Male Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Papa Johns taps new CMO (Score 69)

Sales Lead: Papa Johns (PJ) selected Mark Shambura as its new CMO, effective May 8, 2023 (we will update this lead with Shambura's email once we are able to confirm it)

• Shambura, most recently the CMO at MOD Pizza, has deep expertise in growing multi-unit restaurants.
• Now, he will lead PJ's brand, advertising, media activation, field activation, menu strategy, product innovation, and digital customer experience.
  • This will include PJ's owned channels, loyalty program, and aggregator partnerships.
• Shambura succeeds incumbent Anne Fischer, PJ's CMO since January 2022.
• The company will likely:
  • Implement strategy shifts
  • Continue increasing spend
  • Seek new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennial men, especially sports fans
  • Its print ads target both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, PJ has allocated roughly $38.8m toward national TV commercials, flat from the roughly $38.8m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The pizza chain allocated around $96m toward this channel after having allocated 5% less, around $91.6m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: PJ's 2023 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as NFL Football, NBA Basketball, College Football, the 2023 NFL Draft, and SportsCenter.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The company has spent approximately $9.2m on digital ads YTD, 21% more than the approximately $7.6m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2022, PJ has earned ~957.2m digital impressions via Facebook (45%), YouTube (25%), Instagram (14%), desktop video (11%), desktop display (4%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend, $29.9m, increased by 10% from that of $27.1m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes OOH, local broadcast, digital, radio, print (English and Spanish newspapers), Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube Android, Youtube IOS, and Youtube.com) ads.
  • PJ invests in short-form DRTV.
    • ​​​​​​​It has very highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Shambura's hire could easily signal upcoming agency reviews, so contact soon to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • Camp + King​​​​​​​: Creative and media AOR
  • Nimbus: Experiential AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.