CMO Roundtable
CMO Roundtable
How do you balance corporate-level campaigns with franchisee-driven, grassroots marketing efforts?
ERIN WALTER
Chief Marketing Officer Freddy’ s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
Balancing corporate-level marketing campaigns with local initiatives isn’ t about dividing responsibilities. It’ s about alignment to achieve a shared goal of delivering the same, welcoming guest experience across every restaurant. While our national team sets the brand vision and creative direction, our franchisees are truly the heartbeat of the story. They know their communities best to build upon the local relationships and connections that make Freddy’ s feel personal. When we stay in sync by communicating openly and sharing a consistent message, we’ re able to bring the Freddy’ s story to life across every market we serve.
Playing a critical role in finding this balance is our director of local store marketing, who serves as the bridge between franchisees and named agencies of record to ensure the plans and strategies align so that local efforts properly complement national campaigns. This structure allows operators to understand how national campaigns can be localized, and vice versa, while continuously driving restaurant-level results.
A key component as we work to maintain strategic alignment is the marketing spend across our franchisees. Our team reviews franchisee marketing budgets on a quarterly basis, sharing guidance on optimizing spend. Starting next year, we’ ll go even deeper by reviewing each franchisee’ s marketing spend through regular consultative visits. The goal behind this is to give us a more meaningful, faceto-face conversation about local opportunities and return on investment.
Looking ahead to 2026, we’ re exploring platforms that can streamline the media-buying process for franchisees. This aims to help our local owners activate high-quality initiatives efficiently, maintaining consistency with our brand’ s voice without losing that local hometown touch.
From an agency standpoint, we build our nationallevel campaigns with local activation in mind. When we develop creative spots, such as our recent“ This is the Good Stuff” campaign, we intentionally leave room for our local agencies to complement the storytelling. That flexibility keeps our brand’ s experience cohesive yet authentic to each market.
Successful and effective marketing campaigns from the corporate team to our franchisees require constant communication to keep us all connected. We regularly share our marketing strategies through quarterly local store marketing calls. This is where we exchange best practices, highlight success stories, and collaborate on upcoming initiatives. These conversations build trust and transparency, empowering franchisees to feel invested in both the process and the outcome. •
18 | Franchise Update | Issue 4, 2025