Sonic promotes CMO, retains creative partner (Score 60)

Sales lead: Reach out now to offer ad space & inquire about agency opportunities. 

• Sonic just filled the CMO vacancy we told you about in August.
• It selected Ryan Dickerson as its new top marketer.
• Dickerson spent the past four years as digital retail & eCommerce VP of Sonic's parent company, Inspire Brands. 

In other news:

• Sonic decided to retain its lead creative agency, Mother, after a review. 
• Mother originally won the account in 2019.
• Joanne Davis Consulting reportedly led the review.

Target demographic: Gen-Zers & millennials with a male skew

The company will likely:

• Review other agency relationships
• Ramp ad spend back up
• Experiment with new marketing strategies

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

• YTD spend: Sonic spent about $103.5m on national TV ads YTD, down 15% from $121.7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell slightly (2%) from $141.2m in 2021 to $138.8m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, College Basketball, NBA Basketball, College Football, and MLB Baseball. 

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

• YTD spend: Sonic spent approximately $26m on digital display ads YTD, a 20% decrease from $32.7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 3b impressions via Facebook (41%), Instagram (22%), YouTube (21%), desktop video (14%), desktop display (1%), and mobile display (1%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 13% from $30.8m in 2021 to $34.9m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, twitch.tv, and espn.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Sonic also invests in OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast.

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Get in touch now to be top-of-mind because the new CMO may review Sonic's roster.
• Current roster:
  • Zenith Media: media AOR
  • VaynerMedia: social AOR
  • MSLGroup: PR
  • Mother: creative AOR