For multi-unit restaurant brands, the strategy behind a new store opening is no longer one-size-fits-all. From college campuses and suburban neighborhoods to urban storefronts and drive-thru-only concepts, each store serves a different audience with different expectations. That means your marketing strategy should, too.
Yet, for many brands, store openings are still managed with a patchwork of manual tasks, disconnected vendors, and recycled media plans. The result? Delays, inefficiencies, missed local opportunities, and burned-out teams.
The smarter way forward? Store-specific campaigns, delivered with pre-set precision.
Opening a campus location? You'll want creative and channels that hit students within walking distance. Taking over a competitor’s turf? You need conquesting strategies, not awareness ads. Expanding delivery zones or drive-thru-only stores? Hyper-local targeting and mobile-first creative are must-haves.
But coordinating all that across hundreds of stores? That's historically required more hours (and more vendors) than most teams can spare.
That’s where technology is flipping the model. With the right platform, marketing leaders can launch store-specific campaigns, with brand-approved creative, audiences, budgets, and channels, in minutes, not weeks. Local teams can launch with a click, or field marketing can do it all centrally. Either way, the right message gets to the right customer, right when it matters most.
Many brands are now opening more locations in the same markets — either to improve delivery times, conquer new neighborhoods, or just grow faster. But if each new store is running the same generic media plan, you're not reaching new customers. You’re just saturating the same ones.
With store-level activation, marketers can:
And for new market launches, local-first campaigns can build awareness and demand before the doors open, not weeks after.
The pressure to do more with less isn't going away, but spending smarter doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means spending every dollar intentionally, at the store level, with complete visibility and performance data.
New location ramp-ups are a revenue moment. The right media strategy can shrink the time it takes to get to break-even, boost franchisee confidence, and prove the ROI of your growth strategy.
In other words, new store marketing shouldn’t just be operational. It should be strategic.
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