Creme de la Creme: Franchise Industry News February 2026

Welcome to Creme de la Creme: Franchise Industry News - a publication that brings you the latest news from the franchise world’s most influential characters.

From AI-driven discovery to evolving franchise regulations, the landscape of franchising is shifting fast. This month’s issue spotlights how AI influences franchise buyers, Valentine's Day marketing campaigns that actually work, and how adding simple videos to your website could be a total game changer for your brand in 2026.

Sit back and relax as SeoSamba brings you highlights from the incredible world of franchise influencers, shedding light on the latest developments and achievements within the franchise industry.

The Results Are In! SeoSamba’s Top 100 Franchise Influencers of 2026 

We’re thrilled to announce the first 10 awardees on the 2026 SeoSamba Top 100 Global Franchise Influencers list, spotlighting the innovators and visionaries shaping the future of franchising. This is a list of standout leaders shaping the future of franchising, highlighting those whose ideas, innovation, or advocacy make a measurable impact on the industry. 

The winners are strategists, educators, founders, consultants, and community voices, who are moving the franchising industry forward.

We're continuing to recognize innovators from the 2025 SeoSamba Top 100 Global Franchise Influencers list , spotlighting the visionaries shaping the future of franchising. Last year’s honorees include Dan Rowe from Fransmart, which is said to be one of the largest restaurant franchise development firms in the world, specializing in finding the next "big thing", Dan Archer from Visiting Angels, who believes that in the care sector, individuals can make a difference, however, a network of franchisees can really drive a substantive change. Doug Downer of Franchise Ready, which provides support to emerging and existing franchisors through the development of The Franchise Ready Franchised/Licensed model throughout the world.  Janice Charles, Franchise Succeed, a company that helps small businesses scale nationwide through franchising. Mark Jameson of Propelled Brands, provider of best in class support to help franchises chart their path forward based on their unique position, momentum, and purpose. Danielle Wright from The Franchising 360 Show, where the focus is on helping franchisors strategically grow their brands and achieve their goals, and John Hayes from the Titus Center For Franchising, where he creates new talent for franchise companies by teaching them Concentration in Franchising.

SHAKERS & MOVERS

Franchise World Updates: Who's Moving Up and Who's Taking New Roles

Congratulations to all the professionals making strides in their careers! Here's a quick look at the latest movements in the franchise industry:

Prit Sen- FranMetrics

New Role:  Head of Growth & Client Success

Company Overview:  Franmetrics is a specialized, cloud-based software platform designed for franchisors and franchisees to aggregate financial data, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and benchmark unit-level performance

James Holguin- Better Buzz Coffee

New Role: VP of Operations

Company Overview:  Better Buzz Coffee is a craft coffee franchise serving organic, fair-trade coffee that  offers franchisees a rapidly growing, high-quality, and community-focused specialty coffee brand.

Lynn Stewart GTML- ATC Healthcare Services

New Role: VP Franchise Development
Company Overview: ATC Healthcare provides qualified healthcare professionals to facilities to empower world-class care and is a national healthcare staffing franchise leader.

Jim Lusardi- My CPA Coach

New Role: COO
Company Overview: My CPA Coach is a specialized tax advisory service that focuses on proactive, high-level tax planning, entity structuring, and legal tax savings for high-income earners.

Professionals On The Move

Meet Jessica Martin, Fractional CMO

Jessica Martin specializes in bringing order to fast-growing, mission-driven organizations where marketing complexity has outpaced internal systems. With nearly a decade of leadership inside a national payroll outsourcing franchise, she understands firsthand what breaks when brands scale—and how to fix it before growth stalls.

Now operating independently, Jessica partners with franchise networks and nationally scaling brands as a fractional CMO, applying disciplined performance marketing, systemized training, and movement-building strategy to align teams, eliminate friction, and drive sustainable revenue growth year over year.

She thrives in environments where strategy must translate cleanly into execution. Whether architecting training systems that accelerate franchisee performance by 50%, coaching leadership teams to triple sales output, or unifying corporate vision with local market execution across distributed networks, Jessica operates at the intersection of systems architecture and human potential.

Who benefits most from working with Jessica:

Established organizations generating $20–$50 million in annual revenue that have outgrown ad-hoc marketing, feel internal drag between teams, or are scaling faster than their current strategy can support.

