Tin Drum has built something most fast casual brands wish they had — a 22-year operating record, a loyalty app that actually works, and a founding story rooted in Hong Kong street culture and a folk tale about calling the community to eat. The commercial foundation is real. The digital layer is running a decade behind it. This is the proposal that closes that gap.
Tin Drum was founded in 2003 by Steven Chan — born in Hong Kong, trained in architecture at Georgia Tech, and grounded in the idea that fast casual could feel like Asian street food without compromising on craft or accessibility. The name comes from a folk tale: a tin drummer who walked through the village calling the community to come eat. That story is one of the most genuinely differentiated brand narratives in fast casual today — and it sits in the background while the marketing emphasizes promotions and product shots.
22 years later, Tin Drum operates 13 active locations across Georgia, an iOS & Android loyalty app powered by Olo (Tin Drum Degrees), and a leadership team led by Steven Chan as founder and CEO, Altaf Popatiya as COO, and Amisha Popatiya as Chief Marketing Officer — the latter two having joined the brand as franchisees in 2016 and become corporate co-owners in 2019. Tin Drum was previously held by the same investor group that owned Tropical Smoothie Cafe; Steven bought the brand back several years ago, which means the executive team has firsthand experience with what supported franchise-scale digital systems look like at the level Tin Drum is operating today. The commercial foundation is real. The digital infrastructure layer hasn’t kept pace.
13
Active Georgia Locations
Atlanta metro plus Athens, Augusta, Braselton, Pooler, Kennesaw — the franchise footprint built since 2010
22
Years Operating
Founded 2003 by Steven Chan; franchising since 2010 — one of the longest-running Asian fast casual concepts in the Southeast
App
Tin Drum Degrees Loyalty
Olo-powered iOS & Android — the strongest digital asset in the brand stack and the most valuable, least-activated audience
The strategic question for the next chapter is no longer can Tin Drum scale. It scaled. The question is whether the brand layer — one Instagram, one website, one consistent narrative — can support 13 doors at the standard the operations side has already earned. And whether the next market entry, wherever it lands, gets a digital playbook before the lease gets signed.
“We’re hoping to add more brand-equity work to what we’ve been doing — community, supporting something, event-driven moments, things like game night or mahjong night. The product-driven marketing has worked. Now we want the brand to mean something.”
Steven Chan — Founder, Tin Drum Asian Kitchen
02
The Opportunity
Executive Summary
We audited Tin Drum’s digital presence across 9 verticals before this proposal was written. The score: 22/45 — Mid Maturity. The audit confirmed real strengths the brand should be proud of. CRM & Retention scored 4/5 — the Tin Drum Degrees loyalty app on Olo is a genuine asset and one of the most underleveraged audiences in the Atlanta fast casual market. Reviews & Reputation scored 3/5 — mature locations have built real Google authority. Branding & Positioning scored 3/5 — the visual system has been recently refreshed and the founding story is genuinely differentiated.
The audit also confirmed where the gap is. Social Media scored 1/5 — 6,234 Instagram followers after 22 years and 1,250 published posts. That is not a content cadence problem. It is a strategy problem: the brand has one of the most compelling founding narratives in fast casual and isn’t using it. SEO & Local Search scored 2/5 — fragmented digital identity across 13 franchise units, an order subdomain split off from the main site, 8+ individual location Facebook pages building no brand equity. This proposal is the brand-level fix for that fragmentation, plus a pre-expansion digital playbook ready for the next market entry whenever it comes.
6,234
Instagram Followers After 22 Years
1,250 posts have been published. The audience hasn’t grown because the content strategy hasn’t carried the brand story
8+
Fragmented Facebook Pages
Individual location FB pages with 500–900 followers each — brand equity diluted across pages no one owns at the corporate level
App
Loyalty Reactivation Opportunity
Tin Drum Degrees has app users no one is talking to. Reactivation is a zero-cost acquisition channel waiting to be turned on
The Core Opportunity
Tin Drum doesn’t need to prove the food works or the operations scale — that work is done. What’s needed is brand-level digital infrastructure that makes 13 locations look like one brand instead of 13 unrelated restaurants, and a per-location activation layer that gives every franchisee a Google Business Profile, local review pipeline, and local-market campaigns that protect the unit revenue every operator depends on.
