Brand Case Study: A Data Dream Becomes a Real-Time Tool

In a session titled “Brand Case Study Featuring Head to Toe Brands: Harnessing the Power of Data for Franchisee Action,” Kristin Kidd, COO of Head to Toe Brands, and Taylor Hulyksmith, vice president of brand strategy and design, shared a candid look at the journey to deliver actionable, real-time insights to franchisees.

Eight years ago, Hulyksmith presented the vision to leadership and followed up with an email outlining the plan. “Then, crickets,” Hulyksmith said.

The years that followed tested her resolve. The vision remained alive, but bringing it to life proved far more difficult than putting it on paper. Instead of waiting for a perfect solution, Hulyksmith and her team began identifying gaps, validating data between platforms, and building the infrastructure needed to centralize marketing information.

The company gradually built a system that could bring lead and advertising data together in a format that Microsoft’s Power BI could use.

By 2025, seven years after that initial proposal, Hulyksmith finally launched Marketing Dash. At the time, Head to Toe leaders were beginning to question whether Power BI could support the company’s future. Head to Toe had expanded into a multi-brand organization, and the cost and complexity of maintaining the platform had become increasingly difficult to justify.

A franchisee with a background in data infrastructure and AI developed his own dashboard. “He built it faster, on real-time data, using multiple sources, KPIs, webhooks, data warehousing, etc. And it was just better,” Kidd said.

They worked with the franchisee. The resulting platform was designed to bring data from multiple sources into a single view while focusing on the information franchisees needed to act on immediately. It stripped away many of the metrics that had accumulated over years of growth, leaving behind what Kidd described as the numbers operators needed.

Kidd said successful reporting systems require structure, process, communication, and a willingness to distinguish between what users want and what they truly need. Dashboards need to be useful, not confusing.

And the work to build the perfect dashboard continues. “We’re never done dreaming,” Hulyksmith said.