BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE conference
In the age of big data, customer insights are increasingly applied to optimize selling and boost retention. At BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE, Matrix Solutions CEO Mark Gorman demonstrated how he's applying these principles. The outcome: A Matrix partner used a more informed data position…
Traditional digital advertising models no longer work for SMBs, according to GotU's Amedeo Guffanti. New standards in the local advertising landscape require more tangibile results. Guffanti recently demonstrated these principles at BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE through the lens of a social ad case…
Which is easier, transforming a legacy media company or turning a battleship around in a canal? That may sound dramatic, but the struggle is real. The Local Media Association (LMA) organized a mini workshop at BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE to tackle this question and…
Your product pitch may sound great to colleagues, partners, investors and others who speak the language of local commerce. But how well does it resonate with a real life SMBs? We posed this challenge to a handful of local startups…
Yellow Pages Limited CEO Julien Billot has transformed Canada’s leading directory publisher into a digital media and marketing powerhouse. He has it on a path to restoring customer and revenue growth. That's all a lot harder than it sounds. Key to…
Given the rapid growth of mobile "near me" searches, Shoe Carnival wants to convert local searchers into shoppers. But this seemingly obvious opportunity is mired in execution challenges. It's not just about contextualized and location-targeted content, it's about clean and accurate location…
Digital agencies fill an important gap: high touch digital marketing for local businesses. That also makes them notable competitors to large local media sellers like newspapers, broadcasters and directory publishers. Agencies also come in many forms, including product and vertical-focused shops. This…
There's lots of talk about attribution these days, especially attributing offline sales (most U.S. commerce) to online/mobile engagement. This is where the challenge points come in...connecting atoms to bits. Nowhere is this embodied more than xAd's recent Pandora Jewelry campaign to…
Denny’s has suffered from a "good problem to have": too much familiarity among consumers. Many know the brand but hadn’t ordered a Grand Slam Breakfast in years. And many millennials aren't engaged at all. This was a challenge that Yext tackled…
Local business management software company Booker has made an art out of driving leads through content marketing. It's all about attracting new business that does't churn or drive up the cost of acquisition. The company's Marketing VP and content marketing specialist Jim…
In the multi-screen world we live in, how do you drive and attribute local business leads effectively? This was the topic of a session at BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE, focused on the B2B lead generation process. Representing steps of this process -- from…
What was the most important acquisition in the local media sector this year? Will Uber be around in 3 years? and who played the best Batman? These were a few of the topics batted around during an analyst lightning round…
Effective local advertising is an elusive animal as we know. The animal that OwnLocal co-founder Jeremy Mims pegs is a cartoon Road Runner -- and its nemesis Coyote's comically unsuccessful attempts to snare it. We've all seen it. And much like Wile E. Coyote,…
At BIA/Kelsey's recent Engage conference, Gatehouse Media's Peter Newton shared a detailed look at how Gatehouse's digital agency wing Propel Marketing is expanding its scope and relevance for its SMB customers. Today, Propel is moving well beyond media into events, finance and…
It may sound obvious but most local media companies don't do it: "Have the local business owner's interests at heart," says Jef Biesman. As VP of Customer Marketing and Acquisition at YP, he has perhaps more perspective than anyone in local…
The oldest millennials are 36. In addition to making me feel old, that means that millennials now wholly occupy the coveted 18 - 34 consumer demographic. Among other things that makes them a core consideration for all marketers. In localized…
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. This was the topic of a panel at the recent BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE (video below).…
A couple weeks ago, at BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE, I made the comment that the local on-demand industry has achieved "peak-Uber," when the company seems inevitable and unbeatable but will be hard-pressed to continue to raise capital at the break-neck pace it…
When John Allan took the helm at Sensis in 2012, he inherited a print-focused, sales-driven directory organization that still rewarded its top sales performers with an annual international reward trip that cost the company millions of dollars, even in years…
Conversational commerce is the rage. And most tech giants are jumping on board, as seen at Microsoft Build, Facebook F8, and Google I/O. We also tackled the topic -- zeroing in on its many local implications -- at BIA/Kelsey ENGAGE (video below). As background, messaging…
