P.F. Chang's has promoted Patrick Benson to Director of Marketing Communications, a newly created role that formally establishes a dedicated Marketing Communications department within the 300-unit Asian dining chain. The move comes on the heels of what the brand describes as one of its strongest sales years, driven in part by a creator-first content strategy that reached scale few casual dining brands have matched.
The Numbers Behind the Hire
The context matters here: over the past year, P.F. Chang's worked with more than 100 creators, generated more than 200 million video views, and produced $11 million in earned media value. Campaigns tied to Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and a Summer in Tokyo push each blended culinary storytelling with entertainment talent partnerships, generating widespread press coverage and measurable sales lift. Formalizing the infrastructure behind those results — rather than treating them as one-off wins — signals that culture-driven restaurant marketing is becoming a structural priority, not a tactical experiment.
Benson will oversee public relations, corporate communications, influencer strategy, and social media in the new role. He reports into Holly Smith, Chief Marketing Officer of P.F. Chang's, who called Benson's ability to connect social, influencer, PR, and brand storytelling the defining quality that made him the right person to build the function. "Patrick has been instrumental in helping evolve how P.F. Chang's shows up in culture and connects with today's guests," Smith said.
Benson's Background
Benson brings more than 15 years of social and digital marketing experience from both the entertainment and foodservice sectors, with prior roles at NBC, FOX, CBS, and El Pollo Loco. He has been recognized on Business Insider's Top 16 Influencer Executives list, Nation's Restaurant News' 2024 Power List, and Brand Innovators' 40 Under 40 West Coast list — a profile that underscores how the discipline of influencer-led brand building has matured into a defined executive track within the restaurant industry.
For multi-unit operators watching how legacy casual dining brands compete for attention in an era of fragmented media, P.F. Chang's organizational move offers a useful signal. Brands that treat influencer and earned media strategy as a standalone tactic continue to see inconsistent results; those that build dedicated teams with clear ownership of PR, social, and creator relationships are finding more durable momentum. P.F. Chang's, which operates in 23 countries and U.S. airport locations, is now structured to pursue that integration at scale. Benson's mandate — deepening guest connections while supporting commercial objectives — reflects the broader industry shift toward marketing organizations where communications and culture are treated as core growth levers, not support functions.
As covered across the food and beverage industry landscape, the ability to generate earned attention through culturally resonant content has become one of the more measurable competitive advantages in foodservice, particularly for brands competing across both domestic and international markets.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
