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MEDIA EVENT |
Company: P.F. Chang's China
Bistro Inc.
Event: P.F. Chang's Chipping for Charity
Objectives: Add 15,000 members to P.F. Chang's loyalty-program database and increase incremental revenue by $250,000.
Strategy: Create a charity and media event featuring PGA golfer Briny Baird hitting golf balls from the top of San Diego's Omni Hotel onto the field at Petco Park.
Tactics: Create media buzz around the sports spectacle, drive consumers to P.F. Chang's Web site to enroll in the company's loyalty program in exchange for a coupon.
Results: Earned $1.5 million in sales in conjunction with a free lettuce wraps coupon. Added 300,000 new members to P.F. Chang's loyalty program. Generated coverage on all major television networks, CNN, Headline News, ESPN, ESPN News, The Golf Channel, and several sports and entertainment blogs.
Creative Agency: VitroRobertson Acquisition LLC, www.vitroagency.com
Budget: $112,000
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 n golf, it's easy to play it safe. Hitting from the tee with your trusty 5-iron is more likely to keep you on the fairway than swinging away with your driver and taking a chance on landing in the rough. The problem, as even an amateur duffer knows, is that if you don't take a risk and swing big, you will never feel the pure joy of watching your ball soar 250 yards and straight into the cup.
That play-it-safe approach had kept Scottsdale, AZ-based P.F. Chang's
China Bistro Inc. from breaking par with its event-marketing assets. While the company had inked an endorsement deal with Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) golfer Briny Baird in 2004, the restaurant chain had been handing him 5-iron assignments, looking to make par instead of aiming for the hole in one.
As part of his endorsement deal, Baird, a PGA veteran, wore a hat emblazoned with the P.F. Chang's logo during PGA Tour events. He also made two yearly appearances on behalf of the company, generally consisting of meet-and-greet events where Baird talked about his love of golf and the restaurant chain's signature chicken lettuce wraps appetizer.
But on May 18, 2009, P.F. Chang's reached into its bag with the goal of aiming for the flag instead of simply dinking shots down the fairway. Tired of playing it safe, the company used one of its personal appearances with Baird to create a media frenzy by pulling off an event that became
the talk of the sports world while
generating solid results in the process.
Leveraging Briny
In the spring of 2009, P.F. Chang's made a decision to increase membership in its customer-loyalty program,
a database of consumers who had signed up to receive special offers from the Asian-inspired eatery. That's when the company hired marketing
agency VitroRobertson Acquisition
LLC to help up its game. P.F. Chang's wanted to find a way to drive consumers to its Web site where, it hoped, they would sign up for the loyalty program, allowing the company to send promotional mailings, coupons, etc. directly to members. When it presented Vitro with
the challenge, the agency took stock
of the marketing assets the restaurant chain already had in place and saw potential in the underutilized Baird. "P.F. Chang's had a multiyear relationship with Briny," says Tom Sullivan, CEO of Vitro. "But their use of him had been extremely limited."
Sullivan says Vitro felt P.F. Chang's needed to leverage its relationship with Baird into something bigger and better than the restaurant chain had asked of the golfer in the past. After all, pro athletes - even lesser-known ones - tend to draw a crowd when doing a good deed. Vitro envisioned a media event where Baird would use his golf skills to raise money for P.F. Chang's favorite charity, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.
But simply sending Baird out to the nearest set of links with a giant check in hand wouldn't do - he
was no Tiger Woods in terms of his popularity. So Vitro developed a
plan that would attract instant media attention. Instead of a typical charity
golf outing, Vitro decided to have Baird hit 10 golf balls from the top of San Diego's Omni Hotel, aiming for a bull's-eye target in the outfield of the adjacent Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres.
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Professional golfer Briny Baird shot golf balls onto a target at Petco Park from atop the Omni Hotel 270 yards away.
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Vitro planned to tie in the event
with a free online coupon offer. If
Baird hit the target with at least one of his shots, each person who signed up online for the loyalty program could print a certificate for free chicken lettuce wraps with the purchase of any entrée. P.F. Chang's hoped the event would generate enough media buzz via TV and the Web to add 15,000 consumers to its loyalty-program database and generate $250,000 in incremental revenue.
The Driving Range
Vitro needed to clear several hazards
before its event could reach the green.
For example, the company needed approval from the City of San Diego to close down the street between Petco Park and the Omni. But since the event was raising money for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society - a charity close to the heart of many in San Diego, an important base for the U.S. Pacific Fleet - the city quickly got on board with the event.
With the red tape cleared, Vitro scheduled the event for May 18, a date when both Petco Park and Baird would be available. And with less than a month until the event, Sullivan and his team went into high speed to finalize the details of the event.
The first order of business was to create the target at which Baird would shoot. After consulting the Padres' groundskeepers to make certain the target would not harm the grass, Vitro settled on a lightweight vinyl target peppered with tiny holes through which oxygen and carbon dioxide could flow for the grass underneath it. The 40-yard-diameter target had two white rings, each consisting of large white vinyl circles separated by a grassy strip, with a bull's-eye in the center. The outer white ring had the P.F. Chang's logo printed in red.
To earn money for the charity, Baird would need to land shots on the target, with each ring representing a different donation amount. The outer ring would be worth $500 per shot. Each ball landing in the inner ring would be worth $1,000. And the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society would get $2,000 for each ball that stayed in the bull's-eye. With a planned 10 shots for Baird, the charity could net up to $20,000. For consumers to get the free chicken lettuce wraps, Baird merely needed to hit the target once.
