This wasn't the first time I've met Raising Cane's founder Todd Graves. The first time was last year at, of course, a Raising Cane's. But it wasn't any Cane's.
It was the Post Malone-Dallas Cowboys-themed one. The music superstar was on hand to open the restaurant and meet every single person who showed up and waited. He shook hands, posed for pictures and signed autographs — tirelessly.
Last week, Parker McCollum was in Frisco for the ACM Awards and at Top Golf in The Colony played a special Lifting Lives concert presented by Choctaw Casinos & Resorts. McCollum stopped by Raising Cane's Plano office, and Local Profile interviewed founder Graves about the restaurant's latest partnership.
Local Profile: Raising Cane's recently team with Parker McCollum. And before that, you partnered with Post Malone. How do you decide this?
Todd Graves: Raising Cane's partnering with people that have a large fan base is good for us because of their loyalty and their huge fan base. So, their loyal fans think, 'Oh, they're partnering with Cane's. They love Cane's.' But for me, it has to be two things. First, they have to be a Caniac — it has to be genuine. And then, second, I have to resonate with them and obviously, these are people that are good representations of the brand — you know, people who are humble and good to their fan base. People, like Parker, who want to give back.
But, in the future, it can be people from all aspects. If you come to our F1 suite or our Super Bowl suite, you will see all walks of life — every color, creed, male, female, actors, sports stars, music, artists, streamers and skateboarders. We partner with people constantly.
It's also that with social media, I can get it for a fraction of a penny per impression versus traditional advertising, which is a penny per impression, billboards, radio and TV all combined. The virality component is great, and people see it.
LP: Is there interest in doing another restaurant like the Post Malone Raising Cane's?
TG: As far as doing another restaurant like the Post thing, we just both decided let's do this. the posting thing, yeah, we just decided, let's do this. It's really special and let's give it some years and maybe we can do others.
What we didn't want to do was like a lot of these brands with celebrities is doing something back to back to back to back. For Post, it was something organic and good. So we won't be doing anybody else with music. I don't know if that's forever or for a while. People have asked, but I like to keep things genuine. But for local sports stars and stuff, I like to do fun things that are different and set the brand apart.
LP: After the Parker McCollum Lifting Lives concert, you had the Raising Cane's truck out front. It was late, and I think it was cool to see him working in the truck and serving food, especially after a show.
TG: Exactly. That was at the request of Parker. He was like, 'Hey, man, can you bring the truck out?' This was a charity event. And I was like, 'Absolutely.' So I thought that was cool. And then he's handing out food to fans, saying it's going to be fun. I love it.
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