When I took over marketing for Applebee's MENA in 2014, the brand was losing relevance fast. The P&L was in the red, a wave of Instagrammable F&B concepts was eating into casual dining share and the brand had no answer for it. The approach was not a campaign refresh. It was a ground-up brand rebuild.
Time was spent on the floor during service, co-developing new menu concepts with the kitchen team, rebuilding all creative from scratch and running campaigns with the analytical discipline of a performance marketer rather than a traditional brand manager. Every concept that did not convert got cut. Every one that worked got scaled.
By the 2018 Applebee's global convention in Miami, MENA was the top-performing region in the brand's history. US headquarters stopped requesting approvals and simply said: keep going.
Results over five years: five new high-performing stores opened across the region, P&L flipped from consistent loss to sustained profitability on both top and bottom line, and original campaign concepts including Crazy Salad Shakers, Mason Jars, Be the Chef, The Barrel and Melt'n Scoop became regional staples.
When a global brand removes regional approval requirements because they trust your creative judgement completely — that is the real award.
Strategy that goes beyond the brief — from the floor up.
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