Frisch's Big Boy Gets a

Brand Lift with InMarket

About

Frisch’s Restaurants, Inc. is a regional company that operates fast casual family-style restaurants under the name “Frisch’s Big Boy.” All Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants are currently located in various regions of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The Company owns the trademark “Frisch’s” and has exclusive, irrevocable ownership of the rights to the “Big Boy” trademark, trade name and service mark in the states of Kentucky and Indiana, and in most of Ohio and Tennessee. All of the Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants also offer “drive-thru” service. The Company also licenses Big Boy restaurants to other operators, currently in certain parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

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Challenges:
Evolving Digital During Economic Uncertainty

COVID-19’s impact on the restaurant industry was unprecedented: many states mandated restrictions such as dine-in closures at restaurants, limited capacity seating, or carry-out only. These hurdles were compounded by a wavering economy and a consumer base that was spending less. As a result, about 110,000 restaurants in the US closed in 2020 as millions of consumers sheltered at home. For an industry where 80% of full-service restaurant traffic is on-premise, establishments faced challenges unlike any seen before.

COVID-19's Impact On Restaurants

0 %

of consumers said they would decrease spend on discretionary categories

Source: McKinsey

0 %

of people were not currently engaging in “normal” out-of-home activities

Source: McKinsey

$ 0 B

Total restaurant industry
sales loss in 2020

Source: Restaurant.org

Frisch’s Big Boy sought to address COVID-19’s impact on its business as well as their unique set of layered challenges:

Advertise to consumers not leaving home

During a time when many diners limited their movement and remained largely at home, Frisch’s Big Boy sought to find a way to deliver simplistic yet compelling messages to motivate consumers to visit locations for meal pickup.

Understand the health of their business

Frisch’s Big Boy sought to understand how they compared to direct competitors as well as to the Casual Dining Restaurants (CDR) and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) categories.

Lack of first-party focus in restaurant space

The restaurant industry in general did not heavily utilize first-party data to fuel marketing messages, and Frisch’s Big Boy aimed to think outside the box and incorporate location-based advertising into their strategy.

Creative and cost flexibility

With modest budgets and high creative costs, each creative asset needed to have the flexibility to be reused or repurposed depending on the message/menu item to save costs and drive higher value and reach.

Purposefully target and reach key audiences

Rather than casting a wide net, Frisch’s Big Boy sought to capture specific diners highly likely to purchase from the chain.

Solution:
Frisch's Big Boy Partners with InMarket

Frisch’s Big Boy Leverages InMarket’s Measurement Offering

To help Frisch’s Big Boy understand the health of their business, the restaurant chain partnered with InMarket. Frisch’s Big Boy leveraged InMarket’s LCI®—the industry standard for omnichannel, multi-touch attribution—to help the chain understand how each form of media contributed to store visits and overall sales, and identify the components of success. Additionally, Frisch’s Big Boy measured consumer commercial shopping behavior and visits to businesses by industry and DMA to measure the pace of economic recovery in each market relative to pre-COVID-19 consumer activity.

From Measurement to Media

After supplying dynamic, deep-dive insights on Frisch’s Big Boy’s digital marketing health, InMarket provided actionable next steps on how to improve the current digital strategy in place, and solutions to help bolster foot traffic, sales, engagement, and awareness. InMarket’s first-party, permission-based data collected from its SDK platform of Comscore-verified US monthly active users gave Frisch’s Big Boy an opportunity to maximize their return on ad spend (ROAS). Armed with actionable insights about their business, Frisch’s Big Boy evolved its partnership with InMarket from simply a measurement provider to also a media partner. Frisch’s Big Boy leveraged 1:1 full-screen interstitials to engage consumers in real time on their mobile devices. InMarket helped identify relevant consumer segments to target with dayparted messaging:

Competitive Conquesting

Current Customer

New Customer Within 10 Miles

COVID Takeout/Delivery

COVID Restaurant Frequenter

Frisch's Big Boy Adapted Messaging to Focus On:

Ramping up curbside pickup and contactless delivery

Informing diners of Frisch’s Big Boy locations in key markets that pivoted into small-format “grocery stores,” now selling essential items such as milk, bread, toilet paper, etc.

Driving awareness of new promotional menu items

RESULTS:
The Evolution of a Successful Digital Strategy

Historically the brand has focused the majority of their marketing spend on traditional channels, leading to a gap in understanding of the digitally-focused guest and the inability to tie digital media to foot traffic. With InMarket LCI®, Frisch’s Big Boy was able to test and confirm the efficiency of digital efforts for boosting visit and incremental lift. InMarket proved that digital is an important component to have in Frisch’s marketing toolkit, and helped shape its strategy, capture new customers, and drive more feet through the doors of Frisch’s Big Boy locations.

“Being able to leverage InMarket’s location data is a huge asset to Frisch’s Big Boy, especially during Covid. Their location data and unique customer segmentation allowed us to understand how each customer feels comfortable engaging with us, while also enticing them with our seasonal menu innovation. The results have shown us that we are not only reaching a new customer, but driving incrementally for our brand.”