Sweetgreen tapped Atmosphere TV to introduce World Cup viewers to its wraps. Friday, July 31st, 2026 - 1:00 am What does Sweetgreen have in common with the 2026 FIFA World Cup? They both recently wrapped. The salad and grain bowl chain first rolled out wraps in May of this year. And the World Cup was an opportune moment for Sweetgreen to showcase the menu item over the course of several weeks, said Katie Sheeran, the brand's VP of marketing. Portable, handheld items like wraps are a particularly relevant fit for sports content depicting athletes on the move, compared to the salads Sweetgreen is known for, she said. Speaking of salad, it's been a rough week for leafy greens, but the campaign was not a reaction to the cyclospora outbreak, Sheeran said. She noted that Sweetgreen is not implicated in the cyclospora outbreak. AdExchanger also prefers to talk about what comes in than what goes out. (Now, lettuce move on.) Sweetgreen focused on digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad placements designed to capture the attention of viewers watching the World Cup in bars, restaurants and other public places. Sweetgreen tapped the video advertising startup Atmosphere TV for help running a video ad in those public spaces where people were likely watching the World Cup. Atmosphere TV has free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels that it distributes to roughly 60,000 venues in exchange for the ability to run ads on the content. During the World Cup, Atmosphere TV's FAST channels ran alongside screens airing the tournament. Even so, Atmosphere TV doesn't categorize itself as a DOOH platform, according to CRO Ryan Spicer. Instead, it positions itself as connected TV for people who are out and about, because it says its platform is more technologically sophisticated than a lit-up billboard. Labels aside, what matters to Sweetgreen is capitalizing on the growing number of sports fans who watch tentpole games with others outside the house. Goal! This year's World Cup kicked off on June 11 and ran until July 19, when Spain secured the championship. For Sweetgreen, that nearly 6-week period represented ample time to get the word out on its new wraps, Sheeran said. Repetition over time is a good way to make the message of an ad really stick, she added, especially when that ad feels bespoke to the environment it appears in. Sweetgreen's World Cup ad on Atmosphere TV-powered screens was a video featuring a green soccer ball with the company's branding alongside rotating images of its four wrap flavors. The ad's call to action encourages fans to "order online or in-app." The ad was part of Sweetgreen's broader campaign promoting the launch of its wraps, which also had social videos featuring a range of content creators on social platforms including TikTok. To increase the odds that its ads would reach the right people, Sweetgreen concentrated its campaign spend within its top regional markets - Chicago, LA, Boston and Washington DC - rather than do a "sweeping national buy," Sheeran said. But for Sweetgreen, just showing up in the right cities isn't enough. It needs to reach fans who are close enough to a Sweetgreen location for the best odds of persuading those fans to try a new wrap while they're already on the go. According to Spicer, Atmosphere TV can help brands consolidate their ads to venues that are within two to three miles of store locations. In comparison, brands who buy regional ads by designated market area may reach people as far as 10 miles away, he said, which isn't as effective. So far, Sweetgreen's World Cup campaign results look promising. Audiences who saw the campaign on an Atmosphere TV-run screen visited a physical Sweetgreen store at 113.9% higher rate than those who were not exposed to the ad, according to the brand. Not every customer is buying in, however. Due to concerns over the cyclospora outbreak, Sweetgreen saw a roughly 4.7% drop in foot traffic on July 18 compared to an average Saturday this year, according to CBS News. You win some, you lose some. While Sweetgreen primarily considered its campaign as a reach play to build brand awareness and favorability, Sheeran said Sweetgreen also expects to see lower-funnel business outcomes, particularly foot traffic to store locations near where the ads ran. When asked for additional campaign insights, Sheeran said Sweetgreen is "still wrapping up the reporting." Play bowl! Sweetgreen is one of many brands that wanted to monetize the momentum around the World Cup with a DOOH play. Turns out live sports are persuading some advertisers to try DOOH. For Atmosphere TV, it still needs to sell advertisers on why DOOH is a smart investment decision in the age of performance, where campaigns need to demonstrate a high caliber of ad personalization as well as measurement. While Atmosphere TV considers itself to be CTV in real life, its label of choice doesn't change the fact that most advertisers earmark their CTV budgets for the big screens inside the home. To woo advertisers, Atmosphere TV pitches itself as a way to reach audiences that are more likely to purchase something (because they are out of the house) at a fraction of the cost. For example, during the World Cup, Atmosphere TV ran video ads on screens directly next to TV sets airing the tournament. Which gives brands a way to appear alongside the game without shelling out the exorbitant costs of appearing within the World Cup as an official sponsor. Atmosphere TV credits this year's World Cup for helping it attract new advertiser clients, including Lowe's, GMC, Modelo and Sweetgreen. According to Atmosphere TV, the World Cup campaigns it ran rewarded advertisers with an average sales lift exceeding 20%. And Atmosphere TV expects sports fans in urban areas to continue congregating in person to experience the cultural milestones that sports increasingly represent, from the New York Knicks victory in New York City to the World Cup matches that captivated the globe. Spicer said each of these public gatherings represent a critical moment of "attention, joy and positivity." The goal for Atmosphere TV, Spicer said, is helping brands "capture that moment." Tagged in:

As Bubbakoo's Burritos grows - Chris Ives turns to Atmosphere to scale the guest experience. In This Episode Interview takeaways. * Brand Experience Must Scale With Growth - Chris Ives believes expanding from 140 to 300 restaurants is about more than opening new locations. Every restaurant has to deliver the same energy, hospitality, and personality that made Bubbakoo's Burritos successful in the first place, even as the franchise grows. * Atmosphere Reinforces the Brand Story - Rather than treating televisions as background entertainment, Bubbakoo's uses Atmosphere to create a custom in-store channel that reflects its Jersey Shore roots and "Create Something Different" philosophy. The result is a consistent guest experience that extends beyond the food. * Technology Should Strengthen Hospitality - Ives sees AI and technology as tools to simplify operations, improve decision-making, and free managers to spend more time with guests. His philosophy is that the best technology works behind the scenes while people remain at the center of the hospitality experience. Most restaurant operators think televisions are simply there to entertain guests. As CEO of Bubbakoo's Burritos, Ives is leading the fast-casual brand through its next phase of growth. With 140 locations and plans to reach 300 over the next five years, maintaining a consistent guest experience across every restaurant has become one of the company's biggest priorities. One way Bubbakoo's is doing that is through its partnership with Atmosphere, turning every television into another expression of the brand. More than a television screen. Founded in 2008 along the Jersey Shore, Bubbakoo's Burritos was built around one simple idea: create something different. The founders wanted more than another burrito concept. They wanted every restaurant to reflect the laid-back energy and personality that inspired the brand. That philosophy extends beyond the menu. Rather than showing cable news or sports, every Bubbakoo's restaurant features its own branded television channel through Atmosphere. Guests watch surfing, skateboarding, snow sports, and other action sports that reinforce the company's Jersey Shore roots and "Create Something Different" mindset. "We don't have cable in our shops," Ives said. "It's Bubbakoo's TV delivering on our 'Create Something Different' mantra." From USB drives to a national brand. The partnership didn't start with custom programming. Before working with Atmosphere, Bubbakoo's restaurants relied on USB drives loaded with YouTube videos featuring surfing, skating, and other action sports. As the company expanded, that approach became increasingly difficult to manage across dozens of locations. Atmosphere eventually approached the company with an idea: instead of simply providing content, why not build an entire Bubbakoo's television channel? The result gave every restaurant a consistent look and feel while allowing programming to adapt to local markets. Mountain communities might feature snow sports, while coastal locations continue highlighting surfing and other action sports that fit the brand's personality. Protecting the culture. For Ives, creating a consistent experience becomes more difficult with every new restaurant. "You unfortunately get a little bit of that dilution of our core genuine hospitality standards," he said. "Every day I wake up thinking about how we can deliver better service and hospitality across all of our stores." That's why every part of the restaurant matters. The food, the hospitality, the conversations between employees and guests, and even what's playing on the televisions all contribute to how customers experience the brand. Technology Should support hospitality. Ives believes technology should remove friction for restaurant teams, not replace them. Behind the scenes, Bubbakoo's uses AI and data tools to help operators understand guest behavior, improve forecasting, and identify operational opportunities faster. Inside the restaurant, however, managers are expected to focus on serving guests rather than staring at dashboards. "We try to pull out all the tech from the general managers," Ives said. "Most importantly, they're working the shifts and delivering on the guest experience." Atmosphere fits naturally into that philosophy. Instead of giving operators another task to manage, it helps deliver a consistent brand experience automatically across every location. Scaling the experience. As Bubbakoo's works toward 300 restaurants, Ives knows consistency can't come from operations manuals alone. It comes from creating an environment that feels unmistakably like Bubbakoo's every time someone walks through the door. For the company, Atmosphere has become more than an entertainment platform. It's another tool for telling the brand's story, reinforcing its personality, and creating the kind of guest experience that can scale alongside the business. For restaurant operators, it's a reminder that the right technology shouldn't distract from hospitality. It should make it even stronger. Episode links. Listen to This Episode. Watch on YouTube. About Cali BBQ Media. Digital Hospitality is an interview-based video podcast hosted by business owner Shawn P. Walchef (@shawnpwalchef) and produced by his Cali BBQ Media company. The weekly digital series explores the ways successful businesses and entrepreneurs have merged old and new with innovative digital strategies that harness the power of the Internet and social media. Shawn is the founder of Cali BBQ Media and creator of the Restaurant Influencers podcast on Entrepreneur Media. Follow digital hospitality. Follow Restaurant Influencers.