El Pollo Loco Adds The Many to Its Creative Agency Roster

El Pollo Loco has added The Many to its creative agency roster, selecting the independent, integrated shop to lead creative for the brand’s next stage of growth.

The appointment reunites The Many with El Pollo Loco’s CMO, Jill Adams, and VP of Creative & Culture, Grant Knapp — both longtime collaborators. Together, they built a way of working that puts brands inside culture and turns audiences into participants.

El Pollo Loco first invited The Many into a competitive review in 2024 before selecting another agency. The brand re-engaged The Many through 2025 for the work the agency is built on: cultural creative made to move and designed to meet people where they already are. The Many brought WNBA star Arike Ogunbowale to surprise a Dallas basketball team and play P-O-L-L-O at practice, all to support The El Pollo Loco Foundation, and together, the team launched Loco Tenders at Revolve Festival at Coachella. Both earned their way into culture, and both built momentum toward today’s broader partnership.

The Many enters the assignment with deep QSR and food and beverage experience. That includes its long-standing relationship with Panda Express, where the agency led creative for four years and, in 2024, transitioned to leading Connections Strategy, media execution, and strategic analytics, as well as the IAT. It also includes a multi-year tenure on QDOBA, where Adams and Knapp led marketing during The Many’s time on the business. The Many’s participatory approach builds brand relevance through cultural and community engagement rather than paid attention alone. For El Pollo Loco, that means ideas built to travel across culture, communities, channels, and moments, not just campaigns built to fill paid placements or launch LTOs.

“I personally am thrilled to be working with The Many again. They are proven partners who consistently deliver on the needs of the brand. From our initial project work to their new brand creative responsibilities, they have already impressed the entire El Pollo Loco team with their commitment to our business objectives, strategic thinking, and creative prowess. Their partnership is pushing us into new territories and ways of thinking – and we’re excited to see where that takes the brand,” said Jill Adams, Chief Marketing Officer, El Pollo Loco.

“El Pollo Loco chose a partner built to think across the full ecosystem of how people discover and connect with brands today,” said Maggie Cadigan, Managing Director, The Many. “We know this category, and we know this team. We also know the difference that trust and urgency make when the brief is ambitious, and that combination is what makes this partnership exciting.”

Source: El Pollo Loco

  Branding, Channels, Community, Cultures, Grant Knapp, Maggie Cadigan, Moments, The Many