Smokey Bones promotes marketing VP to CMO (Score 61)

Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill (SB) promoted its marketing VP Nichole Robillard to CMO, effective March 2021. Robillard joined SB in March 2021, and during her tenure she implemented the "Masters of Meat" tagline, a new menu, formed strategic partnerships and launched its first connected-TV campaign. Robillard has agency and corporate marketing experience as she was the group account director and SVP of Zimmerman Advertising from 2015 to 2019. She was the strategic growth VP of TEAM Enterprises immediately prior to joining SB.

According to Pathmatics, SB earned 7.8m impressions YTD through Facebook ads (90%) and desktop display ads (10%). It placed the majority (99%) of these ads site direct onto facebook.com and imgur.com. It placed the remainder (1%) indirectly through Google AdX+AdSense onto sites such as weather.com, people.com, triviatoday.com and prizegrab.com. It spent about $67.1k on digital display ads YTD, a 24% increase from $54k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend jumped from $65.5k in 2020 to $155k in 2021. 

Sellers-- SB most likely targets Gen-Xers and millennials. The company has a digital-first marketing strategy, and this year, it placed the majority of its ads directly onto Facebook, which is popular among the aforementioned demographics. Furthermore,  it has been steadily increasing ad spend over the past two years. I do not expect Robillard to implement any radical changes because she has already been in charge of SB's marketing for a year. However, I do predict she will continue ramping spend up, so start reaching out soon to offer ad spac.e 

Agency & martech readers-- Dunn&Co (creative AOR) is the only agency that SB currently works with. Promoted CMOs are less likely to make any changes to their customers agency roster than outside hires, but Robillard may outsource some of her new duties. I advise readers to get in touch soon to see if SB needs any assistance. I recommend offering media buying/planning or digital work for the best chance of winning some of its business.