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 […]
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 […]
Breaking Boundaries: Microsoft’s App Store and the Epic vs. Google Ripple Effect
It has been an earth-shattering few weeks in the app ecosystem. First, in a groundbreaking move that has sent shockwaves through the tech industry, Microsoft has announced its plans to launch an app store within the Apple App Store – a move that holds significant implications for app developers, especially those in the gaming industry. […]
The New Grocery Store
The General Store of the 1800s eventually became the supermarket (when the Astor Market in New York and Piggly Wiggly in Tennessee opened their doors in the early 1900s. From 1915 to 1975, A&P was the largest grocery store in the U.S. (and the biggest retailer of any kind). Fast-forward to our current omnichannel and […]
Report: Retail Is Robust Again
The fickle finger of fast fashion just got longer in the U.S. market. According to findings from the Consumer Edge Insight Center fast fashion, defined as the reproduction of high-end fashion designs cheaply and selling them at retail for the masses, is even holding its own against luxury fashion. Retailers such as Shein, Temu, The Gap, Zara, Uniqlo, Topshop, […]
The MULO Dozen: December Brands in Review
As MULO (multi-location) brands prepare for the new year, they make bold moves — from new leadership to hot consumer trends we look at December brands in review. Here’s what we saw this month. Have news for 2024? Please e-mail me. Love’s names two new executives. The C-store “experience” is now officially a trend. (LEADERSHIP) 50 […]
Do You Have One of the Most Stressful Jobs?
You may think that managing marketing, business operations, or technology gives you daily headaches. But there are other more stressful jobs. This new “Top 10” report is one that MULO (multi-location) retailers would probably not want to hear about. According to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor, front-line retail management ranks high as […]
Holiday Blur: Retail Merchandise Accelerates
As of this writing, the trees, menorahs, and tinsel are still in living rooms and consumers have barely finished recycling their wrapping boxes, washing dishes from their December feasts, and returning from family visits. The ball in Times Square hasn’t dropped. And yet, retail merchandise for upcoming holidays is already on the shelves at many […]
Third-party Cookies, The Future is Here
The future is here. As the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2023, another clock gets set into motion: the beginning of the end of third-party cookies. Google’s long-debated cookie depreciation will begin in January incrementally and support for them will be gone by the end of the year. While anyone tracking this environment has seen […]
Ethan Chernofsky of Placer.ai on the Omnichannel Experience
One word we’ve seen non-stop in the MULO (multi-location) space over the past five years is OMNICHANNEL. Smartphones, the pandemic, and Amazon all accelerated this shopping style. The consumer not only decides which brands they like and what products they need (or want) but also how they want to buy them, pick them up, and […]
Unveiling the Crystal Ball: 5 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2024
As we say goodbye to 2023 and look forward to 2024, the digital advertising landscape is poised (yet again) for significant shifts and transformations. Here are five bold predictions that are set to reshape digital advertising in 2024. Political Ad Spend Will Soar to Unexpected Heights Creating Unanticipated CPM pain for ALL Marketers and Brands […]
10 Things We Saw in the Multi-Location Brand Space in 2023
Of course, we’ll be publishing predictions for 2024 and beyond, but here’s a brief recap of some of the major shifts (and tiptoes in new directions) in the MULO (multi-location) brand space in 2023. The pandemic is over…the virus remains…and some shopping and dining trends have forever changed. We’ll detail some of those evolutions (or […]
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 […]