Billboards, foot traffic and Southern hospitality: what The Neighborly measures with Spot AI
Small-town marketing is hard to measure. A billboard, a youth sports sponsorship or a festival shirt does not come with a click-through rate. Kelsey Blackmon needed one anyway.
Blackmon Oil is a four-generation family business that trucks, wholesales and retails fuel. Its retail division pairs Exxon-branded pumps with convenience stores, most of them in rural communities. In 2024 Kelsey, who came from a data-driven marketing agency, built them a new brand: The Neighborly, a convenience store experience rooted in Southern hospitality. To keep investing in it, she had to show the board which campaigns brought people through the door.
"Digital is great because it's going to give you some analytics and reporting. But traditional marketing is really, really hard to quantify."
Kelsey Blackmon, Marketing & Technology VP, Blackmon Oil Co.
Counting visits on the cameras already in the stores
Door-swing counters were expensive and inaccurate: four people walking in together count as one swing. Spot AI runs on the existing cameras in many of The Neighborly's stores and counts the people entering each one by time of day. Every Spot AI count links back to the video it came from, so the numbers can be checked.
"[Spot AI] allows us to literally spot check, no pun intended, on that data and confirm that we're actually seeing what we're hoping to see."
Kelsey Blackmon, Marketing & Technology VP, Blackmon Oil Co.
One timeline for sales, traffic and marketing
Kelsey puts three things on one timeline: foot traffic from Spot AI, sales data and marketing activity. When a campaign launches, she can see whether store visits move with it, and for the first time she can bring the board evidence for the next round of investment.
"You put sales data here, foot traffic here, marketing initiatives here, all on a timeline, and you start to get a beautiful spark line that really shows results."
Kelsey Blackmon, Marketing & Technology VP, Blackmon Oil Co.
Measuring the hospitality promise
Southern hospitality is the brand, so The Neighborly measures it. Spot AI's unattended kiosk agent alerts the team when a customer reaches the register and no employee arrives within a few seconds. Over time the reports show whether slow service clusters around a particular shift, day or store.
The goal is to fix patterns, not to micromanage people. When the data points to a systemic issue, the team retrains a store or updates a policy. Kelsey reports that visibility into checkout coverage has already led to more targeted training and clearer service expectations.
From a marketing tool to store operations
What started as a marketing project now covers security, safety and store operations. The Neighborly runs five Spot AI capabilities across its locations:
- People counting in every store, the modern version of a door-swing counter
- Aisle-level heat maps that show where customers shop, for merchandising and layout
- Unattended checkout alerts that track how quickly customers are greeted at the register
- Parking lot loitering detection to keep lots safe overnight at 24/7 locations
- Slip-and-fall detection inside stores and on the lot
"I consider Spot AI our AI operations manager. It allows us to have that extra eye in the sky at all times, observing, collecting information, doing fact-finding, and then it's serving up those insights to us on a silver platter."
Kelsey Blackmon, Marketing & Technology VP, Blackmon Oil Co.
What comes next
Kelsey's next use cases are already lined up: matching Spot AI traffic data with an AI scheduling platform to staff stores by time of day and season, measuring how many passing vehicles pull in to the pumps, and testing product placement with aisle-level heat maps. The Neighborly is opening its 12th store, on the same foundation.
Read the full story: How The Neighborly put an AI operations manager in every store. Spot AI CEO Rish Gupta also walked through Blackmon Oil's use cases in the Convenience Store News webcast, and more convenience store examples are in How c-store chains cover more stores without adding LP staff.
FAQ
What is The Neighborly?
The Neighborly is the convenience store brand of Blackmon Oil, a four-generation family fuel business whose stores pair Exxon-branded pumps with convenience stores, most of them in rural communities. Kelsey Blackmon launched the brand in 2024 around Southern hospitality.
How does The Neighborly count store visits with Spot AI?
Spot AI counts the people entering each store from the cameras already installed and breaks the count down by time of day. Unlike a door-swing counter, a group of four counts as four people, and any count can be checked against the video behind it.
How does Spot AI help a convenience store measure marketing ROI?
Spot AI provides the foot traffic data. The Neighborly lays it on one timeline with sales and campaign dates, so a billboard or a sponsorship is judged by whether store visits moved when it launched.
What does Spot AI's unattended kiosk agent do?
Spot AI's unattended kiosk agent alerts the store team when a customer reaches the register and no employee arrives within a few seconds. The Neighborly reads the reports by shift, day and store to fix patterns, not to single out individuals.
Which Spot AI capabilities does The Neighborly use?
The Neighborly runs five Spot AI capabilities: people counting, aisle-level heat maps, unattended checkout alerts, parking lot loitering detection and slip-and-fall detection.
