Sonny’s Bar-B-Q

Description: Sonny’s Bar-B-Q is a 40+ year-old restaurant chain founded in north Florida known for its authentic southern barbecue. Sonny’s is located in nine states across the southeastern U.S.

Target Audience: Sonny’s is renowned for their family-friendly environment, consistently great barbecued products, and hospitality. They appeal to all ages, from children to seniors. Sonny’s has been improving their restaurants to make them brighter and more contemporary to keep pace with competing concepts, as well as attract higher income level customers.

Situation: Although Sonny’s has a national ad agency of record, Zelen Communications was contacted by this agency to assist with their local level marketing and advertising needs. Working in tandem with the national agency, Zelen has helped establish the grassroots marketing efforts that are beyond the scope of the corporate outreach.

Solution: Because of the strong working relationship between agencies, both Sonny’s  national and regional advertising have been kept in sync and at a high level of quality. The local-level advertising is now has the same messaging and tightly branded design as all the corporate communications.

Results: Sonny’s has the benefit of a cohesive strategic advertising campaign thanks to a brand personality that has been extended from the top down to the grassroots platform with integrity. This strategy will clearly serve the Sonny’s brand both short- and long-term by maintaining a very consistent message to the target audience.