Mark Sibilia is the Founder and CEO of MPP Marketing Group, an industry leader in restaurant and food service marketing. He has over five decades of marketing experience, specializing in the restaurant industry. Mark is also the Founder of Graphika Print Solutions, a print management company, and the visionary behind ColorSuite, a color printing re-production software.
Dan Sibilia heads the digital division at MPP Marketing Group, contributing 17 years of experience to the family business. He has helped the company navigate the challenging landscape of transitioning from print marketing to digital marketing.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [04:42] Mark and Dan Sibilia discuss MPP Marketing Group and what it offers
- [07:32] The evolution of MPP Marketing Group’s services and its focus on the restaurant industry
- [14:20] How direct mail and menu engineering can maximize restaurant profits
- [20:15] The integration of digital options into traditionally printed restaurant marketing materials
- [28:25] Tips for pivoting an agency’s offerings in response to the rise of digital media in marketing
- [34:07] The transformative deal with Uber Eats that changed the trajectory of MPP Marketing Group
- [40:01] How businesses can navigate the challenges and opportunities during a crisis like COVID-19
- [44:06] What’s the value of having mentors as a business person?
In this episode…
Succeeding in the competitive food and restaurant industry is a challenge. It requires more than offering delicious products: you must also know how to effectively market your business. Where can you find an agency to partner with you in building your brand and boosting your bottom line through a range of marketing services and products, all as part of a cohesive marketing strategy?
Marketing experts Mark and Dan Sibilia explore their incredible journey from operating a small print broker business to mastering the ever-evolving world of restaurant marketing. They dive deep into the world of food industry marketing, highlighting transformative strategies, from mouthwatering pizza flyers to robust digital campaigns. They share their expansion from print to a robust suite of digital services that continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in marketing. The father-son duo also discuss their challenges during COVID and the lessons they learned in diversification and resilience.
In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Mark and Dan Sibilia of MPP Marketing Group about the powerhouse strategies that reshaped food industry marketing. They discuss MPP Marketing Group and what it offers, the integration of digital options into traditionally printed restaurant marketing materials, and the transformative deal with Uber Eats that changed the trajectory of MPP Marketing Group.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Special Mention(s):
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
- Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance – A Business Novel by Dee Jacob, Suzan Bergland, and Jeff Cox
Related episode(s):
- “[Top Agency Series] Growth Through Acquisitions – What is Your KPI and Northstar? With Jason Swenk” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
- “Building a Great Team and More Helpful Insights with Jason Swenk Host of The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
- “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
- “[Top Israel Leader Series] Engineering the Autonomous Revolution with Rabbi Mois Navon of Mobileye” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
Quotable Moments:
- “The key thing about direct mail is putting it on power days.”
- “Menu engineering is the art and science that subconsciously guides a customer to the products you want them to order.”
- “Always put yourself in the other person’s position and act that way.”
- “In marketing, it’s not just about the presentation; it’s about understanding the ‘why’ behind every dish on the menu.”
- “We treat our customers like family and truly care about their business success.”
Action Steps:
- Implement targeted direct mail strategies: Optimizing mailing times to power days enhances customer engagement and order volumes.
- Apply menu engineering principles to marketing materials: Careful product placement and pricing can subtly influence customer purchasing decisions.
- Utilize a multi-channel approach in marketing: Offering various ways for customers to interact with the brand caters to different preferences, increasing engagement.
- Focus on building strong customer relationships: Treat customers like partners, which fosters loyalty and long-term collaboration.
- Pivot creatively during tough times: When faced with challenges, diversifying offerings can help sustain and grow the business.
Sponsor for this episode
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The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:01
You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.
Jeremy Weisz 0:22
Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of Inspiredinsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today, is no different. I have Mark Sibilia and Dan of MPP Marketing Group. You can check them out at mppmarketinggroup.com. Before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast, people should check out. Since this is part of two series, Top Agency Series and top Israel Business Leader series, the top agency series, I had a really popular episode was with Jason Swenk. Jason Swenk built up agency to eight figures and sold it, and then he had been buying up agencies, and then he has an agency group where he kind of helps agency owners kind of created the group he wish he had when he had an agency that was good about the valuation space, the agency space and Business Growth space.
Kevin Hourigan was another good one of Spinutech. Both of you would appreciate this one. Kevin had an agency back in 1995 and so he kind of saw the landscape of the internet, agency business and all that, and went saw kind of the ups and downs. So we’ll talk about some of the ups and downs on this interview. Because it’s not always just like up into the right growth. There is peaks and valleys in life and in business. So we’ll talk about that as well. And then part of the one of the popular episodes in the top Israel business leaders series is Mois Navone of Mobileye, who’s a founding engineer there. And Mobileye was acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion but what was interesting about that story, and we were talking about this before we hit record was that he talks about times where he had to take his tell his family, his wife and kids that listen, we have to cut back on everything. There’s no more eating out. There’s no more extracurriculars because money is tight and it’s tough, so we just never know, and you just keep going. So check out those more and on inspiredinsider.com. This episode is brought to you by Rise25.
