Gen-Z Opps: Teriyaki Madness promotes CMO amid significant spend increase, expansion (Score 72)

Restaurant chain Teriyaki Madness (TM) selected Jodi Boyce as its first CMO in February 2021. Boyce joined the company as marketing EVP in September 2016, having previously served as the marketing VP at Smashburger. With more marketing responsibilities, Boyce will probably lead TM to continue increasing ad spend.

TM responded to the global pandemic with a pay-it-forward campaign that allowed "everyday people" to provide free meals to healthcare workers. I'm not crying, I promise. This service also gave existing rewards program members extra points. It had fantastic results, delivering more than 4k meals to nationwide healthcare professionals in less than a month.

The company was also uniquely positioned to continue providing food to loyal customers via catering, takeout, delivery and additional off-site dining services. Those operation styles paid off for TM customers, franchise owners and employees, along with frontline workers. According to CEO Michael Haith, the company remained top-of-mind amid the pandemic largely due to investments "in a fantastic marketing strategy," which involved the pay-it-forward effort I just described. This initiative not only brought the company business and helped to feed frontline workers, it kept people from losing their jobs.

Additionally, TM invested in technology to combat coronavirus-related struggles. It added new drive-thrus in TMAD parking lots; these shops allow employees to use iPads to take orders, while socially distanced, and bring customers their customizable and made-to-order food to their cars. TM's curbside technology is also advanced and location-aware; its platform lets shops know when cars pull in for pickup, making the transactions more seamless.

Alongside this pay-it-forward campaign and these technical efforts, TM has rolled out fun, consumer-oriented promotional initiatives via its app, site and social media channels. It encouraged customers to "Show Us Your Big Bowls (At Home)," which allowed ten winners to receive free bowls for a month. Another promotion series helped those struggling during the pandemic; this included Healthcare Worker Discount and Kids Eat Free services.

Due to this ongoing success, TM ended 2020 with 31 new locations; its new CMO will support further growth efforts.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports the company has allocated roughly $53.7k toward digital ads, 4x the roughly $13.1k it allocated within the same 2020 timeframe. TM's estimated full-year 2020 spend doubled to $142.3k from that of $74.7k in 2019. It has earned around 7.6m digital impressions YTD via Facebook (57%) and Instagram (43%) ads. 

Considering TM's CMO promotion, success and expansion, I expect this rise in spend to continue throughout 2021. Its reliance on Facebook and Instagram advertising prove a Gen-Z target audience. Its healthy teriyaki bowl options also signal a target demographic of better-for-you (BFY) consumers. TM may also invest in localized ad space around its physical restaurants; check out locations here.

Agency & martech readers - It wouldn't hurt to reach out to remain top-of-mind as a result of this promotion even though promoted CMOs don't always conduct agency reviews as often as outside hires might. No Limit Agency assisted with TM's pay-it-forward campaign.