Mock Advertising Campaign for Advertising Problems Course at Louisiana State University's Manship School of Mass Communication

1. SOLO Media Harrison Cates, Alyssa Copeland, Megan Gallo, Kelsey Guerin, Jake Johnson, Madeline Ramsey

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary..................................................
Situation Analysis.....................................................
Campaign Proposal..................................................
Creative Elements.....................................................
Media Plan.................................................................
IMC Elements............................................................
Campaign Evaluation...............................................
References................................................................
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2-14
15-17
18-21
22-28
29-30
31
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3. Executive Summary
Marketing & Advertising Objectives
Target Audience
Creative Concept
Media
Promotional Strategy & IMC Efforts
Media Plan
Campaign Evaluation
Increase sales by 15%, Re-establish brand position
African American 18-34 year that makes less than $10,000
Endless Opportunities
TV, Internet, Magazine, Radio, Outdoor
Sales and application promotion using coupons
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250 million
Reach and Frequency
Pulsing
Emphasis on the southern region
Copy & Post Testing - Focus Groups & Surveys

4. Situation Analysis
Market Analysis
The fast food industry has seen an increase in consumers shying away from the greasy food options for
more health-conscious menu items. Many companies that are looking for continued success are expanding
their menu to include healthy options to meet consumer preferences. Fast-casual restaurants such as
Chipotle and Five Guys have stolen market share away from businesses such as McDonald’s and other
similar restaurants. The fast food industry has three big companies who hold the majority market share:
McDonald’s Corp (15.2%), Yum! Brands Inc. (8.4%) and Subway (4.6% MS). A decline in consumer
consumption occurred during the recession due to a higher unemployment rate; however, consumer spending
is expected to increase throughout the 2017 year. Unemployment and low consumption rates have forced
companies to lower prices to maintain profit margins. Many US domestic brands have taken this opportunity
to expand more internationally to counterbalance the fall of profit during the recession. Brands have
expanded into international markets where the saturation level is low such as Asia and the Middle East.
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5. Situation Analysis
Product/ Brand Analysis
Sonic Drive-In was founded in the early 1950s. Forty years later the company incorporated in the state of
Delaware. Today, the company’s corporate office is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As of August 2016,
there were 3,557 Sonic Drive-Ins located in 45 states. The company is best known for their iconic roller
skating carhops and their featured items, which include specialty drinks with nearly 1.3 million different
combinations, frozen desserts, tater tots, Coney’s, and an extensive all-day breakfast menu. Sonic was hard
hit by the financial crisis and by the increase in people turning away from high calorie drinks like soda.
Statista shows the company’s revenue from sales dropped substantially in 2010 and stayed either falling
or low until 2014. Since 2014, Sonic and many other limited service restaurants have focused on increasing
the sales of soda again through promotions and new specialty items. This is especially critical for Sonic
because of their position in the specialty drink market. Sonic implemented the Soda Pop Shoppe with
moderate success to stimulate soda revenue, according to Restaurant Business Magazine's June 2016
issue. You can see the success of promotions like this in the company’s revenue. The first year revenue
began increasing since it's hard dip in 2010 was 2014. Statista shows 2015 and 2016 saw small rises in
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6. Situation Analysis
Product/ Brand Analysis
revenue as well. Every year Sonic’s advertising expenditures increase, even in the year's revenue was
falling. This shows there are more efficient and effective ways to use their advertising budget. However, in
previous years Sonic did a great job advertising to minority groups having the most memorable ads in the
black and Asian demographics and second most memorable in the Hispanic group in 2014.
After the company incorporated in the 1990s, their advertising gloated about their “made to order food in 5
minutes or less.” Later the company changed their ads, and after the 2008 recession the company did some
intense “retooling” based off customer recommendations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sonic
credited the retooling for 2014 to increase in their revenue, stating that the 11% surge on stock value and
15% better than expected increase in fiscal second-quarter profit was a direct result.
The company’s current advertising is very product and promotion based. Some recent ads were for 50
cent corn dogs or Tuesday ‘Family Night’ launched in March of 2017 year that offers deals 5pm-close. The
company has a history of promoting family values even though the majority of their business comes from
men without children. Their history includes philanthropy work, like the 2009 launch of SONIC's Limeades
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7. Situation Analysis
Product/ Brand Analysis
for Learning campaign, which partnered with DonorsChoose.org. The result is Sonic has donated $7.4
million to public school teachers' classrooms nationwide. Currently the company is very optimistic. Last year
their second quarter profits rose 41% according to the wall street journal. The company cited its “strength in
core menu items, along with limited-time offers” as the cause for the increase in sales and market share.