03
The Market
Market Opportunity
Asian fast casual is one of the most active growth segments in U.S. restaurants today. CAVA-style category leaders have proved the unit economics. Honeygrow, Pokeworks, and Wokano are all building national footprints. Tin Drum has been operating in this category in Atlanta since 2003 — longer than most of those brands have existed — and is the closest thing the Southeast has to a homegrown Asian fast casual category leader. The brand opportunity isn’t to compete with the national entrants. It’s to be unmistakably the Atlanta Asian kitchen, and to defend that position before national chains build local awareness.
The 13-location Georgia footprint is its own competitive moat — one most fast casual brands haven’t achieved in this category in this region. With ~$900K average unit volume per the 2021 FDD, the system represents roughly $11.7M in annual baseline revenue, growing meaningfully with brand activation. Atlanta dominance is the right-shaped market to own first. The same audience that drives to work in Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Midtown, and the suburban corridors is already eating Asian fast casual elsewhere in their week. They should be eating Tin Drum.
The Expansion Opportunity
Tin Drum has already shown willingness to expand outside Georgia. Whatever the next market entry looks like, it benefits from the same scaffolding: local audience seeded ahead of opening, geo-targeted social presence in motion, market-specific SEO and GBP setup live before doors open, local influencer relationships warm. That kind of pre-expansion infrastructure is operational, not promotional — and it’s part of what this engagement is built to deliver.
04
The Gaps
Growth Signals
Six signals confirmed by our pre-engagement audit. Each one is a specific gap — and a specific opportunity at the brand layer or per-location.
Social Story Vacuum — Audit Score 1/5
@tindrumasiankitchen has 6,234 followers after 22 years and 1,250 posts. Content is overwhelmingly product shots and promotions — the Hong Kong founding story, the Tin Drummer folk tale, Steven Chan’s journey, the music culture references all sit unused. National competitors are using their narratives daily; Tin Drum has the better story and isn’t telling it.
A story-first content calendar — founder origin Reels, Tin Drummer folk tale serialized across posts, music-culture reference content, behind-the-bar content from operators like Seth in Sandy Springs — reframes the entire feed. 90-day target: rebuild engagement baseline and grow toward 15K+ followers, then 25K within 6 months.
Fragmented Digital Identity Across 13 Units — Audit Score 2/5
Separate ordering domain (order.tindrumcafe.com), 8+ individual location Facebook pages with 500–900 followers each, a locations subdomain, and inconsistent Google Business Profile management create a digital landscape where Tin Drum looks like 13 unrelated restaurants instead of one brand with 13 doors.
A Franchise Digital Standards Playbook consolidates the brand under one Instagram, one website, one tone of voice, and one corporate-managed Google Business Profile program across all 13 locations. Location FB pages convert to Location Tabs under the master page; ~6K fragmented followers consolidate to one channel.
GBP Gaps at Newer Locations
Mature Tin Drum locations have built real Google review authority over many years. Newer franchises are stranded: Braselton sits at ~10 reviews, Kennesaw at ~29, Pooler at ~68. In local search ranking, review volume carries as much weight as rating — new locations are losing local SEO competition before they have the chance to compete.
A centralized GBP program with QR table cards, in-app review prompts via Tin Drum Degrees, and post-visit SMS follow-up generates 10–15 reviews per location per month. Target by Day 90: every location at 75+ reviews minimum, 4.4+ rating maintained system-wide.
Tin Drum Degrees — The Strongest Asset, Underleveraged
The Olo-powered loyalty app is the highest-scoring vertical in the audit (4/5). It is iOS & Android, has built-in referral mechanics (500-degree bonus), and has captive app users who already chose to be in the brand’s ecosystem. The audit found no recurring activation campaigns, no birthday flows, no lapsed-member reactivation, no referral push.
A loyalty activation program — birthday automation, referral campaign, lapsed-member win-back, and event-driven push (mahjong night, game night, regional festivals) — turns the app from a transactional convenience into a recurring revenue compounding engine. Zero-paid acquisition, immediate impact on traffic.
