News and Analysis
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 […]
Magnite Connects Retail Media’s Push Into CTV
Magnite is strengthening its role in retail media’s expansion into connected TV. Recent announcements from Walmart Connect and Best Buy Ads place its technology behind two arrangements connecting retailer audiences and sales measurement with television advertising inventory. For multi-location brands and agencies, the significance extends beyond another way to buy streaming ads. These connections raise […]
Chick-fil-A Draws a Line on Drive-Thru AI
Fast-food chains are racing to automate one of their most important customer touchpoints. Chick-fil-A is choosing a different route. CEO Andrew Cathy recently said the company does not intend to replace employees taking drive-thru orders with artificial intelligence. While competitors including McDonald’s and Wendy’s are testing or expanding voice-ordering systems, Chick-fil-A considers face-to-face service central […]
Commentary
Franchising’s Overlooked Growth Lever Is Already in the FDD
Franchise brands spend enormous energy searching for new growth levers. Yet one of the most underused may already be built into the economics of the franchise system: local marketing dollars that franchisees are expected to spend but often struggle to deploy effectively. Every franchise system operates around a Franchise Disclosure Document, or FDD, that spells […]
Your Sellers Are Not Using the Data You Bought
Between a third and a half of purchased software goes unused, with analytical tools among the worst offenders. Our industry’s fix was to hire a translator instead of opening the audience data black box. Somewhere in your operating budget is a six- or seven-figure line for audience data. You approved it. It produces real value. […]
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 […]
Latest Posts
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 […]
Magnite Connects Retail Media’s Push Into CTV
Magnite is strengthening its role in retail media’s expansion into connected TV. Recent announcements from Walmart Connect and Best Buy Ads place its technology behind two arrangements connecting retailer audiences and sales measurement with television advertising inventory. For multi-location brands and agencies, the significance extends beyond another way to buy streaming ads. These connections raise […]
Chick-fil-A Draws a Line on Drive-Thru AI
Fast-food chains are racing to automate one of their most important customer touchpoints. Chick-fil-A is choosing a different route. CEO Andrew Cathy recently said the company does not intend to replace employees taking drive-thru orders with artificial intelligence. While competitors including McDonald’s and Wendy’s are testing or expanding voice-ordering systems, Chick-fil-A considers face-to-face service central […]
Franchising’s Overlooked Growth Lever Is Already in the FDD
Franchise brands spend enormous energy searching for new growth levers. Yet one of the most underused may already be built into the economics of the franchise system: local marketing dollars that franchisees are expected to spend but often struggle to deploy effectively. Every franchise system operates around a Franchise Disclosure Document, or FDD, that spells […]
Your Sellers Are Not Using the Data You Bought
Between a third and a half of purchased software goes unused, with analytical tools among the worst offenders. Our industry’s fix was to hire a translator instead of opening the audience data black box. Somewhere in your operating budget is a six- or seven-figure line for audience data. You approved it. It produces real value. […]
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, […]
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Franchising’s Overlooked Growth Lever Is Already in the FDD