Commentary
Let's Do Lunch!
- by Stephanie Miller , December 12, 2007
Lunch is a social activity - don't we all have those daily conversations about where to go, what to get and what we had?  What a great opportunity for lunch marketers to tap a vein
of existing word of mouth to build brand loyalty and drive new trial.
Correy Honza, director of email marketing for Quiznos, is all about creating lunch loyalty.Â
Getting consumers engaged and interacting with the brand take a multi-channel approach. Being a smart email marketer with a file of 1 mm+, Correy uses targeting, content and segmentation to
earn 52% open rates and 30% click through rates (2006).   But he doesn't stop there - recognizing that his house file will always have limited reach and it only touches
subscribers through the inbox.
Some of the cool, successful approaches include:
- Tapping the lunch conversation by introducing content-based newsletter like "The Chef Inspired Minute" featuring at-home recipes that can be prepared in minutes. Quiznos consumers are foodies, so this campaign really tapped the broader customer lifestyle, even while providing engaging content that has nothing do do with eating lunch in a restaurant. I also love the great branding here suggesting that there are real chefs involved in sandwich making.
- Testing and re-testing for optimization. Correy's tests have revealed that less text equals more click throughs and that coupon links performed just as well as stylized graphical icons, but for a lot less production time.Â
- A partnership with a branded company adds reach and credibility. One partnership with New Line Cinema contributed to the Quiznos as a destination message and earned open and click through rates 20%+ higher than industry standards.
- Creating in-store engagement techniques through mobile marketing. Correy tested a text in mobile campaigns encouraging consumers to text in at the restaurant for an instant coupon. Follow up is key of course so email address is also collected. So Quiznos sent a follow up email (incentivized with a chance to win an iPod Shuffle). Correy believes that the huge success on this email follow up (83% open and 34% click through rate) was due to the fact that this was a highly engaged audience who had just had a positive restaurant experience.   A survey showed that 30% of these customers would opt in for a mobile coupon every month.
- Embracing celebrity spokespeople who eat a lot. Quiznos partnered with Microsoft to be the exclusive sponsor of the Xbox 360 Pac Man World Championship (you may recall that the Pac Man game features a munching, wide mouthed icon who eats various creatures to earn points). Registrants who signed up for Quiznos email were given an oppty to win a $500 daily prize. Turns out that gamers eat lunch!
- All this loyalty is about engaging customers to interact, so it seems natural that Correy would also test user generated content. To synergize with a TV campaign on the Quiznos vs.. Subway, each week customer produced online videos creating new ads for the new toasted sandwich menu competed for a $10,000 prize. It's amazing to me how hard consumers will work to build very creative online video! You can still see the winners online and Correy reports that these still get blogged about and passed along, giving this program long legs in support of the loyalty program.
