News and Analysis
MULO Brands With Soul December Pick: Hummingbirds
Our previous Brands With Soul have all been retail, restaurant, service, and CPG brands with multiple locations (MULO) and millions of dollars to spend on rewarding their teams and giving to charities. But soul isn’t just for those brands. In fact, starting a business that serves MULO brands can be in the hands of an […]
‘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 […]
Commentary
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 […]
Streets Ahead: Meta’s Threads and Instagram Video Quality
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the continued growth of the Meta’s Threads platform and the Instagram move to adjust video quality based on popularity Threads Rapid Rise: 275M Users and Counting The News Meta’s Threads app, emerging as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), has rapidly grown, now boasting 275 million monthly […]
Latest Posts
The MULO Dozen: November in Review
As November and 2024 draws to a close, news from MULO (multi-location) brands has hardly slowed down! In fact, this season is a make-or-break for retailers, restaurants, C-stores, and service businesses as consumers travel near and far to eat, shop, and squeeze in those errands before the year ends. Of course, the biggest news of […]
Tinuiti’s CMO Tips for 2025
As if Google doesn’t have enough headaches, between the DOJ trial and calls for it to be broken up, now it has to contend with ChatGPT and Perplexity, which could destroy its search business. Those blue links of highlighted text curated on a Google search are becoming an endangered species, according Tinuiti’s Big Bets for […]
Streets Ahead: Evolution of Search, Social Platforms and Links
In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the AI driven evolution of search and explores the potential that social platforms are restricting the reach of posts with links. AI and the Evolution of Search The News Semrush, in partnership with Statista, has released a comprehensive report on the role of generative AI in th […]
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 […]
Toilets, Termites, and Terraces: A $1.2 Trillion Opportunity
When we think of franchise businesses and other MULO (multi-location) operations, we tend to think of retail, restaurant, convenience stores, and service businesses like walk-in clinics and tax prep services. But a huge category exists called home services. Although many of these operations do not require brick-and-mortar locations (beyond a co-working space or small office […]
What Innovid Brings to the Mediaocean Table
Once the Mediaocean acquisition of Innovid (for upwards of $500 million) goes through, the company will have one tough tech stack. “Being able to manage everything from Meta to TikTok to Snap, to now Reddit, is the latest one,” said Mediaocean CMO Aaron Goldman. Managing ads inside walled gardens is something that Flashtalking does very […]
MULO Brands With Soul November Picks: The Season of Giving
Rather than single out one brand this month, we will focus on how several MULO (multi-location) brands are leaning into giving this holiday season with tie-ins to philanthropic efforts. Aligning a brand with a specific charitable effort can be risky, so doing due diligence before selecting a cause is imperative today. You certainly don’t want […]
Does Holiday Ad Spend Pay Off? (And Early Indicators from Skai)
As we publish this, Black Friday is less than 48 hours away. Although data shows that people are now taking advantage of year-round sale days, the next week is still considered a “big boost” time for many MULO (multi-location) brands and the agencies that buy their media. According to up-to-the-minute ad buying data from advertising […]
Raptive Survey: Cleaning Is a Top Holiday Stressor
There is no rest for weary creators during the holiday season, but opportunities for brands abound. Raptive, a media platform that works with enterprise publishers and more than 5,000 creators, conducted a survey recently of more than 300 creators and more than 600 consumers about various topics related to the holiday season. Publishing verticals included […]
Holidays 2024 Installment 7: Christena Garduno Predicts the Spending Future
Christena Garduno is the CEO of Media Culture, a performance marketing agency. As we continue our Holiday Shopping 2024 trends predictions, she offers her perspectives on what and where people will experience retail gift shopping this year. What is your #1 prediction for the holiday shopping season? “Experiential retail will play an even greater role […]
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Continuously Adapting as Your Target Audience Evolves