Scotch Game

Working directly with senior leadership of multi-unit retail and restaurant concepts, providing growth expertise. 

Helping to build, refine, and expand the growth formula unique to each company.  

Solutions are on-demand and scaled to the need.  Service areas include: Diagnostics, Consultant & Advisory, Fractional CMO, Leadership & Coaching, and Results Guarantee.

Principal

Jackson

Served in a multi-faceted executive leadership role for this F500 company involving strategic planning and execution, organizational development, process and program innovation, and training/performance management in support of enterprise-wide marketing/brand transformation efforts.

•	Developed enterprise brand positioning in support of new business strategy shaping customer experience and go-to-market approaches, integrating with employee experience and generating over 95% engagement from employees within the first 60 days.

•	Built new organizational capabilities (including tools, KPIs, and processes) to enable the integration of design thinking and market-fit principles across the marketing, sales, and customer experience functions in support of the brand repositioning initiative.

Head, Enterprise Wide Marketing Innovation

ShareRoot

ShareRoot digital platforms, artificial intelligence tools and subject-matter expertise allows for a customised approach for each of our clients to understand market opportunities, design market access strategies and a data-rich environment for understanding, engaging and activating audiences.
 
Whether it is developing high-quality original content for social media, optimising e-commerce sales, creating e-games and applications, harnessing the power of social media or developing bespoke digital marketing strategies, the ShareRoot group of companies can provide solutions to suit any digital challenge.

Member of the Board of Advisors

Cracker Barrel

Played key leadership role on the 7-person executive team that worked closely with Board and reported directly to CEO, additionally serving on 4-person Real Estate Committee that determined sites/markets and capital allocations for business expansion for this F1000 restaurant/retail company.

•	Supported the CEO in driving business transformation by leading business model innovation and brand offering revitalization across the product, equipment and process development, insights, pricing, menu strategy, and licensing functions.

•	Led comprehensive redesign of off-premise/to-go business model (covering product/brand offerings, back-end processes, staffing models, and marketing programs) to deliver 200%+ sales growth, positive IRR, and national rollout to drive ongoing business innovation.

Executive Lead - Marketplace and Product Development

Promoted after 18 months to seven-person executive team adding product development, equipment development, licensing, and business development responsibilities. Executed business model innovation, digital strategy development, product lifecycle optimization, pricing, and brand extension efforts. Reported to CEO.

•	Grew total revenues over 20% and market share greater than 30%, recording 21 of 24 quarters of same store sales growth, resulting in six-fold increase in share price.

•	Enhanced $80M marketing line by evaluating and augmenting media and channel mix creating greater reach, targeting, and messaging capabilities resulting in profitable sales lifts in excess of 10%.

•	Created first digital strategy including SEO/SEM, social media, OLV, and CRM resulting in 2x industry engagement / sentiment levels, industry comparable reach, and high organic search rankings.

•	Implemented multi-cultural marketing programs impacting the customer experience, employee experience, and go-to-market as well as introducing market-level pricing (generating an incremental $30M in EBITDA) enabling expansion of an additional 25+ units.

SVP - Marketing (chief marketer)

Hired to redefine brand and reignite food focus. Spearheaded development and execution of strategy, programs, and process improvements / innovation across brand, media, advertising, menu development, market research, and pricing functions. Led cross-functional team responsible for driving menu innovation and optimization. Reported to CEO.

•	Formulated and implemented new product and marketing strategies/plans (including new core menu enhancements and seasonal menu program) that re-established “product” as critical growth and traffic driver for company.

•	Redesigned innovation and product strategy to focus on jobs-to-be-done and need states; also reworked end-to-end development process to structured rapid deployment model allowing company to successfully bring 50+ products year to market for Cracker Barrel.

