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Millennial Media Opps: Taco John's promotes new president, looks to drive millennial engagement (Score 13)

Subject: Digital, mobile, PR, social media

Company:

Opportunity: After three years with the quick-service chain, president and CEO Jeff Linville has left to pursue other opportunities. Linville, a former Arby's executive who joined Taco John's in April 2013, will be replaced by VP and CFO Jim Creel, who has been with the company for over 15 years.

In addition to Linville's departure, two other former Arby's executives, who were hired with Linville in 2013, have also left the company to pursue other opportunities: chief development officer Dan James and VP of operations Shawn Eby. I wonder if they are all leaving to pursue the same opportunity? That would be weird. 

Typically, a CEO departure is not a sign of immediate agency roster changes, but Creel is taking over at a pivotal time as Taco John continues to evolve its millennial engagement strategy (research here). For example, a new collaboration is underway with Live Nation and Mountain Dew for the Live/Stream Concert giveaway, which will award one winner an all-expenses-paid trip to the Live Nation event of their choice.

According to CMO Billie Jo Waara, this is the biggest contest the company has ever hosted in terms of prizes. It also will be the first to be integrated into the new TJ Rewards loyalty app. 

Millennial engagement is a huge priority for Taco John's. So, expect digital, social media and sponsorship to get the bulk of marketing spend moving forward. An edge may go to those who can help drive traffic during lunch and increase loyalty app downloads. 

Additional Insight

Digital Breakdown: Since January, Moat reports that Taco John's has run 103 standard display ads on 108 publishers (4% mobile), with 45% placed site-direct versus programmatically. Top ad destinations include kcrg.com, ksfy.com, ktiv.com, pandora.com, bigten.org and keloland.com, all of which were placed site direct. Top programmatic ad destinations include bismanonline.com, wikia.com, uwbadgers.com, keyc.com and kwwl.com. 

Looking at the same period last year, the company ran 65 standard display, six high impact and four video ads on 253 publishers (41% mobile; 36% site-direct). For all of 2015, the brand ran 111 standard display, 16 high impact and 5 video ads on 322 publishers (34% mobile; 54% site-direct). 

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