Campaign Imminent: Arby's starts selling burgers for the first time in its 60-year history (Score 74)
It may not come 
as a surprise for a fast-food chain to sell burgers, but Arby's just added them to its menu for the first time. The "Wagyu Steakhouse Burger" will be a limited-time offering through July 31, but if things go well, we'll probably see similar efforts in the future. The launch will make Arby's a more formidable competitor to other burger-selling fast-food chains such as McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King. We will likely see promotional activity supporting Arby's new burgers, so sellers should get in touch soon to secure last-minute ad dollars. An advantage will go toward those able to offer high-ROI strategies among Arby's target demographic of Gen-Z and millennial men.
According to iSpot, the brand has spent approximately $37.7m on national TV commercials YTD, up 22% from the approximately $31m spent within the same 2021 timeframe. Arby's ended up spending approximately $93.2m on this channel in 2021, up 54% from the approximately $60.7m spent in 2020. The brand's 2022 commercials have targeted millennials watching shows such as NBA Basketball, Two and a Half Men, College Basketball, Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond.
So far this year, Pathmatics reports Arby's has allocated roughly $17.4m toward digital ads, down 31% from the roughly $25.2m allocated by this point last year. The brand's estimated full-year 2021 spend, $56.6m, was up slightly (2%) from that of $55.5m in 2020. Arby's has earned ~2b digital impressions YTD via Facebook (47%), Instagram (33%), desktop video (13%), Twitter (6%) and desktop display (1%) ads. The majority (97%) of this year's desktop video ads have been placed site direct onto youtube.com.
As I briefly mentioned, Arby's typically targets Gen-Z and millennial men. These relatively young generations typically engage well with digital channels, so the brand may make future forays into additional digital channels such as podcast and/or OTT. Per Kantar data, Arby's also invests in radio, OOH, print (newspapers) and local broadcast. It holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.
Agency & martech readers - The PR agency review that parent company Inspire Brands kicked off late last year has concluded with the hire of PR AOR MSL, so your window of opportunity for other work may still be open. The company also works with media AOR Digitas, media AOR Zenith, creative AOR CP+B, creative and digital AOR Fallon Worldwide and creative, digital and social AOR Moxie. It receives additional creative assistance from Party Land.
