Millennial, Gen-X Media Opps: Chili's taps CMO amid spend decreases (Score 65)
Brinker International subsidiary Chili's Grill & Bar appointed George Felix as CMO, effective July 21st, 2022. Felix
most recently served as Tinder's CMO. He brings industry experience from his time as Pizza Hut's marketing chief. As Chili's CMO, Felix will handle all marketing programs and initiatives. This hire closely follows Kevin Hochman joining Brinker as CEO in June 2022 from Yum! Brands, where he was KFC's US president. Hochman replaced Wyman Roberts following his retirement.
According to Pathmatics, Chili's earned 105.4m impressions YTD through desktop display ads (88%), Facebook ads (9%), mobile display ads (3%) and Instagram ads (1%). It placed the majority (89%) of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as yahoo.com, ebay.com, realtor.com, okcupid.com and quizlet.com. It placed the remainder (11%) directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, finviz.com, salary.com and kohls.com. It spent approximately $312.7k on digital display ads YTD, a 38% decrease from $500.9k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend increased by 54% from $778.6k in 2020 to $1.2m in 2021.
Per iSpot, Chili's spent $401k on national TV ads in 2021, a massive decrease from $9.6m spent in this channel during 2020. In 2021, it placed ads during programming such as Mountain Men, Pawn Stars, The Machines That Built America, Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace and Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers in America. It has not allocated any budget toward this channel YTD.
Sellers-- Chili's primarily targets Gen-X and millennials. It currently allocates the majority of its marketing budget toward digital display ads. The chain has been decreasing digital spend so far this year after it increased spend last year. Meanwhile, Chili's cut TV spend around the time the pandemic started. I predict the new CMO will ramp TV spend back up, but it may never return to pre-pandemic levels. It also invests in OOH ads, per Kantar. Chili's holds media planning discussions in Q2 and buys in Q1. Sellers should get in touch to offer ad space.
Agency & martech readers-- As you know, the number one sign of an upcoming agency review is a CMO hire. Start reaching out to Felix soon to be top-of-mind. You will face competition from 360i (media/social AOR), Access Brand Communications (PR AOR) and O'Keefe Reinhard & Paul (creative, digital & social AOR). Those of you with fast-casual dining experience will have the upper hand.
