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Millennial Dadvertising Opps: Bojangles establishes partnerships with athletes, increases digital spend

Only weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that college athletes can work with brands, Bojangles has established partnerships with Clemson University's DJ Uiagalelei and UNC-Chapel Hill's Sam Howell. The fast food chain will reportedly continue adding athletes in the upcoming months with the goal of reaching sports fans who have been unable to go to games much the past year due to the pandemic. 

We will have to see how far reaching these collaborations become and how smaller and/or local companies take advantage of this new way to spread brand awareness.

Bojangles also added to its marketing team this month with the hire of marketing director Amanda Hall.

So far this year, iSpot reports Bojangles has only spent approximately $18.6k on national TV commercials, around half of the approximately $33.8k it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. It did not end up utilizing this channel after this point last year, and it spent approximately $25.9k on it in 2019. Bojangles's 2021 commercials have targeted sports enthusiasts watching College Basketball, College Baseball, Women's College Soccer and Women's College Basketball.

According to Pathmatics, the company has allocated roughly $2.1m toward digital ads YTD, already more than double the roughly $904.8k it had spent by this point last year. Bojangles's estimated full-year spend of 2020 similarly more than doubled to $2.8m from that of $1.2m in 2019. Since the beginning of 2021, the chain has earned ~215.7m digital impressions via Facebook (37%), desktop display (26%), Instagram (24%), desktop video (6%) and mobile display (6%) ads. 

Bojangles's athlete relationships will likely appeal to men, whom the company tends to target anyway. Right now, it's especially targeting millennials. Per Kantar data, Bojangles also invests in OOH and local broadcast. It has additionally showed a high amount of recent interest in search marketing.

Agency & martech readers - Nothing points to upcoming reviews here anytime soon, so seek more immediate opportunities elsewhere. BooneOakley is its experiential AOR. The company handles media in-house.