Top 25 Franchise Marketing Leaders: Kelsey McManemin, HTeaO Marketing SVP

When it comes to Kelsey McManemin's approach to franchise marketing, she says it is largely centered around one core belief: the most effective marketing techniques are co-created with franchisees. Her background spans various teams and concepts, allowing her to excel in the highly collaborative world of franchising. She channels this philosophy into her work at HTeaO, a brand centered on building community ties.

Kelsey McManemin: What I love most is the constant opportunity to learn. In franchising, you’re collaborating with people who come from completely different industries, backgrounds and ways of thinking, and that accelerates your own growth. Every strategy brings a new challenge and a new set of voices to consider. It keeps you on your toes in the best way possible and makes the work feel fresh every day.

1851: What is the single most important thing franchise marketing pros can do to impact franchisees’ unit-level economics?

McManemin: Stay close to your franchisees. Don’t make decisions in a vacuum. When you’re deeply involved in the franchise community — visiting stores, listening to operators, understanding their day-to-day realities — you make smarter, more empathetic decisions that actually move the needle.

It’s easy to roll out something that looks great on paper but lands as tone-deaf in the field. The closer you are to the ground, the better your marketing will perform.

McManemin: Many brands rely heavily on national marketing, but the real opportunity is balancing national consistency with strong local execution. Local marketing is just as important, if not more.

Helping franchisees understand the value of local marketing — and giving them the tools to execute it confidently — creates a far more powerful, aligned brand presence.

McManemin: It’s a little bit of everything right now. We’re seeing an explosion of unexpected brand collaborations — people are looking for partnerships that are fun, clever and get them talking, like Chili’s and Tecovas turning restaurant booths into shoes.

Next, consumers want simplicity again. They’re craving ‘back to basics’ marketing instead of over-engineered campaigns.

Lastly, relevance is key. It’s going to be about meeting customers exactly where they want to be messaged, not forcing them into a channel because it’s trendy.

McManemin: I think we’re going to see a real resurgence of traditional marketing. As brands have gone all-in on digital and influencer strategies, we’ve lost some of the human interaction and networking that used to be foundational.

Operations is marketing, and marketing is operations, and that integrated, on-the-ground approach is coming back. We’re heading toward a balance that looks more like it did a decade ago, when where digital supports the strategy rather than being the entire strategy.