News and Analysis
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 […]
Unlocking Local Consumer Behavior: Foot Traffic Data Reshaping Fast-Food Strategies
Understanding consumer movement patterns is key to staying ahead. Foot traffic — the measurement of consumer visits to physical locations—provides critical insights into customer behavior, revealing trends in brand popularity, regional loyalty, and competitive positioning. dataplor, a leader in global location intelligence, has released a foot traffic analysis showcasing how these patterns shape fast-food preferences […]
SMBs versus Giants: The Street Fight Escalates
When Street Fight was founded about 12 years ago, the fight was defined as the battle between small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and big multi-location (MULO) brands. Technology and location finding were still in their early stages, and consumers were just beginning to use their smartphones to find “near me” businesses at which to spend. […]
Commentary
BOOM: Maxwell Bonnie Creates a New Industry for Smaller Manufacturers
Restaurants and retailers are “traditional” MULO (multi-location categories). But the business world is changing, and different types of brick-and-mortar enterprises are emerging as new industry. We’ve covered several MULO (multi-location) business categories that are appearing in response to business/consumer needs — like podcast studios, IV locations, and boutique gyms. Inventors and manufacturers are now proliferating. […]
Co-Op Advertising is Surging in Popularity — Here’s Why
Shopping isn’t what it used to be. Social media has not only impacted shopping, but it also altered the trajectory of supporting infrastructure like co-op advertising. Rather than visiting stores in-person, casually searching for products on Google, or sifting through email newsletters from their favorite retail brands, the majority of consumers today are using social […]
What CTV Can Learn From OOH Advertising Measurement
What if I told you (in Lawrence Fishbourne’s best Morpheus voice) that in some circles, OOH measurement is, in fact, more advanced than CTV’s equivalent? And that CTV has a lot to learn from its much older, but just as rapidly innovating, advertising brethren. Billboards, bus shelters, and airports in the public space are getting […]
Latest Posts
Raptive Connects Brands to Diverse Creator Media
When Raptive, which describes itself as a “creator media” company, launched Raptive Represents earlier this month to provide direct access to premium, diverse creator media at scale, it was also part of its partnership with Media Framework’s Media Advertising Vendor Encoding & Nomenclature (MAVEN). MAVEN helps buyers understand which media are majority-owned and controlled by diverse owners and supplies certificates so […]
“Momentjacking” is the New Holiday Promotion
You may have heard of “newsjacking.” It simply means that brands and influencers plan their social media posting and content around current events and consumer trends. However, as the world (and social media feeds) move faster than ever before and people jump on a wide range of “fauxlidays” (contrived holidays meant mostly for marketing purposes), reality […]
Pizza Industry Tech
“Let’s order a couple of pies!” … “Let’s grab a slice!” … Those suggestions are alive and well, as evidenced by Americans eating an average of 156 slices each year. The pizza industry is estimated at $46B. Local single-location pizza shops still exist, but the MULO (multi-location) giant Domino’s tops the list in terms of […]
MULO Outposts are In Vogue
What do we mean by a MULO (multi-location) outpost? It’s a brand that’s located within a “non-traditional” venue. For example, Hudson News is a standard airport tenant that sells magazines, treats, and travel-related incidentals for travelers to grab en route. They have more than 1,000 stores now in 37 states. Imagine this writer’s surprise when […]
Why Granular Voter Data Matters for Ad Buyers
Comscore, which plans, transacts, and evaluates media across platforms, is for the first time, sharing its Congressional District CTV Index data for some Congressional Districts in New York, California, Nebraska, and Alaska. With transformative data science and vast audience insights across digital, linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) and theatrical viewership, Comscore is a third-party source for […]
Who is Today’s Franchisee?
The answer is, “It could be anyone!” Among the new breed of franchisee (in addition to celebrities and private equity firms) are what we call “corporate refugees.” Experienced business professionals are burning out and aging out of big businesses and seeking autonomy, ownership, and creativity; they seek ways to operate and scale businesses without some […]
Is Bankruptcy the New Normal for MULO Brands?
Over the past year, we’ve featured many articles about multi-location (MULO) brands that declared bankruptcy (BUSTs). But we’ve also seen brands emerge from bankruptcy, become part of other companies (like Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock), and/or change their business model to be online-only (as Lord & Taylor did with its iconic brand). Some other […]
BUST: No-Booze Retailers
Although the alcohol-free cocktail market is on the upswing (over $162B in revenue this year), MULO (multi-location) retailers devoted to booze-free beverages seem to be struggling. Boisson was founded in Brooklyn in 2021 and expanded to Miami and Los Angeles. Although the company was planning on international expansion, it recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy […]
Flying Fries: Autonomous Delivery Takes Off!
Imagine this… You use your phone to order your pizza or burger (or perhaps a t-shirt because you didn’t pack properly for the weather) from a remote location. Within the hour, a drone, driverless car, or other autonomous “thing” brings you your food and beverage or fashion statement. What was considered sci-fi a mere few […]
How To Sustain Media Buys in Black-Owned Media
No single source seems able to pinpoint just how much brands allocate in dollars to ad inventory on Black-owned media in the U.S. But everyone seems to agree it should be more. This article cites media tracker Maven, which says there are upwards of 2,500 diverse-owned publishers alone and that 35% of those are Black-owned. […]
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