Vitro sent out press releases about the event, inviting media members to come to the Omni and witness Baird's golf feats during what it dubbed the P.F. Chang's Chipping for Charity event. The press releases mentioned both the charity and the offer of free appetizers for the public should Baird land a shot on the target.
Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the agency also hired a Getty Images Inc. photographer and rented a satellite truck to make sure media outlets would have quick, easy access to video and still photos of the event. Vitro even hired its own crew to shoot the event in high-definition video.
With everything ready to roll, the agency worked with P.F. Chang's Web team to ensure the company's site would not get overloaded by the rush of consumers it hoped would log on after viewing the video.
Teeing it Up
On the morning of May 18, 2009,
the target was unfurled across right field at Petco Park. With a media
contingent in tow, Baird made his way
to the rooftop of the Omni Hotel -
a whopping 37 floors up from the baseball field below. An artificial
hitting surface - a patch of grass where Baird could tee up his balls for each shot - had been laid out on top of the hotel, and the media looked on as the PGA pro took some practice shots into a net that had been erected in front of the grassy strip.
After getting in his practice swings, Baird stepped up to aim at the bull's-eye - 270 yards away. Like any good golfer, he consulted his caddy - on the phone - who told Baird to swing away with a 9-iron.
While the average golf hole is quite a bit smaller than 40 yards in diameter, none require a 370-foot drop from tee to cup. Like a pro, Baird thwacked 10 straight balls over the bleachers and through the outfield, managing to land two balls in the bull's-eye while scattering a total of nine shots on the target.
The driving exhibition done, the whole crowd - Baird, media, Padres officials, P.F. Chang's execs, the staff from Vitro, and the hired photography and video crews - moved down to the field to inspect Baird's club work and present a check to the charity.
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The event, bolstered by media buzz, resulted in 300,000 new loyalty-program members and $1.5 million in revenue.
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Though Baird didn't hit the bull's-eye with all 10 balls, which would have resulted in a $20,000 donation, company chairman Richard Federico immediately waived the rules and handed over a check for $25,000. P.F. Chang's also purchased 3,000 Padres' tickets and donated them to the charity to be given to military members and their families.
Checking the Scorecard
Between the generous donation and the video of Baird hitting the center
of the target from atop the hotel,
word of the P.F. Chang's Chipping for Charity event spread quickly. By late afternoon, Baird's shot - and P.F. Chang's offer of free chicken lettuce wraps - had made it to ESPN. Baird's shot was named the Play of the Day on SportsCenter, with announcers talking not just about sports, but also about chicken lettuce wraps. Several days later, SportsCenter even named the shot the Play of the Week.
One Corporate Event Awards judge keyed in on the immense value of the media exposure. "If P.F. Chang's had bought an ad on ESPN, it wouldn't have matched the results the company saw. The value of this footage and the buzz it generated on ESPN is the kind of thing you can't buy. It's the stuff of event-marketing dreams."
In addition to the cable sports channel, all four major U.S. broadcast networks featured the shot in their sports or news coverage during the week. And many local news stations across the country featured video of Baird hitting the bull's-eye during their own broadcasts.
Not surprisingly, that video - and others - of Baird hitting from the Omni rooftop were quickly posted to YouTube, where they achieved viral status, with some videos netting upwards of 50,000 views.
What's more, cable channels such as CNN, Headline News, and The Golf Channel also covered Baird's shots from the Omni. A variety of sports and entertainment blogs added to the media coverage. According to Derek Panfil, director of marketing at P.F. Chang's, "The power of this event was that it appealed to not just sporting media, but all media."
Coverage of the event generally included a mention of the free
appetizer offer, directing the audience to P.F. Chang's Web site where they could click a link to enroll in the loyalty program and print the coupon.
The program, which had counted just 15,000 members before the event, saw its enrollment bloom to more than 300,000 as a result of the media coverage. Those consumers,
coupons in hand, flocked to the rest-aurant chain's 200-plus locations, generating $1.5 million in sales.
Those impressive results came off an investment of $112,000 that included the $25,000 donation, the 3,000 Padres' tickets, money to rent the satellite truck and camera crews, travel for participants, and the cost of running the appetizer promotion. "Best of all," Sullivan says, "we didn't pay a dime for all that media coverage after setting up the event and hiring the camera crews. We hosted the event, and all the exposure and buzz just emanated from there."
"With the Briny stunt, Vitro was able to create an event that had both golfers and nongolfers talking," Panfil says. "But it did more than just create
a conversation piece. The event translated into actual sales."
The 19th Hole
As the hype wound down and the coupons for chicken lettuce wraps began to tail off, it looked like it might be time for P.F. Chang's and Vitro to sign their scorecard on this round. But that's when Baird and his clubs came to the rescue.
Two months after hitting two bull's-eyes from the top of the Omni Hotel, Baird hit a hole in one on the 15th hole at the Canadian Open. During an interview about the shot after the round, the Golf Channel on-field reporter asked Baird, "And chicken lettuce wraps now for everyone?" Baird responded, "Absolutely. Any time I make a hole in one."
As the exchange and Baird's latest feat hit the sports news shows, the P.F.
Chang's Web site again offered free chicken lettuce wraps to anyone who joined the loyalty program. The company also e-mailed all its loyalty customers with a second offer of a free order of lettuce wraps with the purchase of an entrée. The additional offer added another $250,000 in revenue for the company.
With a 20-fold increase in consumers registered in the company's loyalty program, and more than $1.5 million in incremental revenue, P.F. Chang's golf shot earned low score for the round - and a high return. Fore!E
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