Empowering local marketing: an interview with Christopher Brown of Marvia in global franchise magazine
We're excited to share insights from our recent interview with Christopher Brown, Marvia's Director of North America, as featured in Global Franchise Magazine, Issue 58. This conversation highlights Marvia's commitment to transforming local marketing for franchise networks worldwide, balancing central brand control with franchisee freedom.
Read the original interview in Global Franchise Magazine, Issue 58, here.
The core challenge: scaling local marketing without sacrificing brand control
At Marvia, we’re focused on how to scale local marketing without sacrificing brand control. Franchise networks all over the world struggle with this. Central marketing teams can’t realistically create custom materials for hundreds of locations, while franchisees often produce their own off-brand content or skip local marketing altogether. This leads to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities.
Marvia's platform: bridging the gap between control and customization
Our platform bridges that gap. It gives franchisors full control over their brand while empowering local franchisees to create and deploy effective, community-driven marketing. We now support franchise brands in more than 90 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Notable partners include Domino’s, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, KidStrong, and Nurse Next Door. Whether it’s quick service restaurants, fitness concepts, or home care, we help franchise brands streamline their marketing operations with a platform designed for scale.
What makes us uniquely suited to franchising is our ability to offer both central control and local customization. Most tools do one or the other. Marvia combines both in a single system. Our automation tools make localization effortless. A franchisee in Miami, for example, opens a flyer template that’s already populated with their address, territory-specific pricing, and relevant offers. It saves hours of manual work. And because our platform is designed for non-marketers, franchisees can get what they need in minutes, not hours. Instead of juggling multiple platforms for asset management, social media, and print ordering, our clients get one connected ecosystem that does it all.
→ Learn more about our franchise marketing platform
"Freedom within frameworks": the Marvia philosophy
At the heart of it all is what we call “freedom within frameworks”. Marketing teams create templates with locked brand elements – logos, fonts, layouts – while leaving room for custom headlines, images, and location-specific details. This means franchisees can adapt materials to fit their local market without compromising brand standards.
Proven impact: success stories and results
One of our favourite success stories involves a quick-service chain with over 500 locations. Before working with us, their corporate team spent 60% of their time on one-off franchisee requests – editing flyers, updating contact details, manually placing orders. After implementation, that number dropped by 85%. The impact was real. Franchisee participation in local marketing doubled in six months, and locations using the platform saw a 12% lift in response rates. But perhaps most tellingly, marketing support scores rose by 27% in franchisee satisfaction surveys.
For head office teams, we turn marketing from a bottleneck into a strategic function. Our analytics show which assets are being used, who’s marketing actively, and what’s performing. Campaigns can be rolled out globally or regionally in just a few clicks, and everything’s localized instantly.
For franchisees, the experience is just as smooth. They log in to a branded portal, see the templates they need, and get to work, with no design skills or complicated software required. Everything’s preloaded with their business info, and they can publish directly to social media or print providers.
→ See more multi-location marketing success stories
Innovations: social campaigns and intelligent marketing
Our latest innovation, Social Campaigns, takes this to the next level. It allows the central team to design a single campaign that automatically adapts for each location. With one click, it’s published across hundreds of local pages, with customized visuals and captions tailored to each market. This approach is already transforming franchise networks. We’ve seen social media engagement soar, with some systems jumping from 30% to over 80% franchisee participation in just a few months.
Looking ahead, we’re developing an intelligent marketing assistant that links business goals with specific marketing actions. Instead of expecting franchisees to figure it all out, this tool will recommend campaigns based on their challenges, be it launching a new service or recovering foot traffic.
Commitment to partnership and adoption
Finally, we take onboarding and training seriously. Technology is only valuable if it’s adopted, and that’s why we partner closely with our clients at every step.
Ready to empower your franchisees and elevate your brand?
Discover how Marvia can help your franchise network streamline local marketing, maintain brand control, and drive real results.