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8. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: McDonald's
Sonic’s major competitor is McDonald’s. The company spend 1.43 billion in advertising in 2015. This is
significantly more than the rest of the fast food industry. According to Simmons Oneview the majority of
their customers are between 18 and 24, black, and live in the Midwest and South. The major weakness of
McDonald’s is that they have had tax invasions and lawsuits. One strength for the company is that they
have a strong brand value and the fact that they are the leader in the industry. Even though they are the
leader they still face the upcoming competition and the strong presence of food safety regulation. They
have the opportunity to stay at the top and extend the company further internationally.
Thirty-one percent (88) of McDonald’s consumers are 55 or older with the next most common age
group being 25 to 34 year olds making up 19 percent (110) of their consumers. Forty-five to 54 year olds
make up 18 percent (98) while 35 to 44 year olds make up 17.6 percent (105) and 18 to 24 year olds make
up 14.2 percent (117).Females make up 50.3 percent (97) of McDonald’s consumers, and males make up
49.7 percent (103). Seventy-four percent (100) of McDonald’s consumers are white. Fourteen percent
(113) of those consumers are African American, while only four percent (77) are Asian.In the South there
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9. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: McDonald's
Strengths ThreatsOpportunitiesWeaknesses
are 38.7 percent (103) of McDonald’s consumers with the next largest region being the Midwest with
23.5 percent (109) of their consumers in that region. In the West, there is only 20.7 percent (92) of
McDonald’s consumers, and lastly there are 17 percent (94) of McDonald’s consumers in the
Northeast.
strong brand
market
leadership
high profit
margin
tax evasion
lawsuits
growing
foodservice
market
growing hot
drinks market
growing Asian
presence
intense
competition
food safety
regulations
increased
labor wages
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10. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: Burger King
Burger King’s main target audience is black males between the ages of 25-34 that live in the Northeast
or the Midwest. Burger King Holdings spent 255 million in 2015 on advertising. They have many franchises
and an attractive business model, which makes them a diverse company. They have many legal issues
because they are in violation of many federal laws.They are also extremely dependant on specific specific
distributors.They do have the opportunity to launch healthy food options like their competitors do, which
leads to expansion. The rising labor costs in the US and the changing of government regulations on food
safety is a huge threat the them and their competitors.
Thirty-three percent (93) of Burger King consumers are 55 or older with the next most common age
group being 25 to 34 year olds making up 19.6 percent (113) of their consumers. Forty-five to 54 year olds
make up 19.2 percent (104) while 35 to 44 year olds make up 17.4 percent (103) and 18 to 24 year olds
make up 11 percent (91).Males make up 51.3 percent (106) of Burger King consumers, and females make
up 48.7 percent (94). Seventy-one percent (95) of Burger King consumers are white. Fifteen percent
(124) of those consumers are African American, while only five percent (86) are Asian. In the South there
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11. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: Burger King
Strengths ThreatsOpportunitiesWeaknesses
are 36.4 percent (96) of Burger King consumers with the next largest region being the Midwest with
23.5 percent (109) of their consumers in that region. In the Northeast there is only 20.2 percent (112)
of Burger King consumers, and lastly there are 19.9 percent (88) of Burger King consumers in the
West.
strong brand and
market position
greater franchise
mix
attractive
business model
heavy
competition
changing
government
regulations
rising labor
wages
growing food
service industry
in US
business
expansion
health conscious
product
expansion
concentrated
geographic
presence
dependence on
distributors
violation of
accessibility
requirements
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12. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: Dairy Queen
Dairy Queens target audience is 18-34 white males and females that live in the Midwest. They spent
87.5 million dollars in 2014 on advertising. They are significantly smaller than the rest of the competition,
but still an important competitor for Sonic because their most popular item is the blizzard. The blizzard
makes up 36% of their 4.1 billion dollars in sales. Their main strength is that they are very proficient in
franchises operations, which makes for a wide networks of restaurants in the United States. Their key
weakness is that they have not extended internationally. There is a growing food industry in the US which
gives them the opportunity to expand. They face many threats such as the labor costs increasing in the
US. Sonic’s focus on slushes and blasts makes Dairy Queen a direct competitor because of the similar
popular menu items.
