Church’s Chicken hires Burger King marketing veteran as CMO
Texan fast food brand Church’s Chicken has found a chief marketing officer in Brian Gies, a restaurant industry veteran who has held top marketer jobs at both TGI Fridays and Burger King.
Brian Gies joins Church's
Gies replaces Hector Munoz, who has taken up the chief marketing officer role at rival chicken brand El Pollo Loco.
Church's new chief marketer, who also takes on the role of executive vice-president, will lead marketing at the company as it looks to grow its footprint internationally. His first tasks will be to implement its latest domestic marketing initiative, ‘Bringin’ That Down Home Flavor’, and set its new global brand positioning in motion.
Gies joins from Partners Proficio, the consultancy he co-founded in 2010. He left in 2013 to become TGI Fridays’ chief marketing officer in a role that saw him implement the brand’s first e-commerce platform.
He returned to as Proficio as chief growth officer just over three years later.
Before launching his own venture, Gies completed a 17-year tenure at Burger King. He joined the company as a strategy analyst in 1993 and worked his way up to the role of US vice-president for marketing in 2005, where he made his name launching campaigns such as ‘Whopper Virgins’ and ‘Whopper Sacrifice’.
Joe Christina, another Burger King veteran who now runs Church’s as chief executive, said Gies was hired for his experience in “building winning teams, delivering results and working with franchisees to grow their business”.
“His first-hand knowledge and excellent track record fits right in with the culture we are building and will play an intricate part of achieving our vision to be the global franchisor of choice,” he said.
Gies added: “[Church’s] has a longstanding, tried-and-tested platform that deserves to be elevated and optimized further, with an outcome that broadens our audience so even more chicken lovers can enjoy the Church’s experience. I’m excited to get busy helping to make that happen.”