Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts

16.10.10

Facebook, saved a local restaurant


To see at the happy crowd at Bistro 17 (facebook|website) on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, you’d never think that just 3 months ago, they were close to shutting down for good. Owner Anna Buckingham says,
“Business was so slow at that point, even during the tourist season, that we were wondering if we should call it quits.”
But now this French-themed restaurant with mouth watering brie and an obsession with containers and dogs is a word-of-mouth sensation and always busy. In fact, they’re one of the few restaurants doing really well in the off-season

.

From closing to thriving… To what do they owe this remarkable turnaround?
Fortunately for Anna, one of her regular patrons runs a Hilton Head Island Facebook page with 65,000 fans.  Anna tends to make friends with all her customers. So they teamed up, and created this winning combination:

Partner With Large Facebook Pages
I’ve used this tactic myself in the past. When I was helping a Myrtle Beach hotel group grow its fan-base, we partnered with a large (200,000+ fans) Myrtle Beach destination Facebook Page to run a contest. The hotel group only had about 2,000 fans before this co-promotion. Within 24 hours we had crossed the 5,000 fan threshold and had 1,000 new emails from people who had indicated they were interested in receiving discount stay offers.
And it’s worth it to partner with smaller pages, too. Previous to this contest, we met another local marketer who had a Myrtle Beach themed page with 8,000 fans. He generously re-posted our contests for a few weeks and helped us gain hundreds of new fans.
Radio Style Call-In Contests
You’ve heard these all your life. I had too, so it was kinda thrilling to participate in one. And they work surprisingly well on Facebook. This means we should try to repurpose tactics that worked before the Internet and find out they work with the Internet.
Complimentary Alcohol? How Can You Go Wrong With That?
You have to be careful. Choose the wrong alcoholic drink, and you attract the wrong crowd.
But Bistro 17 chose to give away bottomless mimosas with breakfast. They’re not the first restaurant in the world to do this – in fact, none of what we’re talking about is completely new, but it all fits together and it gets more business. Fortunately, people who just want alcohol don’t tend to be attracted to the bottomless mimosa concept. It’s a common brunch item, and it fits the Bistro 17 menu. It’s also the kind of sparkly incentive that attracts more people and adds to the social lubrication that makes it fun restaurant to spend time at.
Passions and Promotion
Anna would shoot me if I didn’t mention her passion – Bistro 17 is dog friendly. They have dog bowls and treats on hand. She says,
“When people have their dogs here, they talk to each other more, and it’s a completely different place.”
For the business, it provides a unique advantage – one that increases social activity, which will solidify customer devotion and increase chances for word of mouth activities.
For example:
What can we learn from this to apply to promoting other local businesses? Having a secondary passion helps promote a local business.
Lessons: Social Is The Common Theme
If you haven’t noticed, being friendly and building relationships is core to all of the strategies mentioned above.
  • Make Friends: People with large Facebook pages don’t post your stuff for free if they don’t like you.
  • Focus on Service: No matter how much you promote a service business, if the people aren’t friendly, you don’t have service, and you won’t be able to keep or multiply the customers.
  • Alcohol makes people friendlier – generally 
  • Use Social Objects: Both the Bistro 17 doggie dishes and the patrons’s dogs are social objects – they make conversations easier to start and they warm the heart. Smiles are more likely. And smiles at restaurants are good for business.

11.10.10

Hell Pizza New Zealand|Deliver me to Hell!




