Ep 105: Nick Scarpino is the Chief Marketing Officer for Portillo’s

As a Chief Marketing Officer, you have to be passionate about the brand you’re working for. With more than 10 years of experience working for Chicago-style fast-casual restaurant, Portillo’s, CMO Nick Scarpino joins us for this episode of Clicks 2 Bricks to share his marketing expertise and love for this multi-generational brand! Tuning in, you’ll hear all about Nick’s career at Portillo’s, from cashier to CMO, the highlights of his time at Portillo’s (including his idea to introduce the birthday club), how his work integrates with the IT side of things, and so much more! We delve into how they balance digital and traditional marketing for local and national audiences before Nick tells us how he has leveraged the TikTok Creator program. We even discuss how Nick’s experience working at Google has helped him prioritize Google's foot traffic to the company, how AI will affect his role, his unpopular marketing opinions about TV, mentorship, and more! Thanks for listening in.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A bit of background and a fun fact about today’s guest, Nick Scarpino!
• Insight into Portillo’s story, Nick’s job as the first CMO, and his CIO counterpart. 
• How their marketing supports and keeps up with the kind of growth Portillo’s experiences. 
• Nick’s 10-year journey with the brand and the high points of his career. 
• The birthday club he created and how it has benefitted Portillo’s. 
• How marketing and IT work together at the company and their tech stack goals. 
• Balancing national versus local and digital versus traditional marketing. 
• Why the TikTok Creator program is so effective for digital marketing. 
• The massive role Google plays in consumer foot traffic and how Nick approaches that. 
• How AI is going to impact his job and restaurant marketing in general. 
• An unpopular marketing opinion that Nick feels very strongly about.
• The important role that mentors have played in his career. 
• Some hot takes on hot topics in the lightning round!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Nick Scarpino on LinkedIn

Portillo’s

Net Conversion

TikTok Creator Academy

How Brands Grow

Bob Hoffman

Trish Giordano on LinkedIn

Dawn Keller on LinkedIn

SOCi

Clicks 2 Bricks 

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