Winning Big Without a Big Game Ad: PMG Takes Home The Drum Award with Carl’s Jr.

We’re proud to share that PMG has won at The Drum Awards Festival for our campaign with CKE Restaurants during this year’s Super Bowl, earning a Silver award in the Social: CPG & Food and Beverage category.

The Super Bowl is one of marketing’s biggest stages, but in 2025, Carl’s Jr. took a different path, and we helped them find a more innovative, more creative way to engage that same massive audience at a fraction of the cost. Using insights from its marketing mix model, we developed a strategy tailored to how people actually consume content today, transforming the cultural moment into business impact.

At the center of the campaign was Free Burger Day on February 10, a nationwide activation that connected attention to action. The campaign drove 283,000 app downloads with acquisition costs 30% below benchmark and over hundreds of thousands of burgers redeemed. Loyalty CPA improved 11% year-over-year. Carl’s Jr. ranked #1 and #2 in the Food & Drink category in the Apple and Google app stores, ahead of category leaders who ran national spots during the big game.

The impact we delivered extended across channels. Search interest rose 50%, Meta brand conversation increased by 14%, and Reddit engagement surged by 176%, indicating significant shifts in awareness and intent. The campaign delivered over hundreds of millions of organic impressions and 2.3 million engagements, powered by relevance rather than spend.

This recognition highlights how marketers can think differently to achieve big results. It also reflects PMG’s commitment to innovation, collaboration, and using creativity and data to drive measurable impact for brands.