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March Madness by the wing

Buffalo Wild Wings, Wingstop and Wing Zone target sports fans. The three top wing chains are attempting to draw the March Madness crowd, young male professionals.

March 19, 2006

Three top wing concepts are pursuing March Madness fans with new promotions. Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings has an exclusive contract with ESPNU, which started airing its award-winning commercial "Whisper" March 1. Dallas-based Wingstop implemented an e-mail campaign, and Atlanta-based Wing Zone developed strategic local-store marketing materials for its operators.

"They are looking at attracting the young professionals, mostly male," said David Johnson, chief executive of Strategic Vision, a sports marketing firm.

Johnson's worked on sports marketing campaigns for Buffalo Wild Wings and Wing Zone. "This is a young demographic, 18 to 35, and their usual spending for something is $25 to $75."

BuffaloWild Wings

In the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial, "John" attempts to persuade his boss.

Throughout 2006, when college games air on ESPNU, viewers will see a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. As the exclusive restaurant partner with ESPNU, Buffalo Wild Wings created a comical commercial with the March Madness fans in mind.

The 30-second spot features "John," a 20-something male professional talking to his boss while watching a game. John attempts to persuade his boss to give him a little more time, saying "I can't rush perfection, sir." In the commercial, patrons silently clap and a worker dives to catch a falling beer just so John can wriggle out of his boss' demands. John hangs up the phone and says: "He bought it." The spot ends with his coworkers cheering loudly.

"The humor gets the message across," said Kathy Benning, senior vice president of marketing and brand development for Buffalo Wild Wings.

The spot was created by Minneapolis-based Periscope, which received a 2005 Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators (MUFSO) award for the commercial. Benning would not discuss how much the ESPN contract cost, but said it's yearlong and hits the company's target audience.

According to Nielsen Media Research, ESPN is viewed by 89 million U.S. households. Although CBS is airing the NCAA tournament, not ESPN, Sports Center is the No. 1 daily program among men, according to Nielsen.

Wingstop

Wingstop began a "March Madness" email campaign last week.

At Wingstop's 205 locations, Andy Howard, vice president of marketing, expects varied results from store to store.

"A lot of it has to do with what schools are in it and if we have stores in those areas," Howard said. "It's (March Madness) not quite the Super Bowl, but people make parties out of the event and it's a good time."

After the first week of March Madness, Wingstop's system-wide sales are up 12.5 percent. Through an email campaign, "The Tournament has Arrived," Wingstop is offering four free wings with family pack purchases. But Howard doesn't credit this year's promotions for the increase in sales.

"We don't do a whole lot event promotions," Howard said, "because people come to us during the football season and March Madness."

Wing Zone

Stan Friedman, executive vice president, expects to sell 3 million wings for March. But, much like Howard, he doesn't believe there is a need to launch a large-scale promotions campaign.

There are two times of year when wings are purchased to celebrate an event: March Madness and the Super Bowl.

-- Stan Friedman Wing Zone

"Super bowl and March Madness are magnets for wing customers," Friedman said. "You don't have to remind people it's time to eat wings. They find you."

Wing Zone's local-store marketing campaign is simple. Just insert a local basketball star in the regular advertisements and coupons.

"We tell each operator to concentrate the March Madness marketing efforts on a three-mile radius around the store," Friedman said. "We are always marketing, but there are two times of year when wings are purchased to celebrate an event: March Madness and the Super Bowl. And for these events, we focus our efforts on preparing and accommodating our customers."

Pizza still king

Wings are second to only pizza when it comes to sporting-event food.

Papa John's Pizza conducted a very unique promotion recently for March Madness. The pizza chain partnered with SportingNews.com to host "Papa John's Perfect Bracket Challenge online at SportingNews.com."

If anyone fills out a perfect bracket, Papa John's will divide up 1 million pizzas among all who entered. Those who fill out a perfect bracket will get free pizza for a year.

Of nearly 90,000 people who entered the contest, only 45 people correctly picked the winners after the first 16 games.