Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: MOD Pizza parts ways with CMO, significantly increases digital spend (Score 41)

Sales Lead: MOD Pizza is in need of a new top marketer since its former CMO, Mark Shambura, departed.

• Shambura became the pizza chain's CMO in December 2018 and now serves (pizza joke, anyone?) in the same role at Papa Johns.
• Since December 2018, he has transformed MOD's marketing organization and driven growth by scaling product innovation and digital.
  • He also reportedly bolstered brand engagement across advertising, paid, loyalty, field marketing, and social.
• The company will likely:
  • Need additional marketing support in his absence
  • Shift (MOD-ify?) its strategy
  • Continue increasing spend
  • Conduct agency reviews, especially once it finds a new CMO.
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​Gen-Z and millennials

Additional spending insights:

• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: MOD has spent roughly $2.2m on digital ads YTD, almost triple the roughly $818k spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, the company has earned ~252.1m digital impressions, 51% via Facebook ads, 25% via YouTube ads, and 24% via Instagram ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, MOD spent approximately $3.7m on this channel, only around a third of the approximately $9.3m spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Facebook and Instagram ads.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: A new CMO may seek new agency partners, so get in touch soon to be top-of-mind when MOD finds one.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​In-House: Media
  • Mekanism: Creative and social agency partner

Insight Sources: Digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix.