If someone asked me at the age of eight what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have had one of three different responses: A lawyer, a teacher or the person who writes commercials. The third dream of mine is the one that I ended up pursuing and even though my dream was crushed by the decline in TV advertising, I knew even at a young age that the marketing world was the world for me. Good thing the world of internet advertising allows for more creative thinking and versatility than the in-the-box model of the TV advertisement.
Over the years many people have told me that I would make a great teacher, that I have a commanding voice (I think they mean loud) and now it is official – I am breaking out the glasses, the khaki pants and a plain blue blouse (memories of Mr. Murdock and Mr. Kaufman my two favorite teachers in high school) because I am going to start teaching social media classes for the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau.
Earlier this month, Denny’s gave away more than 2 million Grand Slam Breakfasts in one day with the help of a Super Bowl commercial and online chatter.
This week, Quiznos gave away a million subs in three days after using only banner ads, Facebook and Twitter presence and some free local radio exposure.
Denny’s may have been investing in brand awareness, but as the Quiznos promotion demonstrated, with consumers looking to save every penny they can, you probably don’t need the Super Bowl part to drive a freebie.
Another current example of using a giveaway and online chatter to drive restaurant traffic: International House of Pancakes just completed its third annual National Pancake Day on Tuesday, in which it gives away a small stack of pancakes and in return asks customers to consider donating to the Children’s Miracle Network or a local charity.
IHOP, which has raised nearly $2 million for charities since starting the day in 2006, relied on a dedicated Web site with a “tell a friend” pass-along application, its normal presence on key social networks and some PR to drive awareness and traffic.
The result? IHOP has not finished tallying, but the chain was shooting for $1 million and believes that this year was its best in terms of awareness, traffic and donations, according to spokesperson Patrick Lenow. “The word-of-mouth generated through social networks was just incredible,” he says.
And that’s just this month’s roster of freebie-based promotions designed to draw in new diners, get existing customers to visit more frequently and pick up some revenue from the beverages and other purchases that usually accompany the freebie.
“Social networking and restaurants are a logical match,” says Reggie Bradford, CEO of social media marketing consultancy Vitrue. “Food is naturally social,” he points out. “Where do you want to eat? Do you want to grab something here? This is translating to online conversations around restaurant brands. We’ve seen tremendous adoption of social media strategies among QSRs and fast-casual restaurants.”
Combine social media with freebies, and you’ve got marketing dynamite. “Giving away food in these uncertain economic times obviously resonates strongly with consumers,” Bradford says. “Huge gains are being made by brands who are reaching out to consumers with something tangible. IHOP deserves kudos for taking it important steps further by giving back to the community and forging loyalty along the way.”
The lift in online buzz has been significant for all of these promotions, based on Vitrue’s Social Media Index, which measures online conversations about a brand in social networks, blogs and Twitter.
Denny’s SMI score more than doubled (from 22 to 45.6) after its commercial and meal giveaway. Quiznos’ jumped from 12.4 on the first day of the promotion to 16.1 three days later, or by 30%. IHOP’s score was 36.9 on Jan. 1 and 73.9 on Feb. 25, the day after Pancake Day–a 99% gain.
IHOP and other brands could benefit from more compelling Facebook pages, perhaps incorporating surveys, polling and a restaurant locator, Bradford says. Providing franchisees with the tools to tap their online social circles to market local events is another opportunity, as is capturing event RSVPs to go back to individuals with coupons and other loyalty-building offers, he adds.
Years ago, back when the terms blog and twitter were still unknown, if restaurants, retailers or wineries provided terrible customer service then the word only got around to the visitors immediate friends and family. If it was a truly horrific act of bad customer service or product failure, then maybe the word would spread a bit further. Of course this is not the world we live in now.
As shown by Lisa de Bruin’s trip to Domaine Chandon, Gary Vaynerchuk’s visit at Mondrian, a “hip” hotel in Miami, as well as my recent trip to Korbel, a bad experience is not only is talked about online – it has the ability to “go viral.” Consumer review site’s such as Yelp (even with their problems) and personal blogs have had a great impact, both positively and negatively on the service industry. It isn’t just wine reviewers or food critics that are telling the world their opinion.