This isn’t about adding more marketing activity. It’s about installing the operational clarity required to scale without chaos.

For organizations where marketing complexity is becoming a growth constraint:

Jessica is currently accepting select fractional CMO engagements.

Contact: jessicaburksmartin@gmail.com

Connect on LinkedIn

FRANCHISE DEVELOPMENT

How AI Is Influencing Franchise Buyers Before the First Call Ever Happens

What prospects ask AI tools—and why brands need to control those answers.

Long before a franchise prospect fills out a form or schedules a call, they’re already forming opinions—often with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI-powered search results. These platforms are quietly becoming the first point of contact in the franchise buyer journey.  Businesses that have optimized for answer engines are getting more and more leads this way. 

Prospects are asking questions such as:

• Can you recommend a franchise business that (fill in the blank)?
• Is this franchise profitable?
• How does this brand compare to competitors?
• What do franchisees say about support and marketing?

The answers they receive shape trust, expectations, and readiness before your development team ever enters the conversation. In other words, prospective franchisees are making buying decisions before ever talking to your organization, based on AI recommendations.

This creates both opportunity and risk. Brands that have optimized for answer engines present clear, consistent, and well-structured information across their websites, FAQs, reviews, and third-party content, are more likely to surface in AI-generated answers—and be framed accurately. Brands with fragmented messaging or outdated content risk letting AI fill in the gaps with incomplete or misleading information, or passing you by altogether. 

For franchise development teams, this means validation is happening earlier and more quietly than ever before. By the time a prospect reaches out, they may already feel confident—or already skeptical.

Franchisors who proactively structure their content, define their value clearly, and align corporate and local messaging gain a powerful advantage: better-informed prospects, shorter sales cycles, and more productive conversations.

In today’s environment, controlling the narrative before the first call isn’t optional. It’s foundational to sustainable franchise growth. 

Need assistance with structuring your branding, content, and messaging? Click here. 

FRANCHISE BRAND MARKETING

Valentine’s Day Marketing That Actually Works

Valentine’s Day marketing often leans on discounts, heart-shaped graphics, and predictable romance. But the campaigns people remember—and talk about—take a different path. Instead of pushing products, they create moments rooted in emotion, honesty, humor, or genuine human behavior.

Brands like Coca-Cola showed how a small surprise can turn an everyday interaction into a shareable experience, while Toblerone stood out by acknowledging the less glamorous side of dating with humor and honesty. Campaigns from Cadbury and Pandora proved that when brands focus on real people and relatable actions, the product can quietly support the story instead of dominating it.

Even unconventional ideas—like Ford’s unexpected speed-dating stunt or the simplicity of $14 Valentine’s Day weddings—demonstrate the same principle: strong emotional hooks, authenticity, and clarity outperform flashy promotions. These campaigns didn’t beg for attention. They earned it by respecting their audience and giving them something worth remembering.

The common thread across every example is trust. When marketing feels human and sincere, it stays with people far beyond the holiday—and often drives results without ever asking for the sale.

See more

FRANCHISE ADVOCACY & LEGAL NEWS

Advocacy Isn’t Optional Anymore: How Franchises Protect Their Business Model

Why staying informed is now a strategic advantage.

As regulatory scrutiny increases and policy interpretations continue to shift, franchising faces a growing need for clarity—not just within the industry, but among lawmakers shaping its future.

That need is precisely why the International Franchise Association (IFA) released its latest “Value of Franchising” report recently, developed in partnership with Oxford Economics. The report is designed to educate policymakers, entrepreneurs, and the public on what franchising actually looks like in practice—and why it matters.

Drawing on survey data from more than 2,900 franchisees representing 13,000 franchised establishments, alongside independent economic analysis, the report reinforces what industry leaders have long known: franchising is a powerful driver of small business ownership, job creation, and local economic stability.

At a national level, franchising contributed $550 billion to U.S. GDP and supported 8.8 million jobs in 2024. Between 2021 and 2024, franchise employment grew by 7.3 percent, outpacing comparable sectors of the economy. According to Michael Layman, Chief Advocacy Officer for the IFA, the timing of the report is intentional.

“It’s so we have new data on the economic and community contributions of franchising for whomever is in charge of Washington,” Layman said. “The 2021 report was extremely helpful for policymakers over the last four or five years, and we’re optimistic this will help market the franchise model in the years to come.”

