News and Analysis
Pizza Industry Tech
“Let’s order a couple of pies!” … “Let’s grab a slice!” … Those suggestions are alive and well, as evidenced by Americans eating an average of 156 slices each year. The pizza industry is estimated at $46B. Local single-location pizza shops still exist, but the MULO (multi-location) giant Domino’s tops the list in terms of […]
MULO Outposts are In Vogue
What do we mean by a MULO (multi-location) outpost? It’s a brand that’s located within a “non-traditional” venue. For example, Hudson News is a standard airport tenant that sells magazines, treats, and travel-related incidentals for travelers to grab en route. They have more than 1,000 stores now in 37 states. Imagine this writer’s surprise when […]
Why Granular Voter Data Matters for Ad Buyers
Comscore, which plans, transacts, and evaluates media across platforms, is for the first time, sharing its Congressional District CTV Index data for some Congressional Districts in New York, California, Nebraska, and Alaska. With transformative data science and vast audience insights across digital, linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) and theatrical viewership, Comscore is a third-party source for […]
Commentary
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Latest Posts
Stepping Up Brand Protection with AI-Powered Risk Monitoring
Maintaining a positive online reputation is extremely important for businesses in our digital world, especially for multi-location brands. With the rise of social media and online review platforms, negative commentary and potential crises can spread rapidly, posing significant threats to a company’s reputation and profitability. In an attempt to help MULO marketers address this challenge, […]
A Marketer’s Guide to Transitioning from Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies are going away. Not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but in the months to come, marketers will come face-to-face with the reality of a new world of marketing measurement. Google appears to be committed to their complete blocking of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024, so marketers need to prepare […]
Why Some MULO Brands are Going Online-Only
This week, Outdoor Voices announced that the company is closing stores and migrating its business to online only. Will they re-brand “Indoor Voices?” Joking aside, the move appears essential for the popular athleisure brand to remain alive. They are hardly the first brand to go from MULO (multi-location) outposts to just the screen. Athleisure is […]
BUST: Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts Needs to be Re-Stitched
We recently covered the challenges of the MULO (multi-location) crafts industry and speculated on whether the giant stores that sell sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, and other creative supplies and classes would survive. The question is still unanswered, despite the fact that 81-year-old Ohio-based Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts (JOANN) just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. All of […]
OOH Will See Record Political Ad Spending in 2024
Alright, we survived Super Tuesday and its political ads, but the OOH ad-media beatings won’t stop until the election is finally over. And even then, we can’t be sure. From now until November, U.S. voters must endure messages around choosing a president, 33 senate races, representatives for all 435 seats of the House, and 14 gubernatorial […]
Embracing AI in Media and Advertising
History changes slowly and then overnight. A mere two years ago, the early publicly-available generative AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google looked like curiosities–intriguing but plagued by obvious limitations. Today these models have advanced so far and so fast that they are already well on their way to changing media and advertising forever. AI is […]
Voices Amplified: How Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules for Brand Accountability
Today, consumer voices can be magnified across channels with the click of a button. The power of the consumer is undergoing a seismic shift, providing both opportunities and challenges to businesses around the world as they rewrite the “rules” of brand accountability. Traditional online review sites are no longer the only medium to share opinions. […]
How NXTDRIVE’s Data Can Target without Cookies
When American Furniture Warehouse (AFW) wanted to expand its customer base in Texas and Arizona it turned to Vericast, a marketing technology and data company, whose NXTDRIVE™ customer data marketing platform (CDMP) was made available to retail marketers nationwide earlier this year. Using NXTDRIVE, AFW and Vericast were able to supplement and enrich the retailer’s […]
How to Find the Perfect Spot for Your Restaurant
A huge key to the success of MULO (multi-location) brands is knowing which cities, neighborhoods, streets (and even which side of the street) to put a location. Technology is now playing a huge role in distribution planning. Brands used to pick their locations using maps and a wide range of demographic data. They would also […]
One Location Wonder: MULO is Not for Everyone
Some MULO (multi-location) brands measure success by the number of locations they have. However, other retail, restaurant, and service businesses choose to remain small and mighty. Lisa Richards, Founder and CEO of RPZL (as in Rapunzel), falls into the second category. She has one location now but has found ways to scale creatively without adding […]
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