Campaign Imminent: Cracker Barrel taps creative, media AOR (Score 85)

Cracker Barrel (CB), the chain of combined restaurants and stores, concluded a review by appointing Dentsu as its new creative and media AOR. Effective January 2021, the agency's responsibilities now include strategic, creative and paid media. This AOR hire replaces incumbent Havas Chicago.

We suggested this company's roster would shift when it appointed CMO Jennifer Tate in September 2020 and again when CB dropped The Richards Group from this review in November 2020.

In response to the global pandemic, this company temporarily closed its dining rooms. It also added beer and wine at 350 locations; CB's leaders expect to expand this service to around 600 of its 660 restaurants.

So far this year, iSpot approximates the company has only spent $1.3k on national TV commercials, a mere tenth of the $1.1m it approximates CB spend within the same 2020 timeframe. In 2020, the company spent approximately $17.7m on this channel, down 25% from the approximately $23.5m it spent in 2019. CB's 2021 commercials have all targeted a female-skewed audience via Gaither Gospel Hour.

Pathmatics estimates that CB has spent $533k (74.8m impressions) YTD (Jan 1 - Mar 14); most of this has been allocated to Facebook ads (94%) with the remainder spent on desktop display (6%). Other than Facebook, top sites include fandom.com, foxnews.com, yahoo.com and ebay.com. Spend has dropped slightly from the same period last year ($688k), but ad placements are basically the same.

For full 2020, CB spent $4.4m (522.7m impressions) in this channel. While Facebook dominated (81%), the remainder was spent on desktop video ads (18%). Most ad placement was done direct (99%) on Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo; top sites for indirect placement included  usatoday.com, ebay.com and buzzfeed.com. Spend was heaviest in H1 last year, dipped in late summer, but then ramped back up around September and steadily rose through the end of the year. This is pretty consistent with past spend patterns, so look for revenue in H2 (specifically Q4). For comparison's sake, spend patterns were largely consistent from 2019 to 2020 (skewed to H2 mostly), but note that CB actually raised digital spend last year (2019's full year spend was $3.5m).

CB invests heftily in OOH adverting; in fact, the company exclusively advertised via billboards until 2020. It has over 1.6k billboards around the country that urge travelers to visit its restaurants. These travelers reportedly make up 40% of CB's business, so find a location here to more effectively offer localized ad space. Right now, according to execs in the company's latest call, it has enhanced its focus on marketing in FL; thus, readers able to support these local plans will have an upper hand.

Gen-X and boomers, particularly moms and travelers, tend to make up most of CB's target demographic. According to Kantar data, along with OOH, the company invests in broadcast. It hasn't utilized radio since 2019, at least as of Q3 2020.

Agency & martech readers - Since, as you know, agency reviews often follow one another, you may have a shot at securing digital analytics, PR and/or social media management work. Get in touch soon to remain top-of-mind. Right now, to the best of our knowledge, Edelman GA handles PR.

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