Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Marco's Pizza appoints CMO (Score 76)

Sales lead: CMO hires commonly lead to spend shifts & agency reviews. 

• Marco’s Pizza appointed Denise Lauer as CMO, effective June 2023.
• Lauer most recently served as CMO of Informed Groups. 
• She is now responsible for all of Marco's marketing operations. 

In other news: 

• Marco's added Boneless Wings to its menu in June. 
• The wings come in flavors such as Buffalo, Garlic Parmesan, and BBQ. 

Target demographic: Millennials & Gen-Xers

The company will likely:

• Continue increasing national TV spend
• Try new ad channels
• Review agency roster

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

• YTD spend: Marco's spent nearly $20.4m on national TV ads YTD, a 38% increase from $14.8m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 12% from $27.1m in 2021 to $30.4m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Friends, Tamron Hall, The Rookie, and The First 48. 

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

• YTD spend: Marco's spent about $1.2m on digital display ads YTD, close to the $1.3m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 162.3m impressions via Facebook (82%), Instagram (13%), and YouTube (5%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell 12% from $2.5m in 2021 to $2.2m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, and wjhl.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: Marco's also utilizes OOH, radio, and local broadcast. 
  • It holds media planning discussions in Q1 and it buys during Q2. 
• Top podcasts sponsored: Stories from NPR: NPR, No Agenda, English News - NHK World Radio Japan, World Business Report, and Literally! With Rob Lowe. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Contact the new CMO now to be top-of-mind. 
• Current roster:​​​​​​​
  • SoCi: local marketing
  • MikeWorldWide: PR AOR
  • MERGE: creative & media AOR