In the 62 years between the first celebration by Sonora Dodd of her father and President Nixon’s signing a bill making it a national holiday, much went on to recognize the role fathers play in the traditional family. Many trade associations representing ties and pipes and men’s clothing sought to use the day for seasonal merchandising. Today, in the U.S. Father’s Day represents an important merchandising day for the makers of BBQs, sports equipment and other fatherly gifts. It used to be that a brand new dress tie was the standard Father’s Day present, but with the changing dress attire of many of today’s modern day men, perhaps a fancy pair of denim jeans might now be the leading candidate for the old standby present.

Father’s Day is celebrated around the world, often on the third Sunday of June, but not necessarily. In countries such as India, with it’s large Hindu population, it might be considered that every day is Father’s Day.

Over at the vSplash blog, you can see how most independent businesses that cater to Father’s Day presents are sorely behind in engaging with their customer audiences. Given that women play a crucial role in assuring that Fathers get their just recognition, the lack of digital readiness among key businesses makes it an even greater challenge, since women often skew higher in terms of e-commerce and digital engagement.

Whether you gift your father a tie, a new set of golf clubs or a pair of fancy denim jeans – most Dads will be happy to have a day off from mowing the lawn and lighting the grill.

In the US, the day has certainly taken on a more commercial feel than in many places around the world, as do so many of the holidays – both religious  and secular. Nevertheless, during the next two weeks, the children of mothers will assault the local stores and shops to find Mom that perfect gift. If they so happen to use their smartphone or tablet – and the data suggests more and more will turn to their mobile devices this year for gift-buying – they’re likely to run into many disappointing digital shopping experiences.

As this month’s infographic from vSplash shows, the stores where that “perfect” gift is likely to be found, will be hard to find online. On average, 75% of  independent retail stores will be difficult to find online. The only outlier is florists, and this is not surprising, since many of the national buying networks – think FTD – have invested heavily to have their local distribution points be digitally visible. Taken together, improving the online experience of these shops and stores is estimated to be nearly a $3B market opportunity.

Oh, and one last thing, don’t forget to call your mother on Mother’s Day – she’s been there for you through thick and thin. I know I will.

National tax preparation companies have already taken to the airwaves to promote their tax preparation services. The same large national tax preparation companies have turned to digital agencies and advisors to make sure their clients and prospects can find them from their desktops and their mobile devices.

On the other hand, the local independent tax advisor, like so many other local independent service providers, is well behind in evolving its business to meet the needs of the digital consumer. As the evolving digital consumer spends more and more time looking at his or her mobile phones or tablet – local independent service providers need to push forward with strategies and tactics that adjust to the new normal.

In this month’s infographic from vSplash, we take a look at the state of tax preparation, and it is clear many independent tax pros will need to file an extension to get their businesses digital ready. We’ve estimated there’s at least a $140 million opportunity for the digital marketing service providers that can help thousands of local independent tax preparers get ready for next year’s tax season.

Before going too much further – it’s important to set some context. Pizza is big business in the U.S. In fact according to Your Guide To Pizza, PizzaMarketplace, Americans consume nearly 50 slices per person per year. And the pizza business collectively sells about 3 billion pizzas, driving over $32B in annual industry sales.

But something fairly dramatic is happening in the pizza world. The national and regional chains have seen their market share increase from 49 to 61% in just two years – a 25% increase – pretty staggering. What’s driving this shift? I really don’t think it is that large chains serve better, more tasty pizza. Nope. I think they are simply making it easier and easier for consumers to connect and engage with their local stores.

Today, nearly 30% of all sales to the large and regional chains are generated via the web – desktop or mobile. What’s occurring on the other side of the street is that the independent pizza parlor is failing to adopt technologies that will put them on parity with the chains they compete with day in and day out.

Leveraging the SMB DigitalScape data – we’ve found that across a number of key dimensions, independent pizzerias are just not keeping pace with their peers, nor are they making themselves easy to be found. For instance, at just 20% of the independent pizzerias can you actually complete your transaction online. And just a small slice of them – 5% – offer the pizza-hungry consumer an optimized mobile experience.

The data is sufficiently compelling to suggest that unless the independent pizza operator gets onboard the digital train, they will be left behind at the station. vSplash has prepared this infographic which offers a pretty comprehensive view of the state of the pizza industry.

