelsey Research Director Steve Marshall capped Day 2 with consecutive interviews with two Digital Hollywood insiders. Doug Neil, SVP digital marketing for Universal Pictures; and Jordan Glazer, CEO Eventful. First up was Neil, who runs online and mobile strategies for…
Online retail has become more robust and predominate over the past year. Some of the underlying trends and drivers were examined this morning on the panel, "Search for it! Local Online Retail Innovation. One of the most compelling recent developments…
To kick off Day 2 of our ILM West Conference, CityGrid's Jason Finger espoused the need to verticalize in local. This comes down to the fact that local is not only such a large and fragmented market that begs for…
To kick off the afternoon of Day 2 of our ILM West Conference, YP CEO David Krantz outlined the company's post spin-off positioning and outlook. For those unfamiliar, YP was spun out of AT&T via private equity (Cerberus Capital), and…
This morning at ILM West in Los Angeles, Google's head of Global SMB Sales Todd Rowe offered "Five Trends that Will Affect you in 2013." Rowe is leading the charge at Google to build a global re-seller network to offer…
To round out the afternoon of Day 1 of our ILM West Conference, a heavy hitter roster of local media veterans defined the current state of local media ad sales. The short answer: We're in the midst of lots of…
x Today at ILM West in Los Angeles, digital media investor and ex-Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty talked to his former Citysearch colleague Matt Booth about what gets an investo/VC excited in today's environment. Moriarty offered some fundamentals. As an investor,…
Today we release the first in a series of local forecasts across BIA/Kelsey's local media coverage areas. The first out of the gate is mobile, a sector whose collision with local continues to receive lots of innovation and investment. Here…
For many of us, the Marchex story has been a difficult one to understand. But now the fog is lifting. Today, Marchex announced it is pursuing a split into two companies. The move spins off the company's domains and clicksbusiness…
On today's Q3 earnings call, DexOne CEO Alfred Mockett made it clear that bundles are central to Dex's hopes of arresting its revenue declines. The company grew its digital bookings by 26 percent in Q3 and expects to end 2012…
One clearly emerging theme from our mobile local coverage is the collision of Big Data and local. Every week I get in more conversations with startups working to improve location data or mobile device signals to target ads. Much of…
We expected the recent court ruling on the Seattle opt out ordinance to have an impact beyond its immediate scope. And now it has. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu introduced an ordinance Tuesday that would suspend the…
I've spent some time over the past month talking with Cambridge MA based ByteLight in advance of its launch and $1.25 million funding announcement this week. The company has a novel advancement in the indoor positioning space we've been covering. As…
Last week, I had a long-overdue conversation with Placed CEO David Shim, in advance of the company's Placed Panels launch yesterday (more on that in a bit). This is part of our ongoing dialogues with companies in the emerging location…