News and Analysis
Albertsons’ Turnaround Tests the Value of Local Control
Albertsons is trying to become a more efficient national retailer without weakening the regional banners and market knowledge that differentiate its stores. Its turnaround will test whether greater centralization can coexist with local execution while preserving the relevance customers expect from Safeway, Jewel-Osco, ACME and its other grocery brands. Why Albertsons Is Restructuring Albertsons has […]
DOOH Finds New Growth in Existing Screens
Digital screens already operating inside commercial buildings are creating new opportunities for DOOH advertising. Vertical City’s expansion to 10,000 elevator screens shows how existing infrastructure can become a scalable media network and why accessibility and measurement will determine its value to advertisers. Digital screens installed for building operations are becoming a new source of advertising […]
Best Buy and LG Expand Retail Media Into CTV
Best Buy is extending its advertising business into connected television through a new partnership with LG Ad Solutions, bringing its shopper audiences and sales measurement capabilities to television advertising. The agreement makes LG’s premium connected-TV inventory, including its Home Screen, available to U.S. advertisers through Best Buy Ads. The resulting combination gives brands a way […]
Commentary
You Can’t Call It Incremental If You Can’t Measure It
Incrementality is becoming one of advertising’s most overused claims. Without a true holdout and a disciplined test, reported performance can’t tell brands what would have happened anyway. Choosing a new DSP partner should really come down to one question: Does it bring genuinely different intelligence, or is it just another place to spend the same […]
Apple Maps are Becoming a Priority for MULO Brands
For most multi-location brands, and the agencies that manage their local SEO, Apple Maps has historically lived somewhere near the bottom of the priority list. It’s the platform you claim your listing on, fill in with basic information, and occasionally revisit if something needs fixing. Google Maps listings get the comprehensive audits, the dedicated review […]
Why Brands Need Every Location to Be Agent Ready
Agentic commerce, or the process of AI agents helping users research, compare, and, increasingly, complete local purchases, has moved from concept to reality. For a single-location business, getting ready for this means cleaning up one website, one set of listings, one menu, one booking system, to make sure their customer journey works equally well for […]
Latest Posts
Apple Maps are Becoming a Priority for MULO Brands
For most multi-location brands, and the agencies that manage their local SEO, Apple Maps has historically lived somewhere near the bottom of the priority list. It’s the platform you claim your listing on, fill in with basic information, and occasionally revisit if something needs fixing. Google Maps listings get the comprehensive audits, the dedicated review […]
Home Services Marketing Is Moving Beyond Search
Home services marketing has traditionally been built around capturing consumers when a local need turns into a search. Scorpion brought together OpenAI, TikTok, ServiceTitan and others to reflect on how that acquisition model is expanding as AI discovery, short-form video and operational data reshape the path from awareness to booked job. For home services brands, […]
DOOH Is Becoming a Local Conversion Channel
Digital out-of-home advertising has traditionally benefited from proximity. Put an ad near a restaurant, retailer or dealership and the physical location itself becomes part of the media strategy. Programmatic DOOH is making that relationship more precise. New research from Vistar Media, Omnicom Media and Annalect finds that something as simple as telling consumers where to […]
Sonic Turns Drink Customization Into Traffic Strategy
Restaurant chains are increasingly looking beyond burgers, sandwiches and value meals to create new reasons for customers to visit. Specialty beverages have emerged as one of the industry’s most active battlegrounds, and Sonic Drive-In believes its long history of drink customization gives it an advantage. The trend extends well beyond another seasonal menu cycle. The […]
Programmatic DOOH Still Isn’t Bought Like Digital
Programmatic DOOH (digital out-of-home) has spent years promising to make physical media easier to buy like digital advertising. New global data suggests that transition is well underway, but also shows how far DOOH still has to go before it becomes a routine component of the digital media plan. The World Out of Home Organization’s inaugural […]
Lowe’s Is Merging Marketing With Commerce
Lowe’s has made an organizational change that says more about the future of multi-location marketing than a typical executive promotion. The home-improvement retailer has expanded CMO Jen Wilson’s role to include Lowes.com and its third-party marketplace. Wilson, now executive vice president and chief marketing and digital commerce officer, already oversaw marketing, loyalty, personalization and Lowe’s […]
Why Brands Need Every Location to Be Agent Ready
Agentic commerce, or the process of AI agents helping users research, compare, and, increasingly, complete local purchases, has moved from concept to reality. For a single-location business, getting ready for this means cleaning up one website, one set of listings, one menu, one booking system, to make sure their customer journey works equally well for […]
MULO Brands Are Reinvesting in Human Service
For years, the direction of store and restaurant technology seemed clear: move more transactions into apps, kiosks and self-checkout, and ask employees to do less of the routine work. That investment has made many visits faster. It has also made the human service interactions that remain more consequential. Aritzia, Macy’s and McDonald’s are approaching that […]
Franchising Has a Local Marketing Execution Problem
By every headline number, franchising is having a fine year. The International Franchise Association projects industry output will top $920 billion in 2026, with franchise GDP climbing 1.8% and nearly 13,000 new units opening. On a boardroom slide, that’s a growth story. Walk the sidewalk in front of any given location, and the story looks […]
Yelp Moves Voice AI From Conversation to Conversion
Yelp and Hatch are among the first platforms integrating OpenAI’s GPT-Live-1, giving restaurant and service-business callers more natural conversations with AI. The resulting voice AI is connecting conversational models with the location data, business rules and operating systems required to turn a call into a booking. Voice AI is getting better at sounding human. OpenAI’s […]
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