After recently moving to New York City, I love being shocked at the humor this market has. That’s why I need to talk about the recent post, WSJ writer, Kelly Evans wrote.
Apparently, fine dining steakhouse, Maloney & Porcelli, decided to have some fun and created a separate Web site where you can type in the total cost of your bill and it generates a handful of fake receipts as a gimmick for you to expense at your company. Pretty much saying, “Listen, we know we are expensive but ever since those Wall Street CEOs have been flying around in their private jets, everyone is trying to act like they aren’t spending money on luxury anymore. So, eat with us and we’ll help you get away with it.”
I think it’s a riot! You’ve got to play with it for yourself. www.expenseasteak.com
Walrus, the advertising agency behind the campaign, says they took it one step further and created doggie bags with the logos of other cheap restaurants so you don’t get caught eating high-end.
So is there a PR master behind this? Even though we know Web site hits are in the tens of thousands, I wonder if sales are on the rise as well. Brand awareness is great, but these days, it’s all about the bottom line.
You tell me, does this make you want to eat there now?
This is really funny! I love the idea and people probably are pretty intrigued. But I’m with you, I wonder how/if it’ll affect butts in seats?
I don’t think a restaurant’s technical gimmicks make me want to eat there, but I do think it’s a great promotion for their advertising firm.
To me raises another question: with such a low barrier for entry, are advertising/marketing/pr firms now going to drive user experiences and technology growth?
Case in point: the Weber iPhone app.
I love a good doggie bag PR campaign. Funny stuff. Wonder if patrons had to hide bags under their coats before this stroke of genius. Keep up the good work!
Teddy_Salad
(Spy disguised as dog – shhh!)
It makes me feel less guilty, that’s for sure! They gotta get those receipt dates right, though…;)
I love the fake receipt idea. Anything to generate extra business, I guess.
Hey! Thanks for the post. Actually, I can tell you the results quite accurately – my agency did the site. Maloney’s main clientele comes a five block radius. That radius is ripe with power lunching companies such as AIG, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citibank etc. We’ve been able to track visits to the site from that five block radius and every company on our wish list had over a hundred unique visits to the site . During the period in which it was getting a lot of press, the restaurant repeatedly had patrons bring up the site to the staff and laugh about it.
Thus far there have been 150,000 sets of receipts downloaded, and the site received approximately 39,000,000 media impressions thanks to coverage in the Journal, Huffington Post, CNBC, Yahoo Finance etc. Reservations have been up considerably since the site went up and we’ll have a concrete number on that at the end of the month, but there’s no question that it’s working.
Thanks for the update, Deacon! It’s great to see that not only is this campaign working, but you’re tracking on a higher level by looking at unique visits from their target audiences — I love that!
Harry makes also makes a good point. Was this the brains of PR, marketing, technology, advertising or all of the above?
Deacon – that’s impressive! I think the site is hilarious (we’re in Chicago) and I’ve sent it to several friends. I loved that I did one and it brought up that I bought 60 glue sticks and took a cab ride. Hilarious!
What a great case study on the use of digital media to affect business growth. If you can, and are willing, we’d love to see the concrete number when you have it. I speak a lot on social media and look for great case studies to share. I’d be happy to include this.
I LOVE this!
What a great idea though! I’m not big on forwards but this is definitely something worth forwarding on to friends and colleagues. Just shows how a good idea gets viral.
Ha! It’s hard to say where the brains came from. we’re an ad agency, but we had a lot of help from our PR partners, KCSA who got it all the amazing coverage. I guess it’s all of the above. Gini, I’d be happy to forward numbers when I get them.
Genius! Total genius. I love that the campaign manages to hone right in on the restaurant’s target market and still offers a bit of humor that appeals to the greater masses. Also, talk about smart — know your biggest weakness and make it work for you.
The tracking is really impressive, too. It’s great to see new cases supporting the use of digital marketing and PR campaigns; I think we’re getting tired of hearing about Southwest and Dell.
Good stuff. Great first post, Molli!
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