🏜 The Restaurant Leadership Conference just wrapped up in Scottsdale, AZ. Informa Connect Foodservice, the company behind the event, describes it as: “RLC is THE home for restaurant executives to hone their leadership skills, discuss solutions to industry challenges, and connect with other senior leadership.”
This is a great show if you want to understand what leaders at the biggest and most proactive brands are thinking—and how they’re improving their businesses. The pacing is a little more relaxed, which gives you more room to have longer, more meaningful conversations.
Also, the desert? One of my happy places.
2025 is already off to a whacky start. We’re facing what might be one of the hardest challenges this industry has ever seen.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
✅ EXPERIENCE MATTERS
With shrinking budgets, consumers are dining out less—and with inflation, their dollars don’t go as far. But here’s the thing: we still love eating out.
That means people aren’t just choosing where to eat based on price—or even taste. They're choosing based on experience. Where is it fun? Where is the staff always friendly? Where does it feel good to be?
Experience beats price and flavor, every time.
Make sure every customer interaction—in-store and online—is the best it can be.
✅ PAY ATTENTION TO RETENTION
It shouldn’t take a crisis to remind us: repeat visits are the heartbeat of this business.
If guests are dining out less frequently, it’s imperative that you stay top of mind.
My advice: be consistent with your owned retention channels—social media, SMS, loyalty, and especially email.
✅ RETENTION IS A TWO-WAY STREET
Retention doesn’t just apply to guests—it’s just as important for employees.
Yes, marketing can drive traffic. But even the best marketing can’t save bad operations. If your team is well-trained, feels like they’re part of something bigger, and is genuinely happy to serve? That’s your growth engine.
Keep your team happy. Look for software that helps with training, streamlines communication, and automates repeatable tasks.
✅ DON’T DISCOUNT YOUR CREATIVE
Brands that are winning right now? They’re not relying on coupons. They’re running creative campaigns.
You might think, “We don’t have the budget for that.” But… doesn’t every discount require a budget too?
Discounts, coupons, and value pricing are great—if that fits your guest profile. But when you pair that with branded creative and premium offers (a.k.a. barbell marketing), that’s where the magic happens.
So how do you get creative?
- Know your brand values.
- Understand what your core guests care about outside of your food.
- Leverage what you’ve already got—your team, your channels, and low-cost tools like digital ads and influencer marketing.
Somewhere in that matrix is your answer.
🏆 BEST PANEL OF THE SHOW
“America’s Hottest Restaurant”: Chili’s CMO on Their Sizzling Success Hosted by Ziosk
Featuring:
- George Felix – SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Brinker International (Chili’s Grill & Bar)
- Rhonda Levene – CEO, Ziosk
This is an award I just made up because this panel was that good!
George dropped knowledge bomb after knowledge bomb. Rhonda asked the exact questions the room was thinking. Rather than summarizing, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before—share my raw notes:
- Be operations-focused. The worst thing you can do is have great marketing but bad ops.
- Listen to your frontline teams for innovation.
- "Marketing brings them in. Operations brings them back."
- Stay top of mind with guests.
- Use tech that enables the guest journey.
- Free chips and salsa for every rewards member, on every visit.
- On social media: watch what your guests are doing—and adopt it.
- For creative: take lots of swings. You’ll miss some, hit others, and build stronger muscles.
- Craveable food imagery wins.
- Ziosk empowers guests to pay when they want—and collects feedback insights.
- Know who you are as a brand. Be true to it.
- Social media is the great equalizer. If your budget is small, get creative there.
- Top channel for new guest acquisition: TikTok.
My playbook aligns with this so much. The secret to great marketing?
🔹 Deliver an unforgettable experience.
🔹 Stay top of mind with current guests.
📘 Want my exact restaurant marketing playbook?
Download it here: 👉 Steal This Proven Restaurant Marketing System – Before Your Competitors Do
✅ NO MORE UNKNOWNS
This might be the single biggest takeaway from the entire show: Nothing—literally nothing—is more important than collecting guest information.
When you have a guest’s name, email, or phone number, you unlock the power to drive insights, retention, growth, and real, lasting change in your business.
Legacy QSR chains have struggled for years with unknowns. That’s why there’s such a strong focus on loyalty signups—because knowing who your guest is unlocks everything else.
But here’s the thing: not everyone wants to earn points.
A lot of guests won’t sign up for loyalty, but they will give you their email. So put a heavy focus on email collection—it’s still one of the most powerful tools in your marketing stack.
🔧 Best ways to drive email collection:
- Online ordering
- Table reservations
- Loyalty programs
- Gated Wi-Fi
- Landing page digital ad campaigns
- Email sign-up on your website
- Email sign-up in your link in bio
Were you at RLC? What were your big takeaways?
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Do you need help with any of this? Send me an email rev@brandedstrategic.net
- Rev Ciancio
WHAT DOES REV DO?
*I help restaurants to build guest marketing programs.
*I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.
