Mary Brown’s Chicken is telling long-form, emotional stories about its franchisees in a B2B play that could have implications for its approach to consumer marketing.

The QSR brand has developed a pair of documentary-style videos that spotlight two of their franchisees: Amar and Gurmeet, who started their franchise after immigrating from India, and Aysha and Waqar, who did the same after coming from Pakistan. Each installment of the series explores the stories behind these Mary Brown’s Chicken operators, including their journeys to successful store ownership and the communities of employees who have been with them every step of the way.

“We spend all this time and all this effort talking about our food, our commitment to the community…but we don’t actually honour and speak to the ones who make it happen for us,” says Jeff Barlow, CMO of parent company MBI Brands.

While competition between chicken QSRs is high right now, Barlow says that for the Mary Brown’s brand, this effort is more about looking inward, as evidenced by the campaign title, “Meet Our Family.”

Attracting franchisees is also important to Mary Brown’s due to it ambitious growth plans. The chain reached 250 locations across Canada last year, with plans to open 40 more this year, focusing on Ontario and Western Canada.

According to Barlow, this kind of emotional storytelling goes a long way with future operators, especially when standing out against large chicken conglomerates like KFC, Popeye’s and Church’s, which have their own Canadian expansion ambitions.

The videos are now live on the brand’s LinkedIn page to specifically reach Canadians looking for new business opportunities, though a broader roll out across social is planned for the coming weeks. The videos are also on Mary Brown’s franchise website to reach potential operators.

“We are bringing in additional staff just to service this kind of communication vehicle,” Barlow says.

There has also been discussions about a potential in-store component, Barlow says, where visitors can scan QR codes on signage to learn more about who is making their food. The initiative could be translated internationally too, as MBI explores expansion to the U.K. and Ireland markets, and guest-facing campaigns about humanizing franchisees could be the next evolution of the QSR’s marketing, Barlow notes.