OOH into Action: Travel Surges, Consumer Habits Shift, and Brands Respond
How disruptive was the Covid-19 pandemic? So much so that it is still being used barometer to measure everything from travel to consumer sales. “COVID was a major inflection point that reshaped routines, mobility patterns, and media consumption,” said Anna Bager, President and CEO of the OAAA (Out of Home Advertising Association of America). “Using […]
Yext Report Confirms AI Search Is Reshaping Brand Discovery
AI tools are no longer experimental — they’re mainstream. According to Yext’s new 2025 AI Search Archetypes report, 62% of consumers globally now trust AI tools to guide their brand decisions, signaling a major behavioral shift in how people search, compare, and commit to brands. The study, conducted in partnership with Researchscape, surveyed over 2,200 […]
Summer Foods: Burger, Pizza, and Ice Cream BOOMs & BUSTs
As the temperatures heat up, so does the popularity of the “foods of summer.” Families gather, and people take road trips. This year domestic vacations are on the upswing. Along with those adventures come spending at c-stores, roadside restaurants including MULO (multi-location) brands, and retailers. According to Statista, French fries, fried chicken, and hamburgers are […]
MULO Brands With Soul June Pick: Patagonia
Small but mighty, this MULO (multi-location) brand has about 100 stores globally. However, their heart is far bigger than their physical footprint. We’re talking about Patagonia, a brand founded in 1953 and has a long and rich history, proving that soul and scale can go together. Founder Yvon Choinard was so passionate about his environmental […]
Flamel.ai Streamlines Social Ads for Multi-Location Brands
Flamel.ai, a marketing technology platform built for franchise and multi-location businesses, has launched a new set of tools aimed at automating localized social media advertising. The product release marks the company’s latest effort to reduce the operational complexity of managing campaigns across dozens—or even hundreds—of individual markets. The update focuses on helping franchisors plan, launch, […]
Captify and Adalyser Partner to Bring Search Intent Data into TV Ad Targeting
In a move that reflects broader shifts in how advertisers approach TV media buying, Captify and Adalyser have announced a partnership designed to integrate search intent data into premium TV advertising campaigns. The collaboration brings together Captify’s real-time search behavior signals and Adalyser’s ActiveVoice Store, a self-serve platform offering access to major broadcaster inventory such […]
The MULO Dozen: June in Review
Let’s take a look in the rear-view mirror of June and glimpse at some of the most significant developments in the MULO (multi-location) retail, restaurant, service, c-store, and hospitality ecosystem. Of course, the most significant announcement this spring was the reveal of our first round of inspirational speakers at Street Fight LIVE 2025! Here are […]
Looking for New Growth Strategies? Look at C-Stores!
Convenience stores (C-stores) are no longer just a lowly truck stop or much-needed bathroom break along a highway. These retailers are a prime example of a category that has “blurred the lines” across MULO (multi-location) categories — retail, food, and service. They have incorporated technology and loyalty programs (and even online merch sales) into their […]
Kevel Launches AI-Powered Kevel Console to Transform Retail Media Campaigns
Retail media continues to evolve rapidly, with growing demands for automation, cross-channel efficiency, and deeper audience personalization. Last week, retail media technology provider Kevel announced the launch of the Kevel Console. This AI-powered, self-service platform is built specifically for retailers, marketplaces, and publishers seeking greater control, speed, and performance from their media networks. Kevel Console […]
WiRL-ing with Satyne Julianna Doner
Although technology is booming, human connections remain extremely valuable in the MULO (multi-location) restaurant world. A whopping 77% of restaurant operators say that talent acquisition and retention are significant challenges. Associate Editor Satyne Julianna Doner recently gathered a group of executive women in the MULO (multi-location) restaurant industry to discuss their career paths and how to foster […]
Hatch Urges People to ‘Escape the Algorithm’
A Boston-based agency known as Hatch has come up with a tagline for a local museum’s campaign that may well be a healthy approach to life itself: “Escape the algorithm.” For the purposes of this local outdoor campaign, which began its run in the greater Boston area in 2024, the work is in support of […]
How AI May Win Prime Days in 2025
When Amazon launched its Prime Days concept, it was a true novelty. After all, who doesn’t want deals, especially those that come up unexpectedly? This year, Amazon has expanded Prime Days to four full days (July 8th to 11th) and has already begun spending on pre-promotion awareness ads. Amazon spends approximately $20B on advertising annually, […]
B-to-B Takes on Cannes
Cannes Lions claims to be the world’s largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry. Agencies, CPG brands, and related companies have long made the trip to France to connect, accept awards, party, and (of course) brag on social media that they attended. This year, we saw many B-to-B companies cross the Atlantic to […]
The Rise of Partner-Led Marketing
Impact.com is a commerce partnership management platform that is increasingly bullish on partner-led marketing, which is the development of communities around brands to drive revenue. Best Buy is a notable success in this endeavor for Impact.com but the platform also welcomed 700 new clients to its customer portfolio, including New Balance, Hydrojug, and Monzo. Globally, […]
New Collaboration Leads to Better Targeting for MULO Brands
Experian and Media.net (one of the world’s largest Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs)) are collaborating to amp up real-time contextual search intent and rich audience data. They believe this collaboration will help solve the problems of growing signal loss and audience fragmentation and enable advertisers to improve their targeting and results. The move goes beyond basic contextual […]
Scorpion and Clio Partner to Deliver End-to-End Visibility for Law Firms
In a move to redefine what law firms should expect from their marketing and software solutions, Scorpion, the leader in digital marketing for law firms, and Clio, the most trusted cloud-based legal technology platform, have announced an exclusive strategic partnership. The alliance directly addresses one of the legal industry’s most persistent challenges: connecting marketing investments […]
Crowd Street Offers a New Type of Investing
If you’ve been honing your “self-directed” stock-trading skills online to the point where you feel pretty confident in your financial acumen, your world just got bigger. Crowd Street is a new trading platform promising access to investment in companies that are not publicly traded. Crowd Street is a private market investment platform that has a […]
BOOM: Legacy Restaurant Brands Relaunch and Get “Glow-ups”
MULO (multi-location) retailers and restaurants often take their eyes off the ball (or shelves and plates) when planning for the future. We’ve seen many examples of established brands that thrived for decades suddenly closing up shop and declaring bankruptcy. However, we’re also witnessing legacy brands that realize consumer needs are evolving. These brands are coming up […]
What’s New at Walmart? A Creator Studio!
We’ve heard of SWAS or “stores within stores” (like Sephora at Kohl’s) and “pickleball within malls.” However, something new and powerful has now emerged for creators, at a Walmart in Tennessee. It’s a fully equipped creator studio where brand influencers, entertainers, and other Instagram-famous personalities and TikTok stars can capture content. Create-It Studios is described […]
Real American Beer Supports Live Music
Way back in 1974, The Who single “Long Live Rock” contained the sad refrain, “Rock is dead.” Not if WWE icon Hulk Hogan and his Real American Beer brand have anything to say about it: rock music—along with other genres–is being nourished and thriving through its brand sponsorships that support up-and-coming bands across the U.S. […]