News and Analysis
WeFranch Hits the Road in 2025 With a Team of Franchise “Stars”
The franchise space has become more complex and dynamic in recent years. A key part of the MULO (multi-location) landscape, it has its own subject matter experts, consultants, ecosystem, investors, and owners. One of the topics we’ll be delving into at Street Fight LIVE 2025 is the ever-evolving role of franchisors and franchisees in scaling, […]
Places Scout Acquired: Yext’s AI-Driven Future
Yext is rapidly redefining digital presence management through a strategic combination of AI-driven automation, competitive intelligence, and omnichannel customer engagement. The company’s latest acquisition of Places Scout, alongside its earlier purchase of Hearsay Systems and the launch of AI Review Generation, solidifies its position as a leader in helping multi-location businesses optimize visibility, outperform competitors, […]
Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Super Bowl Ad Review
If we didn’t do our gameplay replay of Super Bowl ad trends, we would be derelict as business media covering the media landscape. At $7-8M for a 30-second spot, big brands (and well-funded scaling brands) continue investing in this aspect of their media mixes. That’s a hefty spend, and unless it’s tied to other media […]
Commentary
As Cookies Crumble, Lotame Launches Solution to Help Digital Marketers
In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, the ability to harness and utilize data effectively is becoming even more important. Lotame has taken a significant step forward in enabling data collaboration with the launch of Lotame Collaborate and Lotame Onboarding. These innovative solutions, available through their data collaboration platform, Spherical, promise to change how digital […]
Subscription Fatigue: How Streaming Services Can Keep Customers Happy
Streaming is big business, and looks to only keep expanding in 2024 and beyond – with more players, more dollars to win, more subscribers, and a proliferation of new ad tiers. Eighty-three percent of Americans have at least one streaming service subscription and the average American subscribes to four services. For streaming platforms at first […]
When Gen AI Erodes Trust, Brands Take the Fall
Generative AI’s potential to change the way we work and shop holds amazing promise, but this new technology also poses heightened risks for brands. Maintaining customer trust will be a perpetual challenge as generative AI (GenAI) changes the fraud landscape in two important ways. First, GenAI is already making it easier for professional and amateur […]
Latest Posts
Christena Garduno of Media Culture: The Marketing Agency’s Future
Marketing agencies used to be able to woo clients with unique and emotional ad campaigns. Then, as media options became more varied, knowing how and where to spend ad dollars (print, television, radio, and ultimately online) was a critical factor. Today, agencies must deliver a full range of strategies and solutions, and data analytics and […]
Nexxen Partners with Vevo to Expand Programmatic Advertising in CTV
Nexxen, a leader in unified advertising technology with deep expertise in video and Connected TV (CTV), has announced a strategic partnership with Vevo, the world’s largest music video network. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both companies, as Vevo joins forces with Nexxen’s supply-side platform (SSP) to enhance its programmatic advertising capabilities, particularly across […]
Back-to-School Shopping Patterns 2024
Most holidays seem to have moved up in the calendar as opportunities for retailers and manufacturers to get a jump on back-to-school sales activities. In some warmer states, school starts in August. Parents sending their kids off to college need ample prep time to stock dorm rooms (and the closets and refrigerators within them). Amazon […]
SOCi, Dominating the CoMarketing Cloud Revolution
SOCi, Inc., the CoMarketing Cloud tailored for multi-location enterprises, has reached a significant milestone: $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). This achievement places SOCi among the exclusive ranks of global centaur companies, a status that is seven times rarer than the coveted unicorn status. Unlike unicorns, which are often valued based on speculative projections, […]
What’s Old was New at This Year’s Upfronts
This year’s Upfronts mirrored the changes taking place in the industry as there was a greater focus on streamers, with Netflix, Amazon and YouTube dominating headlines and generating more buzz than their broadcast and cable counterparts. Despite the industry’s desire to embrace new technologies and fully enter the streaming era, progress from years past appears […]
Streets Ahead: Google DOJ Ruling and Google’s Search Dominance
In this week’s Streets Ahead update from SOCi, we learn about the Google DOJ ruling and AI’s effect on Google’s search dominance Google Ruled a Monopoly in DOJ Case In a 2020 lawsuit, the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general accused Google of maintaining a monopoly, leading to a ruling by federal judge […]
Hallmark Launches its Own Media Channel
In the MULO (multi-location) retail world, Hallmark is one brand that has consistently been able to flex and scale — beyond the brick-and-mortar card store. Now, Hallmark is “joining the streaming fray.” The new media channel will (of course) be called Hallmark+, and it will make its debut in September. Hallmark has been way ahead of […]
Who Owns What in the MULO World?
Darden recently made a huge acquisition in the MULO (multi-location) food world, gobbling up Chuy’s fast-casual Mexican locations (100+) in a $605M deal. According to FSR Magazine, the holding company has also made some major acquisitions over the last decade. “Chuy’s marks Darden’s sixth acquisition in 15 years. In 2007, the company acquired RARE Hospitality […]
The Cookie Crumbled: Deprecation is Out, First-Party Data is (Still) In
While Google backed of its cookie deprecation plans, now is not the time for brands to become complacent. Smart marketers continue to prioritize third-party cookie alternatives to effectively and efficiently reach their audiences—and future-proof their targeting strategies, which are still likely to be impacted by privacy changes and signal loss. Google users will soon have […]
Mobility Data Optimizes Marketing for Retailers Amid New Lunch Trends
The working crowd still eats lunch. They just don’t do so at restaurants and take-out near their offices as much. Instead, they are saving their money to splurge on lunch out and drinks with friends on the weekends. A story on NBC.com went so far as to declare that “the lunch rush is dead,” citing […]
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