Marketing

BWW kicking off football-themed marketing campaign

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August 30, 2021

To kick off college football season, Buffalo Wild Wings is debuting a marketing campaign — "Greatest of All Times" — and hosting a head-to-head competition between sports bars.

"The start of football season is not only one of the most anticipated times of year for sports fans, it's also an exciting time for Buffalo Wild Wings sports bars across the country," CMO Rita Patel said in a company press release. "Kickoff means getting together with your crew to watch the game, feasting on great food and making unforgettable memories together. Our 'Greatest of All Times' campaign is all about bringing that camaraderie to life. Whether that means gathering at our sports bars or at home, we've got you covered this fall!"

Measuring head-to-head competition with IBM Watson

Tapping into camaraderie and competitive spirit of the college football season, BWW is hosting competitions Thursday as football teams from Minneapolis and Columbus take the field for their first game of the season. Fans at the Buffalo Wild Wings sports bars nearest to their school's football stadium will also compete against one another in various challenges to determine who really had the "Greatest of All Times."

BWW is partnering with Converge Technology Solutions to use IBM Watson to assist in the process of tallying scores during the competition. The competition will be scored based on three categories:

• Great Times: Measured by Watson Speech to Text and Watson Tone Analyzer, the technology will capture noise levels, tone and keywords from microphones at each sports bar. The data will then be transferred to the IBM Cloud where a machine learning model will calculate sentiment scores. Cheers and roars will lead to a higher output, while groans and muted noise will result in a lower score.
• Number of wings eaten
• Blazin' Challenges Completed: Any fans who take down 10 bone-in Blazin' Carolina Reaper wings in 5 minutes or less will record points for their sports bar.

The app will record points in real time and display them on a live scoreboard at each sports bar. The fanbase that wins at least two of the three categories will win, and the winning city will receive a donation to the Buffalo Wild Wings Foundation to support local youth through partners like Boys & Girls Clubs.

The Greatest of All Times ad creative will debut this week with the 60-second spot airing Thursday during that evening's primetime college football game between Ohio State and Minnesota on FOX. (See below.)

Produced by The Martin Agency, the campaign will feature Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray and Los Angeles Sparks forward Chiney Ogwumike.

Football-inspired menu offerings

Buffalo Wild Wings, which has over 1,200 units, has created Tablegate Bundle for dine-in customers. Each bundle has 20 boneless wings, Everything Pretzel Knots and Buffalo Chicken Tots. The Tailgate Bundle — featuring 15 boneless wings, 15 traditional wings, Everything Pretzel Knots and a large order of Tots — is available for takeout or delivery.

The chain is also rolling out the Spiked Football — a Tiki-style drink made with Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, coconut, lime and pineapple juices — served in a custom football-shaped glass.