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

Yelp’s Richard Now LSA Board Chairperson, Microsoft’s Nojaim Elected Vice-Chair (March 6, 2019)
LSA Insider: “Last week LSA held its Annual General Meeting at the LSA19 conference. The organization re-elected board members and announced new officers. Yelp Senior Vice President of Business & Corporate Development Chad Richard was elevated to LSA Board Chair; Kelly Thomas Nojaim of Microsoft became Vice-Chair and Sharon Sweeney of the Fairway Group was elected Secretary.”

Yelp’s Verified Trade Licenses Help Businesses Gain Consumer’s Trust (March 6, 2019)
LSA Insider: “Part of the advantage of having the Internet in the palm of our hands is the convenience of looking up businesses quickly and easily. Within seconds of research, we can discover a business’s location, hours of operation and personal reviews and photos from other consumers.”

Poor Data Quality Is Hurting Location-Based Campaigns—Here’s How to Fix It (March 6, 2019)
Street Fight: “There is simply no transparency in the location data ecosystem. This leads to a race to the bottom for location quality and location data value. Location data providers, in order to keep the lights on, must fulfill location data demand while maintaining their margins.”

Study: Brands Lack the Meaningfulness Consumers Desire (March 6, 2019)
Marketing Charts: “People would not care if 77% of brands disappeared. However, more than three-quarters (76%) of consumers expect brands to contribute to their quality of life and well-being, according to a new report on meaningful brands from Havas.”

Embracing automation and maximizing SEO performance (March 6, 2019)
Marketing Land: “Creating an automation strategy should be top of mind in 2019 – indeed, it was identified by 61 percent of marketers as the top priority for optimizing marketing automation efforts in a recent industry survey. Researchers also identified the delivery of personalized content and integration of marketing systems as the most challenging barriers to your success with marketing technology.”

More ‘shoppable ads’ coming to Google Images (March 5, 2019)
Search Engine Land: “Similar to ad units on Instagram and Pinterest, Google introduced Shoppable Ads on Google Images at the Shoptalk conference Tuesday. The sponsored images highlight products that, when moused over, reveal brand, price and other details.”