Male Millennial, Gen-Z Opps: Arby's taps CMO from sibling chain (Score 53)

Sales lead: Reach out now because this hire will affect the company's marketing strategy and agency roster. 

• Arby's has filled the CMO vacancy we reported in June.
• Parent company Inspire Brands decided to move Rita Patel from Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) to Arby's, effective October 2022. 
  • Patel joined BWW as CMO in September 2020 from Target, where she was the VP of brand management. 
• Patel will lead Arby's brand strategy, marketing communications, and menu innovation.

**Our researchers are still working to confirm Patel's email address. Please contact Arby's other DMs for the time being.

Arby's target demographic: Gen-Zers & millennials with a male skew

The brand will likely:

• Revamp marketing strategy
  • Ramp digital spend back up
  • Experiment with new ad channels
• Review the current agency roster 

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: Arby's spent nearly $80.9m on national TV ads YTD, a 10% increase from $73.8m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. 
• Last year: Full-year spend jumped by 53% from $60.7m in 2020 to $93.2m in 2021.
• 2022 ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, NBA Basketball, College Basketball, Two and a Half Men, and SportsCenter. 

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: Arby's spent around $27.5m on digital display ads YTD, just 62% of the $44.2m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. 
• YTD data: 3.3b impressions via Facebook (41%), Instagram (34%), desktop video (16%), Twitter (8%), and desktop display (1%).
• Last year: Full-year spend equaled $55.7m in 2020 and $56.4m in 2021. 
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, twitter.com, and cnn.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Arby's also invests in OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: The new CMO will likely review Arby's agency roster.
• Current roster:
  • Digitas: media AOR
  • Zenith Media: media AOR
  • Formerly Known As: creative, digital, & social AOR
  • Fallon Worldwide: creative & digital AOR
  • Crispin Porter + Bogusky: creative AOR
  • Party Land: creative

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Kantar.