Schema & Local SEO Infrastructure Missing
The 13 location pages on the main site lack LocalBusiness and Restaurant schema markup, NAP consistency varies between the main site and the locations subdomain, and the order subdomain is split off. Google can’t cleanly identify which physical address belongs to which page — the local SEO ceiling is being hit before it should be.
LocalBusiness + Restaurant JSON-LD schema deployed across all 13 location pages, NAP audit and correction, structured data for menu, hours, and cuisine type. Measurable local SEO impact within 60–90 days — especially at newer franchises where Google is still establishing the local entity.
Pre-Expansion Digital Readiness
Multi-market expansion at scale puts more pressure on the brand-level digital layer than single-market growth. Local audience, geo-targeted social, market-specific GBP setup, and local SEO scaffolding all benefit from running before a new location opens — but most franchise systems build that infrastructure post-launch instead of pre-launch.
A repeatable pre-expansion digital playbook deployed 60–90 days before the next market entry: local SEO scaffolding, geo-targeted paid awareness, location-seeded social content, GBP setup and review priming, and local influencer activation. This is operational infrastructure as much as marketing — it protects franchisee revenue from day one.
05
The System
The Resto360 Growth Program
Resto360 is not a menu of services. It’s a fully integrated digital growth system built around one outcome: more guests, more frequently, spending more. For a 13-location franchise brand, the Resto360 program is structured in two layers that work together — a Brand Foundation managed at the corporate level, and a Local Activation Layer that gives each opted-in franchise location its own digital infrastructure. One Instagram, one website, one brand voice carrying the system. Each location gets its own Google Business Profile management, local paid ads, local SEO, micro-influencer activation in its trade area, and review pipeline.
This split matters because Tin Drum’s structure demands it. The brand should be unified — one IG, one website, one Tin Drummer narrative. The locations should each get the local-market work that protects unit revenue: GBP, local search, local-trade-area ads, neighborhood influencers. Brand campaigns build awareness. Local campaigns drive traffic. Both compound when they run together. This is the same model we run for Baires Grill across 13 NYC and Florida locations — and structurally, it’s the same model that Tropical Smoothie Cafe runs across its 1,500-location franchise system, which Steven’s team has firsthand experience with given Tin Drum’s prior ownership history with the same investor group. It’s the proven structure for franchise digital at this unit count.
Proven Portfolio
Resto Experience has worked with 57+ restaurants across the U.S., generating over $110M in cumulative revenue. Our portfolio median is +74% in monthly sales growth — documented across real client engagements, not projected. Results vary by market, concept, and starting point. But the pattern is consistent: restaurants that commit to the full system grow. We own and operate Rreal Tacos — a 13-location Mexican fast casual group built from one location using the same program we’re deploying for Tin Drum, currently doing $8M in monthly system revenue.
06
What’s Included
Scope of Services
Every service below is sequenced against the audit findings. The two red-flag verticals (Social Media at 1/5 and SEO & Local Search at 2/5) are the highest-priority focus in the first 90 days. Each card is tagged BRAND (managed at the corporate Tin Drum level — included in the brand foundation retainer) or PER LOCATION (delivered for each opted-in franchise as part of the local activation layer). Most services run at both layers in coordination.
Brand
Social Media Management
One unified Tin Drum Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok — managed at the brand level, not fragmented across location pages. A story-first content calendar built around the Hong Kong founding narrative, the Tin Drummer folk tale, music-culture references, and the operator stories of franchise GMs across Georgia. 4–5 weekly Reels minimum; daily Stories; community management on DMs and comments.
Brand
Content Creation & Production
Monthly photo and video shoots rotating across Tin Drum locations — each shoot building seasonal libraries, founder-narrative content, menu hero shots for digital and in-store, and the visual canon a 13-unit brand needs. All content owned by Tin Drum and delivered through a shared Google Drive. We brief photographers and videographers; we edit; we color-correct; we deliver.
Brand + Per Location
Influencer Marketing
Two-tier program. Brand-level: Atlanta-wide and Georgia-wide lifestyle, food, and culture creators activated for system-level campaigns and openings. Per-location: micro-influencers seeded into specific franchise trade areas (Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Athens, Pooler, etc.) to drive local-store traffic. We negotiate rates, contract content rights, brief on talking points, and approve all content before it posts.
