BFY Opps: Sweetgreen fills top marketing position amid spend increases (Score 72)

Sales lead: Get in touch with the new marketing DM now to be top-of-mind.

• Sweetgreen named Michael Kotick VP & marketing head in August 2023.
• Kotick joins from Chipotle, where he served as senior director of brand marketing.
• He is now responsible for marketing & menu strategy. 
• This fills the vacancy left by former CMO Daniel Schlossman in May. 

Target demographic: Gen-Z & millennials seeking healthy dining options

The company will likely:

• Continue increasing digital ad spend
• Diversify digital ad placement
• Outsource some marketing duties to agency partners

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

• YTD spend: Sweetgreen spent about $2.8m on digital display ads YTD, a 56% increase from $1.8m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 401m impressions via Instagram (48%), Facebook (37%), YouTube (8%), and desktop display (7%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend equaled $3.2m in 2021 and $3.4m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 95% of these ads directly onto sites such as instagram.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, yahoo.com, and theconservativetreehouse.com. It placed 5% of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as people.com, nextdoor.com, yahoo.com, theatlantic.com, and foxnews.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Top podcasts sponsored: Business Wars, The Best One Yet, Masters in Business, and FULL COMP: The Voice of the Restaurant Industry Revolution. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: This hire may lead to agency appointments, so get in touch now to offer your services. 
• Current roster:
  • In-house: creative