Reviews of products and services have become a currency of the web, helping consumers make more informed purchase decisions. If they have a serious fault, it is that recommender and reader may have wildly different tastes. Without understanding the perspective and lifestyle of a recommender, it can be challenging to identify the posts that are [...]
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Start-Up Watch COD: Hunch Creates A Personalized Recommendations Community Through Their Massive “Taste Graph”
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 16th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Start-Up Watch COD: Yext Local delivers “Power Listings” for local businesses across the web
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 15th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Different gets noticed. We all know that. If everyone else is in a white shirt and a repp tie, you’ll stand out in blue. And when a consumer is confronted with dozens of options for the same service, little differences between your listing and the others can dramatically boost your conversion rates.
Yext is a business [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: EyePredict’s EPflow optimizes catalog item displays to your objectives
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 12th, 2011 at 12:01 am
When you are selling multiple items online, one of the key challenges you face is to design your online catalog screens. Naturally, different items have different price points and profitability, or relevance to larger numbers of people. How do you decide what goes where?
Well, certain rules have been known for decades. Bigger tends to get [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: appbackr is the wholesale marketplace for apps
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 11th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Many talented people have made good money developing and selling mobile apps in the iPhone and Android stores. But as the number of apps has increased, so have the number of challenges.
Quite simply, it’s gotten harder and harder to get noticed, and the costs in time and money to promote an app have increased.
appbackr is [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: Bunchball is out to gamify a broad range of your brand’s online experiences
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 10th, 2011 at 12:01 am
There are many actions that we hope consumers will take. Besides clicking to buy, of course. We want them to rate things, consume content, endorse our products, tell their friends about their experiences using our products, etc. We can’t MAKE THEM do these things. Those days, if they ever really existed, are long gone.
Bunchball is [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: Legolas lets you to buy audiences like you buy context – pub direct
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 9th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Audience buying has made a huge difference to so many brands. The idea of zero-waste planning and execution holds tremendous appeal, especially in an era in which we all need to drive more results from the same dollars.
Exchanged based buying has its limitations, however:
Planning challenges of buying impressions real time versus in predictable quantities
Limited range [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: Ginza Metrics makes SEO management easier and more efficient
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 5th, 2011 at 12:01 am
A dear friend of mine who was cutting her teeth in brand management while I was soaked in Anbesol on the agency side periodically sends me emails explaining her frustration as a senior marketing exec trying to make sense of digital. She once sent me this little missive about SEO:
“We send $12K a month to [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: Zerply gives people virtual personal storefronts online
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 4th, 2011 at 12:01 am
One of the most exciting uses of the connected web is for professional networking – the opportunity to get connected to people with an interest in what you do. Linked In, of course, is the mac daddy of this space, connecting tens of millions. But other teams and start-up companies are also offering fascinating and [...]
Start-Up Watch COD: ChoozOn helps marketers deliver offers to their brand fans
Posted by Jim Nichols on August 3rd, 2011 at 12:01 am
The web has become one of the primary deal delivery vehicles – so much so that there are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of deal sites and apps presenting offers to consumers. But the complexity of the space has made it more difficult for consumers to find deals for the brands that they want.
Many brands [...]
