Why This CEO Puts Marketing First Across 25 Restaurants

What happens when marketing helps decide the menu, the location and the restaurant concept before anything launches? Anthony Knight, CEO of Venture Hospitality Group, joins me to explain why he puts marketing first across 25 restaurants serving 2.5 million guests a year. We discuss how his team built a fried chicken concept around its audience, why he redirected half the marketing budget towards more disruptive ideas, and how small touches can create experiences guests want to tell their friends about. We also get into: • What Dave’s Hot Chicken gets right about building a community • Why customer data convinced him to change a profitable venue • What marketers can learn from spending time on the restaurant floor • How Venture uses AI to encourage repeat visits during the same holiday • Why AI search is changing their website content strategy This is Smarter at Dinner with Noah Horner. CHAPTERS 00:00 Stop treating marketing as the colouring-in department 00:52 Meet Anthony Knight 01:29 What happens when marketing leads the business? 03:33 Building a restaurant concept with marketing first 06:14 What Dave’s Hot Chicken gets right about its audience 09:04 Growing beyond the restaurant’s four walls 10:44 Learning from 2.5 million guests 11:47 When the data challenges your gut instinct 12:43 Getting the team out of the office 15:08 What Carbone gets right about guest experience 16:45 Rethinking the marketing budget 20:39 Breaking down silos for better restaurant openings 22:42 Turning one visit into several 25:09 How AI search is changing restaurant discovery 26:48 Anthony’s priorities for the next year 29:04 His London restaurant recommendation 29:58 The song he’s adding to the playlist ABOUT NOAH Noah Horner leads GTM & New Media at Passionfruit and hosts Smarter at Dinner, speaking with CMOs and CEOs about how they build and grow brands. LinkedIn:   / noahhorner   X: https://x.com/noahhorner_ Subscribe for more conversations with the people building and marketing brands.