At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability, and then the full execution. So, Mark and Dan, we call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background, that make it look easy for the host, so they can create amazing content, amazing relationships, most importantly, run their business. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I found no better way, over the past decade to profile the people in companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should. If you have questions, you can go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected].
I’m excited to introduce Mark Sibilia, his son, Dan. Mark is CEO of MPP Marketing Group. And Mark, I don’t want to date you too much, but he has over 50 years of experience in traditional marketing and digital marketing. MPP has a lot of interesting use cases and case studies, one of which they were chosen to launch Uber Eats in North America because of their deep knowledge in the food industry, and that led the way to sign 127,000 restaurants in 18 months. And if you’re thinking, well, Mark, you know he had a silver spoon in his mouth. He actually grew up from humble beginnings, working at a local pizzeria while still in school, and was able to identify a lot of opportunities for innovation and pioneer several successful business ventures over the course. And I think, those 150 North American cities in eight and 18 months helped Uber Eats see results in revenue of, I think, $2.6 billion in their first year, which is pretty crazy. So we’ll talk about starting from a print solution, then kind of going eventually to digital also, but I’m excited to have both of you. Thanks for joining me.
Mark Sibilia 4:28
Pleasure.
Dan Sibilia 4:28
Thanks for having us.
Jeremy Weisz 4:32
So Mark, just start off for a second. Talk about MPP Marketing Group and what you do, and then we’ll go back in time a little bit. But what do you do?
Mark Sibilia 4:42
So we are a full-service agency. We provide traditional, like you said, traditional and digital services, anything from print signage to promotional items, pick and pack. We do some pick and pack for a couple of companies like Bosch and Messer, and we also have a complete digital division where Dan runs that. Dan is my son, and he’s been in this industry for the past 17 years, and leads the whole digital team.
So excuse me, we go all the way from soup to nuts. We do a lot of listening to our customers. Customers come to us basically because we’re known for our deep knowledge of the restaurant industry for the past 25 years, and we do a deep dive, do a lot of research, and use the digital world to give us answers on how to present messaging, how to present a company, and we basically look after all your needs. As you can see, we do some e-commerce sites push some people for Bosch and Messer and for Uber Eats.
Jeremy Weisz 6:15
House Jerky Company too.
Mark Sibilia 6:17
Yeah. That was a fun one. And yes. So we do it all. We’re probably the best-kept secret because we control the whole narrative, all the way from research to creative. We have recently been acquired. A small portion of the company has been acquired by a consortium, an aggregator of agencies with 17 other agencies, which allows us now to have better tools in digital marketing. That is afforded to companies that spend $100 million a year in media buying. So that is the next level. And yeah, we’re excited for the future and looking forward to growth.
Jeremy Weisz 7:09
There’s two things I want to dig into a little bit on this. One is, it’s always interesting to hear, kind of the evolution of services, like right now, obviously you provide a lot of different services, but how it started back then, and kind of how it evolved. And then second is the niche, right? Because I’m sure you could do this for any niche. So talk about, why food in restaurants?
Mark Sibilia 7:32
Well, it’s a very interesting story. As you said, I used to work for a pizzeria when I was in school, and it’s funny how 25 years later, I specialized in the food industry and the pizza industry in particular serving customers like dominoes and Papa John’s and a lot of regional franchises. So I started out as a press operator, right when I finished my school, my college, and was a press man, and then became a print broker.
Jeremy Weisz 8:12
Talk about a press operator, for people who do not know what that is. What is that?
Mark Sibilia 8:19
Well, you print catalogs, you print brochures, you print business cards, you get your hands dirty with ink.
Jeremy Weisz 8:27
So you buy a big machine. I’m picturing you like pushing down a big machine or something like that. What is it?
Mark Sibilia 8:32
No, no. It’s Offset. Offset. It runs fast, like there are web, web presses that run it 40,000 an hour.
Jeremy Weisz 8:41
Okay, I’m dating you too much. That was like, hey.
Mark Sibilia 8:48
When I came into the world, the offset was a pretty, pretty normal thing.
Jeremy Weisz 8:53
You’re printing magazines in hard.
Mark Sibilia 8:57
Exactly. My brother used to run a publishing company that ran a furniture magazine, and so I got to do all the catalogs for the furniture industry, because I had an in so we used to do a lot of catalogs, which they don’t do today anymore. Everything is digital today. But then we used to do a beautiful, you know, we had to match the color of the leather to the color on the brochure, or else it would be rejected. So I was really pushed in the print industry to provide very high quality print, and I won a huge contract by the world’s largest artist called Thomas Kincaid.
