News and Analysis
2025 Social Media Playbook: Authenticity, Originality, and Community-Driven Engagement
The era of trend-chasing is over. According to the newly released 2025 Sprout Social Index™, consumers are reshaping their expectations for brand behavior on social media. The verdict? Authenticity, originality, and personalized connections are no longer optional—they’re essential. This shift is more than a passing phase. As Rachael Goulet, Director of Social Media at Sprout […]
Walmart Credits In-Person Retail for Its Growth, and It’s Not Alone
Walmart’s Q3 earnings call revealed something interesting: Walmart places much of its recent revenue growth and success on in-person shopping. “In-store volumes grew, pickup from store grew faster, and delivery from store grew even faster than that,” the company wrote about its U.S. locations. The growth of in-store shopping in an era of e-commerce accessibility […]
The MULO Dozen: December in Review
What a year we had! MULO (multi-location) retailers, restaurants, and service businesses have BOOMed and BUSTed, the C-suites have seen many changes, and consumers continue to shop, research, and spend both in-store and online. They are compelled to find places and products via local search, as well as by social media pundits, retail ad networks, […]
Commentary
BUST: The Very Public Demise of Bed Bath & Beyond
Who will remember the brand Bed Bath & Beyond in a few years, and what will they say? Only time will tell, but in the interim, the retail media has had no fodder shortage over the past few weeks, dissecting how and why this iconic multi-location brand declined and ultimately declared bankruptcy. Monday morning quarterbacks […]
Pop Goes the Pop-Up Shop — For Big Brands and Mom & Pops
The Pop-up shop has long been part of the retail and restaurant landscape. They are temporary locations. Multi-location brands may take their products into small footprints or new configurations and venues and small brands may start with a limited-run concept and then expand it. 5 Pop-Up Models Some are seasonal. For example, Bryant Park in […]
The Home Depot’s Melanie Babcock on the Rise of Retail Media Networks
Melanie Babcock joined The Home Depot in 2013 as Senior Director of Social Media and rose through the ranks to become Vice President of Retail Media+ and Monetization in February of this year. RM+ is the largest home improvement retail media network. StreetFight sat down with the Ann Arbor, Mich., native to get her insights […]
Latest Posts
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 […]
Snack Tech: The Ultimate Brand Loyalty App
Cookies and chips are tech terms. But now digital meets dough (both kinds) as one MULO (multi-location) bakery brand is getting noticed for its loyalty app. Crumbl (a 700-location brand) has been shouted out in food and beverage media as having one of the top 10 apps. It is #6 in the top 10 most […]
Industry Changes Ahead for Marketers: Cookie Deprecation, Dirty Data, and AI
With 2024 here, marketers need to prepare for a few big industry changes. The deprecation of third-party cookies and the death of the traditional customer journey will greatly impact marketing strategies, transforming how businesses engage with their customers. Marketers also must tackle the elephant in the room: dirty data. Accurate, unified data is the vital […]
BOOM: Tutoring & Learning Centers
It’s a (sad) fact. About half of students in 2023 started the school year behind grade level.The pandemic, combined with digital distractions, has had an impact on how kids are performing in school. But MULO (multi-location) tutoring centers are coming to the rescue. The private tutoring market is expected to grow to $106 billion by […]
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