News and Analysis
Gregg Majewski, CEO of Craveworthy Brands, on Restaurant Trends
Gregg Majewski is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Craveworthy Brands, a multi-concept restaurant platform company and franchisor that launched in 2023. Majewski has built the MULO (multi-location) company brick by brick, adding iconic brands such as viral Dirty Dough, Food Network-founded Taim Mediterranean Kitchen, and Southern California-favorite Fresh Brothers Pizza. Earlier this year, […]
10 Design Offers Four MULO Design Principles for Brick-and-Mortar
10 Design is an architectural design firm that has created retail spaces (and mixed-use complexes) globally. 10 Design asserts, “Brick and mortar retail isn’t dying. It’s evolving. The most successful retail spaces today merge commerce, culture, and community, turning shopping into an immersive experience.” That principle can be applied to MULO (multi-location) retail design in […]
A BOOM and a BUST: Harry & David & Hooters
Openings, expansions, and bankruptcies are standard fare in the MULO (multi-location) retail and restaurant space. This month, we saw one significant opening and one bankruptcy declaration in the MULO ecosystem. Harry & David recently announced they are getting back into the retail game. This 91-year-old seller of gift baskets and gourmet food items shuttered most of its […]
Commentary
A Marketer’s Guide to Transitioning from Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies are going away. Not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but in the months to come, marketers will come face-to-face with the reality of a new world of marketing measurement. Google appears to be committed to their complete blocking of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024, so marketers need to prepare […]
Embracing AI in Media and Advertising
History changes slowly and then overnight. A mere two years ago, the early publicly-available generative AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google looked like curiosities–intriguing but plagued by obvious limitations. Today these models have advanced so far and so fast that they are already well on their way to changing media and advertising forever. AI is […]
Voices Amplified: How Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules for Brand Accountability
Today, consumer voices can be magnified across channels with the click of a button. The power of the consumer is undergoing a seismic shift, providing both opportunities and challenges to businesses around the world as they rewrite the “rules” of brand accountability. Traditional online review sites are no longer the only medium to share opinions. […]
Latest Posts
Who’s Minding the Store? Who’s Watching the Kids?
This election season, the issue of childcare is a significant topic of conversation. MULO (multi-location) brands are already challenged by labor shortages, rising minimum wages, and ongoing retention challenges. Add to that scheduling and expense challenges that arise from childcare duties and those challenges get even more complex. Childcare costs in the U.S. are staggeringly […]
Automotive Advertisers Set Sights on CTV
Fresh from releasing its H2 2024 H2 Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Market Report, Mediaocean, an omnichannel ad platform, is out with its H2 2024 Automotive report. While linear TV remains a much cited choice for ad spend because of its ability to raise and spread product awareness, CTV has come on as the new darling channel […]
Streets Ahead: Yelp 2024 State of Services, Google Review Policy
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi looks at Yelp’s 2024 State of Services report as well as the conclusion of Google’s new efforts to tackle fake reviews. Yelp Publishes 2024 State of Services Report The News Yelp’s annual report on the state of services indicates that the home services industry is set to break new […]
The Drive-Thru Keeps Growing (Literally)
A new Chick-fil-A concept store offers six-second meal prep and a four-lane drive-thru. After all, we live in a fast-paced, impatient world, and getting your food faster without leaving your car is a common practice these days. During the pandemic, the drive-thru became a regular part of our lives. Operators now realize that this model […]
Why is Waffle House So Successful? An FSR Conversation with Danny Klein
Danny Klein is the Editorial Director of FSR (full-service restaurant), a media company covering the food industry. A recent study on the top brands in the FSR world has implications for any MULO (multi-location) brand—restaurants, retailers, and service businesses. The study, created in partnership with Datassential, ranks the brands based on their number of units. The […]
AI in Advertising, According to Criteo
Romain Lerallut, VP of Engineering at Criteo, believes that AI will play a fundamental role in advertising for MULO (multi-location) brands. Enabling marketers to “speak” directly to consumers at all stages of the decision-making and purchase process, AI will not only result in more effective campaigns but also save companies advertising dollars and resources. What […]
Pharma, Healthcare Brands Optimistic about Tech and Its Impact on Media Spending
Media spending by big pharma and other healthcare brands is getting better all the time this year. New findings from Mediaocean’s 2024 H2 Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Market Report, based on surveys conducted via Tech Validate in July 2024, say so. The report references data collected from a specific subset of 151 leading pharmaceutical and healthcare […]
How to Get That Precious Email Address: A New Study by LiveIntent
Close to 40 percent of brands are increasing their email budgets. Although consumers’ inboxes remain packed, email marketing remains one of the most effective options for targeting and attribution. A new survey by LiveIntent offers some compelling data and implications for those MULO (multi-location) marketers using email as part of their marketing strategy. The biggest […]
Sports Innovation Lab Forms Partnership with Dentsu
Like most reasons for ad-marketing partnerships, it is all about the data. So too with the one just announced between Dentsu and the Sports Innovation Lab (SIL). The goal is for clients of both entities to have specialized access to sports audiences across any publisher or platform. Dentsu is the first holding company to partner […]
Intent, Context and Attention: 3 Signals Helping Brands See in the Dark
After Google’s cookie drama, you’d be forgiven for feeling like the lights have been switched off. But when discussing what’s next, there’s yet another major topic largely and mysteriously absent – the consumer. How does the public feel about the intent of people-based tracking and profiling online? And how will that help or hinder our […]
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