Brand + Per Location
Paid Media — Meta & Google
Brand-level: awareness and consideration campaigns across metro Atlanta and Georgia, plus franchise-development campaigns for new market expansion. Per-location: trade-area-targeted Meta and Google campaigns for each opted-in store, geo-fenced around the unit, with creative tailored to the local market and tracked against unit sales. Weekly optimization, full monthly reporting per location.
Brand
Email, SMS & Loyalty Activation
Brand-level lifecycle engine on top of the Tin Drum Degrees app. Birthday automations, lapsed-member win-back, referral campaign push (the existing 500-degree referral bonus, finally activated), event-driven flows (mahjong night, regional festivals, openings). Segmented messaging by app behavior: first-time, repeat, lapsed. The loyalty audience becomes a recurring revenue compounding engine.
Brand
Website Design & Development
A custom Tin Drum website built from the ground up — SEO-optimized, mobile-first, fully integrated with online ordering and Tin Drum Degrees. Replaces the current Pop Menu template with a custom-coded build that lets the brand story breathe and lets local SEO actually compete. Includes 13 location pages with proper schema, and consolidation of the order subdomain into the main domain.
Brand + Per Location
Local SEO & Digital Presence
Brand-level: LocalBusiness + Restaurant schema deployed across all 13 location pages, NAP audit and correction, citation cleanup across 80+ directories. Per-location: Google Business Profile management for each opted-in store — weekly posts, photo refreshes, hours management, Q&A monitoring, attribute optimization. Direct impact on local discovery and walk-in traffic at the unit level.
Brand + Per Location
Online Reputation & Review Management
Per-location review pipelines built on the Tin Drum Degrees app + QR table cards + SMS follow-up. Brand-level sentiment dashboard summarizes what guests are saying across all 13 locations and surfaces themes for operations. Negative reviews (1–3 stars) routed to franchise GMs in real time. Target by Day 90: every location at 75+ reviews minimum, 4.4+ rating system-wide. Newer franchises catch up fastest.
Brand
Graphic Design & Brand Standards
On-demand design across the Tin Drum brand — social graphics, in-store print collateral distributable to all 13 franchises, menu support, campaign creative, seasonal pushes. The Franchise Digital Standards Playbook lives here too: brand guidelines for franchisees, content templates, photography rules, voice and tone documentation. No separate design retainer; no extra invoices; no franchisee guesswork.
Brand + Per Location
Performance Tracking & Analytics
GA4, Meta Pixel, and UTM tracking deployed at the brand level plus per-location attribution where applicable. A live dashboard gives Steven, Altaf, and Amisha real-time visibility into brand campaigns, location-level performance, social growth, GBP impact, and loyalty engagement. Monthly strategy sessions review the numbers and adjust channel allocation based on what’s actually moving the needle.
Brand
POS & Loyalty Optimization
Strategic configuration of the Tin Drum Degrees app + Olo + POS integration to capture better guest data and surface insights for both corporate and franchisees. Includes recommendation work on third-party delivery (Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub) at the brand level — menu structure, promotional campaigns, in-app ad management. Optional standalone third-party delivery management is available as the dedicated add-on below.
Brand
Franchise Digital Playbook & Pre-Expansion
A repeatable playbook every Tin Drum franchise can run: social standards, GBP standards, photography rules, content cadence, voice. Plus a pre-expansion digital playbook deployed 60–90 days before any new market entry — local SEO scaffolding, geo-targeted awareness, social seeding, GBP setup, local influencer activation. The kind of scaffolding that makes every new-market opening easier from day one, including future expansions outside Georgia. Includes our Resto Hiring program for franchisee recruitment funnels.
Optional Add-On · +$500/mo system-wide
Third-Party Delivery Optimization
Strategic management of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub as revenue channels across all 13 Tin Drum locations — not just logistics. Menu structure, keyword-optimized descriptions, promotional campaigns, and in-app ad management. Includes access to our exclusive Uber Eats partnership rate: 20–22% commission vs. the standard 30–32%. Turns delivery from a margin cost into a growth lever, especially at lunch-heavy units near corporate corridors.
