News and Analysis
Shane Lukas Helps Solve “The People Problem”
In the weeks leading up to Street Fight LIVE 2025, we’ll be getting up close and personal with some of our speakers, encouraging them to share stories of how they found themselves in the MULO (multi-location) ecosystem. Such as Shane Lukas of A Great Idea. Meet Shane Lukas, who will be on stage discussing how […]
Michael Farmer: Mad Men are Now Mad Robots
In the weeks leading up to Street Fight LIVE 2025, we’ll be getting up close and personal with some of our speakers, encouraging them to share stories of how they found themselves in the MULO (multi-location) ecosystem. Michael Farmer has had a long and rich career in the advertising industry and is the author of “Madison […]
The MULO Dozen: August Brands in Review
BOOMs, BUSTs, and C-Suite leadership changes don’t cool off during the summer months. Our wrap-up of hot August topics proves that out! However, the hottest part of the Summer of 2025 is the big reveal of our impressive speaker lineup for Street Fight LIVE 2025, just a few short weeks away! Bravo! Italian Kitchen and […]
Commentary
How Retail Media and Performance Media are Shaping the Future of Brand Strategy
Shifting consumer behavior is driving a profound shift in how brands approach their marketing strategies. The once distinct silos of retail and performance media are no longer functioning as separate components of a brand’s advertising toolkit. Instead, they are converging into a unified framework that reflects the complex, nonlinear shopping journey of today’s consumer. This […]
Streets Ahead: Bluesky Soars and Google Expands
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the mass exodus from X to Bluesky and Google expanding its “Nearby Offers and Events” feature. Bluesky Usage Soars Amid Exodus from X The News In the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Bluesky, a two-year-old decentralized social media platform, has seen a dramatic rise in user […]
How AI Can Help Multi-Location Restaurants Prevent Another Health Crisis
What if restaurants could spot a health crisis before it spreads? With the help of AI, they just might. McDonald’s burger patties may not have been the culprit of its recent E. coli outbreak, which the company quickly traced back to slivered onions, but customers temporarily took a step back from the quick-serve restaurant’s top […]
Latest Posts
‘Tis the Season of Predictions: The Rise of Data Networks, According to Perion
We’re at that time of year again. We’re not just talking about holiday spending. It’s the season where industry experts have future thinking dancing in their heads like sugarplums. Daniel Aks, President of Undertone by Perion, predicts the rise of first-party data networks across financial and transportation sectors. He anticipates major ad tech mergers and […]
How Will You Advertise in 2025? Here’s What 3 Industry Leaders Predict
As part of our 2025 predictions series, we reached out to three companies that specialize in new (and refined conventional) ways to advertise to consumers. They are all relevant to MULO (multi-location) brands, along with targeted creator marketing, retail media, and other new (and old) forms of marketing. As streaming media becomes a more significant […]
Stop the Texting Madness! Jack Philbin on How to Not Get Blocked by Consumers
Jack Philbin is CEO at Vibes, a texting message platform many MULO (multi-location) brands use. We talked to him about how consumers view text messages and how to craft the right ones. Philbin stresses: “The most important thing marketers can do right now, especially as we enter the holidays, is to prioritize quality over quantity […]
‘Tis Swag Season: Year-Round Gifting Trends from Graham Walsh
This is the season of gifting for MULO (multi-location) brands and the suppliers, agencies and tech companies that support them. These brands: Give holiday and thank you gifts to their valued clients Buy giveaways for trade shows and conferences, and consumer activations Invest in employee incentives and keepsakes for team gatherings Stock their online shelves […]
SPB Now Stands for “Serve People Better”
Everyone loves a holiday miracle story! And that may be the turnaround of SPB, which took over a wide range of struggling brands. The abbreviation stood for “Steak, Pizza, and Beer,” but Josh Kern, the CEO, is now committed to changing its meaning to “Serve People Better.” That’s what he aspires to do with the […]
GumGum’s Grimace: The Ads that Stole Christmas
Forget privacy issues. Re-targeted ads are in cahoots with the Grinch, stealing the joy of surprise from Christmas. Nobody can be blamed when opening up a gift and thinking, “Now where have I seen that before? Oh yes, ads for it were sprayed across all my social-media accounts and everywhere I went on the Web.” […]
BUST: The Party is Over for Party City
Although we’d love to keep things festive and bright this holiday season and report just on future trends and greatest hits of 2024, the sad reality is that some retailers can’t keep the lights on. According to CNN, Party City is the latest retailer to announce that it is closing all its stores and going […]
Streets Ahead: Tiktok to Supreme Court, ChatGPT Search Sources
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses TikTok taking its battle to the Supreme Court and the sources that support ChatGPT in the search landscape TikTok Appeals to Supreme Court in Fight Against Ban The News TikTok is taking its battle to the Supreme Court following the passage of a U.S. law requiring its […]
ARound Uses AR To Bring Live Events to Life
Imagine sitting in a stadium, watching your favorite sports team compete when suddenly the whole place is transformed into an Alaskan wilderness. That actually happened during a Rams game in SoFi Stadium earlier in the fall when ARound created one of its shared experiences. The augmented reality company owned by Stagwell, combines broadcast and mobile […]
MULO + HYLOMOS = Local Search Grows Up
Street Fight coined two terms, MULO and HYLOMOS, that will significantly impact the retail, restaurant, service, and other industries in 2025 and beyond. MULO stands for multi-location. They could be brands with thousands of storefronts worldwide, home services businesses like those managed by Neighborly, or even a small one-location company with franchise plans. HYLOMOS is […]
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