Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2016 | Page 32

Supplier Spotlight
BY KERRY PIPES

THEY SPEAK FRANCH!

Hot Dish Advertising builds marketing partnerships

L

ead generation and franchise
recruitment are the lifeblood
of franchising. Without quality
franchisees to represent and expand
the brand, franchises simply can’t
grow. Yet… identifying, reaching,
and recruiting the best candidates
remains a huge challenge. That’s
where companies like Hot Dish
Advertising come in.
Hot Dish, based in Minneapolis, is a full-service ad agency with
experience in developing strategic
marketing plans that help their clients grow their businesses. More
important, the company specializes
in helping franchise brands grow.
“There are a lot of agencies out
there, but unless you work with an
agency that understands the business of franchising, you will likely
fall short of providing best-in-class
marketing strategy and tools for
your franchisees, or an on-brand
franchise development marketing

Dawn Kane

30

team); 2) Data mine (modeling and
research); 3) Develop (marketing
and media plan); 4) Deploy (launch,
execute, and monitor); and 5) Deliver (performance summaries and
optimization recommendations).
The key to success of this process
is a franchisor that recognizes the
value of investing in it.

plan,” says Dawn Kane, CEO and
co-founder of Hot Dish.
Jen Campbell, president and
partner at the firm, says Hot Dish
knows how important it is to engage
today’s franchisees so they’ll embrace and adapt to the marketing
provided by the franchisor. This is
essential for the brand to ensure
consistency and drive sales. And
on the development side, she says,
Hot Dish knows how to dig deep to
find the right audience so brands
can grow with quality leads.
Savvy franchisors know they
need to go beyond their brand’s
attributes and give prospects a reason to connect emotionally with the
brand; that they need to tell a story
about why they are different and a
better choice for both consumers
and prospective franchisees; and
recognize that they need the right
tools, combined with research and
sophisticated data tracking, to help
guide them.
The process at Hot Dish appears
deceptively simple: 1) Discover (strategic planning with your corporate

Understanding the brand
“The more we understand about
the prospects and what motivates
them, the better it allows us to get
more qualified leads into the pipeline,” says Campbell. A lot of that
understanding comes down to unearthing good data—and knowing
what to do with it, she says. Once
franchisors understand the value in
collecting the right data, they can
become more efficient and successful with their marketing efforts.
On the consumer side, she says,
“Data helps us know our audience

Jen Campbell

Franchiseupdate ISS U E II, 2 0 1 6

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