Get Your Customers To Camp out
Don't sell the chicken, love people
As the fastest-growing Quick Service Restaurant chain among the Top 10, Chick-fil-A passed McDonald’s in average store revenue and "Kid's Meal Appeal." They did it without price promotions, without discounting the chicken, and without doing any business on Sundays.
With the longest lines in fast food, the "Raving Fans" of Chick-fil-A are known to camp out the night before every grand opening.
What caused this sudden rise by a fast-food restaurant chain? Our history with Chick-fil-A has proven that this chicken store is a leader in gaining Irrational Advocacy because it builds emotional engagement beyond the chicken sandwich.
It all started with a single client request: "Don't sell the chicken, love people. The chicken will sell itself."
From this assignment, an automated platform for loving people was born. This platform, Center Stage, is the foundation that pioneered what we now know as Adbox.
Road to raving fans
In the beginning of our relationship with Chick-fil-A, we noticed that certain operators were hosting events, like ‘“Daddy-Daughter Date Nights,” and "Military Appreciation Nights" that were truly building fans out of their customers. In other words, we struck gold.
Our mission was this: Scale the gold by bringing these events to every Chick-fil-A location.
Out of this mission, Center Stage, which would eventually pioneer Adbox, was born. We developed a brand-new platform for Chick-fil-A that would do three things: Create turnkey events for each location, store and distribute the necessary materials, and allow locations to connect with one another to plan and further develop these events.
Storytelling starts with story listening
Center Stage was built as a central repository of event kits and a hub for inter-location communications. By developing it, we were able to give thousands of locations a whole menu of assets they could use, and things they could activate in their store.
We, with our agency partner DBA, dreamed with our client and helped conduct and create more events, like “Stuffed Animal Sleepovers” and “Family Dinner and a Mystery” nights.
Customers posted online in droves. They raved about candle-lit tables and fast-food adventures, allowing Chick-fil-A to outpace every other quick-service restaurant online.
We knew we had something valuable on our hands, and wanted to bring it to more businesses. Thus, Adbox was created. Center Stages key features were further developed, with the central repository becoming A.D.A.M., our Automated Digital Asset Manager, event kits becoming entire campaign kits, and their communication system became our Network Hub.
Today, we’ve grown to the point were entire advertising campaigns can be created, stored, and even distributed to the public all in one simple location.
“Our focus is on providing a remarkable experience that brings families together.” – David Salyers, Marketing Director at Chick-fil-A
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