Give a Kiss and get free Qdoba

In 2011 Qdoba Mexican Grill launched its first BOGO for a Kiss on Valentine’s day. It had an emphasis on local market media attention. After success with the 2011 campaign it restarted the campaign again in 2012 but expanded it to be national due to the popularity of the bogo promotion. 

Qdoba was especially pleased to expand the campaign and obtain additional franchise support based on the PR results secured from 2011.

Campaign and Results

Qdoba’s campaign focused on bringing in a significant other, family member, or friend and giving them a kiss for a bogo meal. Qdobas corporate PR team worked closely with the regional marketing specialists to develop a unique business strategy for more than 15 local markets. Denver metro, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis and Minneapolis. 

Since the bogo deal was a one-day event - February 14th - a combination of pre and day-of media and influencer outreach was a critical component to achieve customer awareness about 500 participating stores. One-day campaigns can be tricky to get out to the customer and have them attend in that same day.

With only a few weeks to get the word out to the media and influencers, the Qdoba team recommended a multi-pronged, media outreach strategy to target top editors and producers at print, online and broadcast outlets. There was also a focus on getting the bogo deal out to online “deal” sites and blogs. This kind of outreach made it available to be seen on websites like Yelp communities, Examiner.com and Patch.com for anyone interested in food blogs.

Conclusion

Through the proactive efforts Qdoba successfully secured more than 180 media hits in a variety of national, trade and local media outlets for an estimated ad value of more than $250,000 and a total media impressions value of approximately 181 million readers/viewers. National placement included MSNBC.com/TODAY.com, USA Today, The Food Channel, GrubStreet.com, and Nation’s Restaurant News. 

The Bogo for a Kiss promotion received coverage in every corporate market. Qdoba received at least one hit in each of the 55 markets, including on-air broadcast mentions or full segments on 50 unique stations. The event was naturally shareable due to the fun and light hearted nature of the event. 

I think Qdoba could continue to take this event and make it much larger, almost like a Valentine’s party in Qdoba. This campaign is incredibly interesting due to the quick growth in response from not only the company but the public. Having such a fun promotion truly brings people into restaurants to try new things just for the fun of it. I think this is a great campaign to continue each year.

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