Pizza and zombies - not a combination that immediately leaps to mind, but then Hell Pizza is not a company that adheres to the conventions of its category.
Recognising that consumers spent more money online, Hell Pizza have wisely created strong content to pull customers into that environment. Adding vouchers to the end of the video journey was a brilliant way to link video activity to sales.
Brand names in the pizza delivery sector tend to be fairly uninspiring. Outside of the big brand names like Dominos and Pizza Hut, most cities around the world are home to at least one pizza delivery firm with a vaguely Italian sounding name. Hell pizza had already marked itself out from the crowd with its unusual name, but when it came to engaging its consumers it still needed something different.
Most food delivery companies focus on their products. TV and online activity tends to be little more than another expression of the outlet's menu, but Hell Pizza recognised that online orders tickets were on average 30% more than telephone orders  - so devised a purely online strategy to shift consumers from their phone to their laptop.
What separated Hell Pizza's viral video was the interactive element. In "Deliver Me to Hell", viewers watched as the brave Steve attempted to cross a city full of zombies to deliver his pizza. At the end of each clip, viewers were given a choice of what should happen next, sometimes sending Steve and his consignment of pizza margaritas to a gruesome end.
Anyone who could successfully direct Steve safely through the zombies received a voucher for free bottles of Coke, and they were entered into a draw to win a year's supply of free pizza - powerful incentive to complete the mission!
"The first point of the campaign was to make a wicked innovative adventure online that had never been done before, and the second was to drive sales", said a Hell director Stu McMullin. "Hell Pizza has always been a tech forerunner and we employed good local kiwi talent and directors. In NZ we are one of the largest online companies.  We average 22% online for total pizza sales and 35% of that is in town centers. Our web average ticket is 30% more in value - so we are all about getting customers online."
Since the campaign started Hell have seen a strong spike in sales online and of those people that were ordering and using the free coke vouchers, 43% were new customers.

BRAND:Hell Pizza
BRAND OWNER:Hell Pizza
CATEGORY:Food
REGION:New Zealand
DATE:July - July 2010
MEDIA OWNER:YouTube
MEDIA CHANNEL:Branded Content,Online,TV

23.5.10

Mc Donald's - Playland


For kids, McDonalds is a fun, exciting place. They wanted to bring that feeling back to adults. So they did something only Macca’s could. They built an adult-sized Playland in the middle of Sydney. It wasn’t your average Monday Morning. Grown-ups engaged with McDonald’s in a way they hadn’t for years. People see “I’m lovin it” in all their ads. This time they felt it.


Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia.

16.5.10

Mini Cooper “The Car That Became a Hamburger”

In a partnership with Lanchonete da Cidade fast food chain, one of the trendiest in São Paulo, they developed the Cooper Burger, a sandwich inspired by the origin of the car, made with typically British ingredients. Besides the meal, upon the order, the customer received an exclusive place mat and a coupon for a test-drive and a 10% rebate on the acquisition of products from the MINI Lifestyle collection. Over 5 thousand sandwiches sold in just 2 months. Over a thousand test-drives performed, bringing forth twice the expected sales for Brazil. Highlight in targeted television programs, newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites. Today, the sandwich is part of the restaurant’s permanent menu.



Agency: Pepper São Paulo, Brazil.

13.5.10

Real chips in an artificial world.

To present the product in an attractive manner, large breast model holding the chips & saying Real chips in an artificial world.

28.3.10

Burger King} Chucky, Freddy, Jason, Scream








We were asked to communicate that Burger King stays open until the wee hours of the morning. Thomas and Kris came up with the following campaign showing the villains of the night that we know all to well, enjoying their favourite meal after a umm night out. The ads were shot in South Africa and Dubai by French photographer Ben Dauchez and retouched by Thomas himself. A job well done! The series comprises of four ads which will run in press and outdoor.


“Open late. Now open until 4AM every night. Burger King. Have it your way.”




Advertising Agency: Tonic, Dubai, UAE
Creative Director: Vincent Raffray
Art Director: Thomas Derouault
Copywriter: Kris Richardson

27.2.10

Burger King|Have it your way


Personally i loved the hilarious playing on a typical stereotype and how to mess with “ Americans blonds” who would believe anything told...American gullibility.






Advertising Agency: Tonic Communications, Dubai
Creative Directors: Vincent Raffray, Khaled Gadallah
Post:
Chimney Pot, Dubai
Production House: Zoe, Beruit
Director:
Chadi Younes

25.12.09

Domino's listened

Domino's will be marketing their new pizza aggressively in the next several weeks with advertising on many top-rated entertainment and sports programs, sampling opportunities throughout the country and a strong web-based presence. They will also motivate trial with a special introductory offer of two medium, two topping pizzas for $5.99 each.
www.pizzaturnaround.com


19.11.09

Kudu restaurant: Drive thru since 1988





Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Creative Director: Mehdi El Alj
Art Director / Copywriter: Noel Denola
Published: November 2009

25.10.09

McDonalds| Cheer for China

DDB Shanghai has won the Gold award at the MAA Globes Awards for the “Cheer for China” campaign developed for McDonalds during the Beijing Olympics. The award continues the Gold awarded at the China Effies in 2008.