Optional Add-On · RestoHost AI
RestoHost AI — 24/7 Guest Engagement
An AI-powered guest assistant deployed on tindrumasiankitchen.com and social channels. Responds to inquiries instantly, guides guests to ordering, locations, catering, and franchise development inquiries — 24/7 without staff involvement. Especially valuable for a 13-unit franchise with one corporate marketing team: reduces lost leads, improves response times, and routes franchise development inbound directly to corporate. Currently live across multi-location restaurants in Atlanta and Miami.
07
The Evidence
Proven Results
Three case studies that map directly to Tin Drum’s situation: a 13-location multi-market group on a percentage partnership, our own 13-location group built from one location, and a long-running Atlanta multi-location anchor.
Situation: Established 13-location Argentinian steakhouse group operating in NYC and South Florida. Strong product, solid reputation, stagnant growth, no structured brand-level digital marketing program in place. Operating exactly the kind of multi-location franchise dynamic Tin Drum is navigating now.
Engagement Model: Performance partnership — Resto Experience paid as a percentage of net sales. Full Resto360 brand-layer program plus per-location activation: brand-level content, influencer programs, paid media coordination, reputation management across the entire system.
Result: NYC grew +47% YoY in sales. Doral reached $668K in a single month. Total incremental revenue across locations: +$536K against a $54K marketing investment — 989% combined ROI.
989%
Combined ROI
$536K incremental revenue on a $54K total marketing investment across the 13-location system
+47%
NYC YoY Sales Growth
Year-over-year revenue increase at the New York flagship under the percentage-of-sales partnership model
$668K
Doral Peak Month
Single-month revenue record set at the Doral location within the engagement period
Why This Applies to Tin Drum
Baires Grill is the closest direct analog in our portfolio: 13 active locations, multi-market, a brand worth defending, and a partnership structured as a percentage of net sales. This is the model we recommend Tin Drum consider as the preferred path — aligned incentives, scalable agency capacity, and revenue compounds together for both sides.
Rreal Tacos
13 locations · Atlanta multi-unit · Mexican fast casual · Our own brand
Operator-Built Proof
Situation: Damian and Miguel acquired the original Real Tacos in Midtown Atlanta four years ago. One location, fast casual format, good product, modest digital presence. The same Resto Experience program now being proposed for Tin Drum was first built and battle-tested on Rreal Tacos — we don’t recommend systems we don’t run on our own brand.
Strategy: Brand consolidation under one Instagram, one website, one tone of voice. Story-first content. Influencer activation with formal content rights. Aggressive Google Business Profile programs at every location. Loyalty + email + SMS lifecycle. Percentage-of-sales partnership with Resto Experience — 1% of $8M monthly system revenue.
Result: 13 locations across Georgia and Florida. 250,000 Instagram followers system-wide. Each mature location consistently generates 6,000+ Google reviews. System monthly revenue: ~$8M. The compounding works: marketing budget grows with revenue, which grows the marketing budget, which grows revenue.
250K
System IG Followers
Built through consistency in story-first content and structured influencer programs over four years
6,000+
Google Reviews per Location
Mature locations consistently exceed 6K reviews via QR table cards, in-app prompts, and operations-aligned incentives
$8M
Monthly System Revenue
13-location group built from a single Midtown Atlanta location using the Resto360 program now being proposed for Tin Drum
Tomo Japanese Restaurant
Buckhead, Atlanta · Long-term Atlanta multi-year engagement
Atlanta Reference
Situation: Established Japanese restaurant in Buckhead. Mature operations, loyal regulars, but stagnant growth. Resto Experience engaged for a multi-year program with full Resto360 services.
Result:+27% average year-over-year sales growth, 11 consecutive months of positive YoY growth, monthly revenue range moved from $225K to $300K under the program. The kind of compounding result the Resto360 system is designed to produce when given the time to run.
08
The Roadmap
90-Day Launch Plan
Three phases over 90 days. Phase 1 is foundation (audit, standards, infrastructure). Phase 2 is brand activation (story-first content, GBP wave, schema). Phase 3 is amplification and Q3 planning.
