News and Analysis
Inside the Dutch Bros National Expansion Strategy
Opening more coffee shops may be the most visible part of the Dutch Bros growth strategy. Behind the scenes, however, the company is building something just as important: the marketing infrastructure needed to acquire customers more efficiently, personalize engagement, and increase customer lifetime value. As Dutch Bros expands nationally, that infrastructure may prove to be […]
Vevo Brings Premium Music Videos to MULO Brands
Vevo is bringing its premium music videos into brick-and-mortar businesses through a new partnership with Rockbot, giving MULO brands another way to create more engaging and consistent in-store experiences For multi-location brands, the in-store experience is becoming an increasingly important competitive differentiator. While digital channels continue to dominate customer acquisition, what happens inside a physical […]
Thryv Adds Revenue Intelligence for Franchise Brands
For franchise brands, generating leads is no longer the primary challenge. The bigger opportunity is understanding why some locations consistently convert demand into revenue while others struggle despite receiving similar marketing support. That shift is reflected in Thryv’s latest integration with Breesy AI, which combines customer acquisition, engagement, and operational intelligence into a unified view […]
Commentary
Google’s New AI Search Rules Create a Challenge for MULO Brands
Google recently published its first official guide to optimizing websites for generative AI Search features. For single-location businesses, the guidance is fairly straightforward. For multi-location brands (MULOs), the same principles apply, but the complexity of executing them scales dramatically with every location you add. Here’s what the guide says, and what it actually means if you’re […]
Why MULO Brands Are Investing More in Creator-Led Marketing
Creator-led marketing is rapidly evolving from an experimental tactic into a core component of many brands’ growth strategies. As consumers spend more time with creator-generated content and place greater trust in peer recommendations than traditional advertising, marketers are increasingly turning to creators as a scalable channel for customer acquisition, engagement, and brand building. The trend […]
Why MULOs Need a Localized Unstructured Citation Strategy
Citation management for multi-location businesses has long been a structured affair, consisting of claiming listings for each location, ensuring NAP data is up to date and consistent across those listings, and repeating for every location in the portfolio. These types of structured citations still matter for local SEO, but with the advent of AI-powered search, […]
Latest Posts
Google’s New AI Search Rules Create a Challenge for MULO Brands
Google recently published its first official guide to optimizing websites for generative AI Search features. For single-location businesses, the guidance is fairly straightforward. For multi-location brands (MULOs), the same principles apply, but the complexity of executing them scales dramatically with every location you add. Here’s what the guide says, and what it actually means if you’re […]
The Goddard School Is Changing How Franchise Marketing Gets Done
Growth creates a unique challenge for franchise organizations. Every new location expands revenue opportunities, but it also adds complexity. More locations mean more local marketing channels to manage, more reviews to monitor, more business listings to maintain, and more customer interactions that require attention. At a certain point, growth itself begins to change how marketing […]
What Yelp’s Fastest-Growing Brands Reveal About Consumer Behavior
Every year, lists of the fastest-growing brands offer more than a snapshot of corporate success. They provide insight into what consumers increasingly value, how preferences are evolving, and where demand is moving next. Yelp’s 2026 Fastest-Growing Brands report does exactly that. Based on growth in consumer engagement across the Yelp platform, the rankings highlight brands […]
Why MULO Brands Are Investing More in Creator-Led Marketing
Creator-led marketing is rapidly evolving from an experimental tactic into a core component of many brands’ growth strategies. As consumers spend more time with creator-generated content and place greater trust in peer recommendations than traditional advertising, marketers are increasingly turning to creators as a scalable channel for customer acquisition, engagement, and brand building. The trend […]
Why the World Cup Is Really Thousands of Local Marketing Moments
The biggest mistake brands make when approaching the FIFA World Cup is treating it as a single media event for local marketing. In reality, the tournament is thousands of simultaneous local moments unfolding across cities, neighborhoods, bars, restaurants, transit hubs, streaming platforms, and cultural communities. For agencies, media companies, and multi-location brands, that distinction may […]
Nielsen and Mediaocean Bring Advanced Audiences Into Linear TV’s Core Workflow
For years, advanced audience targeting has been one of the biggest promises in TV advertising. The challenge has never been defining sophisticated audience segments—it has been carrying those audiences consistently from planning and buying through measurement and reporting. That is the problem Nielsen and Mediaocean are now attempting to solve. The companies announced a new […]
Walmart and Magnite Signal Retail Media’s Next Phase
Walmart’s new partnership with Magnite may signal a broader shift in how retail media networks operate. Rather than requiring advertisers to work within retailer-controlled ecosystems, companies are increasingly looking to make their first-party data available across the platforms agencies already use. For multi-location brands and agencies, the move points toward a more interoperable future for […]
Why MULOs Need a Localized Unstructured Citation Strategy
Citation management for multi-location businesses has long been a structured affair, consisting of claiming listings for each location, ensuring NAP data is up to date and consistent across those listings, and repeating for every location in the portfolio. These types of structured citations still matter for local SEO, but with the advent of AI-powered search, […]
What the FBI’s DOOH Strategy Teaches Marketers
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising has traditionally been viewed as a channel for building brand awareness, driving store visits, and influencing purchase decisions. But one of its longest-running use cases highlights a different strength: its ability to generate real-world action quickly and at scale. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) recently announced the […]
Scooter’s Coffee Growth and the Future of Franchise Marketing
As multi-location brands push deeper into expansion mode, one of the biggest operational challenges is no longer simply opening new locations. It is maintaining consistent customer engagement, local visibility, and brand standards across hundreds of markets simultaneously. Scooter’s Coffee is increasingly confronting that reality firsthand. The rapidly growing drive-thru coffee chain, Scooter’s Coffee, has expanded […]
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