Friday, July 3, 2015

Will you go to TGI Fridays so your buddy can have a free burger?



In an attempt to draw more Millennial customers, and stop its U.S. sales decline, (1.5% in 2014), TGI Fridays is offering free hamburgers -- sort of. 

Customers who buy a burger can enter a code from their receipt at www.jumpburger.com, and share the free burger offer with their friends via social media or email.  The first friend to click on the link can use the code to get a free burger.

Friday's CEO -- Nick Shepherd -- noted that "getting Millennials to act requires something worthy of a conversation." (Lukovitz, 2015)

I don't disagree.  What do you think?  Does this do the trick?  Will you go to Fridays and buy a burger?  And, will you forward the free burger offer to multiple friends and let them fight it out?


Lukovitz, K. (2015, July 2)  TGI Fridays Woos Gen Y With Free Burger Via Social Media.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved July 2, 2015 from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/253210/tgi-fridays-woos-gen-y-with-free-burger-via-social.html?print

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never tried the burger in TGI Fridays. If it’s good enough, I’ll definitely buy it and give the free offer to my friends to fight. I have to admit, this strategy works in China!
A good example is the battle happened on last Chinese New Year between two of the biggest internet companies in China, one is Tencent, the other is Alibaba. Tencent has this popular instant messenger called Wechat which has over 600 million mobile users, and Ali has this online payment system called Alipay which has over 300 million bank accounts. Seemingly, these two have nothing to do with each other, but Wechat launched a campaign called digital-red-envelope, (red envelope is a tradition of putting money in and giving it to friends and family to bring them good luck in the next year) by this digital red envelope you can put money in it and set up how many people can get it, send it to your Wechat group, those who’re fast enough can get the envelope, but the amount totally randomly depends on how lucky you are. Many people were so obsessed with it. They gave and received and talked about it everywhere.
You have to bind your bank account before sending a red envelope or transferring the money you received to your bank. This campaign lasts for 2 weeks, at the end of the holiday, Wechat had 200 million bank accounts, which took Alipay 8 years to achieved that.
God knows what Wechat will do with these bank accounts for the next step, but this campaign was really a blaster.

KZE Lives said...

This is a redo. Not sure the one I did previously was posted:

This ad campaign wouldn't work for me. I am not the target but I still think the campaign has its flaws and merits. I don't think millennials will respond because they tend to be more health conscience than previous generation. They are however big in a shared economy sort of way so it might work but I have some doubts. I also think its a big hassle. I mean to save your receipt then go online to punch in a code and then email it to your friends seems like a lot to do. Not sure the millennials will go through all of that.

However it might improve foot traffic and sales for TGIF. The fact is that it is unlikely that the customer will go through the process which means fewer redemptions therefore fewer give aways. So it could be successful for TGIF in the long term. But it feels like a shell game. TGIF should benefit from the buzz without giving too much away.

Brad Chen said...

This type of campaign can be super effective because not only are TGIF driving sales up, but also letting the purchaser advertise for them (their "like" or "posts" puts their Brand name on news-feeds and history). Sure, the next person might get a free 10 dollar burger, but its also likely they would bring friends or purchase something else...like beers and wings for Football and Sporting events on TV. If it does that, then TGIF wins.

I look at the market and think that anyone outside of male Millennials will not take to this type of campaign. Does the 45 year old care enough about 10 dollars to take these steps? Does the health nut want his/her facebook feed posting they ate a 2,000 calorie burger at a fast-food chain? Do the information weary want personal info and constant advertising hitting their email box every week? I don't think so.

Ideally this gets the college male crowd to get 8-10 best friends to partake in a social media-type "battle for the burger" game (bc games are fun and engaging) and spend a larger amount of money between the group than it costs to make 1 burger. Its free advertising and can grow immediate sales but its not for everyone....

Unknown said...

Maybe I will do it, if they give me a coupon, I will give it to someone in need, save it for a friend or even for myself I guess, but normally I don’t save my receipts, I check every purchase I make on my Bank mobile page o mobile app.

Probably by the time to introduce the code on the web page (which is improbably) the receipt will be gone with the promo code, I'm sure I will loose it before being able to introduce the code, Anyway, for me doesnt work that way.

