Marketing Specialist - McAlister's

The Marketing Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day marketing execution, cross-functional communication, onboarding channel set-up and providing long-term marketing strategy learnings, analysis & best practices for new restaurant openings. Working with franchise clients, internal/external digital & IT partners, media agency partners, they will be responsible for main grand opening marketing communication liaison across all teams, developing, implementing, and executing strategic marketing initiatives to generate location awareness, drive traffic and sales. The Marketing Specialist must be an organized, detail-oriented, and planful individual who can manage timelines, deliverables, follow-ups, and cross-functional inputs to support seamless execution for customers, franchisees, and internal partners. Reporting to the Field Marketing Director, this role works closely with brand, creative, media, operations, and technology partners to support day-to-day grand opening marketing execution. This position is based in our corporate office in Atlanta, GA with work from home Fridays. ### Essential Functions * **Grand Opening Project Coordination & Cross-functional Marketing Liaison** + Grand Opening marketing project lead on weekly NSO Cross-Functional calls to ensure all digital channels are activated & tested prior to opening. + Grand Opening marketing project lead ensuring all digital/technology channels/vendors are enabled, tested and live on day of opening. + Grand Opening marketing brand representative to franchise clients + Lead kick-off calls with franchise clients discussing budget, goals, marketing strategies and best practices. * **Grand Opening Paid Media Planning & Marketing Coordination** + Grand Opening marketing brand representative to local media agency + Lead media brief & kick-off calls with agency partners discussing budget, goals, trade area/demo insights and strategy direction. + Manage the Grand Opening media strategy recommendation review and approval process between agency and franchise client to ensure campaign goals align with brand strategy/goals and franchise client approvals. + Manage Grand Opening media performance & campaign reporting + Pull data and insights from media reporting dashboard into reporting format + Establish ongoing reporting cadence with franchise client to discuss performance and KPIs over the 8-16 week campaign. + Present campaign reporting to franchise clients with key insights, KPI takeaways and benchmark comparisons. + Evaluate paid media creative performance and make optimization recommendations with data-driven insights. + Manage post-opening marketing hand-off to long-term Field Marketing representative ensuring successful transfer of information (campaign performance, contact list, trade area insights, learnings/summary) is delivered. * **Grand Opening On-site Activation & Community Involvement** + Up to 50% Travel Requirement: Required to attend Grand Opening events to support in-restaurant training and opening activation events. - Identify learnings and best practices and providing summaries and recommendations. + In-market coordination efforts with franchise clients with pre-opening community events, street team sales drops, local new outlet drop offs, local PR press releases and pitching, local chamber and organization partnerships. + On-site coordination efforts with agency partners and franchise clients with loyalty and grand opening offer giveaways, social contests, live radio remotes and celebration event activations. ### Job Summary The Marketing Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day marketing execution, cross-functional communication, onboarding channel set-up and providing long-term marketing strategy learnings, analysis & best practices for new restaurant openings. Working with franchise clients, internal/external digital & IT partners, media agency partners, they will be responsible for main grand opening marketing communication liaison across all teams, developing, implementing, and executing strategic marketing initiatives to generate location awareness, drive traffic and sales. The Marketing Specialist must be an organized, detail-oriented, and planful individual who can manage timelines, deliverables, follow-ups, and cross-functional inputs to support seamless execution for customers, franchisees, and internal partners. Reporting to the Field Marketing Director, this role works closely with brand, creative, media, operations, and technology partners to support day-to-day grand opening marketing execution. This position is based in our corporate office in Atlanta, GA with work from home Fridays. ### Education * Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Business, Consumer Insights, Communications or other related field of study preferred ### Work Experience * 2–4 years of experience in marketing, brand marketing, project management, communications, or a related business function. * Experience supporting creative workflow, campaign execution, go-to-market coordination, asset management, or customer touchpoint optimization preferred. ### Skills & Abilities * Strong project management skills with the ability to manage timelines, deliverables, follow-ups, and multiple workstreams with attention to detail. * Ability to adapt to shifting priorities, manage competing deadlines, and remain planful and solution-oriented in a fast-paced environment. ### Travel Requirements * May be required to travel up to 50% of the time