Duh! Sell fast food to bar-hoppers
Looks like Wendy's, which has struggled in the marketing department since Dave Thomas died, is launching a campaign in bars on digital jukeboxes.
Which is a flat-out, common-sense, good idea. After all, who doesn't want to jam their gullet after getting sauced? Even though our industry seems to be stuck in a "data-good!" mindless drone, one of the veeps of the jukebox company is quoted as saying:
We have research that shows nearly half of our users will stop on the way home to get something to eat ... But do you really need science to tell you that people go to bars, have a few drinks and get hungry? It's kind of a no-brainer of the category.
This is the kind of thinking we need more of in advertising and marketing! But a quick note to Ad Age — if the hunger comes from being drunk, technically it's not the munchies.
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When I worked as an online media planner/buyer, Ecast came to speak to us about their revolutionary 'brand-able' jukebox system, the subject of this post.
Which of their dear clients was festooned on the mobile demonstration unit brought with them? McDonald's! They were righteously proud that their units were able to provide a measurable increase in late-night sales for a local McDonald's franchise in a particular region. (The region was not revealed at that time to our meek agency souls.)
So it's fitting that Wendy's chose to implement this nationwide. Is it part of a larger late-night campaign?
Also funny for agency insiders to note, Ecast pursues money from both 'out-of-home' and 'digital' (online) campaign budgets -- a nifty little trick. I would disagree as an outsider and classify this solely as 'out-of-home'. However, as an Ecast sales rep I wouldn't care about what little label an advertiser puts on moneys as long as a sizable portion is eventually labeled 'mine'.
Thanks for a peek into the agency world, Kieran.
I agree this medium is stictly out-of-home medium and not "digital".
It's understandable that Ecast sales reps just want the money, but is it in their clients best intersts for Ecast to try taking money they've earmarked for digital promotion? I like the concept of being able to target bar-hoppers with dynamic creative, but is their solution really that good?