South St. Burger is aiming to beef up its dinner business with a new campaign called “Dinner Just Got Better.”
Developed by Co-op Advertising, the campaign positions South St. Burger as the “better” dinner choice for discerning customers. Digital, in-store, social media and PR highlight the fast-casual brand’s premium offering including its fresh, 100% Angus beef burger raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics, fresh-cut fries and hand-scooped milkshakes.
“All of our stores are busy at lunch time… but the dinner business is a little more elusive,” said Jay Gould, founder and president of South St. Burger. “There are a lot of [restaurants] competing for it and we want to remind people that ‘okay, you were here for lunch, bring the family back for dinner.’ It’s not a shift [in our marketing] so much as recognizing where we could improve our business.”
To grab people’s attention, the campaign features product shots and cheeky headlines such as “A burger a day keeps the kale away,” “Like frozen burgers? Keep walking” and “We’ve got nothing against pizza. Wait… yes we do.”
Promoted posts on social media show everyday “sucky moments,” such as getting a parking ticket, made better by South St. Burger. The posts drive fans to the “better-izer” microsite, DinnerJustGotBetter.com, where people can upload pics of their own sucky moments and have them “better-ized” with a South St. burger. Select images will be featured on South St. Burger’s own social channels and participants will be rewarded with “burger bucks” for free meals.
“The hope is that some of that becomes memorable in a fairly crowded space in the foodservice business,” said Gould. “There are a lot of [competitors] in the premium burger space, and we want to stand out from that in a way that gets people’s attention, but still highlights the differences between us and the other guys.”
On the PR side, a “better dinner event” is scheduled for mid-November for bloggers/social influencers and their kids. The kids can make their own signature burgers and give their creation a unique name. Their creations will be photographed in a magazine-style photo shoot and the images will be shared online.
The campaign will run for eight weeks and the in-store elements will remain until the end of the year. Performics Canada handled media buying.
