Qdoba this week launched its first national campaign, just days after promoting Vice President of Marketing Jon Burke to chief marketing officer. The effort comes as the Mexican fast-casual chain works to double its footprint by 2032.
The first creative, which debuted on Oct. 1 and will run into November, is set to the tune of Hall and Oates’ “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” and promotes the chain’s long-standing free guacamole and queso offer — a value proposition that the chain hasn’t always advertised.
“The previous [ownership] group said, ‘Let's do it, but let's hide it from the customer,’ versus celebrating it,” Burke said. “We're really looking at how we celebrate these things, especially in the current environment. We know customers are looking for value.”
Along with creative about free guacamole and queso, the campaign — which runs through 2026 — will include flights dedicated to menu items, holiday catering and customization options. The effort will span streaming, social media, influencer, online video, digital and live sports (specifically, football) on TV. Qdoba is a part of Modern Restaurant Concepts, a fast-casual portfolio company owned by Butterfly Equity.
Burke, who joined Qdoba in 2023 after stints at Jollibee, Applebee's, McDonald's and Del Taco, will oversee brand storytelling, integrated marketing and media, loyalty and digital engagement, as well as culinary innovation, as CMO. His tenure at the chain has coincided with an expansion plan that sees the chain working to add 600 new restaurants to its 800-plus footprint.
“We're in a category… that doesn't have a ton of competition. It's Chipotle that really leads it. We're number two, and there's a lot of white space in this category,” Burke said. “It’s a great place for us to be able to grow significantly, while even our competitors having white space to grow.”
The executive spoke with Marketing Dive about the chain’s marketing evolution, its agency roster and more.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: How has Qdoba's strategic vision evolved since you joined in 2023?
JON BURKE: From a marketing perspective, even an organization perspective, we were a brand that a lot of different private equity groups were passing around; Jack in the Box owned the brand for a while. Ultimately, it didn't necessarily have a clearly defined strategy and goal. We had a very limited approach to media and to marketing in general. We had one of the lower-end contribution rates. We weren't really investing in marketing as a lever, and I think the brand suffered from it. More people in the U.S. don't know who we are than know who we are, and we're a brand that started in the ‘90s.
Over the two years I've been here, prior to the promotion, I’ve been really focused on how we think about our guests, how we think about our targeting and our positioning.
We’ve brought in some great agency partners to really help elevate the way we think about the brand. We were a little limited in our talent pool, from a marketing standpoint; we've gotten more remote in terms of our approach to finding the best talent in the restaurant industry to add to the marketing team and it's paying us dividends.
How do the new campaign and other efforts speak to your marketing priorities?
We're in a place right now where it's just about awareness. The fact that most people don't know who we are, that's a huge opportunity. Once they discover us, we're finding that they try our food and they actually prefer our food. We're laser focused on getting more people in the door.
Loyalty and CRM are a couple areas that we really didn't capitalize on [before]. Our key competitor does a great job with their loyalty activations; they've taught our customers how a lot of this stuff works.
The biggest thing is moving into national marketing and having a significant amount of dollars — even though still relatively small in the industry — it's definitely going to get our word out more than we've ever done before.
Qdoba has looked to franchising for growth. How does that affect marketing?
Historically, the brand has relied on local and franchisees to drive [marketing]. As part of the national campaign, we proved it out. We went into markets, we tested this in a handful of restaurants the past year, to actually get learnings and buy-in, and then also show the franchisees what it could do.
That partnership is really strengthened, especially since our CEO, John Cywinski, joined a few years ago. He's brought in new management that understands the industry and how to work with franchisees. We have a franchisee advisory committee and we look at them as partners, hand in hand. Now we work together. It's a different place than where we've been before, culturally.
Qdoba appointed Leo as AOR in 2024. What have you looked for in agency partners?
It really is about diversifying things in this day and age. A big draw in [Leo parent] Publicis Groupe was Epsilon and our ability to activate data and start understanding guests; that was a huge push. Infinite Roar, one of their media arms, has been a great partner in terms of buying power. We still have relatively small budgets; If you look at our industry, our share of spend is small. We believe working with partners like this will be able to maximize the dollars that we have.
They've also been able to add Influential, [production arm] PXP and other agencies that we've tapped into, and we've seen some pretty good traction in terms of increasing our awareness and our impressions on social in a short period of time. It's definitely something that we continue to look at with artificial intelligence where the industry is heading. It's helped us to build the foundation we need to become a national brand.
