Hospitality Marketing Case Study

Background

Good food brings people together – and when national chains set their sights on new markets, they shouldn’t settle for good. They should be aiming to be great.

Chuy’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant with a nationwide footprint, serves up gallons of salsa, queso, guacamole and Boom-Boom sauce (trust us, try the Boom-Boom) every single day. Our team helped the fast-casual chain open its doors to Little Rock in 2013, resulting in one of its most successful openings ever.

The Challenge

The client approached us to help them open a Chuy’s in Fayetteville, a college town teeming with possibilities. Given the success of the Chuy’s Little Rock opening, we knew that we could capture lightning in a bottle a second time for the client. The only hurdle was Chuy’s already had a Rogers location, less than 25 minutes away.

Chuy’s location in Rogers is one of the most successful restaurants in the region. While we didn’t want to completely disrupt their business, we knew Chuy’s grand opening in Fayetteville had to be BIG.

The Strategy

Our PR Team began reaching out to local and regional influencers with big communities and invited them, alongside locals and Chuy’s fans, to a soft launch at the new location. Prior to the event, we saw a treasure trove of user-generated content (UGC) and word-of-mouth interactions, which more than doubled during and after the event.

Plus, we got to share some rockin’ food with some rockin’ people, resulting in a HUGE win for the Chuy’s Fayetteville team.

The Results

If you’re not leveraging influencers’ community engagement and UGC impressions, you’re missing out on seriously impactful results.

Estimated Audience Reach of 600,000+
Social Posts Reached Combined Audience of 500,000+ Followers
Social Shares Reaching Potential Audience of 170,000
Influencer Partnerships Ranging from Local News Anchors to Former Olympians