News

Wingstop paying fans to wear swag

March 9, 2020

Wingstop Inc. is recruiting fans to help advertise its boneless wings and nationwide delivery by paying them to wear free, Wingstop-branded merchandise. Rather than spend money on traditional billboards, Wingstop is using its billboard advertising budget to pay its fans to wear ad-inspired merchandise instead.

"Our fans are continually asking us to sponsor them and Wearable Billboards draws on this insight, allowing us to engage with brand loyalists in a way that only Wingstop can," Christina Clarke, chief marketing officer, said in a company press release. "Wingstop fans are already talking about us on social media, so we thought, ‘why not make it official and pay them?' This isn't your average brand swag."

Leveraging pop culture moments and contemporary fashion aesthetic, Wingstop Wearable Billboards embrace irony and self-awareness by putting advertisements on a sweatshirt.

To get in on the action, fans can visit wingstopwearablebillboards.com to get their free sweatshirt and get paid starting March 9 at 12 p.m. ET.

How it works

For a limited time, fans who claim their Wearable Billboard will receive an exclusive Wingstop sweatshirt. Fans post themselves wearing their sweatshirt in public on Instagram and tag @Wingstop, including #ThisIsAnAdForWingstop in the caption, and Wingstop will Venmo them $10.

"While we can't share specifics on the entirety of our advertising budget, we did commit our entire national OOH budget to this effort," a spokesperson told FastCasual via email. "Our investment includes the cost to cover the Venmo payments, the custom, free merchandise we've created for fans and bonus prizes we plan to roll out later this month."

Wingstop challenges fans to get creative with their Wearable Billboards. The most innovative and viral posts may earn free tickets to  events.

 Dallas-based Wingstop operates and franchises nearly 1,400 locations worldwide.