News and Analysis

SOCi Hits 300,000 AI Agents as Automation Goes Mainstream

SOCi Hits 300,000 AI Agents as Automation Goes Mainstream

AI agents are quickly moving beyond experimentation and becoming part of the operating infrastructure behind enterprise marketing. That trend was on display this week as SOCi announced that it has surpassed 300,000 deployed Genius Agents™, a milestone the company says establishes the largest deployed agentic workforce in marketing. The announcement underscores how rapidly enterprise brands […]

OOH Pushes Deeper Into Performance Media

OOH Pushes Deeper Into Performance Media

OOH advertising has long benefited from its physical presence in the real world. But as marketers increasingly demand the same level of attribution, interoperability, and performance accountability they expect from digital channels, the industry is racing to modernize how the medium is measured. That effort is now accelerating through a new initiative led by the […]

AI Agents Are Reshaping SEO for MULO Brands

AI Agents Are Reshaping SEO for MULO Brands

For multi-location brands and the agencies that serve them, maintaining consistent AI and local search visibility at scale is a resource problem, but AI agents are beginning to solve it. Managing local SEO across hundreds of locations means doing the same things you’d do for one location, including optimizing listings, responding to reviews, publishing posts, […]

Commentary

Streets Ahead: Google, Apple, and Siri Signal a New Era for AI, Search, and Commerce

Streets Ahead: Google, Apple, and Siri Signal a New Era for AI, Search, and Commerce

In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi examines how Google is rapidly consolidating its role as the underlying infrastructure powering the next phase of AI-driven discovery, decision-making, and commerce. From a multi-year partnership with Apple to power Apple Intelligence and Siri with Gemini, to growing adoption of Gemini across Search and Android, and now the […]

Why Trust Is Now the Strongest Brand Growth Lever

Why Trust Is Now the Strongest Brand Growth Lever

For brands, growth is no longer won by louder marketing or faster product launches. Brand growth is earned through trust. As buyers become more self-directed, AI reshapes discovery, and confidence replaces claims as the deciding factor, brands are being judged on how clearly, consistently, and humanly they show up across every interaction. In 2026, winning […]

Why 2026 Will Finally Change How Advertising Works

Why 2026 Will Finally Change How Advertising Works

For years, the advertising industry has talked about transformation. In 2026, it stops being a discussion and starts becoming operational reality. Agentic AI, collapsing silos between creative and media, and accelerating consolidation are no longer emerging trends—they’re actively reshaping how campaigns are built, activated, and staffed. The biggest shift won’t be that AI is involved, […]

Latest Posts

App Science Audiences Deliver Higher Attention Than CTV Averages, Study Finds

App Science Audiences Deliver Higher Attention Than CTV Averages, Study Finds

As connected TV shifts from a reach-first channel to a performance-driven medium, attention … not impressions … is emerging as the metric advertisers care about most. New research from TVision suggests that CTV effectiveness is increasingly shaped by audience strategy, not just premium inventory labels. The study found that campaigns using App Science audience segments […]

Why 2026 Will Finally Change How Advertising Works

Why 2026 Will Finally Change How Advertising Works

For years, the advertising industry has talked about transformation. In 2026, it stops being a discussion and starts becoming operational reality. Agentic AI, collapsing silos between creative and media, and accelerating consolidation are no longer emerging trends—they’re actively reshaping how campaigns are built, activated, and staffed. The biggest shift won’t be that AI is involved, […]

TikTok News, Local Rankings, & Google Reviews : Street Ahead Soci

Streets Ahead: TikTok News, Google Reviews, and the New Rules of Local Visibility

In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses TikTok emerging as the top news platform, evidence that service areas don’t influence Local Rankings and Google now moderating review responses. TikTok Emerges as the Top News Platform for Young Adults The News  New survey data from the Pew Research Center indicates that TikTok has overtaken long-standing social […]

The “Future of TV” Is Here: 4 Video Shifts That Will Define CTV Advertising in 2026

The “Future of TV” Is Here: 4 Video Shifts That Will Define 2026

For the past decade, ad tech has talked about the “future of TV.” In 2026, that future stops being hypothetical. The infrastructure is in place, streaming is now the primary viewing mode for many audiences, and measurement is finally tying exposure to outcomes. The result is a decisive turning point for video: CTV advertising shifts […]

2026: The Year the Industry Pushes Beyond Fragmented Video Advertising Measurement

2026: The Year the Industry Pushes Beyond Fragmented Measurement

2026 is shaping up to be the year the video advertising industry moves beyond accepting fragmented measurement. Between the midterm political spending crunch, the convergence of linear and streaming, and growing pressure from brands to deliver real business outcomes, the cracks in today’s system are becoming impossible to ignore. Some of the most significant disruption […]

Basis and Mediaocean Aim to Automate the Full Media Lifecycle

Basis and Mediaocean Aim to Automate the Full Media Lifecycle

In an advertising ecosystem increasingly defined by fragmentation, operational complexity, and rising pressure for accountability, automation has moved from incremental improvement to strategic necessity. That shift is at the heart of a new integration partnership between Basis and Mediaocean, which together are seeking to automate the entire media lifecycle , from planning and activation through […]

What Email Marketing Will Look Like in 2026

What Email Marketing Will Look Like in 2026

The inbox is about to get personal in ways we’ve never seen before. After years running cold outreach email marketing campaigns for hundreds of businesses and analyzing more than 50 million emails, I’ve watched the email channel evolve from spray-and-pray blasts to segmented sequences. But what’s coming in 2026 makes everything we’ve done look like […]

Think National, Speak Local: Why Content Localization Drives Brand Trust

Think National, Speak Local: Why Content Localization Drives Brand Trust

Brands earn attention when they sound like they belong. For national organizations, that sense of belonging doesn’t happen by accident. Content localization is the bridge between a big brand promise and a personal, community-level connection. It’s how a national healthcare message resonates in a small-town clinic, or how a nonprofit mission becomes a topic of […]

2026 Predictions: Where Multi-Location Brands Win Next

2026 Predictions: Where Multi-Location Brands Win Next

As we head into 2026, multi-location (MULO) and franchise brands are walking into one of the biggest opportunities we’ve seen in years. Not because there’s a shiny new channel that suddenly solves everything, but because Paid, Earned, and Owned Media are finally starting to work together in a way that rewards brands who think locally […]

Turning Reviews Into Intelligence: How Agencies Can Unlock Multi-Location Insights

Turning Reviews Into Intelligence: How Agencies Can Unlock Multi-Location Insights

For agencies managing multi-location businesses, reviews are no longer just a ranking factor or a measure of reputation. In today’s AI-driven local search ecosystem, reviews have evolved into a rich source of actionable intelligence — a tool that agencies can use to uncover operational issues, inform marketing strategies, and fine-tune brand messaging across locations. Treating […]