McDonalds Cheer for China campaign

As an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics McDonald’s were keen to find a way to join every Chinese person to the games. The McDonald’s slogan, “I’m loving it” was adapted to become “I’m loving it… China Win!”, a cheer to be used throughout the country.

McDonalds Cheering Station

A “cheering station” was designed, complete with webcam, microphone, interactive screen and web access. Every customer who went into the station could record their own video of a cheer for China and transfer the results to the McDonald’s China web site.
Credits
The Cheer for China campaign was developed at DDB Shanghai, China, by creative director Michael Dee, creative director/art director Jody Xiong, art director Leo Wan and copywriter Meredin Xu


16.5.09

McDonalds Mega Mac


A successful use of the World Cup

September 98: a few weeks after Frances victory over Brazil, McDonalds and their agency BDDP & TBWA used the fame, popularity and smooth head of Fabien Barthez for a campaign to promote the Mega Mac. For its re launch the product was called the burger of sportsmen, since with its four pieces of meat it was aimed at people with large appetites. Having used Michael Jordan in 1997, Mc Donalds, as partners in the World Cup and the French football team , had wanted to be the first brand to mount a campaign using one of the French team. But they did not want to be considered opportunist. The gamble paid off thanks to a creative and eye catching campaign ('the kiss' on television, 'The prayer' on posters) and Mega Mac exceeded commercial goals.

Context

In September 1998 McDonalds suggested a campaign for the Mega Mac, a non-permanent product in McDonalds range. This burger was larger and more expensive than the others: it would allow McDonalds to increase the value of their transactions.

Since the Mega Mac had already appeared in restaurants in February 97, a re-launch was now needed to give the Mega Mac greater staying power than in the campaign of 97.

Objectives

To increase turnover and profitability of McDonalds restaurants, reaching a strategic threshold of 200 Mega Macs sold per 1000 transactions (one transaction = one till receipt.)

Strategies and working of the campaign

Strategy

To position the Mega Mac in the market as the Burger of sportsmen intended for large appetites.

In July 98 France awaited a happy event: The World Cup. McDonalds immediately saw public interest and signed a partnership with the French team. As they went along the French teams good results kept the association between the Mega Mac and football in peoples minds.

In September the agency recommended capitalizing on the fame of the French team who had won the World Cup two months previously on three conditions:

  • To be the first brand to feature a member of the French team in a campaign
  • To choose the player
  • To avoid accusations of opportunism by being creative.

Thanks to the ritual of the kiss on his shaven head Fabien Barthez became the mascot of the French team. His personality made him one of the most popular players in the team. It seemed obvious to the agency to associate this man with the product.

Fabien Barthez became the spokesman for the Mega Mac which carried the fortunes of McDonalds.

It remained only to put in motion a creative strategy worthy of this great name.

The concept was to play on the head of Barthez and the famous kiss.

Media plan

The media chosen for the period 3-20 September were:

  • one TV spot of 30' reducing to 15'
  • a 4x3 poster campaign
  • point of sale advertising at McDonalds

Results of the campaign

Quantitative :

Greater turnover, more profit and more sales than predicted.

255 Mega Mac sold per 1000 transaction, 49% more than in February 97

Increased turnover and profit for McDonalds restaurants of +4.1% and +344% respectively compared to the first launch in 97.

Qualitative :

A creative campaign which people noticed and talked about.

An attribution score of 79% was the best Ipsos score of 1998 in all sectors.

The success of the campaign in publicizing Mega Mac led to a new campaign centered on Barthez being developed in March 99 (a film called 'Shaving')

The Barthez magic worked

The Mega Mac campaign is proof that endorsement of a product by a World Cup star, if it is creative and innovative (the first brand to use one) is a safe bet for effectiveness.

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