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Score 75 - Account in Jeopardy: Zaxby's names first CMO, increasing digital

Southeastern QSR chicken franchise Zaxby's has named Joel Bulger as their first CMO, effective as of late April. He most recently served as interim CMO at Zpizza International and was CMO of Johnny Rockets for three years prior to that. We believe Bulger's email is jbulger@zaxbys.com, but have been unable to confirm this 100% at the time of publication.

As you're well aware, an outside CMO hire is the number one harbinger that an agency review will occur. Therefore, agencies with QSR experience, especially those located in the Southeast, should reach out and get on his radar. Your competition will likely include long-time agency partners Iris (digital). 

Sellers - Zaxby's tends to focus more on local marketing than national advertising. This should see an increase since Zaxby's is slated to open up source, Bulger is supposed to "strengthen digital and social platforms to drive results through advertising and strategic partnerships."

So, those with the ability to reach millennials in Southeast should be able to secure revenue, especially if you have high ROI through digital and social channels. Their top spending period is Q1.

Keep in mind, as well, that a large amount of Zaxby's spend right now is going to advertising the Zensation Zalad, which is back in restaurants only through July 1. So, you may be able to secure last minute dollars there as Zaxby's continues to push the offering.

iSpot reports a 12-month national TV spend of $9.4 million, down from the year prior's $12.8 million. Ads were placed primarily on male oriented programming (see show targeting right). 

Pathmatics reports as 12-month digital spend of $43,700. Top sites are chronicle.augusta.com, atlantafalcons.com, legacy.com, start.att.net and augusta.com.

However, the year prior's spend was $584,900. Then, ads were highly allocated to digital video and were primarily placed direct (93%) onto sites like foodnetwork.com, wsbtv.com, hgtv.com, cbssports.com and ajc.com.