local-marketing
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The Ad Agency That Made Three Menu Screens Behave Like One
For 33 years, O'Leary and Partners helped national brands sound human in local markets. Its cleverest trick was not a slogan - it was making the awkward machinery of franchises, dealers and three-screen menu boards disappear.
The NALA gave local businesses something worth talking about
A shoe drive, a neighborhood news story, a name remembered at the checkout. The Ventura agency built its pitch around the everyday places where local reputations take shape.
Z Media and the art of becoming the shopping cart lady
A real estate agent wants to be remembered when a neighbor decides to move. Z Media’s linked Market Billboards business puts that ambition on wheels - and beside the checkout belt.
West Advertising knew where the neighbors were looking
For 35 years, the Alameda agency connected local businesses and public institutions with the people around them. A $200,000 campaign and a rescued newsstand reveal what that work actually meant.
Monica Ho Keeps Re-Earning the CMO Seat
At SOCi, revenue climbed from roughly $10 million to more than $100 million while Monica Ho stayed in the same chair. Her trick is to treat the chair as rented, keep changing the job, and make room for the intern with the better TikTok idea.
Ashwin Ramesh Is Building the Boring Machinery That Makes Local Business Visible
He started with a three-dollar domain and a gaming server. Two decades later, the Synup founder is still turning tedious internet chores into software - now with AI back at his fingertips.
Mark Michael Spent 18 Years Making the Website Impossible to Ignore
He and Daniel Rust started building together in high school, burned through an early venture round, survived the pivots, and turned a quiet white-label CMS into infrastructure for franchise brands. The useful lesson is less about websites than staying with a problem long enough to see it clearly.
The Deals App That Grew Up and Became a Marketing Department
Shooger began as a mobile coupon network backed by $10 million and a cast that included an Emmy-winning Simpsons writer. When daily deals collapsed, it quietly became something more useful: a single marketing department that small businesses rent by the month.
The Saskatoon Company Quietly Selling Software to the People Who Sell Software
Vendasta doesn't sell to small businesses. It sells to the roughly 60,000 companies that already do - handing them a rebrandable marketplace, a CRM and, now, a payroll of AI employees to put their own logo on.
Evocalize
Evocalize is a Seattle-based marketing technology company that builds a collaborative, AI-powered platform enabling local businesses - especially real estate agents and mortgage loan officers - to launch and optimize sophisticated digital advertising campaigns across Google, Meta, TikTok, YouTube and direct mail with push-button templates. Its software is typically embedded within the tools of enterprise partners such as Realtor.com, Rate and MoxiWorks, and it operates a patented Digital Co-Marketing Network that lets agents and lenders run compliant, cost-shared campaigns together.
Momos
Momos is an AI customer platform for multi-location restaurant and retail brands. It unifies customer service, reviews, reputation, listings, feedback and local marketing into one system so operators can respond to guests, catch problems in real time, and turn reviews and feedback into repeat visits. Founded in 2021 by former Uber and Grab operators, Momos powers tens of thousands of locations across brands including Shake Shack, Baskin-Robbins, Just Salad and Guzman y Gomez.
Synup
Synup is a local marketing and digital presence platform that helps agencies and multi-location businesses manage listings, reviews, and social media from one place. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York, the company started as a way to keep business location data accurate across hundreds of directories, then expanded into reputation management, local SEO, and AI-driven review responses. In 2025 it launched Synup OS (Agency OS), an operating system that adds CRM, sales pipeline, invoicing, and client-lifecycle tools so agencies can run their whole business - not just their clients' local presence - in a single platform.
Matthew Marx
Matthew Marx is the co-founder and CEO of Evocalize, a Seattle- and Austin-based collaborative marketing platform that lets franchises, brokerages, lenders and multi-location brands push automated, compliance-friendly digital ad campaigns down to their local partners. A Babson MBA and 20-year marketing-technology operator, he built Evocalize after product leadership stints at Bazaarvoice, Oracle Retail, PA Consulting in London, and the MassPRIM pension fund.