Aren Johnstone (Franchise Ramp) and Dan Wheeler (CMO, K9 Resorts) join Katherine for a direct conversation about what franchise marketers are actually measuring and whether it's doing anything useful. This episode centers on the gap between data collection and decision-making — and what it takes to close it inside a real franchise system.
In this episode:
- Why "if it doesn't drive a decision, you don't need it" is the right test for your scorecard
- Cash flowable CAC: a franchisee-friendly framework for understanding marketing payback that goes beyond ROAS
- The tornado vs. the funnel: how rethinking the customer journey changes what you measure
- Building one source of truth: what it really takes, and why consistent imperfection beats perfect paralysis
- Why single-platform dependence is one of the biggest risks in franchise marketing right now
Guest: Aren Johnstone, CEO, Franchise Ramp
Aren leads a paid media and creative agency built specifically for franchise brands and franchisees — two of his partners are franchisees themselves. Franchise Ramp works with over 1,300 locations across 25+ brands, and Aren has spent seven years building the internal systems and tech stack to aggregate performance data across hundreds of disparate ad accounts. He knows the franchise data problem from the inside.
Guest: Dan Wheeler, CMO, K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel
Dan came to pet care from a career in restaurant and hospitality franchising, and he's bringing the same rigor to K9 Resorts — a brand with 50 open locations and 150 in development. He's currently overseeing the build of a first-party data platform that ties reservation data, franchise-level P&L, and media performance into one place. His frameworks on franchisee communication and demand creation are the kind of thing you don't hear enough at franchise marketing conferences.
Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMO
Are you a franchise brand leader working on a growth challenge?
Katherine works with franchise brands as a Fractional CMO.
Want to go deeper?
🌐 apollocmo.com
▶️ @MyPodcastHost on YouTube
🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc
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katherine@apollocmo.comWhat is Franchise Spotlight with Katherine LeBlanc?
Conversations with the leaders who are actually building franchising - from the executive suite to the field. Each season explores what success looks like right now, what franchise leaders should be paying attention to, and how the best brands are delivering real returns for their franchisees. Because at the end of the day, franchisee profitability isn't just a metric; it's the whole point.
Your host, Katherine LeBlanc, brings 13 years inside franchise systems, having led marketing across six brands spanning food, wellness, beauty, and experience. She's been in the room where these decisions get made. These conversations reflect that: direct, practitioner-level, and built for franchise leaders who don't have time for surface-level takes.