Restaurant anniversary promotions can be as simple as offering free dessert or as elaborate as sending a lucky customer on a European vacation.
But operators say almost any method for celebrating a birthday milestone can be a potent way to raise brand awareness, foster goodwill and aid long-term sales growth.
Of course, such promotions have to fit squarely with the brand personality and offer real value to customers, and the celebrating restaurants need to set clear objectives for their promotions, according to foodservice executives and branding experts.
The varying promotions that chains conduct often are showcases of creativity.
Dairy Queen capped the 20th anniversary celebration of its signature Blizzard treat in 2005 with a strategic role on TV’s “The Apprentice.” McDonald’s Corp. celebrated its 50th anniversary as a chain that same year by opening a 300-seat flagship restaurant in Chicago that featured 60-foot high Golden Arches.
For the 10th anniversary of Chili’s Grill & Bar’s “I Want My Baby Back Ribs” jingle, the chain conducted a contest for aspiring musicians to create a new version of the song. Big Boy Restaurants International turned 70 last year and commemorated the milestone with a Big Boy mascot look-alike contest.
“It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of publicity,” said Tony Michaels, chief executive of the 455-plus-unit Big Boy, based in Warren, Mich. “Brand awareness is half the battle. Brand awareness creates sales.”
A Big Boy anniversary promotion in the early 1980s also centered on the iconic character, Michaels said. Customers were asked to vote on whether the chain should keep him as a mascot. Big Boy won by an 8-to-1 margin, Michaels said.
“We like to have fun on the anniversaries and work it from an awareness angle,” he said.
Anniversary promotions traditionally are a gesture of thanks toward longtime customers and employees, but they’re also a way to attract new customers, which was the goal of the five-unit Kelly’s Roast Beef with its recent Ireland vacation sweepstakes.
The quick-service sandwich and seafood chain, based in Saugus, Mass., celebrated its 55th anniversary in February by giving away a trip for two to Ireland, tickets to Boston Red Sox games and Kelly’s gift certificates. More than 7,500 customers entered the sweepstakes.
In addition to showing appreciation for its patrons, the contest was “an outreach to attract new customers to Kelly’s Roast Beef and demonstrate the reasons why Kelly’s differentiates from so many other fast-casual chains,” said Sheri Saperstein Richberg, whose Sugar Strategies agency handles marketing for the chain.
The ability of anniversary promotions to strengthen brand image is undeniable, said Aaron D. Allen, founder and chief executive of Quantified Marketing Group, a foodservice consulting firm based in Heathrow, Fla.
“It demonstrates staying power, it builds credibility, it gives an opportunity to show relevance,” he said. Anniversary promotions also are “a great excuse for a restaurant to have one more point of contact” with customers, he added.
Restaurants that plan anniversary promotions should “sell the history of the restaurant” with promotional material that might include old newspaper and magazine articles and photos showing frequent customers and how the restaurant looked years ago, Allen said.
A banner inside the restaurant proclaiming “Happy 25th Anniversary” is not enough to generate word of mouth, which is highly important in raising brand awareness, he said.
Planning an anniversary promotion also allows operators to reassess the way their restaurants look, Allen said.
“It puts fresh eyes on the operation internally,” he said. “If you’re getting ready [for a promotion] you’ll look at the interior differently, the employee uniforms, the paint on the wall.”
Anniversary promos can generate short-term incremental sales through higher traffic, though increased traffic won’t necessarily yield higher sales if customers buy only specially discounted items, said John Nevin, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
But even if guests do exploit discount offers, the promotion can still be successful in the long term, Nevin added.
“Even if it didn’t produce positive financial results in the short term,” he said, “getting the [restaurant] name in front of customers may put it back in their decision set when they say, ‘I’m hungry. Where do I stop?’ The immediate objective is you bring in more traffic.”
Anniversary promotions also are good time to introduce new menu items or sell signature dishes at the same price they had the year when the restaurant chain was founded, as Steak and Ale did in 2006 to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Brand birthdays also can have a more serious side. When Boston-based Uno Chicago Grill turned 60 in 2003 it held a series of educational pizza parties in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, in addition to other events.
Whatever events are scheduled, an anniversary promotion “makes a lot of sense,” said Rick Hendrie, senior vice president of marketing for the chain, which has more than 200 units.
“You can reinforce the brand beautifully that way,” he said.
Hendrie does have a couple of caveats about anniversary promotions. First, they can forge a stronger relationship with consumers “assuming you have a real equity with your guest,” he said. Second, he added, they are a “perfectly acceptable” tool for stimulating trial among new customers, “but not from customers who wouldn’t enjoy your product.”
Deciding which anniversary is significant also is an issue. Big Boy’s Michaels thinks one-year celebrations are not “that big of a deal,” and he advises chains to wait until they’re older and “looked on as a leader.”
Allen of Quantified Marketing Group sees no problem with a one-year celebration. “It gives everyone internally time to reflect on what they’ve done,” he said.