Sonic Drive-in Media Buy

Dalton Ford &

Akin Abode MCJ 146

Media Problem Statement…

…to build a media plan that helps sonic drive in launch of 32 restaurants in 30 markets in the norther front.

MPS

The Company:

Situation Analysis

Currently and standard drive-in restaurant with!a collection of signature drinks and food. Sonic !provides the customer with the unique experience !of ordering through a pull up or box and having !your food skated out your car. Customer loyalty is !important to enhance Sonics drive-in culture.

The Franchise Business:

Sonic currently has 3,117 franchise stores in!operation and only455 company owned stores. !Thats means roughly 87 percent of Sonic stores !are franchise owned making them a vital part of !Sonics’ continued growth. Current initial franchise!fee is $45,000.

The competition:

Sonic competes in the quick serve restaurant !industry and is currently 6th in number of locations!in the industry. The business is highly competitive !in prices. All businesses from mom and pops to !pizza pallors Sonic deems as competition.!

Restaurants

Expansion of Restaurants in New Markets: Sonic Drive In is looking to open to open 30 stores over a span of 32 markets spread throughout eight different states that make!up the northern front.

Current Target:

Men and women primarily of the working class between the ages of 18-44 who live in the southern half of the United

States.

Situation Analysis

Current Media Spending:

Southern Living Magazine Fit Pregnancy MagazineIn Touch Weekly Magazine NCAA Bowl Games BCTV

My Wife and Kids BCTV American Idol Replay BCTVIn Touch Weekly Magazine PC Gamer Magazine

Sonics NotableMedia Expenses !

Heavy Fast Food/Drive In Restaurants’Notable

Media Expenses

INDEX*

Competitions Media Spending:

*Averages of popular heavy fast food drive-ins

INDEX

Media Objectives

Target: Men and women between the ages of 18 and 44 who live in what is referred to as the Northern Front.

Geographic Area:

Reach/Frequency: To obtain a 3.0 frequency while minting an 85 reach over of the course of the campaign

Timing: A six month campaign beginning on the first of April and stretching to September 30th. Sonic has a huge selection of signature cold drinks that are perfect for the summer time months. The idea is to launch two months before summer to hit summer in full stride.

Media Mix: All types of media will be used. As far as social media there will strongly use Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. These are the most prominent and import social media bodies. Along with social media we will purchase national television adds, magazine adds, internet adds, and radio adds.

Promotion: Various promotional tactics will be involved to lure new customers to our locations and keep our regulars. Two tiers will be created to better fit each individual markets needs.

Budget: The campaign will have a 28 million dollar budget.

Media Strategy & TacticsMedia Target !Composition: Men and women between the ages of 18-44 will be targeted. A particular

emphasis will be put on markets with military bases or operations stationed there. Sonic has an extremely high index (192) with military personal, with that being said we want to show them our gratitude to continue to keep them not only coming back and away from the competition but also having an enjoyable experience every single time. Specific promotions will be created to achieve this and will be described later on. Also at Sonic we want to create a great family environment where the whole family can go grab a bite after a family function. Parents already obtain a decent index at 118. By creating the family environment not only will parents bring themselves but they will bring their children as well. Family values meals will be added as a promotional tactic. Last but not least we want to target those who work desk jobs in sales and related occupations. We are getting beat by our competition here and plan to offer a value menu and FUN FRIDAY deal to draw in these types of customers.

!Markets Selected: Two Tiers have been created to better address each market. Markets with a

total population of 500,000 or more will be a tier one. Markets with a total population less than 500,000 will fall into tier two.

DMA DMA Name Total Pop 705 Wausau-Rhinelander, WI…….458,026 813 Medford et al, OR…………….427,312 676 Duluth-Superior, MN-WI………419,928 687 Minot et al, ND………………..352,636 762 Missoula, MT…………………292,077 756 Billings, MT……………………276,007 764 Rapid City, SD………………..249,774 553 Marquette, MI…………………213,938 754 Butte-Bozeman, MT………….171,561 755 Great Falls, MT……………….169,883 821 Bend, OR………………………169,187 737 Mankato, MN………………….132,125 766 Helena, MT…………………….68,583 583 Alpine, MI…….……………….39,651 798 Glendive, MT….…………….…9,739

Tier 2Tier 1

DMA DMA Name Total Pop 505 Detroit, MI……………………4,893,601 819 Seattle-Tacoma, WA….…….4,837,567 613 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN….4,558,714 820 Portland, OR..………….……3,173,529 617 Milwaukee, WI……..…….….2,305,338 563 Grand Rapids et al, MI…..…1,982,427 513 Flint-Saginaw et al, MI…..…1,153,228 658 Green Bay-Appleton, W……1,123,817 881 Spokane, WA.………….…….1,118,794 669 Madison, WI…………….…….956,823 725 Sioux Falls et al, SD….……..672,473 810 Yakima et al, WA.……..……..666,907 551 Lansing, MI….……….…….…653,632 724 Fargo-Valley City, ND……..…604,084 801 Eugene, OR………….…….…603,028 540 Traverse City et al, MI…….…601,551 702 La Crosse-Eau Claire, WI.….556,456

$7.5 Million (500k each market)$20.5 million (1.2 million each market)

Media Strategy & TacticsMedia Mix!