1
Foundation & Audit Sprint
Days 1–30 · Month 1
Onboarding kickoff with Steven, Altaf, Amisha — brand asset handoff, voice and tone alignment, content approval workflow established
Second content shoot rotation — building seasonal library, including event content (mahjong night / game night concepts)
Influencer second wave — scale to 8–10 creators in active rotation across brand and per-location
GBP wave 2: optimize the remaining locations not in wave 1; review velocity targets in motion
Review milestone: every location at 75+ reviews minimum, 4.4+ rating maintained system-wide
Custom Tin Drum website design & development kicked off (replacing current Pop Menu template); content architecture finalized
Pre-expansion digital playbook v1 documented — ready to deploy 60–90 days before next market entry
Q3 strategy session: performance review with Steven and team; Q3 priority alignment
09
The Trajectory
Projected Growth Scenario
Based on comparable franchise programs we’ve run — Baires Grill (13 locations) and Rreal Tacos (13 locations) — here’s the realistic 12-month trajectory for Tin Drum under a fully-deployed Resto360 program. These are scenarios, not guarantees. Growth depends on marketing investment, ad spend allocation, operational execution, and market conditions.
15K+ IG followers, schema live across all 13 pages, every location at 75+ reviews
Month 3–6
Custom website launch, loyalty activation in full swing, brand-level influencer cadence
GBP wave 2 (remaining units), local campaign optimization, second-wave micro-influencers
25K+ IG followers, FB pages consolidated, system-wide review velocity established
Month 6–12
Brand storytelling at scale, event-driven content (mahjong / game night), pre-expansion playbook ready
Mature local programs — loyalty referral campaigns, location-level analytics tied to unit revenue
Tin Drum Degrees re-engagement compounding, next-market entry deployable on demand
Benchmark: Tomo Japanese
Tomo Japanese in Buckhead grew +27% in average year-over-year sales with 11 consecutive months of positive YoY growth on the Resto360 program. Tin Drum starts with a stronger asset base, a 13-location footprint, and a loyalty app most concepts never build. The trajectory ceiling is meaningfully higher when the system is given time to compound.
10
The Investment
Investment & The Path to Partnership
Tin Drum’s structure — one brand, 13 franchise locations, a desire to unify the brand layer while letting locations opt into local marketing — calls for two pricing models. We’ve presented both. The first is a hybrid retainer that lets the brand commit at the corporate level and franchises opt in individually. The second is a performance partnership — the model we run with Baires Grill and Rreal Tacos — and the model we’d recommend as the preferred path once we have visibility into actual system revenue.
Model A — Resto360 Hybrid Retainer
$4,500
per month — Brand Foundation retainer, month-to-month + $750/month per opted-in franchise location (Local Activation Layer)
Brand Foundation includes
One unified Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
Story-first content calendar & production
Brand-level paid media (Meta & Google)
Brand-level influencer program
Custom website redesign & development
Schema + technical SEO across 13 pages
Tin Drum Degrees loyalty activation
Email & SMS lifecycle campaigns
Sentiment dashboard across all 13 locations
Graphic design & print collateral
Franchise Digital Standards Playbook
Pre-expansion digital playbook
Everything described in Section 06 — Scope of Services — is included. All 12 service areas are covered at the brand level with no service billed separately and no scope held back.
The $750/month per-location add-on activates the Local Activation Layer for any opted-in franchise: Google Business Profile management, local trade-area paid ads, location-specific SEO content, micro-influencer seeding, and local-market review pipeline. Each franchise opts in independently.
Ad spend is paid directly to platforms — not passed through the agency. Recommended brand-level ad budget: $3,000–$5,000/month. Recommended per-location ad budget: $1,000–$2,000/month per opted-in franchise. No long-term commitment required. 30-day cancellation notice. Our 84% client retention speaks to why most clients stay.
Scenario
Brand Foundation
Local Activation Layer
Total Monthly Retainer
Brand only
$4,500
—
$4,500/mo
Brand + 4 locations
$4,500
$3,000
$7,500/mo
Brand + 8 locations
$4,500
$6,000
$10,500/mo
Brand + all 13 locations
$4,500
$9,750
$14,250/mo
Model B · The Preferred Path
Performance Partnership — 1% of Net System Revenue
This is the model we run with Baires Grill (13 locations across NYC and South Florida) and on Rreal Tacos, our own 13-location group. The agency is paid 1% of net monthly system revenue — covering the brand layer and all per-location activation in a single aligned fee. Every franchise is in the program by default; there is no opt-in friction.
