News and Analysis
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 […]
Commentary
“Why Aren’t We in ChatGPT?”: The New Question Agencies Must Answer
A new question is starting to surface in agency client calls: “Why aren’t we showing up in ChatGPT?” At some point recently, you’ve probably gotten this call. A client — one with solid Google Maps rankings, an optimized Google Business Profile, and a steady stream of reviews — asks ChatGPT or Gemini to recommend a […]
Why AI Is Forcing Marketing to Move From Channels to Intent
For decades, marketing teams organized their strategies around channels—search, social, email, and paid—each measured and optimized separately. But as AI increasingly mediates how buyers discover, compare, and choose products, that channel-based model is breaking down, forcing marketers to rethink their infrastructure around something far more important: customer intent. That channel-based structure shaped everything from budgets […]
The Missing Piece in Multi-Location Marketing: Location-Level Attribution
Multi-location marketing has become dramatically more sophisticated over the past decade. Brands now operate across dozens or hundreds of markets, running paid search, local SEO, social campaigns, listings management, and reputation programs simultaneously. But while marketing execution has scaled, measurement often hasn’t kept up. Multi-location brands often rely on dashboards that show total leads, conversions, […]
Latest Posts
Gorilla Property Services Eyes U.S. Franchise Expansion
A leading property maintenance franchise is expanding into the United States, highlighting how home services brands are turning fragmented local trades into scalable franchise platforms. Vancouver-based Gorilla Property Services announced today that it has partnered with Franchise FastLane to accelerate franchise development across the U.S. The move positions the company inside one of the fastest-growing […]
Survey: How Rising Review Expectations Are Reshaping Brand Reputation Strategies
The BrightLocal 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey highlights a major shift for brands operating in local markets. Reviews from the last three months now carry the most influence in consumer decision-making, while rising rating expectations and AI-powered recommendations are redefining how consumers evaluate businesses. For brands with local footprints, maintaining a steady flow of fresh, […]
Gregorys Coffee Franchise Launch Signals Restaurant Expansion Trend
The launch of a franchise program by Gregorys Coffee highlights a broader shift underway across the restaurant industry. Increasingly, emerging concepts are turning to restaurant franchise expansion as a way to scale nationally while maintaining brand identity and operational consistency. Backed by Craveworthy Brands, Gregorys’ move into franchising illustrates how specialty coffee franchise brands are […]
AI Is Rebuilding the Local Marketing Stack — From TikTok to Mail
The AI marketing stack for local businesses is rapidly taking shape — and it’s transforming how consumers discover and choose brands. Platforms like TikTok are emerging as powerful discovery engines, AI assistants such as ChatGPT are influencing how consumers evaluate service providers, and even traditional channels like direct mail are being rebuilt with predictive targeting […]
How Digital PR Shapes AI Visibility for MULO Brands
AI platforms aren’t just a gateway to websites. They are narrators, deciding which brands are mentioned, how those brands are described, and which attributes are emphasized when recommendations are generated. For multi-location organizations (MULOs), this is important because search performance at the local level is no longer limited to whether a specific location ranks in […]
Kevel Integrates With Adobe to Enable Real-Time Retail Media Activation
Kevel has launched a native Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) Destination that enables retailers, marketplaces, and commerce media platforms to activate first-party audience data in real time for retail media campaigns. The new integration creates a direct streaming connection between Adobe Experience Platform and Kevel’s ad server infrastructure, allowing customer segments to update instantly at the […]
How Community-Focused Messaging Drives Loyalty for Multi-Location Brands
There’s a reason the phrase “shop local” continues to resonate. For multi-location brands and the agencies that support them, it’s not just about geographic proximity — it’s about relevance, trust, and shared identity. Consumers don’t build loyalty because a brand is loud. They build loyalty because it feels connected to their community and reflective of […]
AI Is Reshaping Even Direct Mail — And Home Services Brands Are Taking Notice
As AI continues to transform digital marketing, it is now reaching one of advertising’s oldest channels: direct mail. Imaginuity has launched AI Mail, a managed direct mail system designed specifically for home services brands. Powered by AdScience®, the company’s proprietary Customer Data & Activation Platform, the offering applies machine learning to identify high-probability households and […]
New Report Signals Growing Performance Gap in the Home Services Economy
A new national study from Scorpion suggests that local home services businesses are entering 2026 facing a widening performance gap — one shaped by rising homeowner expectations, AI-driven discovery behavior, and fragmented marketing infrastructure. Scorpion’s 2026 State of Home Services Marketing Report, based on responses from 2,000 homeowners and nearly 1,000 home services business leaders, […]
Enterprise Local SEO Has a Visibility Problem — And AI Search Is Making It Worse
Enterprise brands and multi-location businesses are investing more than ever in local SEO. Bigger budgets. Advanced tools. Experienced in-house teams and agency partners. Yet many multi-location brands are still missing a critical piece of the puzzle: true visibility at the location level. The culprit isn’t execution. It’s measurement — or more precisely, the lack of […]
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