News and Analysis
The Freezer Beyond the Grocery & C-Store
Cryotherapy is one of the latest categories to scale in the health, wellness, and longevity space. In this column, we’ve detailed how brick-and-mortar businesses have expanded far beyond the typical gym as the population ages and become more concerned about staying healthy longer. Highly specialized brands and franchises are offering body-related services like IVs. I […]
Early Spending Results are In! MULO BOOMs this Holiday Season
As of this writing, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (now seemingly extended to Cyber Week) are behind us. MULO (multi-location) pundits and agencies involved in retail and restaurant analyses and predictions are starting to call the winners and losers in the holiday Street Fight, which now involves battles between brands, products, SMBs, and MULO chains, […]
Street Fight LIVE Insights: Stopping at C-Stores with Mike Templeton
Some people collect snow globes or stickers on road trips. Others boast that they’ve seen all the National Parks. Still others have a thing for selfies in front of weird vintage structures. But Mike Templeton, one of the speakers at Street Fight LIVE stops at and collects insights from convenience stores (C-stores), the unsung heroes […]
Commentary
Blueshift CEO: Every Marketer’s Job Has Become Complex
What do major brands like StitchFix, CarParts, and Discovery+ know about digital marketing and AI that the little guys don’t? That’s a question best asked to the person responsible for developing cross-channel campaigns and customer engagement programs for some of the top brands in the country, Vijay Chittoor. As co-founder and CEO of Blueshift, a customer […]
Tinuiti Sees Real Bright Spots in the Digital Ad Landscape
Tinuiti, the largest independent performance-marketing firm that measures across Streaming TV as well as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, has published “Q1 2023 Digital Ads Benchmark Report”. This report looks at trends across the digital ad landscape of paid search, paid social, digital marketplaces, and video and display advertising. Tinuiti has nearly $4 billion in digital […]
BOOM: Multi-location Target from 1902 to the Future
We have no shortage of companies that go BUST. Just in the past few days, we covered the demise of Bed Bath & Beyond and Jenny Craig. The failure of multi-location brands cannot be attributed just to digital options, consumer trend shifts, and bad hires or financial bets. More complex factors seem to go into […]
Latest Posts
Unity – Walmart Partnership Redefines Gaming and Retail Collaboration
In recent years, we’ve seen an increasing comfortability with traditional retailers and the gaming industry. Fortnite may have been the first to really make this big business – through can’t-miss concerts and exclusive in-game and IRL shoe sponsorships with Nike – but the industry has certainly grown its ability to attract high-end partnerships like Unity […]
Yelp If Ya Hear Me
Whether you’re looking for pizza, pozole, or a plumber you can find some of the best local destinations on Yelp, a review site that crowd-sources recommendations from actual customers. For businesses, Yelp.com promises a reach of 80 million visitors per month, more than half of whom have a household income exceeding $100k. This year marks […]
Pre-gaming: MULO Brands at the Super Bowl
When Super Bowl LVIII kicks off in Las Vegas on February 11th, marketers will be on their couches and in the stands, eager to critique the advertising campaigns (and surrounding digital buzz). Just as CES is the “see and be seen” of technology brands (and the companies that use their products and services), the Super […]
AI Innovations Drive SymphonyAI’s 30% ARR Growth in Retail CPG
SymphonyAI witnessed remarkable growth and profitability in 2023, driven by it’s AI SaaS solutions in the retail and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sectors. The company, known for its predictive and generative enterprise AI applications, reported a surge of over 30% in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) within the retail CPG vertical. This significant growth was fueled […]
Life Beyond the Storefront: Breakthrough Branding
What constitutes a brand these days? Some MULO (multi-location) brands are known for their shopping bags. We often see Ikea bags in use for moving or other heavy lifting. The iconic blue carry-alls are even available on Amazon. The concept of “bag as brand” has been around for a while. Grocery chain Fairway used to […]
Chatmeter Advances Multi-Location Reputation Management with Pulse AI: Signals
Chatmeter, a leader in reputation management and multi-location intelligence, unveiled Pulse AI: Signals, a tool that leverages AI to provide real-time, actionable insights from customer commentary. This recently released solution marks a shift in how multi-location businesses can approach reputation management, setting new standards. Real-Time Insights for Multi-Location Businesses Traditionally, multi-location brands relied on keyword-matching […]
Interest in Alternative Currencies Grows, But Legacy Currency Still Reigns
The U.S. joint industry committee (JIC) granted “conditional certification” to three alternative ad currencies for cross-platform negotiations: Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp. The certification of these alternative currencies suggests that the industry is more open to the usage of alternative currencies, and that there is room for multiple currencies to transact against. Our insights back up […]
Pinstripes Goes Public
Eatertainment (the combination of dining and entertainment) is ringing the consumer bell these days, as multi-location (MULO) brand Pinstripes became a publicly-traded company under the ticker symbol PNST. The business deal with Banyan Acquisition Corporation (which changed its name to Pinstripes Holdings. will allow Pinstripes to expand to more locations. The brand currently has 14 […]
Navigating the Fragmented CTV Landscape: Strategies for Brands and Agencies
2023 was a year of exploration and education. As the industry begins 2024, agencies and brand marketers will continue to gain a better understanding while leveraging necessary campaign elements like transparency, incremental reach and co-viewing to navigate the new challenges and opportunities within the CTV (Connected TV) landscape. Today’s brand marketers are confronted with crucial […]
Is the Digital Agency Dying?
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quoted Forrester Research as saying that the “digital agency” will face its demise in 2024. As in the direct mail era, talent that specialized in a new medium was in demand, but then mail campaigns were replaced in part by digital marketing and most full-service agencies began […]
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