Marketing

Is your QSR a brand of ... influence?

Want to really pull in that up-and-coming Gen Z-er? Better get to know their online "friends" and fast.

Photo: iStock

June 23, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

A marketing victim. That's how a friend describes the way she feels being on the receiving end of many of today's fast-food ads, regardless of the delivery channel. Simply put, she feels like she is being "acted upon" and "sold to," rather than actively choosing the brand and its food of her own volition. It is, in many ways, a crystalization of the QSR marketer's perpetual problem: How do you sell something without the audience fully realizing you're selling them something?

It is also — in a nutshell — why so-called "influencer marketing" has taken on such importance with today's younger and increasingly advertising-jaded QSR customer. After all, everybody's selling something online. But if someone you follow and "love" on YouTube or any other channel also loves the burgers at a particular fast-food brand, well then, how can you not do the same, right?

The proof of influencer marketing's effectiveness is not just hype either; it's in the data. Take, for example, one content creation and publication channel — the aforementioned YouTube. According to recent data, four in 10

Joe Piaskowy.(Photo provided)

millennials swear that their favorite YouTube content creator understands them better than their in-the-flesh friends.

Former McDonald's Senior Brand Engagement Manager Joe Piaskowy is well aware of those sentiments. In fact, he believes so strongly in this kind of restaurant brand marketing that he not only immersed himself in it while working for McDonald's but recently left the Golden Arches to become vice president of Brand Strategy and Partnerships at Influential, where he helps other brands make similar marketing magic.

Influential is connected to that super-computer known as IBM Watson and touts itself as the only business that can track one-to-one, in-store foot traffic and sales attribution from paid influencer posts. It is also a strategic partner in the venture with talent and media agency mega-power, WME, and Oracle's digital measurement cloud company, Moat.

We wanted to learn how restaurants could use influencer marketing to woo customers, so Piakowy recently gave us a peek into his world.

Q: Just to review a bit, tell us how you used influencer marketing at McDonald's and how would you characterize that QSR's influencer marketing approach?
A:While I was at McDonald's, Influencer marketing was a key part of our overall strategy and proved to be an incredibly effective channel at driving foot traffic, sales, and increasing overall brand sentiment. It extended across organic interaction on all social platforms with influential voices who mentioned the brand, to our owned events, to product awareness and eventually to a strong paid media and targeting strategy, aimed at proving that influencer marketing drives actual business results. I was proud to be part of the team to evolve this marketing channel while at McDonald's and know they will continue to be leaders in this space moving forward.

Q: Now you play a key role with the IBM Ecosystem for Influencer Marketing, Influential, which I believe uses not only that super-computer, IBM Watson (known for cleaning it up on Jeopardy as well as other feats of the big brain-endowed), as well as AI to benefit brands marketing efforts. So, how you are using those resources to help fast-food brands?
A: We have an unparalleled data stack that IBM Watson is a key part of. We are the influencer partner of IBM Watson, and the technology allows (us) to take a more strategic and nuanced approach to pairing influencers with brands, making sure that they are using the most authentic voices for any given initiative or moment in time.

Essentially, we leverage the most advanced AI technology to select influencers, inform content and strategy and deliver higher engagement, sentiment and ROI.

Q: Explain then, how you would help a quick-service brand find and use influencers and also — just out of curiosity — how do you define an "influencer"?
A: We don't solely rely on Watson to do the heavy lifting here. We have an incredibly talented team of creative, campaign and media strategist(s) that use Watson as one of their tools to help build a client the most effective campaign across influencer selection, creative territory and paid media targeting.

As for the definition of "influencer," we tend to think of them across four categories: nano, micro, macro and mega-celebrity.

• Nano influencershave a smaller following — usually less than 10,000 — and tend to be really focused on (a) specific niche as (they) work to build their followings and share their expertise.
• Micro-influencers tend to be in the 10,000- to 100,000-follower range. Similar to Nano influencers, they still tend to be focused in a specific niche, but are more established within the space and can be experts in any given vertical, with the reach and engagement to drive meaningful awareness and sales. We see that both nano and micro tend to have the most engaged audiences, as their followers have been with them since the beginning (and) as they have been building a following. (They) continue to see them as a go-to source for whatever they specialize in.
• Macro influencers have follower bases in the 100,000- to 1 million range and are (who) we most often associate with internet celebrities. They tend to have broader messaging and have turned the business … of being an influencer into a full-time career. …
• Mega/celebrity influencers tend to have audiences of 1 million-plus followers … and are the most famous personalities on the internet. They can be great to work with but are expensive and tend to have much more diverse audiences in terms of interests and reasons for following, which can make it more difficult to effectively message specific products. The opportunity for additional PR and earned coverage is much higher though and sometimes justifies the trade-off, especially if really only trying to drive buzz and awareness.

Q: When it comes to which QSRs consumers opt to favor and lend their business to, what kind of sway do all influencer groups hold with consumers, and how effective are they in affecting what people buy and talk about when it comes to fast food brands?
A:In an effort to help brands navigate these incredibly difficult times, we ran a survey in partnership with Qualtrics and Morning Consult to see how receptive consumers currently are to influencer content, and found a 17-point increase in consumers' preference (for seeing) influencer content over brand-owned and operated content.

While the increase may be surprising, the overall sentiment is consistent with previous benchmarks that showed 72% of consumers prefer influencer content. All this to say, consumers have and continue to trust influencer content. We see an especially strong correlation with Gen Z and young millennials, who have come to expect influencer marketing as part of a brand's overall strategy.

We see time and time again with all our clients — but especially with QSR(s) — that when influencer marketing is done right, using authentic voices and brand fans to tell real stories, you drive real results.

Q: Nonetheless, it still seems like it's easy to lose control in this type of situation, which marketing folks traditionally loathe? Is that the case, or how does a brand control how an influencer "talks" about them?
A:To us, it is actually one of the easiest channels at your disposal to control and something we work hard to imprint on current and potential partners. We ensure that you are working with authentic voices, real brand fans and we are vetting the influencers before extending an offer to ensure that they don't go off message.

We also collaborate closely with the brand and influencers before content goes live to ensure the copy is authentic (to) the influencers channel, but also brand-safe. When layering on a paid media strategy to your influencer content, you further ensure brand safety by guaranteeing you are reaching the right audience at the right time with the right frequency.

Most of the influencers that we hire do this for a living and understand the responsibility they take when signing on to work with a brand.

Q: What are the best and worst examples of restaurant brands using influencer marketing that you can think of and why?
A: I like to focus on the good, and I'm obviously partial to McDonald's and still have a lot of love for everything they do in the space.

Beyond McDonald's, I think Chipotle really continues to be one of the best influencer marketers in the game. They were quick to recognize the power of TikTok and continue to lead on that platform and have done some really interesting things during (the) COVID-19 (pandemic), such as their "Chipotle Together" live streams.

They, much like McDonald's, leverage influencers throughout the entire marketing funnel, from awareness to driving foot traffic, sales and app downloads.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.