News and Analysis
Magnite Connects Retail Media’s Push Into CTV
Magnite is strengthening its role in retail media’s expansion into connected TV. Recent announcements from Walmart Connect and Best Buy Ads place its technology behind two arrangements connecting retailer audiences and sales measurement with television advertising inventory. For multi-location brands and agencies, the significance extends beyond another way to buy streaming ads. These connections raise […]
Chick-fil-A Draws a Line on Drive-Thru AI
Fast-food chains are racing to automate one of their most important customer touchpoints. Chick-fil-A is choosing a different route. CEO Andrew Cathy recently said the company does not intend to replace employees taking drive-thru orders with artificial intelligence. While competitors including McDonald’s and Wendy’s are testing or expanding voice-ordering systems, Chick-fil-A considers face-to-face service central […]
Yext Connects Agentic Marketing to Location-Level Decisions
The hardest part of marketing hundreds or thousands of locations isn’t simply doing more work. It’s knowing where the brand is winning, where it is losing and what action makes sense in each market. Two moves from Yext this week aim to connect that location-level intelligence with the people, AI agents and media budgets capable […]
Commentary
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 […]
AI Is Changing the Ad Fraud Fight
Ad fraud isn’t new to anyone running acquisition budgets across dozens or hundreds of locations. Multi-location marketers and agencies have dealt with click farms, bot traffic, and inflated app installs for years. What’s changing is the machinery behind the fraud. AI-driven ad fraud can now manufacture outcomes that mimic campaign success at a scale and level […]
AI Hallucinations: The Risk for Multi-Location Brands
AI search is quickly becoming a default research step before a customer visits a store, books a service, or calls a support line. For multi-location and enterprise brands, that often means AI-generated answers are shaping decisions across hundreds or thousands of locations, and those answers aren’t always accurate. When AI is asked about a brand, […]
Latest Posts
The Shopping Mall Is Becoming a Media Platform
The shopping mall has spent years evolving beyond a collection of stores. Dining, entertainment, events and other experiences have increasingly turned major shopping centers into places designed to give consumers more reasons to visit and stay. Now that evolution is moving into advertising. Simon Property Group has launched Simon Media Network, a commerce media platform […]
Ace Hardware Makes Retail Media More Local
Ace Hardware is expanding its retail media network around weather, store proximity, customer intent, and local inventory. Ace’s approach is showing how physical context can give retailers an advantage that audience targeting alone cannot. Retail media networks have generally been built around first-party customer data and proximity to a transaction. Ace Hardware is adding the […]
AI Is Changing the Ad Fraud Fight
Ad fraud isn’t new to anyone running acquisition budgets across dozens or hundreds of locations. Multi-location marketers and agencies have dealt with click farms, bot traffic, and inflated app installs for years. What’s changing is the machinery behind the fraud. AI-driven ad fraud can now manufacture outcomes that mimic campaign success at a scale and level […]
When Falling Store Traffic Isn’t a Marketing Problem
Lululemon plans to increase marketing as sales weaken across stores and ecommerce. Its challenge is determining which parts of the customer journey need fixing before applying the same response across an 825-location network. Lululemon plans to increase its marketing investment as it attempts to reverse declining sales and weakening brand sentiment. But before spending more […]
Yext Pushes AI Visibility From Measurement to Action
AI visibility is creating a new scale problem for multi-location brands: individual locations need to remain accurate, active and relevant across more digital surfaces than ever. Yext’s latest expansion reflects a broader shift from monitoring AI discovery to actively managing it. Knowing whether a brand appears in ChatGPT, Gemini or other AI-driven discovery experiences is […]
OOH Growth Signals Opportunity for Brands
World Cup-fueled revenue surge is highlighting how OOH has evolved beyond broad awareness. Digital inventory, localized activation and improved measurement are making the channel more flexible, relevant and accountable. Out-of-home advertising entered the summer with strong momentum as major events, digital-first advertisers and more flexible buying options helped drive increased spending. U.S. OOH revenue rose […]
AI Hallucinations: The Risk for Multi-Location Brands
AI search is quickly becoming a default research step before a customer visits a store, books a service, or calls a support line. For multi-location and enterprise brands, that often means AI-generated answers are shaping decisions across hundreds or thousands of locations, and those answers aren’t always accurate. When AI is asked about a brand, […]
Modern Media Planning Requires More Than Better Technology
Marketers have never had more data or more sophisticated technology at their disposal. AI can optimize campaigns in real time, while modern media planning tools can model thousands of budget scenarios in minutes. Yet many brands still struggle to turn those capabilities into better marketing performance. The problem isn’t necessarily the technology. It’s that the […]
DOOH Makes Its Case for More Digital Ad Dollars
Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) has spent years adding screens, data and programmatic buying capabilities. A series of recent developments suggests the next phase will be less about adding inventory and more about making that inventory easier to buy, measure and verify. Two announcements this week illustrate that shift. VIOOH has partnered with Screenverse to make […]
Samsung Turning Commercial Screens Into Ad Inventory
The digital screens already operating inside restaurants, retailers, hotels, gyms, and other commercial properties are increasingly becoming more than signage. They are becoming media inventory. Samsung Electronics America and Smartify Media are accelerating that transition through a partnership connecting Samsung commercial displays to Smartify’s digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising network. Samsung VXT Ads, Powered by Smartify, […]
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