How a 40-location restaurant chain can run one creator week, day by day

Why run creators as one week, not one at a time?

Most restaurant chains that try food creators do it one store at a time. A store GM meets a creator, a video goes up, and the other stores never hear about it. Nothing is compared, and nothing is repeated.

A creator week fixes that. One food creator visits each location over the same few days. Every store gets a new video at once. Head office sets the rules once, each region runs the same short plan, and a week later you can line up the results side by side.

This guide uses a chain of 40 locations in 3 states as the worked example, split into 4 regions of 10 stores. Some stores are company-run and some are franchised. The steps are the same for 10 locations or 200.

Who owns what before the week starts?

Settle the roles first. A creator week goes wrong fast when no one knows who agreed to what. Four roles carry it.

The marketing lead owns the week from head office. Each regional manager owns the schedule for their 10 stores and is the one person a store GM calls. A franchisee runs their own store, so nothing happens there without their yes. Ask each franchisee early, and give them the dates, the label rule and who pays for what.

Each store GM also needs access to the store’s Google Business Profile. Google’s owners and managers page says a manager can edit info, reply to reviews and manage posts. A manager can’t add or remove users, which keeps control at head office. Each person needs their own Google Account, so nobody shares a password.

Check this access two weeks early. Across 40 profiles, a few will have an old owner or a missing manager. Google says new owners and managers wait 7 days before some admin tasks work, such as removing users or moving ownership.

How does the week run, day by day?

Here is the plan for the 40-location example. It assumes one creator per store, and visits from Tuesday to Friday, 10 stores a day.

Two weeks before: get the yes from every franchisee. The marketing lead sends each franchisee the dates and the rules. The regional managers follow up in their regions. A store with no answer by the end of that week sits this one out.

The Monday before: pick the dish and the hour. Each store GM names one dish their store does best. It should look good on camera and be on the menu every day. They also name a quiet hour, such as mid-afternoon. A creator filming at a full lunch rush gets a rushed plate and a cramped shot. The regional manager checks the picks so the region does not show the same dish 10 times.

Monday of the week: confirm every visit. Head office sends each creator the store address, the hour, the store GM’s name and the label rule. Put all of it in writing, and ask each creator to confirm by reply. Each regional manager gets the list for their stores.

Tuesday to Friday: the visits. One region a day keeps it simple: 10 stores, one regional manager on call. The store GM greets the creator by name and serves the chosen dish. They answer questions about it, and then step back. Don’t script the video or ask for a set line. Creators know what their audience trusts.

Saturday to Monday: the posts go live. Agree a posting date in the invite. Ask each creator to send the link when it is live. The store GM adds the video to the store’s own channels where the creator agrees, after the franchisee approves it for a franchised store.

The Tuesday after: first check. The regional managers collect their stores’ links. The marketing lead puts all 40 in one sheet, with each post’s date, views and comments as shown on the platform.

What label does each video need?

Every video needs a clear ad label, and it must be in the video itself. The FTC’s guide for influencers is plain about it. It says to “disclose when you have any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand.” For video, it says “the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description.” It also warns: “Don’t assume that a platform’s disclosure tool is good enough.”

The FTC lists simple words as fine, such as “ad” or “sponsored,” or the tags #ad and #sponsored. The page is dated November 2019.

Make the label rule part of every invite, and send it to every franchisee too. Then check each video before any store shares it. A store that reposts an unlabelled ad shares the problem.

How do you measure each store afterwards?

Measure each store against itself. Stores in different states and streets will never match each other, so compare each one with its own last few weeks. Then compare regions, since a region is a fairer group than any single store.

Each verified store profile has performance data. Google’s performance page says owners and managers can check views, searches and actions taken from the profile. Those actions include calls, website clicks and direction requests. You can set a date range, so pick the 2 weeks after the videos and the 2 weeks before.

Two cautions apply. Google says the data mixes free search results and Google Ads, so a new ad push in the same weeks will blur the picture. And not every metric shows for every business.

Keep the sheet simple:

1. Store, region, owner (company or franchisee) and the creator who visited.
2. The post link, date, views and comments.
3. Direction requests and calls, 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after.
4. Whether the featured dish sold more that week, from your point-of-sale.
5. What the store GM would change next time.

The last row matters most. After 2 or 3 creator weeks, the store GMs’ notes tell you which dishes, hours and creators work best in each region.

Which tools help, and when?

At 40 locations, a sheet and an inbox get heavy. Forty invites, forty confirmations and forty links are a lot for one marketing lead to chase in a week.

Platforms differ in who does the work. Modash suits a team that searches for creators and runs its own outreach. GRIN and Upfluence are built for ecommerce brands running creator and affiliate programs. Later Influence suits an enterprise brand that wants an outside team to run campaigns. With a self-serve tool, someone at head office still runs the week.

A done-for-you service takes the finding, booking and follow-up off your hands. That suits a chain whose marketing lead has no time to chase 40 creators in a week. Our influencer marketing rankings compare the platforms on published plans.

What should the second week change?

Run the second week a month later, with the same stores and any franchisees who sat out the first. Keep what worked and change one thing at a time. Try a new dish in one region, or a new hour in another. Moving more than one thing hides what made the difference.

A creator week is a habit, not a launch. Chains that repeat it learn which of their stores, regions and dishes travel well on video. That knowledge is the real result, more than any one post.