News and Analysis
McDonald’s Shifts From Borrowed Attention to Owned Engagement
McDonald’s decision to end its FIFA sponsorship reflects a broader U.S. marketing reset. The company is placing greater value on loyalty, customer data and programs that can produce measurable restaurant visits. McDonald’s will end its FIFA World Cup sponsorship after the 2026 tournament, concluding a relationship that began in 1994. The decision follows its largest […]
Placer.ai: Local Shopping Data Guides Retail Media Buying
New Placer.ai research on Kroger, Sam’s Club and CVS highlights how shopping patterns vary across markets and formats. Those differences can help retailers and advertisers make better decisions about placement, timing and creative. A national retail media network can offer advertisers thousands of locations through a single buying relationship. But shoppers arrive at those locations […]
Walmart Is Building the Access Rules for Agentic Commerce
Walmart is opening its ecommerce infrastructure to outside AI shopping agents, but on terms designed to protect customer permissions, transaction data and control of checkout. The strategy offers multi-location brands an early model for treating agentic commerce as a governed channel rather than uncontrolled bot traffic. Opening the Storefront Without Surrendering Control Walmart is preparing […]
Commentary
The Platform Adoption Curve: Solving Problems Brands Learn to Live With
Some of the biggest opportunities for new technology platforms come from solving problems businesses have learned to live with. For multi-location brands, fragmented local marketing processes, disconnected vendors and limited visibility into spending have become accepted operating practices, but what happens when a platform makes those inefficiencies unnecessary? The most valuable business platforms often solve […]
Local vs Brand-Level AI Visibility for MULOs
A multi-location brand can have strong national AI visibility while individual locations remain absent from local AI recommendations. Understanding that gap is critical. A fitness franchise with 60 locations can have a polished national reputation and still lose a new member to a rival gym when someone in one particular suburb asks an AI assistant […]
What Brands Get Wrong About How Consumers Make Decisions
Consumer decisions are rarely as rationally as marketers assume. From Apple and Starbucks to Liquid Death and Duolingo, ten brand examples reveal how emotion, memory, identity and trust shape buying behavior and why traditional marketing often misses what matters most. Most marketing is addressed to a fictional consumer: attentive, articulate, rational, and delighted to compare […]
Latest Posts
McDonald’s Shifts From Borrowed Attention to Owned Engagement
McDonald’s decision to end its FIFA sponsorship reflects a broader U.S. marketing reset. The company is placing greater value on loyalty, customer data and programs that can produce measurable restaurant visits. McDonald’s will end its FIFA World Cup sponsorship after the 2026 tournament, concluding a relationship that began in 1994. The decision follows its largest […]
Placer.ai: Local Shopping Data Guides Retail Media Buying
New Placer.ai research on Kroger, Sam’s Club and CVS highlights how shopping patterns vary across markets and formats. Those differences can help retailers and advertisers make better decisions about placement, timing and creative. A national retail media network can offer advertisers thousands of locations through a single buying relationship. But shoppers arrive at those locations […]
Walmart Is Building the Access Rules for Agentic Commerce
Walmart is opening its ecommerce infrastructure to outside AI shopping agents, but on terms designed to protect customer permissions, transaction data and control of checkout. The strategy offers multi-location brands an early model for treating agentic commerce as a governed channel rather than uncontrolled bot traffic. Opening the Storefront Without Surrendering Control Walmart is preparing […]
The Platform Adoption Curve: Solving Problems Brands Learn to Live With
Some of the biggest opportunities for new technology platforms come from solving problems businesses have learned to live with. For multi-location brands, fragmented local marketing processes, disconnected vendors and limited visibility into spending have become accepted operating practices, but what happens when a platform makes those inefficiencies unnecessary? The most valuable business platforms often solve […]
Local vs Brand-Level AI Visibility for MULOs
A multi-location brand can have strong national AI visibility while individual locations remain absent from local AI recommendations. Understanding that gap is critical. A fitness franchise with 60 locations can have a polished national reputation and still lose a new member to a rival gym when someone in one particular suburb asks an AI assistant […]
What Brands Get Wrong About How Consumers Make Decisions
Consumer decisions are rarely as rationally as marketers assume. From Apple and Starbucks to Liquid Death and Duolingo, ten brand examples reveal how emotion, memory, identity and trust shape buying behavior and why traditional marketing often misses what matters most. Most marketing is addressed to a fictional consumer: attentive, articulate, rational, and delighted to compare […]
Retail Media Growth Depends on Faster Execution
New research from GrowthLoop and Ascend2 shows how slow audience activation and delayed reporting put retail media budgets at risk A retail media campaign can reach the right shoppers and still arrive too late. For a brand coordinating a weekend promotion across hundreds of locations, several days spent waiting for an audience segment can consume […]
Albertsons’ Turnaround Tests the Value of Local Control
Albertsons is trying to become a more efficient national retailer without weakening the regional banners and market knowledge that differentiate its stores. Its turnaround will test whether greater centralization can coexist with local execution while preserving the relevance customers expect from Safeway, Jewel-Osco, ACME and its other grocery brands. Why Albertsons Is Restructuring Albertsons has […]
DOOH Finds New Growth in Existing Screens
Digital screens already operating inside commercial buildings are creating new opportunities for DOOH advertising. Vertical City’s expansion to 10,000 elevator screens shows how existing infrastructure can become a scalable media network and why accessibility and measurement will determine its value to advertisers. Digital screens installed for building operations are becoming a new source of advertising […]
Best Buy and LG Expand Retail Media Into CTV
Best Buy is extending its advertising business into connected television through a new partnership with LG Ad Solutions, bringing its shopper audiences and sales measurement capabilities to television advertising. The agreement makes LG’s premium connected-TV inventory, including its Home Screen, available to U.S. advertisers through Best Buy Ads. The resulting combination gives brands a way […]
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The Platform Adoption Curve: Solving Problems Brands Learn to Live With