Project Overview

We partnered with I Heart Mac & Cheese to develop a marketing campaign targeted both towards customers and potential franchisees. We worked to produce a 30 second commercial spot to highlight the best parts of the I Heart Mac and Cheese products in a dynamic way. Additionally, we produced a longer-form docu-style franchisee spot to showcase what it’s like to come in and run your own store from an operational standpoint.

Client

I Heart Mac & Cheese, is a fast-casual restaurant concept specializing in customizable, made-to-order macaroni and cheese bowls and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Their store design is inspired by the brand’s dedication to its customers, as the comfort classics brand strives to modernize the guest experience from start to finish. All new locations will feature signature elements including a chic wooden interior with a contrasting greenery wall, mixing a variety of textures and natural finishes to create a warm, comfortable ambiance that invites guests to dine-in.

The store redesign complements the brand’s steady growth within this past year. An increase in both new franchise signings and new store openings has brought the chain to new markets across the United States, expanding its reach into new neighborhoods and communities. The new store aesthetic celebrates the next phase of I Heart Mac & Cheese, ushering in the return of the dine-in and inviting customers to sit and stay a while, making memories together.

Audience

This marketing strategy targeted two camps: the first being the customer who walks into the store that loves I Heart Mac and Cheese, and the second being the potential franchisee.

Approach

As a partner to I Heart Mac and Cheese, we produced a 30 second spot that they could use for marketing their products and store from a general / holistic perspective on digital and broadcast channels. It includes frame by frame graphics and close-up product shots to provide the modern and familial feel that I Heart portrays to their customers.

Additionally, we worked to create a series of videos that helped to sell more franchisees on the idea of opening and running an IHMC restaurant. IHMC prides itself on the simplicity of their franchise approach, and we elected to tell the story of this through a docu-style format where we interviewed a variety of franchisees with positive experiences to pull from their testimonials. This was paired with an emotional story assembly draws in viewers with the most important selling points (i.e. time with family) and supplemented with cinematic restaurant and product b-roll shots.

We shot inside their headquarters in Miami because it housed a mock restaurant which served as the perfect interview set. Logistically, we lined up our shoot day with an actual franchisee training day where we filmed b-roll of the actual training process in real-time and used the franchisees as talent for staged shots. The final video incorporated custom and branded graphics to hit home on key points and metrics that help to sell franchisees.

Does your franchise need marketing or training content at scale? Reach out to us at hello@suorastudios.com to start a conversation.