You know that feeling where you want some KFC so bad that you’ll do anything to get it? And if anything or anyone gets in your way, you’ll go crazy and start flipping tables/chairs or staging sit-ins right?
Well, imagine you want that KFC, you have a coupon you got off the internet and you go to get your chicken on and the staff at your local fried chicken establishment won’t take your coupon.
What else is there to do but cause a riot, right?
Hard to believe, but it happened in Japan last week. Next time someone has to be a bit more careful to ensure fraudulent digital coupons can’t be made. But hey, it shows digital couponing works if the offer is good enough!
So our little city is well-known for its chili. (We love it here at HQ.) To many folks, it’s not really chili, but that’s a whole other story.
The thing about chili in Cincinnati is there are factions of fans here that almost religiously support one establishment, never setting foot in a competitor. This has made for an interesting competition between the two main players, Skyline and Goldstar.
It looks like someone is trying to take that rivalry to the next level and settle once and for all, who the true Cincinnati chili champion is.
Our city is becoming quite well known for its culinary delights, as Food Network’s “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives” with Guy Fieri was recently in town, and tiny OTR diner Tucker’s was named one of the best diners in the country by GQ Magazine (March 2009 issue).
We keep trying to tell you, there is fun stuff going on in Cincinnati. Come visit, you’ve always got a place to stay at HyperQuake.
Bold move because, boy, none of that feedback was nice; evident in the market research footage the brand shared. For fast food, chain style pizza, a buyer can only expect so much, but I’m not going to say the feedback the brand got (and showed in recent commercials) wasn’t accurate.
That said however, I respect what they’ve done by putting themselves out there and I gotta say the next evolution of that campaign, which shows the creative targeting and ultimate success with the ‘pizza hold-outs’ was pretty genius.
Supposedly everything they did in terms of trying to get the attention of 3 holdouts that wouldn’t try the new pizza after giving feedback to the brand, is accurate and true; this consisted of pretty much a full-on individualized ad campaign of the wackiest sorts targeted to each holdout in their town. Kooky yes, but talk about commitment to getting these guys to try it. The idea to capture it all in the process, also smart thinking.
It’s all documented via a quick reality style video that’s part of the social media campaign to promote everything.
Everyone knows that at Burger King, you can “Have It Your Way” way when it comes to the flame-broiled goodness that is your hamburger. The King and his team of merry men have worked extremely hard to instill this message in the minds of beef eaters and fast food lovers everywhere, but for all that work, there was always one part missing.
Sure, you could get your burger without mayo, or with 4 extra patties of meat, or with 2.5 slices of smaller tomatoes instead of 1, but there was always something missing, it just never really was “your” burger.
Well, BK and the King have changed that, at least they did for a little bit (in Brazil), by embarking on a unique little campaign where they show customers what ‘Made to Order’ really means.
As someone who isn’t a huge fast food eater/supporter, even I thought this a unique way of personalizing the dining experience and building some additional brand affinity. You can already see from the video that camera phones were a-snappin’ which inevitably means Twitter posts and Facebook status updates that probably generated some positive chatter about the brand.
All in all, a unique and quirky idea, that showed a true connection of the dots when it comes to the idea of “Have It Your Way.” Not sure how much longevity it has after the initial novelty would wear off, but it’s still a rather cool and smart approach on a one-off level.
YES, it is that time again, folks. Time for the annual HyperQuake Chili Cookoff, an epic interoffice competition with high gastronomical and personal-pride stakes. The fridge is filled, the Crock Pots are plugged in, one developer has somehow ALREADY needed a Tide Pen. For non-Cincinnatian readers, what you need to know is: this area of the Midwest is obsessed with chili. When asking a native what there is to do in this town, invariably they will say, “You HAVE to go to Skyline/Gold Star/Camp Washington Chili” etc. Try it.
Being a non-native vegetarian, I can be pretty ho-hum about chili, but last year featured several no- or faux-meat items that basically blew my face off with delicious, not to mention unusual items like the chili cake pictured above. (SPOILER: This year someone made chili ice cream…what!)
Prizes will be awarded in the form of trophies denoting “Overall Best Taste,” “Best Not-So-Chili” and “Weirdest Freakin’ Thing.” Mmmmm…weird.
So, Burger King has decided that many Americans, specifically those in the South Beach region, want to crack open a tall, cold one when they sit down to eat their Whoppers. Hey, who can blame them?
As such, they’ve confirmed they’ll be opening a ‘Whopper Bar’ where you can get your drink on Budweiser and Bud Light style. Looks like they may open a few elsewhere around the county, in fitting cities like Vegas and NYC, but I’m struggling to figure out why South Beach to get started.
Regardless, looks like you might be able to get some new toppings on your Whopper too, but no word as to whether or not they’ll use some of those brewskis to make you beer-battered onion rings or beer battered-french fries.
So what does this all mean for the Burger King of the future and where they go next? I could foresee The King running a high end, exclusive, bottle service only night club featuring his own premium blend vodka, champagne and of course, Whoppers.
Yelp is a collection of consumer-generated reviews of businesses in their area. Originally a San Francisco-centric venture, the site has become popular in 33 cities with tens of thousands of reviews. The Inc. Magazine article, You’ve Been Yelped, has a great history of the company, as well as business owners’ reactions to it. (Read it!)
Obviously, consumers place a high value on peer reviews, and despite the fact that the majority of Yelp reviews are “overwhelmingly positive”, some business owners are starting to fear the effect those rarer negative reviews could have on their business, occasionally going so far as to blame Yelp for their company’s failings (as embarrassingly described on the first page of that Inc. mag article). Others take the approach that Domino’s has, by embracing negative reviews and trying to improve their offerings.
#1 ranked for Cincinnati shopping is my neighborhood’s own Shake-It Records. “One of the holy grails of Ohio record stores. Selection is outstanding — I mean, how often do you see Redd Kross or Camper Van Beethoven albums anymore? Kids these days with the iTunes and MP3 whatnots, I tell ya. Get out of the house, dammit.”
Gosh, I love crotchety reviews.
Seeing Shake-It at the top of that list immediately made me smile. The community aspect that comes along with Yelp is not to be ignored. I scanned the reviews and saw many familiar names and faces, and was pleased to see other neighborhood businesses topping their respective lists locally, too, sporting such informative reviews as, “All the cutest girls in town work here. Hi ladies.”
Despite the potential damage Yelp could pave the way for in the case of less-than-stellar businesses, it also commends and celebrates those that are doing a good job, creating a digital circle of cheerleaders around those places. It’s got to be tough as a business owner to know that the Internet takes away a huge chunk of control (businesses do not get to opt-out of Yelp), but the Web is a cut-throat equalizer, lauding the good and reprimanding the bad. As one Yelp-reviewed business owner said, “you can’t hate the future.”
So it comes as no surprise when I say that our economy has been on a continual rollercoaster ride the last year-plus. What you may not know is that due to economic woes, expense accounts at many a business have had to adjust accordingly. To all those fat-cat employees used to dining well on steak lunches/dinners on their companies dime, this has hit their stomachs and it’s hit them hard. For the over-the-top restaurants that have traditionally catered to this business crowd, profits are down. In this very symbiotic relationship, both groups of these poor folk have been suffering day in and day out, until they could see each other again and bask in the glory of tremendously overpriced food, paid for by someone else of course. Well, the day has come when they may get to see each other again. Kinda.
In an effort to generate some unique digital engagement with the Maloney & Porcelli brand (a Manhattan-based restaurant) and ultimately attempt to build business, we see the entrance of expenseasteak.com.
The tool is simple and markets the restaurant in a very tongue-in-cheek way. The concept is simple, albeit a little fraudulent in its approach, but heck, for those who really want that steak lunch and may have forgot about Maloney & Porcelli, maybe it’ll get them in the door even if they can’t expense it.
What, you say you’ve spent $3,000 on a meal at Maloney and Porcelli? Oh, no problem at all. Just go enter your check amount into expenseasteak.com and out will pop your expense receipts for things like $1,600 on toner and $1,000 on air-in-can dusters….. No one in accounting at your company will question that right????
Bottom line, the tool is truly a fun and unique way to get people to engage with and think about the Maloney & Porcelli brand, and I love it. Will it translate to getting butts into the seats? Only time will tell. For all those non-New York residents like myself, I’m just having fun putting in some numbers and seeing what comes out. It’s got me thinking steak though and if I were going to NYC anytime soon, that would be a good thing for Maloney and Porcelli, but certainly not for my checking account based on the $48 per entree lunch prices.
Islandpacket.com: Smoking the competition: Rib Burnoff and Barbecue Fest veteran bottles award-winning sauce
For several years, Eric Anthony has won bragging rights at one of Hilton Head Island’s most mouthwatering food contests — and he’s not shy about exercising them.
“I challenge anyone in this state to come out and beat me,” Anthony said of his chances at Saturday’s 13th Annual Rib Burnoff and Barbecue Fest, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Hilton Head. “There may be better barbecue and ribs out there, but I haven’t had any.”
Brandweek Magazine: Don’t tell Cheech & Chong, but hemp is one of the healthy constituents that French Meadow Bakery is using to build its organic product line to drive growth and sales.
