Article

Moe's finds a sweet spot with contextualized tweets, increased digital spend

A well-timed tweet helped drive home Moe's brand message and engage customers.

July 8, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group

Moe's Southwest Grill followed up its first-ever national media campaign last year with a revamped website and a 603 percent increase in its digital spending for its 2014 campaign.

The result? A 33 percent increase in traffic to the site, double-digit conversions from display ads and Twitter engagement four-and-a-half times higher than the industry standard, according to CMO Paul Macaluso.

Macaluso directed the increased dollars for the digital piece of the 2014 campaign toward adding video, mobile and social media to the digital mix, which also included search engine marketing and display ads. Several aspects of the digital spend performed well, according to Macaluso. A 15-second video spot, which ran as pre-roll on certain sites, generated 5 million impressions over the course of six weeks, for example.

Display ads also performed well, achieving a conversion rate of 20 percent, well above the industry benchmark of 7 percent, according to Macaluso.

But the standout of the digital media spend was contextualized Twitter ads, he said.

Twitter tie-ins to pop culture

Macaluso's marketing team worked to contextualize Twitter ads, leveraging TV commercial buys and the television programming schedule. The team reviewed TV ad buys to discover which shows would be airing when the ads ran. They then created ads that made sense in the context.

The opportunity was an excellent fit for Moe's brand, since Moe's product names are drawn from television, movie and other pop culture references. For example, when "Caddyshack" aired, anyone who tweeted anything about the movie was served up an ad that featured a giant plate of Moe's "Billy Barou" nachos --which are named after the putter wielded by Caddyshack character Judge Smails -- resting on a golf green. A golf ball with the Moe's logo emblazoned on it hovers at the edge of the nearby cup. The tweet, referencing one of the movie's most quotable lines, reads: "Spaulding, this calls for the old Billy Barou! #caddyshack #welcometomoes."

"We saw unbelievable engagement from the contextualized tweet," said Macaluso. "The industry is 1.5 percent, and we were in the 8 to 9 percent range" at some points during the campaign. On average, engagement rates over the course of the campaign hovered near 6.84 percent.

Building on 2013

Moe's 2014 campaign built on what Macaluso and his team learned from Moe's first-ever national media campaign in summer 2013. During the 2013 campaign, traffic to Moes.com rose about 30 percent, and much of the traffic was coming from mobile devices, said Macaluso. The site design was not responsive, making it challenging for mobile visitors to navigate.

And while the site featured the brand's colors and products, it didn't show people involved in creating and assembling their meals, a key component in the Moe's brand experience, said Macaluso.

"We wanted to improve the quality of our food photography," said Macaluso. "As you move through the new site, you see really great beauty shots of our ingredients. Preparation of our ingredients is a big part of our brand as well."

Moe's teamed up with Zog Digital to redesign the site to be responsive across all platforms and reinforce brand messaging. The redesign took approximately four months. The new site launched on April 17, just days ahead of Moe's planned national media buy, which ran from April 21 through June 1.

Overall, site traffic increased 33 percent during the campaign, according to Macaluso, with traffic from mobile devices increasing markedly.

"When comparing the four weeks of traffic to our mobile site before the TV flight to the four weeks of traffic to our mobile site during the TV flight, the percentage of visits from a mobile device increased from 37 percent to 47 percent," according to Daley Michael, public relations representative for Moe's. "We also recorded more visits to Moes.com from mobile devices than from desktops during the TV campaign."

Moe's plans a second national media campaign this fall, and plans to accelerate to three or four campaigns in 2015.

About Brenda Rick Smith

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Brenda has more than 20 years of experience as a marketing and public relations professional. She invested most of her career telling the story of entrepreneurial non-profit organizations, particularly through social media.

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