VP - Brand and Menu Strategy

ARAMARK

Led an 18-member team in developing and implementing a marketing plan covering 300+ on-site food units within Aramark’s high-end business dining unit, serving clients such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Drove end-to-end rollout of new marketing plan across all assigned Aramark food units (resulting in 2-year same-store sales growth 6% over plan), in addition to implementing new catering program that grew sales by 10%+.

• Leveraged insights from market research, focus groups, and surveys to launch new product lines and present compelling new business development pitches to both existing and prospective clients, resulting in consistent sales growth.

Director of Marketing

Helping C-suite leaders of scaling and mature multi-unit concepts boost growth and market value | Former F1000 NEO

I help leaders of multi-unit concepts improve the effectiveness of their revenue line. 

Many organizations and their suppliers narrowly focus on just one area within the revenue line. Or they don't connect the different pieces, resulting in missed sales and internal team frustration.

As a partner for you and your team, we work together to find and activate the most significant leverage points across your whole concept to improve revenues. 

With experience in the C-suite for F1000 restaurant companies, I can leverage extensive experience running various revenue-related functions and deep industry knowledge for your benefit.

Working with me typically results in the following:
- Clarity about what are and will be the growth engines across your whole concept
- Higher sales from new program launches
- Higher ROI from your marketing line
- A better way to align marketing, product, ops, and training
- Confidence your innovation efforts will all stack up over time efficiently and exponentially

Nine areas influence the revenue line. My approach identifies your equities, builds magnetic moments, and creates structures to ensure disciplined delivery. 

 This approach has produced over:
- $500M in new sales
- 6x stock price increase
- 35% market share gains
 
Work typically takes one of four paths: consultative, fractional leadership, diagnostic, or workshops/speaking. 

Ideal partners are concepts that:
- Are committed to improvement 
- Have a senior member of the team directly engaged 
- Provide the necessary information in a timely and thorough manner
- Have leadership teams willing and able to support the change

I started Scotch Game in 2017 after serving as chief marketer and NEO for Cracker Barrel OId Country Store, Inc. for nearly a decade. 

I understood from first-hand experience the demands of running a restaurant business. The struggle to get sufficient focus on driving growth across the company could negatively impact the revenue and margin line.

I've worked at the board and leadership level, leading marketing, brand, menu strategy, culinary, pricing, equipment development, corporate communications, new concept development, and new business development functions, and I have served on the real estate committee.

I recognize the commitment involved in engagements. I aim to be respectful of your culture and your business. While I operate with a partner mindset, I also strive to bring you an outside, unbiased view to help you make the best decisions and take the best actions possible. 

Please feel free to connect via DM.

Chris Ciavarra

I’m a copywriter and content strategist. My job is getting people to buy your product.
 
I’ve written millions of words, generating my clients hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. As a copywriter and consultant, I work with individuals and businesses, including Fortune 500 and Fortune 200 companies, to help them drive sales through compelling copy and content. 
 
I also share my techniques and insights with those looking to improve their marketing strategy or copywriting technique.
 
Need words that sell? Contact me.

Kat Ilich

Reddit is like an unsupervised focus group. Your prospects are literally handing you headlines, objections, and emotional triggers for free. Here’s how to mine Reddit for more raw, emotional copy that sounds more interesting than b2b beige.

1️⃣ Find where your ICP is chattering. Search by keyword, or pain. 
2️⃣ Screenshot their words
3️⃣ Strip the usernames
4️⃣ Turn the rants into headlines

If your audience is talking, don’t let that intel go to waste.

On a mission to eliminate B2B blah blah. Content. Copy. Messaging.

How marketers can use Reddit

It’s a little less depressing getting 3 likes on a post when you remember this:
Most of LinkedIn is the silent majority.

They log in, scroll, read, maybe screenshot, and never touch a like or comment. Estimates about LinkedIn's numbers say:

~16% of users are active daily
~40% engage weekly
~48% are active monthly
But only ~1–3% actually post content.