You can bitch all you want, but this trend is not going away anytime soon. The internet is here, and social tools are just making it easier and faster for people to voice their opinions. Go ahead and complain that these reviews are not from trained professionals, who know what they are talking about, or negative reviews could be from disgruntled employees, or that positive reviews could even be from someone affiliated with the company.
Okay, hopefully now that you are done complaining about the situation you can take a deep breath and accept that consumer written reviews are not going away…. Or, hopefully, you are one of the ones reading this that understands that this new form of reviewing the service industry can actually help businesses.
What some people don’t get is that BOTH negative & positive postings provide a great opportunity for publicity. The online landscape allows businesses to respond to negative comments and even generate positive posts by asking visitors to post reviews, or just by delivering customer service that is truly above and beyond. Those businesses that adapt to the new era of online voices and not only respond to what is said, but actually LISTEN and (if need be) make changes will be the ones who will make it through. Yes, I do know there is more to running a business then just this — just stick with me here….
Service businesses HAVE TO adapt to the landscape or watch their competition, that are paying attention, take away customers. They have to know that in this new online era that they truly have to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service. If you are a business that needs some help with online publicity or even an evaluation of your place of business, then please visit here.
I will leave you with some quotes from Gary:
“Stop age discrimination in the tasting room because that 24 year old will go and blog about what kind of douche bags you are and no one will buy your wine.”
“Service industry is really going to start feeling these impacts.”
Some great quotes from the one person I can truly call a Marketing Guru, Seth Godin.
“Social Networking that matters is helping people archive their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatability so that over time people have an interest in helping you achieve your goals” (You can do it both online and office).
“What I don’t like online is the superficial networking. It doesn’t count for anything” (I can say the same thing for real world networking, sitting in a room of people who are just waiting for their turn to speak without really listening or caring what you have to say).
Thanks to Anthony De Rosa of Soup, Soup for blogging this video…. and for his humorous tweets about Social Media.
“Over 275 wineries, 400 wines, countless other food and wine specialists and 10,000 attendees will be participating”
Judging from what I saw from my bird’s eye view of only one half of the event, I believe it. As I was taking my pictures one person noted that this year is one of the ZAP event’s slower years.
No matter the amount of people, I know I was extremely thankful to be there. Being a Sonoma County girl, I know the power that the Zin (especially Dry Creek Valley) has on people. Even though it is still my second favorite varietal, it is still a great wine to drink on it’s own or paired with great hearty food — Great for the Winter time.
The reason I was able to enjoy this grand tasting was because of Lisa of Hahn Wine Estates aka WineDiverGirl who introduced me to the “Bloggers Lounge” organizer, Wine 2.0. An online company and social network dedicated to social media and events in the wine world. Wine 2.0 allowed us bloggers to come to the Grand Tasting and enjoy the free wifi, networking opportunities and to have a place to sit back and gather our thoughts of the event.
The wineries were split up into two different rooms based in alphabetical order. I stayed in the I though Z room for the most part, highly concentrated on the T section.
The reason: Truett Hurst Winery, their three zinfandel’s, one pinot noir, one petite sirah, owner Phil Hurst and General Manager Jim Morris. The Zins were a perfect balance of being bold without over powering the taste buds and the company was one of the most welcoming, friendly and humorous out of all wineries there. It doesn’t hurt that they happened to be the only winery there that was on Twitter (please comment if I am wrong) – and we (Ashley, Ward and I) are all Twitter obsessed.
Without naming names, I will say that some of the wineries that were there were semi to extremely close minded to the thought of social media. Visiting as many wineries as I could, I talked to many of them about what they were doing online to promote their brand. Most of the response to my question was “What is Twitter?” or “I do not know how to start” or “No, we don’t believe in that.” Needless to say, I took all their business cards and have sent an email letting them know I would love to speak to them more about the power of social media for brands.
“Most wineries don’t even blog, let alone do any social networking”
It reminds me of a past wine client and their CEO who thought that the internet was not where their customers where… This was a year ago…. So much has changed, yet so much remains the same.
I am just thankful to be in the presence of innovators such as the folks at Wine 2.0, fellow wine bloggers who I now call my friends and wineries such as Truett Hurst.
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