News and Analysis
The Robot is Carrying Your Pizza: Timothy Tanksley Predicts the Future of MULO Serving
One of the biggest challenges bars and restaurants face today is finding skilled labor. Add to that the cost of overserving expensive cocktail ingredients (both in terms of product expense and product quality). Timothy Tanksley is the Director of Marketing at Richtech Robotics. At the Bar & Restaurant Expo, one of the company’s robots served us a […]
Scott Sutton Advises Advertisers on How to Avoid “Mis-Targeting”
Mis-targeting can not only waste ad dollars but can also damage brands reputations. Consumers like personalization provided the information being used is relevant to them. A new report shows that digital ads fail to meet their target promises. One study reported that “when brands run digital ads aimed at parents…67% don’t even have children” and […]
Report: Consumers Have Mixed Feelings on Spending
When it comes to spring spending in 2025, consumers plan to keep the home fires burning, as the British sang during World War I. In 21st century America, however, nothing spells patriotism like consumerism. Although consumer confidence has been taking a dive this year, falling to a 12-year low in March. With inflation persistent and […]
Commentary
Identify Relevant News Outlets and Publications
When brands engage with PR, they typically look for more than just media exposure. Their goal is to secure meaningful media exposure that boosts their brand authority. PR is only valuable if it gets a brand’s story in outlets and publications that connect with its target audience. To help their clients reach that goal, publicists […]
Sick of MFA sites? Protect Your Brand and Ad Dollars
Ever since the ANA put real numbers around the scope of the problem with “made-for-advertising” or MFA sites, advertisers have been up in arms—and understandably so. The idea that these essentially worthless ad placements represent 21 percent of impressions and 15 percent of overall ad spend is unacceptable. And yet our industry has accepted it—and […]
Streets Ahead: Tiktok Ban Looming, Trial Reels
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the looming TikTok ban and the Instagram roll out of Trial Reels. TikTok Ban Looming The News The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Friday in favor of the government, affirming that TikTok must divest from its parent company, ByteDance, by January […]
Latest Posts
‘Mellow’ From PetFriendly Helps Calm Pet Anxiety
Is there a pet owner who has never come home to a piece of damaged furniture, a shredded shoe, or mangle remote control? Unlikely. PetFriendly believes a little understanding is in order. Pets are like people in that they, too, have emotions, including anxiety. So many stimuli can harsh a pet’s mellow that we don’t […]
MULO Brands With Soul: January Picks
When tragedy strikes, the true MULO (multi-location) brand soul emerges. First, our hearts go out to all the people and businesses devastated by the LA fire. As of this writing, more than 10K homes and businesses have been destroyed. Close to 200K people are currently displaced. The media has been packed with stories of celebrities […]
Will Chicken Flicks Be the New Hallmark Movies?
Chick-fil-A is looking into creating its own streaming media network. Focusing on family-friendly programming, the MULO (multi-location) brand , Chick-fil-A , has been considering building its own proprietary network playlist. After all, that strategy worked for Hallmark, which is known as much for its romance, mystery, and family programming as it is for its greeting […]
MoviePass Wants Cinephiles to ‘Dream Bigger’
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep,” Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest. The line was appropriated in the 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon, whose titular object was much coveted amongst a group of underworld types, including fictional detective Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart. Any […]
Streets Ahead: Tiktok Ban Deadline, Meta Moderation Shift
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the approaching TikTok ban deadline and the shift in moderation strategy by Meta TikTok’s Fate Hangs in the Balance as Ban Deadline Approaches The News The future of TikTok in the United States hangs in the balance as lawmakers and courts wrestle with a TikTok ban and […]
Night Market and Keen Join Forces to Transform Marketing for Brand Advertisers
At CES 2025, Night Market, the commerce agency affiliate of Horizon Media, and Keen Decision Systems introduced a strategic partnership designed to tackle pressing challenges in modern marketing. This collaboration brings together Night Market’s NEON platform—an AI-powered retail media and storefront optimization solution—and Keen’s adaptive marketing mix modeling software to deliver a unified, next-generation approach […]
Adjusting Tone and Language While Building the Perfect Target Audience
To streamline the pitching process, many public relations professionals will work from a pitch template that gives them a structure they can easily update with the information pertinent to any particular pitch. In addition to cutting down on the time it takes to prepare a pitch, templates also help to ensure important information for the […]
What I Saw in 2024: 10 MULO Trends and Predictions
As a journalist, I’m used to telling the stories that others pitch to me. (BTW…keep sending me your stats and news throughout 2025! You can reach me at [email protected].) Indulge me for a few minutes while I offer my perspectives on the year of MULO (multi-location) brands based on everything I’ve gathered. Here are my predictions […]
2025 Social Media Playbook: Authenticity, Originality, and Community-Driven Engagement
The era of trend-chasing is over. According to the newly released 2025 Sprout Social Index™, consumers are reshaping their expectations for brand behavior on social media. The verdict? Authenticity, originality, and personalized connections are no longer optional—they’re essential. This shift is more than a passing phase. As Rachael Goulet, Director of Social Media at Sprout […]
Walmart Credits In-Person Retail for Its Growth, and It’s Not Alone
Walmart’s Q3 earnings call revealed something interesting: Walmart places much of its recent revenue growth and success on in-person shopping. “In-store volumes grew, pickup from store grew faster, and delivery from store grew even faster than that,” the company wrote about its U.S. locations. The growth of in-store shopping in an era of e-commerce accessibility […]
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