I like my pizza with mushrooms – how do you like yours?

What I found most interesting was further down in the article where according to Inc. Magazine and Cargo, “B-Side Marketing Project” – SMBs do not believe that companies that market to them (SMBs) are doing a very good job of basic fact finding and account preparation. Some 46 percent believe companies are trying to sell to them vs. talk to them and 45 percent believe companies don’t make an effort to understand “their” business.

This data confirms the “trust” gap that is out there which I have pointed executives to for a number of years. Some years back Joe Walsh, then CEO of Yellowbook as me pointedly what would it take to “get the trust back”. I said it would take a methodical process of demonstrating to SMBs that the sales rep was authentic in their account preparation and recommendation. In some cases, I said this would mean telling the SMB that print Yellow Pages was no a viable advertising option for their particular business.

That discussion was October 2010. Since then, we’ve seen some progress. vSplash’s BuzzBoard tool is certainly one path toward returning the local media sales rep to the “trusted” advisor. It is increasingly clear from the market experience that BuzzBoard enables a local media sales rep to gain much needed credibility. Here’s a verbatim from a rep currently using the tool. “I think it’s a tool that we should be using to review potential customers and what their needs are. This tool is a 3rd party telling them that their website isn’t up to par.  It’s not just a “sales person” 

We’ll be sharing some success stories at the Borrell conference next Tuesday in NY – hope to see you there. 

As reported in the Washington Post, a couple of technology and commerce giants recognize the severity of the problem – and they’re doing something about it. Google has teamed up with Intuit to help accelerate the web presence of the local SMB market. The initiative enables  businesses to secure a free Website, Google business listing, and free Web-hosting for a year. Many will say well "of course it is Google’s self interest to get as many of the millions of SMBs online" but the truth is, if they don’t get online soon, they will be left to using sandwich boards to get their marketing message heard. DudaMobile, a company that vSplash works with, is also part of the solution, offering SMBs an easy way of transitioning their desktop sites to mobile optimized sites.

It’s hard to say how many SMBs will take Google and it’s partners up on their offer, but it is fairly certain that at today’s pace of change, the local business ecosystem might well break and consumers and SMBs will be at a loss for finding each other and engaging in digital local commerce. 

According to the 2013 Valentine’s Day spending survey conducted by BIGinsight for the National Retail Federation, the average person in the U.S. is planning to spend $130.97 on candy, cards, gifts and more, up from $126.03 last year with total spending estimated to reach $18.6 billion. Nearly 10 percent or $1.8B will say “I Love You” by connecting with a florist and buying those deep red roses, the symbols of romantic love and enduring passion.

While this all sounds rosy, many local, independent florists may not feel so peachy on February 15. That’s because many of the estimated 24,000 florists operating in the U.S. are not prepared to provide their prospective customers with a digitally engaging experience. Instead, many potential customers will find that the websites of local florists aren’t what they were hoping for.

According to vSplash’s SMB DigitalScape data, only a handful of florists offer websites that meet today’s best practices. In fact, nearly three quarters of florist websites are not optimized to offer the customer an optimal mobile experience, which means they will lose out on prospective business from the 41% of smartphone owners and 47% of tablet owners who will use their devices to shop for gifts this Valentine’s Day.And if the customer is in a hurry, watch out – 82% of florist websites won’t load in under 3 seconds.

With the rapid adoption of mobile commerce via smartphones, the time is now for florists around the country and around the world to get with the program. If they don’t, it may mean that come next Valentine’s Day, there will be nothing sweet to celebrate.

Dear vSplashers,

Happy New Year!

2012 was a year of powerful transformation for vSplash – products, people, places and perception. Our future is evolving. Our customers are loving what we do. Our products are being spoken about in unheard of places. Our dedication to quality is being sung. Yet, amidst all this, one thing has remained constant – our customer focus. And all this is because of tons of vSplashers who are smart, engaging, thoughtful and hard working. Thank you.

We build experiences not products. We reinvent, not redo. We think scale. We have infectious energy. We love what we do and do what we love.  We under-promise but over-deliver. And most importantly, we execute insanely well. We are on the verge.

As we go about building this great company together, I wanted to say ‘Thank You. You are important.’ And there is no better way to say it than to share a manifesto I recently came across.