Importantly, the report challenges common misconceptions. Eighty-two percent of franchisees own a single location, and nearly 85 percent live and work in the communities they serve, reinforcing that franchising remains a Main Street business model—not a corporate abstraction. More than half of franchise brands are local or regional, while only 7 percent operate more than 500 units.

The data also highlights franchising’s role in expanding access to entrepreneurship. Thirty percent of franchisees surveyed said they would not own a business at all if the franchise model weren’t available. Franchise ownership rates among people of color are also higher than in non-franchised businesses, pointing to franchising as a pathway to inclusive economic opportunity.

From a workforce perspective, the report found that franchise employees experience faster wage growth, lower turnover, and greater upward mobility compared to non-franchised counterparts—outcomes increasingly important to policymakers across the political spectrum.

“Regardless of political party, there’s real interest in worker outcomes,” Layman noted. “What this report showed is that employees at franchised businesses experience faster wage growth, less turnover, and more opportunity.”

For franchisors and franchisees alike, the message is clear: advocacy isn’t optional. Clear data, credible research, and consistent engagement help ensure that lawmakers understand the franchise model before shaping policies that affect it.

Protecting franchising starts with telling its story—accurately, visibly, and persistently.

Source: Franchisetimes.com and  the International Franchise Association (IFA), Value of Franchising Report, developed in partnership with Oxford Economics, 2026.  Data and quotations attributed to Michael Layman, Chief Advocacy Officer, International Franchise Association. The views and opinions expressed are those of the original authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SeoSamba or its affiliates. This summary is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.

MEDIA & LEARNING

Trust Wins: Why Simple Video Still Outperforms Trend-Chasing in 2026

Good news: in 2026, an effective marketing strategy doesn’t require chasing every new trend or doing more for the sake of doing more. It requires doing the right things—consistently.

While marketing platforms and tools will continue to evolve, one principle remains unchanged: trust wins every time.

One of the most effective ways to build trust with your audience is through video. Studies consistently show that 70–80% of consumers feel more confident in a company after watching a video, and webpages that include video can see conversion rates increase by as much as 80%. Viewers also retain significantly more information when video content is available.

If the idea of creating video content feels overwhelming, take a breath. High-performing videos aren’t the overproduced, corporate-style productions with massive budgets. The videos that generate the most engagement are short, informal, and authentic—often shot on a phone by real people doing real work.

Think:

• Customer testimonials
•  Before-and-after examples
•  Project walkthroughs
•  Product demonstrations
•  How-to videos
•  Behind-the-scenes moments
•  Answering frequently asked questions
•  Problem-solving in real time

These videos work because they show competence, credibility, and humanity. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is simple: someone watches 30 seconds and thinks, “This person knows what they’re talking about.”

Rules of Thumb for Video That Works

A few simple guidelines can dramatically improve results:

• Be consistent, not perfect
• Focus on one topic or idea per video
• Short videos (30–60 seconds) tend to perform best
• Post where your audience already is—YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Google Business Profile
• Reuse the same video across multiple platforms
• Create a posting schedule you can realistically maintain—and stick to it
• Over-produce, under post
• Consistency builds familiarity. Familiarity builds trust.

What to Avoid

• Don’t wait until you “have time” or “feel comfortable on camera”. Start today!  Start right now.
• Don’t give up! Try different things to figure out what resonates with your audience. And keep in mind that a video that does really well on one platform might bomb on another. 

Some of the most trusted videos look the least polished—because they feel real.

Focus on creating clear messaging, practical learning, and consistent communication. This creates confidence across your network and with your audience. In a crowded digital landscape, clarity and authenticity aren’t just nice to have—they’re competitive advantages.

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SeoSamba’s Marketing OS dashboard now supports Youtube! From the SeoSamba Social Marketing app on your phone, or through MOS on your desktop, upload and post videos, shorts, and customer testimonials to Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Google Business Profile all at once.

Creme de la Creme is brought to you by SeoSamba, a marketing and sales automation software suite provider, with turnkey franchise development and franchise brand marketing solutions for emerging franchise brands. Each year, SeoSamba reviews thousands of nominees and awards the Top 100 Global Influencers in Franchising award to the most influential characters in the franchise world.

If you have news that you’d like to have published in an upcoming edition, you may submit it to influencers@seosamba.com for consideration. 

Thanks for reading!