Church’s Chicken Picks Fletcher Martin As Eastern U.S. Agency

Church’s Chicken has retained Fletcher Martin, Atlanta, to serve as its agency of record for print and media throughout the eastern United States. Fletcher Martin will be responsible for the restaurant chain’s direct mail, co-op management and media planning and buying.

The restaurant chain’s direct mail program currently consists of 3.5 million pieces every month, which are distributed through shared mail programs such as Advo and Valassis, according to Fletcher Martin executive VP Jill Meiser.

Church’s will take advantage of Traffic Generators, a Fletcher Martin unit which coordinates client mailings in excess of 600 million pieces annually. The unit also maintains its own proprietary mapping system, which merges the capabilities of three different mapping software providers.

“We are working with them to ‘deep dive’ into their markets, and tighten the [customer] profile and drop areas,” Meiser told Direct Newsline

Church’s mailings primarily consist of pieces that remind consumers of value menus and other offerings, as opposed to cents-off coupons, Meiser added.

While the chicken chain’s media plan for 2008 is largely set in stone, Meiser anticipates a greater reliance on shared mail during 2009. “It will depend on budgeting and efficiencies,” she said. “But we will be able to improve their affordable drop volumes [through economies of scale].”

Why stay with shared mail? “Historically, we’ve found for other brands [that have retained Fletcher Martin] the greatest ROI from shared mail,” Meiser said.