Fast Food Restaurants Prove Resilient During Pandemic

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, October 22, 2020 | 4:55pm CT

Media Monitors

McDonald's, Wendy's and Taco Bell lead the ranking of radio advertisers in Media Monitors' latest rankings of top advertisers in the quick-service restaurants category. With breakfast representing 8% of total U.S. sales, Wendy's announced in August that it would launch a $15 million marketing campaign for the rest of 2020. The fast food chain aired 537,837 spots across radio, television and cable, but 394,613 of those spots were on radio.

"The best time to entice hungry diners is while they're in the car, making radio advertising even more valuable for fast food marketers," said Media Monitors President and CEO Philippe Generali. "With schools and other activities reopening, people are learning how to live with the virus, so they're venturing out more. Fast food offers the flexibility to eat out but not have to dine inside a restaurant. This advantage, combined with the value of the meal, makes fast food just right for today's pandemic economy."

The top 50 fast food advertisers aired a combined 5.75 million spots between January 1 and September 30. Overall, the top 50 aired more than half of instances, 54% on radio and one-third of their spots on television. Taco Bell, which ranked #3 overall, aired nearly all of its instances on radio. Meanwhile, Subway -- the #3 advertiser overall in 2019 -- fell to #18 in the latest analysis.