Posts Tagged ‘Burger King’
I don’t watch a lot of network television (or television in general) and even less in the summer. When I do watch it is to relax and aside from a couple of favorite shows on cable, I primarily watch sports on networks and local and national cable channels. I do read a few national magazines and am an inveterate reader of newspapers (yes I know SO old school).
Over the weekend when I was flipping through the channels before heading out I saw the network baseball game and golf tournament. For some reason my thoughts drifted to fast food and realized that I had not seen an ad on television for McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s for a long time. Thinking more about it I don’t recall seeing them on page in magazines either or even hearing any of them on the radio. And by the way I watched a good amount of the Primetime Emmy’s last night and did not see one ad for any of them.
The last I recall hearing about any of them was the cheeky McDonald’s ad about the dollar that is hungry and what you can do with it. That might have been earlier this month so it’s likely that I just have not been listening to radio all that much lately.
I asked around to a couple of people if they were familiar with any ad campaigns for any of the big three burger leaders (actually McDonald’s is way far out in here so putting them in the same conversation would thrill Burger King and Wendy’s). Nobody I talked to could name any campaign.
Could the targeting be THAT good? Are the big three running ads in places of which I am not aware? I’m not one to eat in fast food restaurants any more than a handful of times a year. And I understand that I am far from the target audience in age or demographics. But I cannot remember any time where I had no idea of any of the campaigns run by the fast food outlets. Maybe they scale back campaigns in a big way in the summer time and are readying a deluge for the fall? With football season around the corner I could see that.
But what gives here? Am I missing the boat entirely? Are you aware of current ad campaigns run by McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s? Oh and I don’t miss Jared at all thank you very much….
Having blogged about it a couple of times, I have also been ‘using’ Foursquare’s location based platform to ‘check-in’ over the past five months. I am dubiously proud of being able to claim that I am the ‘Mayor’ of the Acela club at CitiField in New York.
And I have been to the Acela club exactly three times this season which leads me to think that people who visit the Acela club do not subscribe or care about Foursquare. In fact the few people I asked who work there had never even heard of location based services like Foursquare. As Acela club ‘mayor’ I have not been offered the key to CitiField or even a free drink – alcoholic or not.
In an article in today’s NY Times http://nyti.ms/aDGgmn, it was noted that Loopt is offering people a mobile game that rewards people for checking in frequently to particular places. And as such one can become ‘boss’ of certain locations – sort of like being the mayor. The key thing is that companies like Gap, Burger King Etc., plan to use Loopt Star to reward loyal customers. Foursquare is also working with its partners to offer real-time rewards for check-ins and frequencies of visits.
One thing the article fails to mention is the vagaries of GPS check in on these platforms. I know for example on Foursquare when I attempt to ‘check-in’ I am given a list of nearby locations even if I am smack in the middle of one on the list. (Somehow I find it really odd that if I am sitting in a Starbucks it tells me that the one I am sitting in is somehow 137 meters away). But I can also check-in to any of these GPS-enabled locations whether I am actually physically there or not.
GPS technology is set to make a major leap forward with the advent of High Accuracy-NDGPS which will enable accuracy to the centimeter level. This will be a critical enhancement since it appears that I can check in at any number of places simultaneously/concurrently (or at least in quick sequence), so that I could gain reward points at places I actually never visited.
Think about it, you are sitting at coffee shop in the middle of the city, but you check in at Burger King (for the third time that week) even though you have been to the Burger King. Now Burger King sends you a coupon for a soda with a sandwich purchase. Retailer margins will be squeezed. People will game the system – that can be guaranteed.
I understand that companies can counter that talk about the fact the patron actually purchased something, but at the same time product is being given away for nothing. And how is that a good idea?
So join up now and get free stuff – while you can.
It’s 11PM and I’m sitting in seat 4D (First class) on a Delta/Northwest (why can’t they make up their mind already?) flight to Ft. Myers, FL. I am to attend a 1 ½ day conference with other marketing agency folks via the DMA’s Winter Executive Briefing. Sounds good right? Only I shouldn’t be here. In First Class that is – or on this particular flight.
You see I left my house at 7AM this morning and it is now 9PM the same night. It was snowing when I left (‘snow showers’ turned into 4 inches at my house I am told). A harrowing ride down the parkway made making the 9:49AM flight no sure thing. But I arrived at the airport at 8:50AM and breezed through security in about 8 minutes (I was really pleasantly surprised). The flight was supposedly delayed 20 minutes which did not seem too bad in view of the weather as it was still snowing at LaGuardia. And then it went straight downhill.
No less than three separate times the plane left the gate only to return for one reason or another. Finally after 3 hours they allowed us to get off the plane (the passenger bill of rights in action perhaps?) and we were immediately told once entering the gate area that the flight was in fact cancelled. Good thing I paid the $ 25 upgrade to an exit row seat in coach. My M.O. is to fly as cheap as possible. I got what I paid for apparently.
Since I have access to the Delta Sky Miles club I immediately walked in there where I learned that the next direct flight to Ft. Myers was at 8:30PM. But somehow the desk attendant was able to get me in First Class (I did not ask but gladly accepted). After a short flirt with flying to Detroit then to Ft. Myers that would had me arrive an hour earlier that became a moot point when it ‘disappeared’ according to the desk attendant. Flying another airline through Philadelphia got me in 2+ hours earlier but that airline was experiencing delays as well and I declined that option. Little did I know that the 8:30 did would be ‘delayed’ until 9:15. We actually boarded at 9:30 and then proceeded to sit at the gate until 11PM because the pilots were flying in from another city. Apparently La Guardia was using only one runway. A fact that was not reported until 11PM. Airline communications with passengers (i.e. CUSTOMERS) sucks wildly.
So I have spent more than 14 hours at the airport and finally (I hope) am going to get somewhere. I well realize that many people have much more horrific travel stories than this one. I have never slept in an airport although I have been delayed overnight more than once but always managed to get out to a hotel or head back home. The food choices at the Delta/Northwest terminal at LaGuardia are awful. Unless you like to eat at Chili’s, Burger King or Sbarro. Eating that stuff twice in one day is not a path to feeling good or good health in general.
Hard to believe that the best experience of the day was getting through security in 8 minutes. If this journey is its own reward the rest of the trip will have to be better. I wonder how?