Millennial, Gen-Z Opps: Burger King loses president amid digital spend increases (Score 67)

Burger King (BK) announced Chris Finazzo, president of the Americas, stepped down in July 2021. CMO Ellie Doty and COO Tom Curtis will jointly serve as interim president. I am not sure what the chain plans to to about replacing Finazzo, but we will be sure to update you once any news breaks as the replacement could affect the marketing strategy and agency roster. 

According to Pathmatics, BK earned 2.2b impressions YTD through Instagram ads (43%), Facebook ads (28%), desktop video ads (26%), desktop display ads (1%), mobile display ads (1%), mobile video ads (1%) and Twitter ads (1%). It placed the majority (99%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as instagram.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, hulu.com and twitter.com. It placed the remainder (1%) indirectly through The Trade Desk and Google AdX+AdSense onto sites such as yahoo.com, twitch.tv, redbox.com, ebay.com and fandom.com. It spent around $19.4m on digital display ads YTD, a massive jump from $3.9m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend increased 88% from $7.3m in 2019 to $13.7m in 2020. 

Per iSpot, BK spent around $84.5m on national TV ads YTD, a 9% decrease from $93.3m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend fell 13% from $247.9m in 2019 to $215m in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "NFL Football," "NBA Basketball," "SportsCenter," "Family Guy" and "Friends." 

Sellers-- BK's fast-food offerings primarily appeal to younger consumers. I believe it is targeting Gen-Z and millennials with a slight male skew. It has been increasing digital spend, while decreasing national TV ad spend. BK also invests in OOH, print, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should reach out offering relevant ad space. 

Agency & martech-- I believe BK works with Alison Brod on PR, Horizon Media on media and Code & Theory on digital. It also works with David, MullenLowe U.S. Boston and jones knowles ritchie on creative. I advise readers to keep looking for other opportunity for know, but to keep an eye on this company for work in the future once it finds a new president.