Free (Burgers) For All!

It is October 1st and, as promised, T.G.I. Friday’s® has emailed me a free burger coupon.  This would be more exciting if I weren’t a vegetarian, but I’m still pretty thrilled.

This free burger journey began when I was watching TV with my roommates and a commercial for T.G.I. Friday’s® came on.  Three young men sat at a table and told us about T.G.I. Friday's® new Jack Daniels® Burger.  Then, the middle guy, Woody, told us that we could all receive a free burger if 500,000 people became “fans” of his page on Facebook.  We were all on our laptops at the time, so I suggested that we all become fans of Woody right then and there.  A few weeks later, we all have free burgers coupons, and Woody has over 977,000 fans.  Oh, and did I mention that T.G.I. Friday’s® now has hundreds of thousands of fans’ Facebook information and email addresses?

This is a prime example of a social media marketing campaign.  T.G.I. Friday’s® integrated TV commercials, a Facebook fan page, YouTube videos of Woody, and “Meet Woody” events at T.G.I. Friday's® Restaurants all over the country, all to deliver the same message.  This campaign was well tailored to everything I’ve heard about Generation Y and experienced as a member of it.  We love multitasking (according to a 2008 Nielsen study, teenagers are the most likely group to use both TV and the Internet together), we love feeling involved with our brands (through the fan page, we felt like we got to know Woody and T.G.I. Friday’s® better), and we love free stuff!

It is too soon to tell whether or not this was a successful campaign monetarily speaking, but there are some factors we can evaluate.  This was a successful campaign because Woody was aiming for 500,000 fans by September 30th and reached that goal several days ahead of time so he upped the ante to one million.  It also appeared to be successful based on the amount of fan involvement on Woody’s fan page.  Facebook users were leaving comments and posting photos, and a lot of them were very positive.  Like these:

“just wanted to say thanks again for the free burgers we found our coupons in our spam boxes and went to fridays for dinner tonite, which was great! because i was having a not so good day and this always helps :) so again thanks”

“ROCK ON WOODY!!!!!!!!!”

“I Got My Coupon!!! Thank You For The FREE BURGER!”

Unfortunately, as with any piece of technology, there are some flaws, and many fans were posting angrily about coupon printing mishaps or missing emails.  So far, Woody has been handling those situations with the grace and good customer service.  T.G.I. Friday’s® has extended the deadline to submit email addresses, increased the number of free burger coupons to one million instead of 500,000, and instructed everyone with printing problems  to request to have their coupons mailed.  

You know what they say, "A satisfied customer tells 3 friends, but a dissatisfied customer tells 300."  These technological glitches and upset customers may end up negating any positive effects of this campaign if T.G.I. Friday’s® is not careful.

Another problem T.G.I. Friday’s® is facing is that many restaurants have closed since the economic downturn, and many fans are left with nowhere to redeem their coupons.  Also, like many online forums, people have posted crazy things like viruses, chain letters, profanity, adult content, plugs to other sites, and other things on Woody’s Facebook fan page.

We shall see in the weeks to come whether this campaign increases brand loyalty, revenue, or customer base.  If nothing else, T.G.I. Friday’s® has gained a lot of information about their Generation Y customers.