Why we prefer it: when the agency is paid as a percentage of sales, every dollar of revenue we help drive grows both sides equally. There’s no ceiling on agency capacity (we scale with you), no incentive misalignment (we don’t bill for hours, we win when you win), and growth compounds for both sides.
The floor — $9,750/month, anchored to the FDD baseline. Tin Drum’s 2021 Franchise Disclosure Document discloses ~$900K AUV per location. With 13 locations, that implies ~$11.7M annual system revenue / ~$975K monthly. 1% of that = $9,750/month, which is the floor for Model B. If actual revenue is at or above the FDD baseline, the percentage applies on the full amount and the floor becomes invisible. If actual revenue comes in below the baseline, the floor protects the engagement so we can deliver at full quality from day one. The floor is not a cap — it’s a baseline. Above $11.7M annual, the 1% does all the work and compounds with growth.
The marketing investment commitment — the structural requirement for Model B. Model B requires Tin Drum to commit to the marketing investment level we discussed on the call: $3K–$5K/month at the brand level plus $1K–$2K/month per franchise location. That budget — typically $16K–$31K/mo system-wide depending on participation — is the deployable capital that funds ad spend, influencer fees, content production, and event activation. The 1% agency fee is structurally tied to that investment delivering performance. Without the budget commitment, the percentage can’t generate the revenue it’s tied to. Combined, that’s a 2–3% total marketing investment of net system revenue — the standard band for franchise growth-stage operators, and the exact structure Rreal Tacos and Baires Grill run on.
Both models deliver the same scope of services. The difference is structural: Model A is a flat retainer with optional add-ons and recommended marketing spend. Model B is a partnership where revenue growth compounds for both sides — with a $9,750/mo floor and a committed marketing investment that fuels the performance the percentage is tied to. If Tin Drum isn’t ready to commit to the parallel marketing investment yet, Model A is the right path.
ROI Perspective
At Rreal Tacos, the same Resto360 program represents roughly 2% of net sales as the total marketing investment — 1% to the agency, 1% to ad spend and content. That ratio sits well within the 1.5–3% benchmark for franchise growth-stage fast casual operators. The investment isn’t the cost of marketing — it’s the lever that compounds revenue and protects the brand at every new market entry.
11
What Happens Next
Next Steps
Tin Drum has been in market for 22 years. There’s no fire-drill timing on this engagement — but every month without a story-first brand layer is a month a national competitor builds local awareness Tin Drum should already own. Here’s how we move.
01
Review the Audit + Proposal
The digital audit (already shared) details the specific gaps we identified across all 9 verticals. This proposal shows how we close each one at the brand level and per location. Both documents are designed to be reviewed together with your operations team and Amisha’s marketing team.
02
Pricing Model Decision
Decide between Model A (hybrid retainer) — brand $4,500/mo + $750/mo per opted-in location — or Model B (performance partnership) at 1% of net system revenue with a $9,750/mo floor anchored to the FDD baseline. Model B requires the parallel marketing investment commitment we discussed ($3–5K brand + $1–2K per location). Either model deploys the same scope.
03
Internal Stakeholder Loop
Bring Altaf (COO), Amisha (CMO), and the in-house marketing manager into the conversation. The 90-day plan needs operations input to execute — especially the franchise opt-in process and the GBP coordination across all 13 locations.
04
Agreement & Onboarding
30-day cancellation, no long-term commitment. Onboarding kickoff with Steven, Altaf, and Amisha to align on brand voice, content approval workflow, and per-location opt-in. First content shoot scheduled within Week 1 of Month 1.
05
Phase 1 Sprint Begins
GBP audit across all 13 locations, schema deployment plan, founder-narrative content calendar, and Tin Drum Degrees loyalty activation flows all designed and approved within the first 30 days. Brand IG reset live by Day 30. Visible momentum from Week 2.
→
Ready to talk?
Reach Guillermo directly at guillermo@restoexperience.com to schedule the follow-up call and walk through both pricing models.
