News site covering ad campaigns launches Tuesday

A news site aimed at covering location-based advertising campaigns launches this morning and has hired former PaidContent writer David Kaplan as its managing editor.

GeoMarketing.com’s ambition is to the be the source of record for location-based advertising campaigns and analysis of the trends, companies and people shaping that space. It consider its focus as documenting how offline brick-and-mortar retailers, businesses and services use digital marketing and advertising methods to drive in-store traffic and sales.

Right now, the site has three editorial staffers, including Kaplan as the person in charge of the editorial direction and Nicole Spector, formerly of DMNews and the financial trade news publication Investment Wires, as associate editor.

However, Kaplan told Talking Biz News that the site hopes to have roughly eight to 10 staffers by the end of the year.

“GeoMarketing will be the source of record in explaining how using location to market to people will change the way advertising is not only bought, sold, and placed, but how it’s created,” said Kaplan in an email to Talking Biz News. “In addition to explaining the space, we’re going to catalog the best — and not-so-best — creative ad work designed to get digital consumers into physical retail locations.”

The site is backed by marketing software provider Yext. Kaplan says that neither the executives or the staffers of Yext have had any say in the editorial content or policy decisions. Because Yext is primarily in the listings verification business, GeoMarketing doesn’t plan to write about them and their work, or their competitors.

The news portion of the GeoMarketing site will be made up of a daily news posts that will feature “campaign of the day” stories.

In much the same way that many advertising and marketing trade magazines are interested in the creative aspects, qualities, goals/purposes and results of a major TV spot airing in primetime or print placement, GeoMarketing is interested in how these elements are brought to bear when it comes to mobile marketing and local touch points.

The site will also be profiling agencies, marketers, publishers and their executives to get a sense of where their vision fits into this marketplace.

Stories under “news analysis” will address trends in the location-based ad marketplace and profiles of prominent new hires and other people moves.

“The point of GeoMarketing.com as a news site is to inform operators of brick-and-mortar businesses — and the advertising, marketing, and tech companies that surround them — figure out the how the changing digital landscape affects them,” said Kaplan.