Challenge: Lead generation aimed at adding to the e-mail database, increasing the Facebook following, testing mobile marketing and driving traffic to the restaurants.
Solution: Provide a free burger with contest sign-up; provide dessert incentives for e-mail and mobile sign-up; and give away a Toyota Prius for the best Ted’s Burger love story submitted online via video, image, audio or text document.
Results: 6,622 entries, of which 52 percent opted in to the e-mail program. Ted’s Facebook page saw a 40 percent increase in fans during March, bringing the total to 1,996. Plus, 394 customers wanted to receive text messages.
If Big Bird can ride a unicycle, bison can drive cars. In fact, “Harvey,” the spokesmammal for Atlanta-based Ted’s Montana Grill, steers a Toyota Prius into center frame of the restaurant’s Web site while welcoming “burger fans” to a contest entry page. That’s where the bison burger chain concentrated its March lead-generation campaign.
The Prius was the grand prize in the sweepstakes event that collected videos, images, audio submissions and text documents. The restaurant chain founded by Ted Turner worked with BrightWave Marketing of Atlanta on “Ted’s Burger FANatic Contest” to spread word about the patties. As Ted’s Marketing Director Jessica Smith explains, the corporation wanted to crow about a January announcement in DigitalCity.com, in which readers voted Ted’s one of “America’s Best Burgers.”
“So we really wanted to capitalize on that win by creating a guerrilla promotion that would allow us to use some of our social marketing throughout the month of March to create awareness of our burgers and get people to tell us why they loved them,” she says.
Ted’s promoted the campaign on its site, Facebook page and through in-store advertising, or “table tents.” About 100,000 customers who opted in to receive e-mails also learned of the campaign.
From there, Ted’s provided incentives—from a free burger for each valid entry to desserts (triggered by birthdays and wedding anniversaries) to those who signed up for e-mail or text updates. (Contestants already knew about the Prius and the second- and third-place prizes of a Montana vacation or a year of Ted’s Burgers, respectively.)
“The promotion’s full circle, in that it’s a social networking opportunity, but it’s also getting traffic into our restaurant, which is, of course, one of our main objectives in all of our marketing promotions,” Smith says.
Ted’s saw 3,000 contest entries within the first week of the March 2-31 campaign; half of these participants opted in to receive e-mail promotions. Contestants received confirmation e-mails informing them they would receive another e-mail within seven to 10 days that contained a certificate for their free bison burgers. Smith says incentive choice was easy—burgers are the foundation of Ted’s business, so it makes sense they would lay the foundation for ongoing customer communication.
So, during March, contestants who submitted their stories could then learn about those of their peers via Ted’s Facebook page and YouTube. Ted’s also updated contestants via text message, e-mail and the restaurant chain’s site. The contest and its entries also went viral, partly due to Ted’s e-mail “share” button.
Clearly, the sweepstakes built up multichannel user-generated content that benefited Ted’s search engine optimization efforts, Smith says. “All of it’s really tied together very, very nicely.”
Going forward, Smith says Ted’s will add the nearly 3,500 e-mail and 394 mobile opt-ins to its database and send promotions to them monthly, at least. The 1,996 Facebook fans will see incentive-based trivia contests. And both groups will be asked to participate in surveys about their restaurant experiences, as well as new products.
“Direct marketing is the largest percentage of our marketing [mix],” Smith says. “Right now, our main focus for the entire system is e-mail, Facebook and then now the mobile test.”
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