Iris Atlanta | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

• The agency will work on expanding (empowering?) Zaxby's media footprint and helping double its business within the next five years.
• Empower's responsibilities will include local and national data-driven planning and buying along with effective first-party data utilization.
• This hire replaces incumbent media AOR Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media. 
• We thought a review might follow Zaxby's June 2022 hire of chief marketing and strategy officer Patrick Schwing.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch promotional material supporting its new rewards program
  • Return to heavier ad spend
  • Conduct additional agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Male Gen-Z and millennials

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Zaxby's has spent approximately $1.3m on national TV commercials YTD, down 19% from the approximately $1.6m spent by this point last year.
  • Last year: The company spent about $3.6m on this channel last year, down 16% from when it spent about $4.3m in 2020.
  • 2022 ad programming: Zaxby's 2022 commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as College Football, the CFP National Championship, College Basketball, NFL Football, and The Kelly Clarkson Show.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the restaurant chain has allocated roughly $12.5m toward digital ads, more than double the roughly $5.4m allocated within the same 2021 timeframe.
  • YTD data: Zaxby's has earned around 1.1b digital impressions YTD, 50% via desktop video ads, 27% via Facebook ads, and 22% via Instagram ads.
    • The company has placed this year's desktop video ads site direct onto YouTube (83%) and Twitch (17%).
  • Last year: Zaxby's estimated full-year 2021 spend decreased 10% to $7.4m from that of $8.2m in 2020.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes OOH and local broadcast.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews often follow one another, so contact soon to offer PR, creative, digital analytics, and/or social media management services.
  • Zaxby's and all of the following agency partners are headquartered in TN and GA, so an advantage may go to those in the SE.
• Current agency roster:
  • Empower: Media AOR
  • : Creative and PR AOR
  • : Digital agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by Kantar.