News and Analysis
The MULO Dozen: April in Review
In April, Karla Jo Helms of JOTO PR Disruptors called our media outlet a “must-read for MULO (multi-location) brands navigating the fast-changing terrain of local, digital, and retail.” To that end, we bring you 12 top stories of each month from the retail, restaurant, service, franchise, hospitality, and convenience store ecosystem. What these brands are […]
“Consumer Discovery is Now a Free-for-All” Declares SOCI in New Study
The SOCI 2025 Consumer Behavior Index (CBI) reveals that marketers need to shift gears when it comes to search, declaring the industry’s state “the marketing crisis you didn’t see coming.” The study has enormous implications, as traditional search is evolving rapidly. According to their late-breaking announcement based on the index, the strategies that MULO (multi-location) […]
Optimizing for AI: Future-Proof Your Website for Search
Over the years, there have been many significant improvements in how search engines function. While these improvements have meant new changes in how company execute their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaigns, for the most part, the core fundamentals have been the same. However, in the past few years, AI technology has changed everything. Reliance on […]
Commentary
Achieving MULO Marketing Success With Contextual Advertising
Not only can multi-location marketing be effective for businesses that have multiple brick-and-mortar locations, but it can also be an effective way to reach a larger audience and build brand awareness in the radius of store or shop locations. When using multi-location marketing, it is important to consider the different needs of each location, however, […]
Leverage a Single View of the Customer in Real Time With Generative AI
It’s been almost two decades since we first heard “data is the new oil” and companies have tapped into that resource ever since, fundamentally changing the way we do business and how we talk to customers on digital channels. Raw data must be refined to realize its full value, but even with limited refining capabilities, […]
The Search Landscape, Humans & AI (& Pasta)!
The New York City landscape has changed, and so has the local search landscape. On November 7th, at Localogy‘s Place23 conference, a range of powerhouse groups and more than 100 senior marketing professionals came together to be the architects of our new future. Two of the panels at the Place event covered the challenges faced […]
Latest Posts
Leap-ing Into a New Retail Model: An Interview With Amish Tolia
We’ve all seen founders with great ideas and/or products take the big step to brick-and-mortar stores and then crash and burn due to various factors. Amish Tolia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Leap, a company that has disrupted the traditional commercial broker/landlord/tenant model for retail brands. Tolia founded the company about six years ago […]
How to Pick the “Right” Retail Media: A Perspective from Skai
Nich Weinheimer is the EVP of Strategy at Skai, an omnichannel advertising platform focused on walled garden media. These networks (walled garden media) are their own ecosystem and keep their customer data close. As reported recently, major MULO (multi-location) retailers are taking a page from the Google and Amazon playbook and developing their own advertising ecosystems. […]
Retail Media – Enabling Brands to Shift to an Audience-first Mindset
While retail media can trace its history back decades to humble in-store signage, cardboard cutout displays, and sampling tables, the retail media networks of 2024 are some of the most advanced advertising channels ever created. And with this sector forecast to hit a staggering $140bn ad spend worldwide this year, it has yet to fully […]
Placer.ai and TapClicks Partner for Deeper Marketing Analytics
Placer.ai, the leader in location analytics, and TapClicks, the leading provider of Smart Marketing solutions, have partnered to integrate real-time foot traffic data into TapClicks’ omni-channel reporting platform. This collaboration advances the ability for marketers to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior and thereby more conclusively prove the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. In conversation with […]
RM + AI = $$ (Retail Media Gets Smarter)
RM = retail media. It’s booming now as retailers, airlines, and restaurants launch their networks to enable in- and out-of-store marketing to consumers and prospects. AI = artificial intelligence (of course). MULO (multi-location) brands can have huge amounts of data and numerous ways to monitor in-store behavior, but if they’re not using automation to inform advertising […]
MULO Brands With Soul: A New Mini-Series
The term “soul” is all relative. Many MULO (multi-location) brands today aim to stay in business and thrive. They incorporate new technologies into their operations, aim to hire and retain competent and loyal employees and ensure they are selling/serving the products/foods/services that today’s consumers want (and that their marketing is well-targeted and cost-effective). So, where […]
BOOM: Retail is Rising!
Shopping center occupancy rates have dropped for the first time in a decade. According to Cushman & Wakefield, the retail vacancy rate is 5.4%, as reported in the New York Times. The article goes on to report on new and expanded shopping centers and malls throughout the U.S. This is consistent with a recent Street Fight […]
Building Brand Trust Is Multi-Dimensional
In this post-truth era, when the public trust has eroded around news sources, government, healthcare institutions, and myriad other pillars of society, trust and authenticity are difficult to establish. Now add a layer of brand verticals. What happens to brand trust? Vevo, MAGNA, and media agency Initiative conducted a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers this […]
30K Feet OOH! Targeted Airline Advertising
United Airlines just announced a new advertising program, targeting personalized ads to flyers based on demographics. Advertising to a captive audience on planes is nothing new. The original airline magazines and catalogs were popular back in the day. Pre-wi-fi, all we had to do was read paper media and watch and listen to whatever was […]
Connecting Retail Media Networks with Custom Audiences
Retail media networks (RMNs) are becoming a dominant force in the advertising world, propelled by the valuable first-party data they generate. This rise, however, also presents unintended challenges: the creation of walls around this data to protect consumer privacy and the retailer’s competitive advantage, resulting in a fragmented view of consumers. While safeguarding privacy is […]
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