Can a promotion be too successful? TGIFriday’s may know soon enough. The restaurant chain has decided to use social networking to find out just how big of a promotion a free burger or chicken sandwich can be.
TGIFriday’s is using Facebook to reach out to its customers. Their offer is that the first 500,000 fans to become a fan of Woody will receive a free Jack Daniel’s grill burger or chicken sandwich. All you have to do is give them a valid email address and be over 21 years of age and you will receive your coupon by email. Woody, the self-proclaimed biggest fan of TGIFriday’s is more than willing to help out and is now at over 700,000 fans. Their new goal is to give away 1,000,000 sandwiches. Yes, I did already register. I was more than happy to become a fan and get a free meal.
Woody
I think this was a great idea for TGIFriday’s. The marketing has been fantastic. Sure they may have spent quite a bit of money on the commercials but this is money they would have spent on advertising anyway. They also have a special at this time where you can buy a burger for chicken sandwich for five dollars. If they give away 1 million coupons, that will equal $5 million. That seems like a very large amount to give away. Most people though would not go there to get only the free burger. I know that when I go, I will also get fries and a drink. I will have others with me and they will be having meals and drinks, and probably an appetizer. The fact that I will have to drive 75 miles just to get there, I will make this a special trip.
I know that is how most people will be, and that will make this a very successful program for TGIFriday’s. I am guessing the average person will spend at least $25 dollars on their trip to the restaurant. Most of these people will be like me, and would not have made this trip in the first place had it not been for the coupon. It would be very interesting to see how much they make as a profit on this promotion. I am guessing that if it is as successful as it should be, you will soon be seeing more companies doing the same thing.
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I'm really glad you posted about this because I meant to go sign up when I saw the commercial and forgot. So now I will go do that and next time I'm in Bismarck (closest TGIFridays) I will have a free sandwhich waiting for me. And like you, I will not be dining alone, so the other people in my party will buy something. And I likely would not have gone to TGIFridays if not for this promotion because the other people I eat with usually want to go to Famous Daves. So this promo just got them an extra $30.
ReplyDeleteAnd $5 million probably isn't really that much to spend on an advertising campaign--especially if it works.
I think more and more businesses will be turning to social networking for advertising and promoting. People will do almost anything for free stuff these days. A free burger is a good deal for just giving your email address, even if they do send you emails. Some of those emails will give you information on deals that you never even knew of before. Also, while you think you are getting a great deal, the business is making money. Like you said, You are going to end up buying a couple drinks or some appetizer with your meal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the stats on how far Woody has come toward his goal. I see those commercials every night when I turn on the news, and have wondered a couple of times how close TGI Friday’s and Woody would get to their goal.
ReplyDeleteAs you briefly discussed, TGI Friday’s is laying out a lot of money on this campaign, but I can almost guarantee that they have done their research and know it will be highly profitable. Another local restaurant that has been laying on the charm lately is Ruby Tuesday’s. Practically every other week, a Ruby Tuesday’s coupon for a buy-one-get-one free meal (their good meals, not their burgers) is in the newspaper. The coupons are obviously of nice quality and the meals they are giving away are roughly $15 each. However, they have weighed the alternatives, and come up with the conclusion that doing BOGO gets you more sales revenue than if those people had never come into your restaurant.
I see that commercial all the time! I need to go do that before it's too late (maybe it already is). I don't normally eat at Friday's but I wouldn't pass up free food. This will definitely get me and hundreds of thousands of others into a Friday's restaurant. This is an excellent and most likely very successful marketing strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future we see similar campaigns and the use of social media more and more for marketing strategies.
ReplyDeleteI love this commercial! It is great to see marketing find a way to track how successful their ad campaigns are. This will allow the marketing company to quantify their efforts and show the parent company of TGI Friday’s how well they are attracting customers to the restaurant. I ALWAYS use some way of tracking an advertising campaign so that I can justify the money spent of the advertising.
ReplyDeleteTo often advertising is an intangible. This marketing / advertising campaign allows the advertising company to substantiate their existence and show the company just how much they can do to attract customers to the restaurant.
When I saw this commercial the first thing I thought of (besides friending Woody myself) was this class. TGIfridays is using something that everyone has and uses A LOT to promote their company. Brilliant if you ask me! Yes, people are going to bring in their coupon that they received for the free burger or sandwich and spend more money. Like you said they will probably get fries or a salad to go with their burger and then a drink, or numerous drinks depending on what 'drink' they are drinking! TGIfridays will definitely make up their money they are spending on the advertising for this and the money they are spending on actually giving away a burger/sandwich for simply doing something that a lot of people do daily...FACEBOOKING.
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