It's so boring to look for a webpage, search for the link to introduce the code, I'm sure they will ask you to fulfill a lot of personal information and stuff, then find the receipt copy the code and finally make them publicity for free on your facebook or whatever.

Even if I have the time, I wont do it! other thing about this campaign that doesnt work for me is that I don’t like to publish advertising content on my social networks, I keep them personal, private and exclusive for fun stuff such as music, concerts, travels or personal requests to my closest friends.

If they ask for my mail at the moment of the purchase and send me a promo code that I can use again in my next purchase, that definitely would work better for me, because I will invite some friend to the restaurant to use it.

I'm not the type of person who publish a photo with this kind of hashtags: #AldoShoes #NewGuessSkirt #MacMakeUp #EatingHealtyAtFresh&Co.

Unless off course they will pay me for doing it.

But once again, that is just me :)

Anonymous said...

I can definitely agree with that in order to get Millennials to act you need something worthy of a conversation. I think that this is an interesting campaign. I seems that the first target of this campaign has to be an already existing frequenter of TGIF, in which case I think this can be a highly cost effective campaign for them. Personally, I don’t think that generosity and/or humor are enough of a motivation to drive non-frequenters like myself into the restaurant. Now if I happen to find myself at TGIF for some rare and random reason, those drivers could potentially drive me to share it. I can certainly be the target for the second target audience. If the chance to conveniently win a free burger presented itself on my social media feed, there is definitely a probability I would bet my chances by clicking and then even go to TGIF to reclaim my price if I won.

- Yasmine Abdallah

Anonymous said...

Friday’s CEO Nick Shepherd is spot on, as far as his observation goes. In order to get millennials to engage, one must be compelling…one must give them something “worthy” of a conversation. But that’s just the problem – with the Jump/BOGO Burger campaign, I don’t think TGI Fridays has given us millennials a compelling enough reason to bite…literally or metaphorically!

I find that the simpler, clearer or more straightforward a campaign is, the more likely it is to be a success. The Media Post article mentions that Friday’s Unlimited Apps campaign from 2014, was a huge success…and why wouldn’t it be? For $10, you get to load up on appetizers to your heart’s content! It’s precise and straightforward…and it strikes the right chord with the millennials. If you’re thinking of spending a long night out with your friends, what could be more perfect than keeping the fun going with an unlimited supply of Friday’s filling munchies/finger-foods/snacks to accompany your drinks? The Jump Burger concept on the other hand feels contorted/tedious. You need to go to a TGI Fridays for a meal (burger) first >> receive the code >> punch it in online >> share it on social media, and then the quest for this burger finally commences when one of your friends clicks on it! Am I inspired/motivated enough to head over to a TGI Fridays specifically for a burger, just so that I can offer it up to friends who might never actually have the time to head over to the restaurant and claim their prize? Probably not.

Further, I don’t really see the conversation-worthiness of the campaign at all. Shepherd says the words himself – it needs to be compelling. Talking about a free burger on social media, really isn’t. In fact on the contrary, I find the whole idea of declaring that I’ve got a free burger to offer to my social media ‘kingdom’ if you will, slightly presumptuous if not condescending. But perhaps that’s just me!

- Moumita; mvr275

Prina said...

I see this as a great idea for college students and graduates. It allows the opportunity to have a "handcrafted burger" which would cost more than your average fast food joint burger (McDonalds, Wendy's...etc) for free. The previous comment mentioned that it would be great to have a "battle of the burger" game and I could see that working amongst college kids, who have gone to grab a drink during the game and decide that it would be fun to have a competition between peers for the free burger. Who's the fastest on Social Media...?

Unknown said...

This is clearly a campaign for young people such as college students who would definitely take the time to go on the website, enter the code and share a message on their social media/email. These people can feel more identified since when you are in college you are constantly trying not to spend so much money and not really care about your health so much, so a free burger can sound very attractive to this target.

I personally don't feel connected with the campaing because not only I don't ever consider the restaurant for a meal option but also because I try to eat healthy and burgers are not really on my weekly menu. However, when I decide to eat a burger or "fast food", I go to places such as shake shack, where I feel they really take the time to offer you a well prepared and tasty burger, and the experience is definitely a plus.