INTRO

With over 4,000 locations around the world, Paris Baguette is a French-inspired bakery café franchise with a presence in multiple countries. Offering breads, cakes and pastries baked fresh daily, Paris Baguette boasts a consumer offering that is becoming increasingly difficult to find in the consumer space.

PROBLEM

After exploding internationally, the franchise shifted its focus toward expansion in North America. Though it established flagship locations in heavily populated Asian communities, the brand was not as well-known as it needed to be outside of the Asian community. Paris Baguette needed a strategy that would make the name as big in North America as it is internationally.

SOLUTION

To drive Paris Baguette’s franchise development stateside, Mainland created a strategy to ensure the brand was as visible as possible. With press releases for new franchisee signings, café openings, industry awards and other impressive development achievements, the brand has a strong PR baseline in addition to its ongoing organic content marketing efforts.

RESULT

With continued brand exposure and awareness, the Paris Baguette name is becoming more well-known, and franchise pipeline growth is following suit. In recent years, franchise development has grown exponentially, each year better than the last in terms of both franchises awarded and cafés opened. Year-to-date, Paris Baguette has signed franchise agreements for 98 U.S. locations and opened another 20.

HOW MAINLAND WON

Mainland leveraged a robust strategy, supported by organic content, public relations and digital ads to increase Paris Baguette’s visibility. A press release is written and pitched for every single franchise agreement signed, and Mainland also works to secure coverage in development markets, for new café markets and in line with other awards or successes.

In 2023 alone, Mainland has created 75-plus pieces of content, nearly $1.5 million in PR value and over $390,000 in ad value for Paris Baguette.

“Our focal point is a strategy that keeps getting the Paris Baguette name out there,” said Mainland Vice President Julie Maw. “We thought, ‘How can we make it so that someone can’t go a day without seeing Paris Baguette in the news?’”

Recent media placements facilitated by Mainland include:

• World Coffee Portal: Paris Baguette America on track to reach 180 US stores in 2023
• Yahoo Finance: Second Canada Paris Baguette Café set to Open in Edmonton on September 14th as the Brand Continues to Dominate the Bakery Franchise Space
• QSR: Paris Baguette Opens New Location in Canada
• Foodservice and Hospitality: Paris Baguette Expands Footprint in Canada
• St. Louis Business Journal: Fast-growing, French-inspired bakery concept to expand to St. Louis next summer

Paris Baguette also leverages Mainland’s AMPD strategy, ensuring that its incredible exposure through 1851 Franchise content is more valuable than just a certain number of clicks. Rather, with AMPD, Mainland and Paris Baguette partner to determine who the franchisor’s target audience is and serve content up to those very people.

An AMPD campaign can be very generic, targeting readers in a certain age group, for example, or it can be specified to help the franchisor get in front of their average franchisee, maybe a restaurant enthusiast between the ages of 35 and 55 who makes at least $500,000 each year.

By casting a wide net — working to secure a range of media placements, distributing consistent press releases and publishing original content on 1851 Franchise — and driving more targeted efforts through AMPD campaigns, Mainland has helped Paris Baguette increase brand awareness both with the general public and its ideal investors, driving a snowball effect in franchise development.