 Everyone else is just… watching. And a big slice of those passive users wouldn’t dream of commenting or even liking your post, for a few reasons:

🫥 They’re afraid of employers seeing what they engage with
🫥 They don’t want colleagues tracking their behavior
🫥 They’re in regulated industries (pharma, finance, etc.) where they can’t be seen “endorsing” certain content. In some cases, even LIKING a post is too big a risk

These people are not piling into your comments section. They’re quietly reading and moving on.

This is where LinkedIn’s “360 brew” and the save metric get interesting.
Many people have already talked about the new algo (the system LinkedIn now uses to score, rank, and push posts based on patterns). One clear shift: the algo now highly rates saves, and we can finally see how many a post gets.

So you’ve got:
🔹 An algorithm that loves saves
🔹 A platform where most people never engage publicly
🔹 A metric that sits right at the intersection of those two

On a recent post of mine that got solid traction, the number of saves was higher than comments AND reactions combined. That tells me a lot more than the like count.

So I’ve started asking, "What makes something savable?" Here's what I've concluded: 

👉 In-depth knowledge: Step-by-step guides, breakdowns, “here’s exactly how to do this” posts. Basically: tactics.

👉 Actionable advice. Clear, practical suggestions people can actually use, not just “interesting thoughts.” Something they can test out right now for themselves. (aka also tactics.)

👉 Useful resources: Templates, scripts, examples, checklists...anything people can reuse, forward, or steal from later.

👉 Strong opinions on niche best practices. Posts people can send to their boss or team as backup: “This is what I’ve been trying to say.”

👉 Stats and trends. Numbers and insights they want to reference or cite in decks, reports, or internal Slack threads.

👉 Relatable, specific stories: Growth stories, “here’s what actually happened,” and posts that feel honest and (keyword here!) confessional. Those tend to get saved because they hit on real experiences.

👉 Spicy conversations: Opinionated, controversial, or otherwise “popping off” threads people want to come back to or show someone else later.

I don’t think the goal is to worship saves or ignore everything else. The real win is probably saves + conversations (that’s another post). Still, as far as clues about the silent majority go, this one’s worth paying attention to.

Some of you are A/B testing buttons on your website when the actual problem is no one knows what the hell you sell

Whoever invented the .webp file extension should be in prison

If “I should post on LinkedIn” lives rent-free in your head… but you never know what to say, this is for you.

I bundled my favorite prompts, questions, and plug-and-play templates into a single downloadable. 50+ pages of content ideas so you’re never starting from a blank box again. 

Use it when your brain is mush but you still want to:
👀  Stay visible
🗣️ Share smart things
🤝 Make it easier for people to hire you

You can purchase it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gyPweYKE

If you want content to DO anything, it has to make a very specific person feel seen AND slightly called out.

Most people post takeaways like: “If you want better results from your content, be consistent, provide value, and speak to your audience’s pain points.” 

In other words, surface-level observations. 

They're true. Absolutely. But...No one disagrees. No one changes anything.

Instead, speak to: 

👉 A specific situation
👉 A specific feeling 
👉 A specific kind of person

Example:  "It’s Wednesday at 10:42 a.m. Your posts are going live like clockwork. Your notifications are ‘decent.’ And yet your calendar is so empty you keep reopening it, hoping it’s a glitch. If you want better results than THAT from your content, here's what to be doing instead."

When editing content, try asking:

1) Who exactly should feel mildly called out by this?

2) What would they be looking at / holding / dreading when they scroll past it?

3) Can I write one sentence that would make them think, “Okay, rude, but yes”?

Stop writing safe, agreeable truths. Start writing sentences that would only land for the person you actually want to work with.

What if LinkedIn had its own Christmas song?

I went ahead and wrote one. 
Wishing you a humble-braggy LinkedIn this year!🎄

taplio

The Battle

Chris Ciavarra

Kat Ilich

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance ScoreKat Ilich's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Chris Ciavarra

Kat Ilich

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Kat Ilich's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreKat Ilich's LinkedIn Performance