Exverus by Brainlabs Wins 2026 MediaPost OMMA for "Gotta Habit" Campaign
Exverus by Brainlabs won a 2026 MediaPost OMMA in the Best QSR/Fast Casual Campaign category for Habit's "Gotta Habit Meal Deals", which contributed to 7% system sales growth in a down market.
Key Takeaways
Habit's Gotta Habit Meal Deals offered $6, $8, and $10 bundles across 15 states and launched alongside Habit's new brand platform, "Fresh Like That."
Exverus by Brainlabs' incrementality study showed that control markets with no media support showed no comparable lift, pointing to the campaign as a driver of the sales increase.
The media plan integrated brand and performance across the full funnel and was built to clear reach and frequency thresholds rather than optimize for last-click efficiency.
Habit reported 5% same-store sales growth and 7% system sales growth in Q1 2026, the quarter the campaign ran, with media as one of several contributing factors.
The Challenge: Balance value with price
In 2026, deal-seeking visits account for close to a third of all restaurant traffic - among the highest rates tracked in decades! Habit Burger & Grill felt that pressure directly. The brand needed a value offer strong enough to compete on price but built to protect the "Fresh Like That" positioning it had just introduced.
Our media team built the ad campaign behind Habit's Q1 2026 Gotta Habit Meal Deals, a tiered $6, $8, and $10 bundle offer that ran across 15 states, spanning established California markets and newer expansion territory. We set out to prove something specific: that an ad campaign could move sales in a five-week window, in a category that was largely stuck.
The Strategy: Measuring for causation
We designed the campaign around a controlled incrementality study, running live inside the media flight itself. Sales performance in five key test markets running Gotta Habit Meal Deals was measured against comparable regions receiving no media support at all.
A full-funnel channel mix, balancing upper-funnel reach with lower-funnel conversion, supported the test while keeping the plan focused on long-term brand health and short-term sales simultaneously. The incrementality study let us attribute any lift directly to the campaign.
The Results: MediaPost OMMA-worthy sales
In just 5 weeks, the Gotta Habit Meal Deal's share of total Habit sales in test markets rose 18.6% above pre-campaign baseline, at 99% statistical significance. Meanwhile:
Control markets with no media investment showed no comparable trend, which points to the campaign itself as a driver of that lift.
And the impact extended past the test markets:
Habit's parent company, Yum! Brands, reported that the Habit division grew system sales 7% and same-store sales 5% in Q1 2026, one of the brand's strongest quarters in years!
Most fast casual brands running a deal can point to redemption counts or a short-term traffic bump. But few can show what an ad campaign actually contributed versus what would have happened anyway. Building a controlled test into a live, full-funnel ad campaign gave Habit a repeatable framework for evaluating future value plays against real, measured lift.
The team behind the work
The campaign was built by Media Director Georgia Schreiner (Ad Age 2023 Media Planner of the Year) with Media Supervisor Corey Boyle, Senior Media Planner Jillian Telman, and Assistant Media Planner Karla Calderon.
Sean Edwards and Lexi Semanskee led Programmatic Advertising, while Paid Search and Social ran through Ryan Schuster, MBA and Michael Robbins. Aaron Silva, associate director of ad operations, kept the campaign running.
Leading the charge were Tasha Day, vp of media planning & strategy; Hillary Bram, vp of performance marketing; Josh Edelman, vp of analytics; Jack Win, head of operations; Talia Arnold, managing partner; and William Durrant, executive director.
Congratulations to the whole team, to our creative partners at Optimism BH, and to our clients at Habit, whose willingness to measure from the truth made this result possible.
If your brand is navigating the same pull between value and differentiation, let's talk about how we plan brand and performance together.
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