Once hailed as the best concept restaurant in America, TGI Friday’s® is now a brand under duress. Increased competition from same category brands and a general economic downturn have led the chain into serious discounting, including a promotion offering 16 full-portion sandwiches and salads for $5 each.
To stop the discount death spiral, TGI Friday’s needed to find a way to generate new interest and more visits. Enter Woody – “Friday’s biggest fan” on broadcast, their website and Facebook with a novel offer: if 500,000 people become his fan every one of them would get a coupon for a free cheeseburger or chicken sandwich.
As of the September 30th deadline, Woody had more than 979,000 fans – nearly double the original goal. (TGIFriday’s quickly raised the ante –from 500,000 to 1,000,000 free burger offers because initial response was so strong.) Friday’s now has almost a million people who have given Woody permission to market TGIFriday’s to them –and a whole community of people talking about Friday’s.
Additionally, the “Woody” story was carried on hundreds of other websites, and talked about virtually everywhere. Brand awareness for Friday’s is on the rise.
Woody combined the best of old and new school promotion, raised awareness, gave people a reason to come to the restaurants, aggregated fans of the brand online, engaged potential new users of the brand, and, above all, got people talking—LOTS of people—from bloggers to newscasts.
Woody’s Facebook Fan promotion was a key driver in the promotion’s success, building awareness and frequency and building a marketing database of a million qualified leads at a dizzying rate.
The entire effort stood on a platform of solid promotional thinking that combined traditional media, social media, and a mechanism to drive visits, all with the hope of nursing the TGI Friday’s brand back to health, which of course lies in TGI Friday’s ability to parlay all this new attention into positive customer experiences. Which is to say that Woody may not overcome all of Friday’s numerous obstacles on the road back to brand health, but he does illustrate the importance and legitimacy of social media in the marketing mix as a means of reintroducing a brand to a potentially jaded and calloused audience.
Friday’s gave Facebook fans a Woody. What can you give your customers and prospects so that they can experience your brand again for the first time?
To stop the discount death spiral, TGI Friday’s needed to find a way to generate new interest and more visits. Enter Woody – “Friday’s biggest fan” on broadcast, their website and Facebook with a novel offer: if 500,000 people become his fan every one of them would get a coupon for a free cheeseburger or chicken sandwich.
As of the September 30th deadline, Woody had more than 979,000 fans – nearly double the original goal. (TGIFriday’s quickly raised the ante –from 500,000 to 1,000,000 free burger offers because initial response was so strong.) Friday’s now has almost a million people who have given Woody permission to market TGIFriday’s to them –and a whole community of people talking about Friday’s.
Additionally, the “Woody” story was carried on hundreds of other websites, and talked about virtually everywhere. Brand awareness for Friday’s is on the rise.
Woody combined the best of old and new school promotion, raised awareness, gave people a reason to come to the restaurants, aggregated fans of the brand online, engaged potential new users of the brand, and, above all, got people talking—LOTS of people—from bloggers to newscasts.
Woody’s Facebook Fan promotion was a key driver in the promotion’s success, building awareness and frequency and building a marketing database of a million qualified leads at a dizzying rate.
The entire effort stood on a platform of solid promotional thinking that combined traditional media, social media, and a mechanism to drive visits, all with the hope of nursing the TGI Friday’s brand back to health, which of course lies in TGI Friday’s ability to parlay all this new attention into positive customer experiences. Which is to say that Woody may not overcome all of Friday’s numerous obstacles on the road back to brand health, but he does illustrate the importance and legitimacy of social media in the marketing mix as a means of reintroducing a brand to a potentially jaded and calloused audience.
Friday’s gave Facebook fans a Woody. What can you give your customers and prospects so that they can experience your brand again for the first time?
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