Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Firehouse Subs picks up new CMO (Score 64)

Sales lead: This hire will directly impact the company's marketing strategy & agency roster. 

• Firehouse Subs named Dena vonWerssowetz CMO, effective November 6th, 2023.
• vonWerssowetz most recently served as senior marketing director of international beverages at PepsiCo.
• In her new role, vonWerssowetz is responsible for all marketing duties and attracting new customers.

Target demographic: Millennials & Gen-Xers

The company will likely:

• Review the current agency roster
• Keep increasing national TV spend
• Ramp up digital spend

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

• YTD spend: Firehouse spent about $12.1m on national TV ads YTD, a 39% increase from $8.7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend equaled $9.3m in 2021 and $9.5m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, College Basketball, House Hunters, The Big Bang Theory, and NFL Football. 

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

• YTD spend: Firehouse spent nearly $9m on digital display ads YTD, close to the $9.2m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 1.1b impressions via Facebook (48%), YouTube (34%), Instagram (16%), and desktop display (2%).  
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased slightly (3%) from $11.9m in 2021 to $12.3m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 99% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, youtube.com, instagram.com, fanduel.com, and bleacherreport.com. It placed 1% of these ads indirectly through Quantcast onto sites such as redfin.com, yahoo.com, zillow.com, kohls.com, and diply.com. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: The new CMO may review these relationships or seek additional agency partners. 
• Current roster:
  • TRG: creative & media AOR
  • Coyne Public Relations: PR AOR

 Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics.