StreetFight LIVE’25: 12 Trends & Disruptive Ideas To Watch

Street Fight LIVE 2025 attracted the best and the brightest thought leaders from across the MULO (multi-location) ecosystem.  We deliberately curated and invited a select, diverse group of dynamic senior executives from retail, restaurant, service, agency, and technology businesses to share their perspectives on the future trends and disruptive ideas for MULO brands in an increasingly phygital world.

In other words, consumers now choose when and how to use tech in their spending journeys, find the right brands for them, and whether to shop IRL (in brick-and-mortar locations), use online only, or find the ideal combination of AI and humanity.

You can find the full roster of speakers and topics here.

1. Speaking of which, the day kicked off with a keynote by yours truly and Pepper the Robot. (Pepper’s robot “friends” also served beer and snacks at the after-party.) The robots were from RobotLab, a franchise business that makes a wide range of non-human helpers available to MULO companies and others.
2. Elizabeth LaFontaine of Placer.ai gave us all powerful insights into the changing face of today’s consumer and where they are moving and living. This is critical as businesses decide which locations to scale and which to close or downsize.
3. Also on the human front, Shane Lukas offered insights into new sources of labor for MULO brands. A panel from Fat Brands and Kindr discussed building strong company cultures, which will become even more critical as workforces shrink and we work in an AI-powered world.
4. Search is changing forever. Three panels addressed the fact that the days of “near me” search are ending, and intent will override keywords and GMB profiles. Savvy marketers will use it to reach buyers at the exact moment they need a product or service and recommend purchases based on their behavior.
5. We put the “new search” to the test and reprised last year’s Search Scavenger Hunt. Led by Paige Sawin of Sparkcatcher, the exercise prompted attendees to find a few things online, using their preferred method. Emily Steele of Hummingbirds was the winner. We learned that “AI-driven search results can be highly variable and probabilistic,” according to Sawin. The exercise revealed up to 22 different results for the same category, based on the technique and even the language used.
6. Creators and influencers remain a significant driver in decision-making. This will be especially critical in the years ahead, as product reviews will factor even more heavily into search and consumer decision-making trends. And creators may not always be humans. Creatify AI generates massive volumes of effective advertising, enabling brands to market and assess the effectiveness of campaigns in minutes.
7. Agencies need to flex to meet the needs of today’s MULO brands. A shocking presentation from Michael Farmer revealed that the major CPG brands are hardly growing and that agencies’ models need to change to meet these companies’ new needs for efficiency, speed, and innovation. Public relations as a practice is changing, too, as detailed by Leeza Hoyt.
8. Franchises are here to stay, whether owned by PE firms or individual operators. Gregory Ugwi of WeFranch just wrapped up a franchise roadshow and talked about how health/wellness is just one of the consumer growth categories.
9. Home services is another rapidly-growing franchise sector. Brad Stevenson of Neighborly talked about how his company has scaled dramatically.
10. A disconnect often exists between how franchisors spend and what franchisees and consumers really want and need. Nick Dan-Bergman of LT revealed the results of a new proprietary trends survey.
11. With close to 2B users, TikTok has become a force in consumer search, marketing, and product recommendations. The brand has taken content from the small screen to OOH advertising, leveraging UGC (user-generated content) alongside traditional agency-created marketing.
12. Human interaction, unique content, and connections were among the attributes that our attendees and sponsors raved about. Leaders walked away with solid business and marketing connections. An intimate pre-party, informal food truck lunch, and cocktail event gave our attendees lots of opportunities to share collaboration opportunities! Speaking of memorable experiences, a panel addressed the trend towards “multi-use” MULO businesses, including eatertainment venues that combine dining, shopping, and memorable social media moments.

Our guests all agreed that Street Fight LIVE was one of those “memorable experiences” in the business world, combining work, play, and insights.

We are grateful to all the speakers and sponsors who made the day so insightful, fun, and PHYGITAL!