Thirty-one percent (88) of Dairy Queen consumers are 55 or older with the next most common age
group being 25 to 34 year olds making up 20.9 percent (120) of their consumers. Forty-five to 54 year olds
make up 17.6 percent (96) while 35 to 44 year olds make up 16 percent (95) and 18 to 24 year olds make
up 14.5 percent (120). Females make up 53 percent (102) of Dairy Queen consumers, and males make
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13. Situation Analysis
Competitors Analysis: Dairy Queen
Strengths ThreatsOpportunitiesWeaknesses
up 47 percent (97). Seventy-nine percent (107) of Dairy Queen consumers are white. Ten percent
(80) of those consumers are African American, while only three percent (51) are Asian. In the South
there are 35.2 percent (93) of Dairy Queen consumers with the next largest region being the Midwest
with 31.3 percent (145) of their consumers in that region. In the West there is only 21.7 percent (96) of
Dairy Queen consumers, and lastly there are 11.8 percent (65) of Dairy Queen consumers in the
Northeast.
broad
product
offerings
parent
company
support
intense
competition
increasing
health
consciousness
growing
foodservice
industry
positive market
outlook in
Asian fast
food
lack of
standardizati
on of product
offerings
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14. Situation Analysis
Consumer Analysis
Twenty-seven percent (75) of Sonic’s consumers are 55 or older with the next most common age
group being 35 to 44 year olds making up 20 percent (119) of their consumers. Forty-five to 54 year
olds make up 19.5 percent (106) while 25 to 34 year olds make up 19.4 percent (112) and 18 to 24
year olds make up 14.5 percent (120). Females make up 52.3 percent (101) of Sonic’s consumers,
and males make up 47.7 percent (99). Seventy-one percent (95) of Sonic’s consumers are white.
Eighteen percent (147) of those consumers are African American, while only three percent (51) are
Asian. In the South there are 38.2 percent (101) of Sonic’s consumers with the next largest region
being the West with 22.8 percent (101) of their consumers in that region. In the Midwest there is
only 22.3 percent (103) of Sonic’s consumers, and lastly there are 16.7 percent (92) of Sonic’s
consumers in the Northeast.
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15. Situation Analysis
SWOT Analysis: Sonic Drive-In
recognizable
unique
experience
iconic image
crowded
domestic market
lack of
international
presence
lacking social
media presence
flawed target
market selection
US expansion
into Northern
regions.
expansion into
Europe
outdated
lack of healthy
options
Strengths ThreatsOpportunitiesWeaknesses 13

16. Target Audience
The target audience is people ages 18-34(126) with a direct focus on students (230) and an indirect
focus on part-time students (202) which includes African American (142) students making less than
$10,000 a year (199), living in the southern region (200). Psychographic profiles of the target audience
include; Generation-Web: low income, younger family mix, Low Rise Living: lower mid-middle age
mostly without kids and Struggling Singles: low income, middle age, without kids.
Struggling Sam and Single Sally go to either a community college
or a state university in the Southern region of the United States. They
work about 20 hours a week making 10,000 dollars a year, because
of their part-time jobs and student status they have a very tight
budget.
Target Profile
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17. Marketing and Advertising Objectives
Marketing Objective
Advertising Objective
Our main advertising objectives to re-establish our brand position and
show our consumers that we have more to offer than just drinks. We
want to promote the variety of menu items. This would include our food
items, other than drink items, sales to rise and bring up our revenue as a
whole.
Sonic has seen a drop in sales over time; however, they have been
seeing a steady rise in income coming from their franchises. Our
objectives for marketing is to see a 15 percent increase in their overall
revenue. We expect much of this increase to be due to sales of items
other than their slushies since Sonic already has that as a major part of
their revenue.
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18. Campaign Concept
Concept 1: Another campaign concept we considered was updating the “Two Guys” campaign to
use Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock,” Johnson. We ended up not using this concept because the
people that we tested the idea with did not see the idea as different enough to catch their attention.
There was actually a noticeable amount of animosity towards Sonic’s traditional “Two Guys”
advertising and we feel that we should try our absolute hardest to avoid this.
Concept 2: One Initial ad design involved the use of a slot machine to act as the randomization for
our button. Our slogan that went along with this concept was “Try Your Luck.” We wanted to gamify
the selection process of choosing and order and give the feeling being rewarded with your order.
However, many of the people we ran this concept by thought the process was too close to gambling
to completely commit to the idea.
Concept 3: Our campaign concept revolves around Sonic’s identity as “Endless Opportunities.” We
want our audience to think of Sonic as the place with an experience that they can tailor to their
personality. Sonic has so many options that you can get the experience you want there and you can
do that for everyone.
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19. Campaign Concept
We initially conducted a qualtrics survey assessing 75 individuals to determine how our selected
target audience feels about Sonic Drive-In’s current advertisements and brand in comparison to our
main competitors. The results that we obtained were that people found McDonald’s advertisements
more memorable due to the catchy slogan and the personal connection they could make with the
commercials. Due to the survey we also discovered that people were more attracted to Dairy Queen’s
treats rather than Sonic Drive-In’s in part to the more appealing advertisements by Dairy Queen. The
survey also provided us with evidence that the target audience found Sonic Drive-In’s brand not
relatable due to their lack of creativity in advertisements.
