Brand Learnings From StackAdapt’s Political Ad Platform
Political advertising has long served as an early proving ground for advertising technology. The need to identify audiences quickly, optimize campaigns in real time, and measure performance under fixed deadlines has consistently accelerated innovation that later finds its way into commercial marketing. StackAdapt’s new Political Targeting and Measurement Suite is the latest example. While designed […]
Inside the Dutch Bros National Expansion Strategy
Opening more coffee shops may be the most visible part of the Dutch Bros growth strategy. Behind the scenes, however, the company is building something just as important: the marketing infrastructure needed to acquire customers more efficiently, personalize engagement, and increase customer lifetime value. As Dutch Bros expands nationally, that infrastructure may prove to be […]
Vevo Brings Premium Music Videos to MULO Brands
Vevo is bringing its premium music videos into brick-and-mortar businesses through a new partnership with Rockbot, giving MULO brands another way to create more engaging and consistent in-store experiences For multi-location brands, the in-store experience is becoming an increasingly important competitive differentiator. While digital channels continue to dominate customer acquisition, what happens inside a physical […]
Thryv Adds Revenue Intelligence for Franchise Brands
For franchise brands, generating leads is no longer the primary challenge. The bigger opportunity is understanding why some locations consistently convert demand into revenue while others struggle despite receiving similar marketing support. That shift is reflected in Thryv’s latest integration with Breesy AI, which combines customer acquisition, engagement, and operational intelligence into a unified view […]
Broadcast TV Is Becoming Performance Media
The line separating broadcast TV from connected TV is beginning to blur. As advertisers demand the same audience targeting, measurement, and accountability across every premium video channel, local broadcasters are responding with capabilities once considered exclusive to digital platforms. The latest example comes from Viamedia.ai and Hearst Television, which have introduced household-level addressability for local […]
Customer Retention, Marketing’s Competitive Advantage
For much of the past decade, digital marketing has been dominated by customer acquisition. Brands invested heavily in paid search, social media, retail media, influencers, and performance advertising, all with the goal of finding the next customer more efficiently than their competitors. That equation is beginning to shift. As consumers discover brands through an expanding […]
AI is Rewriting the Rules of Customer Loyalty
Based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumer aged 18-65 conducted with Pollfish in May of this year, the findings of Amperity’s recent report about customer loyalty in the age of AI, reveals just how much services such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are impacting the customer journey. These LLM’s are not just answering questions, […]
Conversational Advertising Is Entering MULO Marketing
Conversational AI is rapidly becoming another place where consumers discover local businesses and the advertising infrastructure is beginning to follow. As brands prepare, the challenge is shifting from simply being recommended by AI to managing paid visibility at scale. For years, digital advertising for multi-location brands followed a familiar playbook. Consumers searched Google, clicked through […]
Retail Promotions Have Become a Customer Trust Strategy
Retail promotions are evolving from marketing tactics into customer experience strategies. As pricing inconsistencies become more costly and personalized offers more important, retailers are rethinking how promotions drive not just transactions, but trust and loyalty. Retail promotions have traditionally been viewed as a way to drive sales. But new research suggests they may be just […]
CTV Budgets Keep Growing, Trust Still Hasn’t Caught Up.
Connected TV has won the budget battle. Now it must win the credibility battle. As marketers demand stronger evidence of business impact, measurement, not inventory, is emerging as the industry’s next competitive battleground. New research from performance CTV platform JamLoop suggests the industry’s biggest obstacle is no longer adoption but trust. While half of marketers […]
Multi-Location Growth Is Becoming an Operating Platform
When reports surfaced that Inspire Brands had confidentially filed for an initial public offering, much of the attention focused on valuation, revenue, and the scale of a restaurant company operating more than 33,000 locations across Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, SONIC Drive-In, and Baskin-Robbins. The more interesting story, however, is the collection of […]
Hyper-Local Cultural Moments Are Changing Media Strategy
National campaigns are no longer enough to connect with local audiences. As brands shift toward hyper-local media planning, cultural moments like Pride offer a blueprint for how localized execution can drive more authentic engagement and stronger marketing outcomes. National brands have long relied on centralized media strategies to deliver consistent campaigns across every market. But […]
Jersey Mike’s IPO Highlights the Power of Disciplined MULO Growth
Jersey Mike’s decision to file for an initial public offering comes at a time when restaurant operators face a difficult operating environment marked by cautious consumers, higher labor costs, and slowing industry growth. Yet the sandwich chain has continued to expand its footprint while improving profitability, positioning itself as one of the restaurant industry’s strongest […]
Kroger’s Giant Eagle Deal Signals the Next Battle in Retail Media
Less than two years after regulators blocked its proposed acquisition of Albertsons, Kroger is back in the acquisition market. This time, the company is taking a smaller and more targeted approach, announcing an agreement to acquire regional grocery chain Giant Eagle in a deal valued at approximately $1.65 billion. At first glance, the transaction appears […]
Big Happy Brings Real-Time Context to 3D DOOH Campaigns
Imagine a billboard that changes based on the weather, local events, or what’s happening in the neighborhood around it. Big Happy says the next generation of 3D DOOH advertising is designed to do exactly that. Which will it be, contextual relevance and visual impact? Brands that want both in the DOOH channel no longer have […]
Broadsign and Partners Execute Fully Agentic OOH Campaign
Broadsign, Global Netherlands, and Draft Digital have demonstrated what may be the first fully agentic OOH (out-of-home) campaign, with autonomous AI agents handling everything from media planning to campaign execution. The project offers an early glimpse into how AI could reshape media buying, hyperlocal targeting, and the future role of marketers. Broadsign and Global Netherlands […]
Walmart’s Vibe Acquisition Shows Its Advertising Ambitions
Walmart has spent the past several years quietly building one of the most formidable advertising businesses outside of the traditional digital giants. What began as a retail media effort designed to monetize shopper data is increasingly evolving into something much larger: a full-funnel advertising ecosystem capable of competing for budgets that have historically flowed to […]
As AI Changes Local Discovery, Scorpion Bets on Scale and Technology
The future of local marketing may depend less on generating leads and more on connecting marketing activity directly to business outcomes. The Scorpion acquisition of 1SEO reflects a growing industry shift toward AI-powered platforms that help businesses compete in an increasingly complex discovery environment. Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose […]
What Political Campaigns Can Teach Marketers About Hyperlocal Media Strategy
Political advertising has long served as a testing ground for innovations that eventually make their way into mainstream marketing. Campaigns operate under compressed timelines, face relentless pressure to prove effectiveness, and often have only a single opportunity to influence behavior before Election Day. As a result, many of the strategies developed in political media—from audience […]
Yext Wants to Be the Infrastructure Layer for Agentic Marketing
For most of the last decade, local marketing technology was built around helping brands rank in search engines. That model is beginning to change as AI-powered search experiences, agentic marketing, recommendation engines, and conversational assistants play a larger role in how consumers discover and evaluate businesses. According to Yext’s recent Consumer Search Behaviors report, 28% […]