Hooters promotes marketing leader amid spend decreases (Score 52)

Hooters promoted Bruce Skala to CMO, effective June 2022. Skala joined the chain in 2013 as marketing and beverages VP before being promoted to marketing SVP in 2020. He was the marketing VP of Taco Mac Restaurant Group prior to that. Skala will now be responsible for digital customer engagement, brand licensing, partnerships, global campaigns, traditional media and social media. Keep an eye on this chain because Skala's promotion will affect its marketing strategy and could lead to agency reviews. 

According to Pathmatics, Hooters earned 38.5m impressions YTD through Facebook ads (52%), desktop display ads (27%), mobile display ads (9%), Instagram ads (7%) and desktop video ads (5%). It placed the majority (98%) of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, espn.com, wgntv.com, instagram.com and youtube.com. It placed the remainder (2%) indirectly through The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP onto sites such as 9gag.com, tmz.com, chess.com, espn.com and allrecipes.com. It spent approximately $345.4k on digital display ads YTD, a 10% decrease from $384.4k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend fell by 20% from $856.4k in 2020 to $687.3k in 2021. 

Per iSpot, Hooters spent $25.3k on national TV ads in 2021, just 5% of the $494.1k spent in this channel during 2020. In 2021, it placed ads during programming such as MLB Baseball, Supernatural, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, NFL Football and Speak for Yourself. It spent less than $500 in this channel YTD. 

Sellers-- Hooters targets Gen-Z and millennial men primarily through digital display ads. Although, it has been decreasing digital spend since the beginning of 2021. It does invest in national TV ads, just much more sparingly than digital ads. Hooters is likely moving away from national TV ads due to its young target audience. It also invests in OOH, print, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. You can click here to use Hooter's location finder to see where you might be able to offer local ad space. I do not expect Skala to make any radical changes, considering he was promoted internally. Sellers should get in touch to see what types of ad space you can offer. 

Agency & martech readers-- Promoted CMOs are less likely to conduct agency reviews than outside hires. However, Skala may decide to make some changes now that he is the CMO. Start reaching out soon to be top-of-mind. I believe you will face competition from Skiver Advertising (creative AOR), CTI Media (media buying/planning AOR) and Morrison (creative/digital).