In the same qualtrics survey we tested out a few versions of our magazine and billboard ads to
see how our target audience responded to our potential advertisements. We found that the people
we tested responded better to ads that included the Sonic button in the advertisement. Not only did
they consider the button an integral part of Sonic Drive-in’s brand, but it also helps with our message
strategy. We also tried to gage our target audience’s opinion on the use of interactive billboards;
however, many of them thought of those kinds of billboards as too distracting. With this in mind we
decided not to create any interactive billboards.
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Pre-Testing

20. Creative Strategy
How to Say
The main theme for our campaign will be "Endless Opportunities". Sonic is there for every
moment. We want to create a feeling of tons of different options and experiences at Sonic for our
consumers. We want them to feel that every time they go to Sonic they can get a different meal and
have a different experience. Our advertisements will focus on people going to Sonic and having all
kinds of different experiences at the press of a button. Our magazine and outdoor advertisements will
focus on the use of the button and endless food options. While our television commercials will focus
on different people going to Sonic and getting different experiences every time. We will run a set of
TV ads with one friend group during different times of the year having a different experience every
time. One ad will be a warm sunny day, and another would be a rainy day in the car.
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21. Creative Strategy
Execution: Ad Samples
Commercial:
Commercial of same
friend group experiencing
Sonic Drive-In during
different times of the year.
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22. Creative Strategy
Execution: Ad Samples
Magazine & Internet:
Will feature the sonic
button surrounded by a
multitude of menu options
that are offered
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23. Creative Strategy
Execution: Ad Samples
Billboard:
Will feature
Sonic's various options along
with the iconic button
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24. Media Objective
Our media objective is to reach our target audience in both our prominent region and our less
prominent region using reach and frequency. We will be focusing in the southern region but still
advertising in the northern region of the United States. We believe that our “Endless Opportunities”
campaign will achieve our advertising objective of re-establishing our position by showing our
audience Sonic is more than just “cool drinks” and increase our sales. With the button we want to help
customers become aware of all the options. This campaign and IMC will show people that we are a
diverse company and have something for everyone. We believe that once our advertising objective
works our revenue will increase. It will show that we have more to offer; therefore, making us more
valuable.
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25. Media Objective
Reach & Frequency Goals
We are going to two different strategies for Sonic's two different markets. For our core market, we are
focusing more on frequency since Sonic is already strong in that market. People already know of
Sonic's brand and have an opinion of it, so it will take a lot to change that. We are hoping for 500
GRPs a week coming from 10 impressions a week with a reach of 50 percent of our target audience.
In the Developing market we are planning to push a more reach orientated strategy. In this area,
Sonic is less of an established brand; therefore, we need to reach more people and show them our
brand the way we want them to see it. In this market we are planning for 400 GRPs a week coming
from 5 impressions a week with a reach of 80 percent of our target audience.
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26. Media Objective
Regionality/ Seasonality Weighting & Scheduling
Sonic-Drive In will need to promote mainly in the
South region with a little bit of promotion in the
developing markets in other regions. The map below
shows the markets that Sonic Drive-In needs to focus on.
Red is the core market, blue is the developing markets.
With the use of a pulsing strategy, we plan to
advertise more heavily in April, May, June, July, August
and September, reasoning being that Sonic Drive-In’s
sales mainly comes during the summer months. Since
Sonic is a drive-in type of restaurant consumers usually
tend to come more frequently when it is warm out. During
the other six months we will still be promoting Sonic
Drive-In with the use of seasonal attractions during those
specific times of the year.
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27. Media Strategy and Tactics
Media Rationales/ Selection
Based on the statistics we found on Simmons Oneview we learned the best possible medias for our
target audience. The most effective medias were chosen based on Quintile analysis. The following were
found to have a high index under the first Quintile: late night and early morning TV(115), radio all
day(148), internet(143) , outdoor(110). For outdoor we are choosing to use billboards. We will use this to
kept our audience's attention as well as show the the new mystery associated with sonic. We will be using
similar tactics with our radio, TV, and internet advertisements. After running another analysis we found
specific magazines and TV channels that would best reach our target audience. The magazines chosen
are: Black Enterprise(653), Ebony(599), Essence (653), Jet (663), Macworld(369), and PC Magazine
(143). The TV channels chosen are: Adult Swim(228), Cartoon Network(299), Chiller(298), Cinemaz(252),
Cloo(285), Disney Channel(217), Disney XD (227), Encore (249), ESPN Classic(214), ESPN New(225),
Esquire Network(374), Fuse(396), HSN( 271), Lifetime Movie Network(219), Logo(344), MTV(333),
MTV2(422), NBA TV(290), NBA TV(290), NBC Sports Network(225), Nickelodeon(240),
Nuvotv(458),Oxygen(318), Sportsman Channel(256), Spout(227), Starz(262), Sundance Channel(228),
TV Guide Network(289), VH1 Classic(256), We TV(383) These specific media's should be the best ways
to reach our target audience show them the new position for Sonic.
