Working on El Pollo Loco felt like being an extreme ad sports athlete, maintaining a no-off-day, boot camp level regimen at the Ad Gym. Three workouts a day, treadmill in between, prepping five clean steamed chicken and broccoli meals, 4am cold plunge, recording a podcast, wearing a red light mask, and keeping a sleep journal.
In other words, like a normal AOR relationship in modern advertising. But here’s the thing—it paid off.
EPL’s first year with Innocean, a flat year for QSR in general, yielded:
8% sales growth
In store traffic up by 16%
Rewards Loyalty spiked by 20%
20 new locations in two new states
A 17% Q4 stock price jump in a SINGLE DAY