&!Rationale:

$10,000.00$10,000.00

$30,000.00

$45,000.00

$90,000.00

TV RadioSocial Media OutdoorGorrilla Marketing

$2,000.00

$20,000.00

$27,000.00$9,000.00

$7,000.00

$18,000.00

TV RadioSocial Media NewspaperDirect Mail Outdoor

Tier 1!(monthly expenses per market)

Tier 2!(monthly expenses per market)

With a monthly budget of roughly $185,000 we decided to heavily advertise on spot television, including cable T.V. We chose to also heavily advertise on the radio especially during evening hours to reach our commuters and late night hours to reach our midnight snackers. Instead of investing money in older fashions of advertising such as newspapers we decided our tier one will focus more on new age advertising vehicles such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These high population markets will be most in touch with these types of media vehicles.

With a monthly budget of roughly $83,000 for each market we decided to not only heavily advertise on T.V. but also through the use of newspaper and direct mail. A lot of cities that are included in our tier 2 markets are much smaller in population and may not be as up to date with social media or watch as much television as our bigger markets. With that being said we still need to reach them and what other better way to do that than go directly to their house the old fashion way.

Media Strategy & Tactics

Medium Tactics

Facebook:

Twitter:

!Instagram:

Promotions:

Through our Facebook we are able to do many different things. We will update our customers on our newest locations. Each week we will introduce our customer base with at least one of our new locations. Also through Facebook will will purchase various adds every month throughout our campaign. This will help us get the word out and help keep our brand loyalty high. Each day our Facebook will feature a signature item

Twitter may be the most influential social media of today, especially in our bigger markets, where customers check there twitter multiple times an hour. It is important that we purchase adds during the busiest hours on Twitter. Not only will we purchase adds through the company we will also use Twitter too tweet. Everything we tweet will be followed by the #howdoyousonic hash tag. This hash tag will encourage customers to interact with us and show us how they Sonic.

Since Instagram does not have advertising to purchase, will use it differently. Our money for our Instagram will go to the 5 winners our weekly contest of our favorite Instagram photo that must include some type of sonic product, as well as the hashtags “howdoyousonic” and “Sonicsweeklygiveaway” Our winners will receive a Sonic gift card to reward our customer for their handwork and loyalty to the company.

“MY SONIC” CARD (Loyalty Card)!First and foremost we want to start a loyalty program here at Sonic. If we want to win over the Northern Front we have to really connect with our customers and show them we care. What better way to do such than through a loyalty card. Through this card customers can earn various different rewards to keep them coming back.

The “My Sonic” card will work as a reloadable gift card where you can add any amount of money between $5 and $200. Every time a customer reloads their My Sonic card with at least $15 they will receive a free side or beverage of there choice. Also every tenth meal will be on us! After a customer has ordered ten complete meals the next one is you got it free! Our loyal customers will love this and encourage them to bring there friends to come enjoy the fun and great deals.

Media Strategy & Tactics

Promotions:To reach out to our smaller markets each month we will be awarding one high school senior within each market a $500 scholarship to help them get started on the road to higher education. This is a win win situation. Our goal is to become the talk of the town among families and this will do it. By putting education first this will win over thousands of our tier two families. All students need to do is be creative and submit an original work of their own on why they deserve the scholarship. Being that our campaign is running right into the end of school and summer time, the timing is essentially perfect. $50,000 has been put aside to support all tier two markets monthly scholarships.

The Sonic Scholarship (Tier 2 markets)

Sponsorship of the NFL Draft

There is no denying the success that Sonic has had advertising through NCAA football. Unfortunately our campaign does not run parallel with the NCAA season. With that being said, Sonic will become a partial sponsor of the NFL draft, where all the college stars college students have watched for years at there school get drafted and go pro. Our customers as well as NFL and NCAA fans will see us supporting what they love and will be encouraged to come give us a try or continue choosing us over other premier fast food joints. About 50,000 dollars has been put aside to make this happen.

The NHL TRIVES in the northern part of the United States. To kick off our campaign we want to become and be seen as a partial sponsor of not only the NHL but the NBA playoffs as well. Both of these sports post seasons start at the same time as our campaign. Sports seem to work well with advertising in the fast food industry. The North LOVES there hockey and so do we! We will advertise how great it can be to get Sonic and listen or watch the postseason while your eating. $25,000 dollars will be put aside for each sports postseason.

Sponsorship of the NHL & NBA playoffs

Media Strategy & Tactics

Timing and rationale:

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!

• Sponsor NBA & NHL Playoffs!!Monthly T.V. Focus !• Big Brother!• My Wife & Kids

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!

• Sponsor NBA & NHL Playoffs!• Sponsor NFL Draft!!

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!

• Sponsor NBA & NHL Playoffs!• Slightly more TV units purchased

due to summer time

April:

May:

June:

*units purchased

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

*units purchased

*units purchased

Monthly T.V. Focus!• One Tree Hill!• TMZ

Monthly T.V. Focus!• Greg's Anatomy!• King of the Hill

Media Strategy & Tactics

Timing and rationale:

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!

• Slightly more TV units purchased due to summer time

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!!!!

• Heavy Tv and Radio advertising!• The “Sonic Scholarship” (Tier 2)!• Heavy social media advertising

through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.!

Media & Rational

July:

August:

September:

*units purchased

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

TV

Cable

Radio

Newspaper

0 10 20 30 40Tier 1 Tier 2

*units purchased

*units purchased

Monthly T.V. Focus!• Disney!• Extra

Monthly T.V. Focus!• Wife Swap!• That 70’s show

Monthly T.V. Focus!• Lie to me!• Family Guy