News and Analysis
Yext Connects Agentic Marketing to Location-Level Decisions
The hardest part of marketing hundreds or thousands of locations isn’t simply doing more work. It’s knowing where the brand is winning, where it is losing and what action makes sense in each market. Two moves from Yext this week aim to connect that location-level intelligence with the people, AI agents and media budgets capable […]
McDonald’s AI Pricing Tests Local Autonomy
McDonald’s is using AI to optimize prices at individual restaurants, while Walmart is drawing a clear line around how algorithms influence what customers pay. McDonald’s is using AI (artificial intelligence) to help determine what a Big Mac should cost at individual restaurants. The technology may produce more precise pricing, but it also raises questions about […]
Home Services Marketing Is Moving Beyond Search
Home services marketing has traditionally been built around capturing consumers when a local need turns into a search. Scorpion brought together OpenAI, TikTok, ServiceTitan and others to reflect on how that acquisition model is expanding as AI discovery, short-form video and operational data reshape the path from awareness to booked job. For home services brands, […]
Commentary
You Can’t Call It Incremental If You Can’t Measure It
Incrementality is becoming one of advertising’s most overused claims. Without a true holdout and a disciplined test, reported performance can’t tell brands what would have happened anyway. Choosing a new DSP partner should really come down to one question: Does it bring genuinely different intelligence, or is it just another place to spend the same […]
Apple Maps are Becoming a Priority for MULO Brands
For most multi-location brands, and the agencies that manage their local SEO, Apple Maps has historically lived somewhere near the bottom of the priority list. It’s the platform you claim your listing on, fill in with basic information, and occasionally revisit if something needs fixing. Google Maps listings get the comprehensive audits, the dedicated review […]
Why Brands Need Every Location to Be Agent Ready
Agentic commerce, or the process of AI agents helping users research, compare, and, increasingly, complete local purchases, has moved from concept to reality. For a single-location business, getting ready for this means cleaning up one website, one set of listings, one menu, one booking system, to make sure their customer journey works equally well for […]
Latest Posts
Yext Connects Agentic Marketing to Location-Level Decisions
The hardest part of marketing hundreds or thousands of locations isn’t simply doing more work. It’s knowing where the brand is winning, where it is losing and what action makes sense in each market. Two moves from Yext this week aim to connect that location-level intelligence with the people, AI agents and media budgets capable […]
McDonald’s AI Pricing Tests Local Autonomy
McDonald’s is using AI to optimize prices at individual restaurants, while Walmart is drawing a clear line around how algorithms influence what customers pay. McDonald’s is using AI (artificial intelligence) to help determine what a Big Mac should cost at individual restaurants. The technology may produce more precise pricing, but it also raises questions about […]
You Can’t Call It Incremental If You Can’t Measure It
Incrementality is becoming one of advertising’s most overused claims. Without a true holdout and a disciplined test, reported performance can’t tell brands what would have happened anyway. Choosing a new DSP partner should really come down to one question: Does it bring genuinely different intelligence, or is it just another place to spend the same […]
Apple Maps are Becoming a Priority for MULO Brands
For most multi-location brands, and the agencies that manage their local SEO, Apple Maps has historically lived somewhere near the bottom of the priority list. It’s the platform you claim your listing on, fill in with basic information, and occasionally revisit if something needs fixing. Google Maps listings get the comprehensive audits, the dedicated review […]
Home Services Marketing Is Moving Beyond Search
Home services marketing has traditionally been built around capturing consumers when a local need turns into a search. Scorpion brought together OpenAI, TikTok, ServiceTitan and others to reflect on how that acquisition model is expanding as AI discovery, short-form video and operational data reshape the path from awareness to booked job. For home services brands, […]
DOOH Is Becoming a Local Conversion Channel
Digital out-of-home advertising has traditionally benefited from proximity. Put an ad near a restaurant, retailer or dealership and the physical location itself becomes part of the media strategy. Programmatic DOOH is making that relationship more precise. New research from Vistar Media, Omnicom Media and Annalect finds that something as simple as telling consumers where to […]
Sonic Turns Drink Customization Into Traffic Strategy
Restaurant chains are increasingly looking beyond burgers, sandwiches and value meals to create new reasons for customers to visit. Specialty beverages have emerged as one of the industry’s most active battlegrounds, and Sonic Drive-In believes its long history of drink customization gives it an advantage. The trend extends well beyond another seasonal menu cycle. The […]
Programmatic DOOH Still Isn’t Bought Like Digital
Programmatic DOOH (digital out-of-home) has spent years promising to make physical media easier to buy like digital advertising. New global data suggests that transition is well underway, but also shows how far DOOH still has to go before it becomes a routine component of the digital media plan. The World Out of Home Organization’s inaugural […]
Lowe’s Is Merging Marketing With Commerce
Lowe’s has made an organizational change that says more about the future of multi-location marketing than a typical executive promotion. The home-improvement retailer has expanded CMO Jen Wilson’s role to include Lowes.com and its third-party marketplace. Wilson, now executive vice president and chief marketing and digital commerce officer, already oversaw marketing, loyalty, personalization and Lowe’s […]
Why Brands Need Every Location to Be Agent Ready
Agentic commerce, or the process of AI agents helping users research, compare, and, increasingly, complete local purchases, has moved from concept to reality. For a single-location business, getting ready for this means cleaning up one website, one set of listings, one menu, one booking system, to make sure their customer journey works equally well for […]
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You Can’t Call It Incremental If You Can’t Measure It