Yum Brands has made some changes in its Canadian marketing leadership, moving director of marketing Jason Cassidy (pictured, above) to KFC Canada and hiring Daniel Meynen to take the same role at Pizza Hut Canada.
The move has Cassidy leading promotional activities, pricing, ecommerce, performance marketing and technology initiatives at the chicken QSR, including its aggregators partnership, its click and collect program and the roll-out of digital kiosks. Ecommerce, delivery and click-and-collect have been areas of focus for KFC in recent marketing efforts.
He will report to Samantha Redman, CMO at KFC Canada, and lead a team of six people, including a senior manager of marketing and digital lead.
“My main objective is to find creative ways to acquire new customers to the brand, and to drive profitable transaction growth for our franchisees,” Cassidy said in an email to strategy. “I’ve also been asked to define the digital strategy and technology roadmap for KFC in Canada.”
Cassidy said he hopes to make KFC more technologically accessible to the consumers through ecommerce, delivery and in-store kiosks. “I want to help our brand create more distinctive communication and advertising to not just keep up with culture, but create it.”
He was named one of Marketing’s 30 Under 30 in 2014, and went on to serve as senior manager of digital and creative at Cara (now called Recipe Unlimited), leading the roll-out of an in-house team while working on eight of the company’s 10 restaurant brands.
KFC announced earlier this month that it has chosen John St. as its new agency of record, ending a nine-year run with agency Grip in the Canadian market. Grip still works with KFC parent company Yum Brands on the Taco Bell Canada account.
Over at Pizza Hut, Yum has hired Meynen, who most recently served as VP of marketing at Reckitt Benckiser in the U.S. He led marketing for the company’s household brands, which include Lysol, Air Wick, Vanish and Woolite.