Some of your listeners know Thomas Kincaid, but Thomas Kincaid sold more art than any other artist in history. He had 500 of his own galleries, and they chose us because we. Really understood the color. We actually have a patent in it’s called Beyond four color, which, you know, extends the gamut of colors, because CMYK cyan, magenta, black and yellow only covers a certain gamut of color. So we actually do a seven-color process, and we have a patent with that. And we received an award for Color Suite, which profiles presses again. This is very, very technical. So I was very much in the print industry. And then about, I guess, around the year 2000 I noticed that the pizza flyers were just, you know, red and green, and I decided, I had this brilliant idea that I’m going to go and hire the best photographer in New York who photographs for one spectator magazine.
And we hired him for a month, and we produced every Pizza, pasta, Chinese foods, and we created, that’s when the internet started coming on. We created content, and we went into the food industry to make beautiful flyers. And we started making food flyers. And that’s how we kind of transitioned into the food industry, and then the digital world came in, ordering online came in.
Jeremy Weisz 11:26
So really quickly, Mark, so you had a print company, you’re printing magazines for furniture companies, artists, and whatever it is. And then you’re like, well, I think there’s a need, because all this pizza stuff is really ugly. It’s kind of plain looking. And so you kind of took a chance. It’s not like you had a client come to you asking for that. You’re like, listen, I’m going to hire this person. It’s going to be world-class. We’re going to produce amazing photos content. And so how’d you eventually get your first client or customer in the restaurant space. Because, like, you kind of took a gamble. I guess you could say here.
Mark Sibilia 12:05
That was easy. We found a pizza show in Vegas.
Jeremy Weisz 12:10
I always wanted to go there, just to sample it, but you went to the pizza show?
Mark Sibilia 12:15
Yeah, we took a booth at the pizza show, and there was a, there was a guru in the pizza industry. His name was Big Dave Ostrander. And as we were setting up, he’s walking as he’s walking in the show, and he stops by and he looks at our booth, and he goes, huh, show me what you do. And I showed him our kit and some of the samples. We just made samples without names, just to give people an idea of what a pizza flyer could look like. And lo and behold, he was giving seminars at the pizza Expo, and he says, can you come to my seminar and drop a kit in every chair of my seminar? Well, after that seminar, we had literally line us in our booth, and we just literally wrote orders. And overnight success, we started producing millions of flyers for the pizza industry. And we’ve been kind of known, and we still do millions of flyers every month.
Jeremy Weisz 13:19
When he asked you, what services do you do? You’d never really served pizza places. What did you tell him at the time?
Mark Sibilia 13:27
He saw the mock tap flyers, right? He saw the mock tap fly. He goes, this is beautiful. Nobody does pizza flyers like that. He goes, I love it. And we kind of started a trend. And they used to, I remember dominoes used to have flyers where they used to show all the pizzas, like in a little one, in squares, and you can’t see anything. So we came out with a concept where you show one beautiful flyer with, you can pick off the pepperonis right off the paper, right? And mouthwatering, yeah, mouthwatering. And that’s what he loved about it, because it was so different. And so we showed him the samples, and he said, this is the next generation.
Jeremy Weisz 14:14
Were you mailing them to or would you work with a separate company so you were mailing them so you’d print?
Mark Sibilia 14:20
Oh, yeah, that’s a great question, because the problem with direct mail is that you don’t know when it lands, like we would have to put it in Buffalo. And if you’re in Ohio or California, it sometimes takes a week, two weeks, to get there, and you don’t know what day. And the key thing about direct mail is, putting it on power days, one of my best friends, Michael Chigo, who was the executive director of the Domino’s Franchise Association, which was introduced to me by Dave Ostrander. Big Dave loved it, and he brought me into the Domino’s operation, and I learned about power days, and I learned about the research that they did when to drop flyers. So I had their calendar. Power day is when most people order pizza. When most people come home and say, I want to have a pizza?
Jeremy Weisz 15:19
Is it the time of day? Like Super Bowl. But like, Super Bowl, maybe is a power day? Is that?
Mark Sibilia 15:26
So the biggest pizza day of the year is Thanksgiving Evening. Like Thanksgiving tradition for people to get pizza. So the biggest night of the year for pizza is Thanksgiving. So, it’s usually, if you drop the flyers on a Monday or Tuesday, you get very little response. If you drop it generally on a Thursday or Friday, you get a much better ROI because people tend to order on the weekends. They don’t want to cook, and they’ve had a hard week at work. So, it’s close to the weekend, and then obviously, Mother’s Day Thanksgiving, and so we went to the USPS. Took me two years to get a proprietary workflow that I can control the draw update. And it’s a very difficult process to achieve, because you have to get it to the local post office on a certain day, because they need three days to drop it.
So we would make sure that it would arrive three days before the power day. And then every time we started a new mailing program, our CSR would call the USPS local post office and tell them we’re going to start doing, mainly for Paisano’s Pizza in your neighborhood, and here’s a letter from the Post Master General saying that you need to drop it on that day. And basically she would, my CSR would definitely follow it through to make sure that it dropped on the right date. And people loved it, because all of a sudden, and then at that point, there was no digital media, so that was the biggest portion of their advertising budget.
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