The old model of pay per leads that had driven the success of ServiceMagic and other home and trade oriented service companies is shifting as social media makes its impact.
Speaking at Leading in Local 2013 in Boston March 19, Home Advisor CEO Chris Terrill discussed how the company, formerly ServiceMagic, has taken social media …

Local search is taking lots of new directions, with unprecedented opportunities opening up for low budget SMBs, according to an all star panel of search experts at Leading in Local in Boston March 19.
Moderator Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide noted that If you are in the directory business, the goal is to …

The power of localized national marketing was explored in multiple ways during an all star session today at Leading in Local: The National Impact, a conference taking place in Boston March 18-20.
Speakers included Yodle CEO Court Cunningham, LivingSocial SVP Mitch Spolan, Cars.com VP Mike Page and Mobile Marketing Association CEO Greg Stuart. The session …

Directory assistance is going through major upgrades, as more companies seek the power of leads from pay per call advertising, while relying on new technologies, such as cloud based- and mobile services. One of these is Soleo, which provides local search for many U.S. and global telecom companies, and has …

Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot
At BIA/Kelsey, we always stress that innovation comes as much from understanding consumers as developing new product features. This is especially the case in Interactive Local Media, where many of the greatest successes — AutoTrader, Cars.com, Yelp, Craig’s List, Angie’s List, Groupon and Living Social — are owed to their consumer-centric, …

When they first launched in 2005, the independent sales channels were almost entirely about reselling search and YP ads. SMBs showed confusion over the value of these campaigns however, and it didn’t help that Google (and its lower margins) dominated the mix.
Since then, the independents have gone in somewhat different directions, as more players …

It was just a matter of “when,” but Groupon has finally relieved Andrew Mason of his CEO duties after a quarter in which Groupon widely missed its mark because of its very high expenses and serious international issues, despite growing 30 percent year over year. Vice Chair Ted Leonsis and Executive Chair Eric Lefkofsky …

Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki told the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting today in Phoenix that “we are a B2B business but we need to move as fast as consumers do.”
Choice, control, charm, connectedness and calibration are the 5 Cs of the next generation of advertising, said Wojcicki. “Users will participate if we provide enough …

Ad industry heavyweights at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Phoenix this week wrestled with the meaning of Big Data on advertising.
The industry’s fascination with Big Data was certainly fully on display. “Big Data is the new black,” joked IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg. But Rothenberg cautioned against the misapplication of Big Data, which could …

The shift to online and mobile is having very specific impacts on the physical world for the first time, and represents “the lowest competitive bar and the highest opportunity” in the 20 years since the Web became commercialized, according to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who spoke today at The IAB Annual Leadership …

BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: The National Impact event March 18-20 in Boston has gotten closer to a “final” lineup, with several great new adds to an already powerful, lineup consisting of 45, hand-picked speakers.
One of our big new “gets” is a Day 1 Keynote from Foursquare CRO Steven Rosenblatt. Foursquare has become one …

Living Social has won a lifeline from some of its existing investors today with a new infusion of $110 Million. The new cash lets the #2 deals company, which has been 31 percent owned by Amazon, proceed after sustaining very large, unsustainable losses. (It isn’t clear whether Amazon participated in the new raise).
The …

I had the fun of buying Amex’s $25 gift card for $15 the other day on Amex Sync, the new Amex Twitter Store. All I had to do was sync my Amex account to Amex’s Twitter Store page, joing the ranks of 621,000 + other people, and I was all set. The card was delivered …

BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming “Leading in Local: The National Impact” event March 18-20 in Boston keeps building and building. We’ve now crossed the 40 speaker threshold – and the lineup truly reflects the rapid shifts and progress we’ve been seeing in local, social, mobile, promotions, media and sales force transformation.
Key industry players such as as Vikram …

Red Beacon founder Ethan Anderson has unveiled his latest project, MyTime, a “scheduling supermarket” that sets dynamic pricing for unfilled appointments. Online scheduling intrigues us as a gateway towards promotions and transactions, but it remains underutilized by SMBs and the space is also highly fragmented.
The site launched today in Los Angeles …

The startup ethos is something that a lot of companies want to emulate: the constant drive and hustle, passion and ruthlessness of it all. We are many years from the first dot com explosion, but I still have a habit of checking corporate parking lots after dinner to see how many people …

Loyalty sales (including analytics) are typically associated with large brands such as Hilton and United Airlines. But a number of companies have been also trying to crack the code on SMBs, where the volume is.
This week, Edo Interactive announces it is doubling down on its SMB loyalty efforts, going far beyond what it has …

Deals are fading for many publishers. Group Commerce Inc., for instance, is just the latest company to cut back on its support of local deals. But for local businesses, deals remain potent building blocks for a wide range of promotional sales formats.
SignPost, Local Offer Network, Boomtime, Analog Analytics and Second Street …

Various companies have built SMB websites and landing pages by scraping the Web. PaperG comes to mind. How about using Facebook. BIA/Kelsey data from our Local Commerce Monitor shows that more than 40 percent of U.S. SMBs have Facebook pages. Many, however, still don’t have standalone websites.
Exai, a spin off of TrafficMedia, is …

We’re seeing a rich breeding ground of startups fuel the next generation of Web services. BIA/Kelsey is recognizing local-themed startups during our upcoming Leading in Local event in Boston March 18-20. During a special startup segment on Day 2, we’re hosting a contest for “best” Future Star (details to come), and will also …