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Millennial Media Opps: Friendly's leans in on nostalgia in first campaign from new AOR (Score 38)

Update: October 2021. "Save Room for Ice Cream" features a restaurant makeover in a series of spots designed to focus on nostalgia, yet in a contemporary way. The campaign will primarily roll out across TV and social; yet it's planning radio and some non-traditional marketing for the work as well. Sellers should get in touch soon to secure last-minute ad dollars

This new campaign's nostalgia will appeal to millennials, who tend to respond well to nostalgia-filled advertising. Friendly's also tends to target Gen-Z, but for this newest work, I assume sellers able to offer high-ROI strategies among, specifically, millennials will have an advantage securing ad dollars. The company tends to utilize digital, paid social and OOH, though remember this new campaign also includes TV, radio and other non-traditional media. Read more details about Friendly's recent spend in the article below.

Agency & martech readers - The company named hired media and creative AOR Erich & Kallman. However, you still have a shot at digital analytics and/or social media management work.

The article below was originally published on March 17:

Friendly's Restaurants is testing an off-premise focused fast casual location in Westfield, MA called Friendly's Café. There was a soft opening in February, with the grand opening scheduled for April 6th. The new location will have 45 seats and customer will be able to order at the counter or by using a QR code at their table. Customers can also order delivery or online in advance. For comparison, the average Friendly's can seat between 120 to 130 guests. It will serve hamburgers, melts, entrees and ice cream sundaes. 

According to Pathmatics, Friendly's earned 19.6m impressions YTD through Instagram ads (70%) and Facebook ads (30%). It placed 100% of these ads site direct onto instagram.com and facebook.com. It spent approximately $160.4k on digital display ads YTD, a 23% decrease from $207.1k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend skyrocketed from $78.9k in 2020 to $1.6m in 2021.

Sellers-- Friendly's appears to be targeting Gen-Zers and millennials, considering it placed all of its digital ads this year directly onto social media sites Instagram and Facebook. The new cafes will likely also appeal to parents looking for a place to take their families. The company aggressively increased spend in 2021, and while YTD spend is down, there is still plenty of time left for it to match 2021 levels. Friendly's also invests in OOH ads, per Kantar. Sellers should reach out to offer ad space. 

Agency & martech readers-- Friendly's picked up both its media/creative AOR 2021. The average agency tenure is three years, so both of these relationships should be secure. However, you may be able to pick up digital or social media work.