Popeyes names APAC marketing lead amidst aggressive expansion plan

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Tanushri Rastogi, Burger King Indonesia's brand and media lead, has joined Popeyes as marketing lead for Asia Pacific, reporting to Asia Pacific GM Benjamin Klitus. Rastogi (pictured) told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that she aims to build a successful brand in the region such that guests would think of Popeyes when they think of the tastiest fried chicken.

"We are extremely excited to have Rastogi join us at Popeyes as we continue our aggressive expansion in Asia Pacific. Her experience is the perfect fit to drive our brand forward in the region," Klitus told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. Popeyes is currently present in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines, among other countries.

Rastogi most recently spent nearly four years at Burger King Indonesia, a franchisee of Restaurant Brands International (RBI). RBI also manages the Popeyes and Tim Hortons franchises. At Burger King, she worked closely with the RBI Asia Pacific teams.

"I enjoyed working with them and they were looking for someone to lead marketing in Asia Pacific for Popeyes as they have expansion plans," she said. RBI needed someone who had the experience of building a brand that was growing its store count rapidly. Burger King Indonesia has since grown to more than 178 stores and Rastogi was part of the 100-store journey. At the same time, Rastogi was also personally looking for a regional role as she had worked for local markets across Indonesia and India. Hence, she was super thrilled by this opportunity - to build the brand in Asia Pacific and give it its own flavour.

"I was initially hired [by Burger King] to build the brand in a sustainable way because the company was scaling so fast. It was an absolute pleasure to be working on campaigns for Burger King itself which does the best piece of creative work globally," she said.

Under Rastogi's leadership, Burger King Indonesia carried out a three-phase campaign to show its support for the community, which included hiring differently-abled people and individuals. The move came as Burger King decided to stay true to its core value of being an inclusive brand; amidst growing concerns over diversity and inclusion for companies globally. The initiative also came at a time where the employment rate in Indonesia has been impacted as a result of COVID-19. The campaign led the brand to win gold for Best CSR communication and Best PR campaign in the F&B sector at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's PR Awards 2021. "The team in Indonesia is excellent, they have also done a fabulous job. The team have put their best selves forward when working on this project," she said.

Another highlight for Rastogi was the opportunity to innovate and create new products. "We had to look at what flavours were trending and create the strategy to launch them. One example was the Sakura collection which helped build virality for us," she said.

Before joining Burger King, Rastogi was formerly client solutions director at VMLY&R, where she lead the digital business for Kraft Heinz Brands. Prior to that, she was strategic account director at GroupM, where she was social media lead for L'Oréal brands and Fisher-Price, her LinkedIn said. During her time there, Rastogi launched a joint programme for Garnier, Maybelline and L'Oréal Paris, called KlubKita - "OurClub" in English.

According to her LinkedIn, the loyalty programme credits users with points for shopping and sharing on social media, which can then be used to win rewards. It also serves as an owned advertising and data collection platform for the brands. Rastogi was also previously senior brand manager at McCann Worldgroup, Jakarta, as well as account executive and senior account executive at Ogilvy.

"I came from an agency background and have worked across, traditional, media and digital agencies. I then moved on to Burger King which allowed me to work with store teams, supply chain, IT, suppliers, e-wallet players and delivery and coupon aggregators," she said. So at Burger King, it was not just about building a brand but also seeing how all aspects of a business integrate. To her, that was the biggest eye-opener and learning opportunity as it was not just about media buying or creating messaging. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Burger King Indonesia for comment.

Separately, Burger King underwent a brand refresh at the start of the year, marking the first complete rebrand in more than 20 years. According to the company, the new visual design will “more authentically represent Burger King values” and signals a commitment to a digital-first expression and recent improvements to taste and food quality, as well as its pledge to environmental sustainability. The brand also rolled out a new brand logo, packaging, restaurant merchandise, menu boards, crew uniforms, restaurant signage and décor, social media and digital and marketing assets. The new crew uniforms reflect flame grill masters, mixing contemporary and comfortable style with distinctive colours and graphs

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