Here is today’s roundup of news related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.

Two Events Illustrate Widening Gap between Marketers and SMBs (October 15, 2018)
LSA Insider: “Reflecting on the two events over the weekend I was struck by the widening gulf between the technical sophistication and demands of digital marketing and the struggle of small business clients to understand how everything fits together — let alone DIYing any of this.”

The World’s 10 Most Valuable Brands in 2018 (October 15, 2018)
Marketing Charts: “Apple continues to set the pace as the most valuable brand in the world, keeping its hold on the top spot for the sixth consecutive year and extending its lead over Google, according to Interbrand’s latest annual rankings.”

Data Still Makes Ads Irrelevant, Consumers Say (October 15, 2018)
MediaPost: “When consumers were asked in a recent survey how effective brands have been in using data to personalize digital advertising campaigns, only 18% said ads “often” seemed to understand their needs.”

AR, VR & Chatbot: What Marketers Need to Consider (October 15, 2018)
Search Engine Journal: “From augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality to bots, brands have more engaging ways to connect with consumers than ever before.”

Realeyes says it can measure if people are paying attention to ads (October 12, 2018)
MarTech Today: “As artificial intelligence (AI) its machine learning subset get more advanced, analytics get deeper and more nuanced. One proof point: Realeyes’ new technology that can tell advertisers if test viewers are paying attention or not.”