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28. Media Strategy and Tactics
Media Mix
TV
46%
Outdoor
10%
Internet
12%
Radio
16%
IMC
5%
Magazine
11%
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TV 46%
Radio 16%
Internet 12%
Magazine 11%
Outdoor 10%
IMC 5%

29. Advertising Budget
We plan to use a pulsing strategy which will determine how the money for each medium is
distributed within the budget. Our budget is $250,000,000 but we only plan to spend around
$200,000,000 having $50,000,000 on reserve.The months with the highest amount of
advertisements will be May, June and July. These are key months for Sonic Drive-In due to the
warmer weather during summer months more people are likely to choose to eat at Sonic Drive-In
during this time of year. During May, June and July our IMC campaign will launch which will require
more amount of money. April, August and September will also have a higher amount of advertising
in part of the warmer weather starting to swarm the southern region. We also plan to have
seasonal advertisements during holiday months such as February, October and December which
is why more money is set aside during those times of the year. The last three months, January,
March and November tend to be more cold in the region we have chosen to target. There will still
be winter advertisements but the frequency will be lower than previous months
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30. Advertising Flowchart
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31. Promotion Strategy & IMC Elements
To continue with our “Endless Opportunities” focus, we decided to kick off our IMC by changing Sonic
Drive-In’s iconic red button. The summer IMC will kick off in May with a guerilla style commercial. In this
commercial we will take over a busy Sonic and change all of the red buttons to blue. These blue buttons will
say “Dare To Try” on them, and will give the consumers a randomly generated order that showcases
Sonic’s wide variety of offerings. The customers reactions will be filmed, and at the end of the commercial,
viewers will be prompted to take out their phones and take a picture of the blue button on screen to receive
a coupon for a randomized meal.This interactive element will also be included with magazine and internet
ads as well.
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32. Promotion Strategy & IMC Elements
The blue button will also be advertised on non-interactive platforms such as radio, internet and
outdoor billboards. People can also share their thoughts and experience on social media platforms
using the hashtag #WeChangedTheButton and #DaretoTry. During the campaign period we will be
posting on all social media platforms different menu item combinations that could be considered odd
and adventurous to challenge consumers to get outside of their comfort zone. Our earned media will
be the buzz that swirls within our consumers. For the remaining nine months we will not be
incorporating the blue button to create a sense of a limited time option.
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33. Test Market/ Copytesting/ Evaluation of Plan
In order to evaluate our campaign, we will use several methods. The first and most obvious is by
numbers. We will compare market share to previous years to see if the planned strategy to turn our
brand awareness into customer loyalty is effective. We will also review sales numbers on a monthly
basis with previous years. By looking at these numbers month by month we can determine the
effectiveness of our seasonal IMC, as well as monitor whether or not our efforts to curb the
seasonality of our sales was successful.
Focus groups will be held in January of 2019 in order to better understand how our creative
strategies affect consumer attitudes. Focus groups will also be held after IMC in August 2018 to
both copytest and asses the success or lack thereof in shifting consumer attitudes towards our
brand. The test market will be the city of Dallas, Texas (342). SimmonOneView data showed that
the city had the highest amount of Sonic Drive-In users in the country. We will begin the IMC
campaign in Dallas and further expand after seeing reactions from the target audience in that area.
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34. References
Burger King Worldwide, Inc. SWOT Analysis. (2014). Burger King Worldwide, Inc.SWOT Analysis, 1-
8.
Fast Food Restaurants in the US. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2017, from
http://clients1.ibisworld.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/reports/us/industry/default.aspx?entid=1980
International Dairy Queen Corporation SWOT Analysis. (cover story). (2012).
McDonald's Corporation SWOT Analysis. (2016). Lincoln National Corporation SWOT Analysis, 1-9.
Simmons Oneview
Sonic Corp. (2016). Sonic Corp. MarketLine Company Profile, 1-17.
Statista
The Wendy's Company. (2015). Wendy's Company MarketLine Company Profile, 1-25
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