---
title: "New-and-Improved Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference Is a Hit!"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/f4fe4356-e9cf-4686-b1e1-cf7de91300f6
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/articles/newandimproved_franchise_marketing_leadership_conference_is_a_hit.html
author: "Eddy Goldberg"
category: "Franchise Industry"
industry: "Franchise Industry"
topics: ["Technology","Marketing","People"]
published: 2019-06-25T07:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:10:45.305Z
image: https://imgs.franchising.com/art/articles/4634_plate.jpg
---

# New-and-Improved Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference Is a Hit!

**TL;DR:** The 2019 Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference introduced new agenda items, including the CEO-CMO Summit and the Annual Franchise Marketing Report. The conference also announced the winners of the first-ever Franchise Marketing Innovation Awards, with IHOP taking the top prize for its 'IHOB' campaign.

*By Eddy Goldberg, originally published in Franchising.com on 2019-06-25. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/articles/newandimproved_franchise_marketing_leadership_conference_is_a_hit.html).*

## Story

The introduction of three new agenda items at last week's 2019 Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference in Atlanta proved a resounding success at the new-and-improved event. First was the debut of the CEO-CMO Summit. The all-morning session attracted about 60 franchise leaders seeking to learn how to better communicate, understand, and align their marketing teams with the uppermost levels of the C-suite and the franchisor's long-term goals.

The second new offering was the introduction of the Annual Franchise Marketing Report (AFMR). Modeled on Franchise Update's Annual Franchise Development Report, the AFMR provides marketers with aggregated benchmark data on budgets, where brands are spending their advertising and marketing funds, and much more. All attendees received a free copy.

Third, and highly popular among attendees, was the announcement of the winners of the first-ever Franchise Marketing Innovation Awards. Overall, 18 winners in four categories were selected from nearly 100 entrants. The four categories were Marketing & Branding, Operations, Products & Services, and Human Resources.

Within the Marketing & Branding category, judges selected an overall winner from the following winners: Camp Bow Wow (Best Social Media Campaign), Edible Arrangements (Best Limited Budget Campaign), European Wax Center (Cause Marketing Champion), and IHOP (Best Big Budget Campaign). Each company had the opportunity to describe their winning campaigns on stage at a general session. IHOP took the top prize - the Franchise Marketing Leadership Award - for the spectacular success of its "IHOB" campaign.

Duncan Wardle, former VP of Innovation and Creativity at the Walt Disney Company, set the tone for the conference with his keynote speech focusing on freeing up the creative juices in the attendees. Topics he touched on included curiosity, intuition, courage, and imagination, illustrated with stories from his 25 years at Disney and in marketing. After his keynote, he made himself available to informal, one-on-one conversations during the remainder of the conference.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Franchise Industry (sector)
- Eddy Goldberg (person)
- franchise marketing (topic)
- IHOP (company)
- Camp Bow Wow (company)
- marketing strategies (topic)
- European Wax Center (company)
- Edible Arrangements (company)
- conference (topic)
- AFMR (company)
- Walt Disney (company)

---
Originally reported by Eddy Goldberg, Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/articles/newandimproved_franchise_marketing_leadership_conference_is_a_hit.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/f4fe4356-e9cf-4686-b1e1-cf7de91300f6).