Raising Cane’s: From CEO to celebrity

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The play: Take a cue from Thomas and Symphonic Capital by giving your leaders space to embody their full identities on social. Give them permission to talk about their upbringings, hobbies and families as well as their passion for their work. People trust people, and want to hear from them.


In both B2C and B2B, it’s rare to see a CEO as involved in company marketing as Todd Graves. Graves is the founder of Raising Cane’s—the rapidly growing American chain known for their chicken fingers. He has shared the stage with Snoop Dogg, appeared as a guest shark on Shark Tank and gave Travis Kelce free chicken for a year.

An Instagram post from Todd Graves (CEO of Raising Cane's) and Lori Greiner from the set of Shark Tank

The Raising Cane’s team uses Graves’ outgoing personality, likeability and panama mobile database popularity to their advantage, frequently featuring him in the brand’s social media content. Graves also has his own public Instagram channel (another CEO anomaly) where he is tagged as a collaborator on most of Raising Cane’s posts—amplifying their reach to his more than 500,000 followers. He appears in influencer posts, like this one where he shared a meal at Raising Cane’s with an influencer who had never eaten at one of his restaurants.

An Instagram post from Todd Graves, CEO of Raising Cane's, and creator Simji Official sharing a signature chicken meal

It’s difficult to articulate just how effective this strategy has been for raising Graves’ profile. His unlikely origin story became the bedrock of the brand’s image, forever intertwining Graves and Canes. Awareness of one inevitability creates success for the other. The company is on track to amass $5 billion this year and Graves was subsequently named to the Fortune 400 list.

The play: The “throw your CEO in the spotlight” strategy will not work at every company. Probably not even most companies. This playbook is only meant for founders who stick around for their entire career, until the next generation inherits their business. Even when brands fit into that bucket, they should only pursue this approach if they have a leader who has clearly defined values, flourishes in the limelight and is discerning about what to share publicly.