AdWeek: How Arby’s became one of today’s beefiest brands

Ad industry watchdog interviews Arby’s Brand President and CMO Rob Lynch to find out how the once-sleepy brand turned into a marketing powerhouse

Arby’s is in the midst of five years of sustained same-store sales growth, which has been supported by bold and creative marketing efforts. AdWeek Magazine, which covers the advertising industry, recently interviewed Arby’s Brand President and CMO Rob Lynch to find out how the Brand broke out of a marketing slump and has attracted new customers by reinventing QSR advertising and the way Arby’s communicates with customers.

Among the key decisions:

Putting a focus on the meats. Arby’s launched its We Have the Meats campaign in 2014. The ads are minimalistic, and emphatically declare and show the quality meats Arby’s uses for its sandwiches. “I had to take a stark stance and really sell what I sell and say what I want to say and break away from a lot of the happy-people-running-along-with-sandwiches-in-their-hands kind of advertising,” Lynch said.

Displaying a sense of humor, especially on social media. When music icon Pharrell Williams wore a gigantic hat to the 2014 Grammy’s, we tweeted, “Hey, @Pharrell can we have our hat back?” and the joke became one of the most talked-about aspects of the show. When Arby’s lover Steve Spurrier announced his retirement, we offered to cater his retirement party. When Jon Stewart made fun of our Brand, we rolled with the punches; when he announced plans to retire from The Daily Show, we invited him to apply for a job at careers@arbys.com.

Taking risks. For Stewart’s second-to-last episode, we ran an ad bidding him farewell that featured a compilation of his meanest jokes at our expense. Many viewers, after having been served up a steady diet of Arby’s jokes, applauded our sense of humor and said they’d try us out.

The bottom line? More people are visiting Arby’s, and more people are talking about Arby’s. “We’re driving transactions, which in our industry is hard to come by, and I think we’re just getting started,” Lynch told AdWeek.

Read the full AdWeek article here, dated October 16, 2015.

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