• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 22, 2013

There's a beer in the woods. And Liz Bazner wants to bring it back. The bear, in this case, is A&W Restaurants’ trademark mascot Rooty, the bear. Bazner is social & digital communications strategist for A&W and she’s presenting a case study on the brand’s mobile strategy at OMMA Mobile this afternoon.

Bazner gets the bear, because she grew up with it. Her dad began working at A&W when she was four-years-old. But most of her contemporaries did not, and as a result, when Bazner posted her new job at A&W on Facebook, she got comments from friends suggesting, “They went out of business.”

Moreover, perceptions and awareness of Rooty had hit an all-time low, and Bazner said A&W’s previous management killed Rooty, “which broke my heart.”

Brazner set out to resurrect him, and is using A&W’s digital, social and mobile strategy to do it.

She began by overhauling A&W’s website, and dialing up its social media strategy. Part of the site overhaul included a IP address identifier that could immediately inform users on where their closest local A&W is located.

Another thing was putting Rooty in charge of A&W’s social CRM, because, says Bazner, “It’s a lot harder to yell at a stuffed bear than at me.”

She also used social media to help personify Rooty, by having him have conversations with other brand mascots, like Long John Silver and the Aflac duck.