Closing the franchise gap: local marketing in the age of AI
Brands own the strategy. Franchisees own the execution. AI search is turning the gap between them into a visibility problem.
Why do 51% of brands and franchisees say they can't tell what's working locally? Franchisees rate AI search visibility as critical more often than brands do (82% vs. 69%). Who's right?
Watch and learn: how brands and franchisees split the work so local marketing holds up market by market.
The one operating model that closes the gap
Amparo Gil of Pizza Hut, industry analyst Greg Sterling of Near Media, and Christian Arriola of Uberall break down new data on where brand and franchisee marketing pulls apart, and what the highest performers do differently. Recorded in partnership with the International Franchise Association (IFA).
You'll learn:
- Why nobody can see what's working: 51% of brands and franchisees can't attribute local marketing results. What's broken in the measurement layer, and how to fix it without new tooling.
- The AI search urgency gap: 82% of franchisees call AI search visibility very important or critical, against 69% of brands. Franchisees feel it first because they lose the walk-in. Here's what that means for how you prioritize.
- The shared-responsibility model: Only 25% of brands and 20% of franchisees run one, and it's the approach that actually closes the gap. See how the split works in practice, from listings to local social.
- Local social as a ranking signal: Local social now shapes local rankings and whether AI tools recommend your locations at all. What franchisees should post, and what corporate should hand them.
Local marketing at franchise scale isn't a control problem. It's a division-of-labor problem, and AI search has raised the cost of getting it wrong.
Watch the session for the data, the model, and how Pizza Hut runs it across its network.
