March 6th, 2015 – In an exclusive to the Dallas Business Journal, Scott Schindele, Agency Creative’s account director for TGI Fridays, shared with Korri Kezar how his Dallas ad agency engages customers around the globe.
With more than 400 franchisees in 60 countries worldwide, TGI Fridays has to present itself as a brand that appeals to multiple markets, cultures and languages. Since 2010, Dallas’ Agency Creative has worked with the Carrollton restaurant chain to design a global website, television commercials, menu designs and other promotions that lure in consumers while promoting Fridays’ central brand message of good food and fun. Each year, the ad agency develops new ideas that keep Fridays’ look fresh.
What do you do to overcome the barriers between different global markets? I think the best way we do that is by having a clear understanding of what the Fridays brand promise is, which revolves around fun. That’s a universal idea and not endemic to one country.
We then want to creatively express that brand in unique and compelling ways. We come up with ideas that reflect the restaurant’s promise and experience of great food, drinks and atmosphere.
We have to create messaging that can resonate across languages without losing meaning, and that can be hard to strike. We want to align with the message but push the envelope while staying in the guidelines.
How has your branding approach changed over the last few years? We always look where design trends are going relative to color palettes and other factors. Our tactical approach to branding hasn’t changed over the years, but what has changed are patterns, what’s hot now and what people are looking for.
Last year the color green was hot and you were seeing it a lot in painting, sculpture and architecture. But Fridays doesn’t have any green in the logo and we weren’t going to change that. Instead, we looked at how that could weave that trend into a global understanding of the brand and what it looks and feels like. We want to merge in some of those trends into the existing look.
What is your goal with your promotions for Fridays? By and large we want to make Fridays the destination of choice for dining experience. From a business standpoint, we want to build foot traffic and produce incremental sales. Obviously, we also want to look to grow the brand through providing and delivering a superior guest experience.
