TAMPA, FLA. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. learned that lesson in late February when the Tampa-based company launched a promotion featuring the character “Rapcat,” who stars in a commercial for the 800 twin-lane drive-thrus in the Checkers and Rally’s Hamburgers chains. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Rapcat is a puppet dressed in a basketball-style jersey who became so popular that Checkers launched a special website for the character and began distributing takeout bags that resemble the jersey. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
But these are no ordinary takeout bags. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Checkers asked customers to dress their cats in the bag—each one has cutaway holes for legs and a tail—then to shoot videos or digital photos of the cats “rockin’ the Rapcat Jersey Bag” and upload them to
The animal services department of Florida’s Hillsborough County, where Checkers’ headquarters is located, said stuffing a cat into the bag amounted to animal cruelty and anyone who did so was subject to felony charges. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
A warning on the bag reads, “Caution. Not all cats will be down with wearing this bag. Do not harm or endanger any cat.” The department declared that message insufficient, according to published reports. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Checkers stands by the promotion. Although executives declined to be interviewed, senior vice president of marketing Richard Turer issued the following statement: “When our Rapcat commercials began airing last fall, they were an overnight success. We received dozens of letters from our guests requesting Rapcat merchandise. Our new Rapcat website, cups and carryout bags are all in response to Rapcat’s popularity and are intended only as a creative extension of our television campaign.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
To be sure, promotions have caused problems for other restaurants in the past. A number of them have been forced to recall kid’s meal toys because they were defective. In 2001 federal prosecutors indicted 21 people at a promotional agency on charges that they rigged McDonald Corp.’s Monopoly promotions. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
But those problems had nothing to do with creative content. Promotions like Rapcat, however, represent a creative challenge for restaurant chains. With the appetite for consumer-generated content growing more voracious, chains that don’t come up with something different could get lost amid the alternative-media clutter. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
That could mean embracing the marketing cliché “edginess,” but even if advertisers resist doing so, they still have to generate attention for their brands, according to Ariel Waldman, who writes a marketing blog at www.shakewellbeforeuse.com and is a digital-insights analyst for the agency VML of Kansas City, Mo. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
“I think we wouldn’t be good at our jobs unless we were always thinking of new ways to resonate with consumers, whether or not the solution is considered edgy,” she said. “Interactive campaigns cater to active consumers, so a lot of the attention grabbing hinges off of peer-to-peer, as opposed to simply pushing content.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
The consequences of running Rapcat or any promotion that involves interactive consumer participation is the possibility of backlash and how to deal with it, Waldman said. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
“Negative word of mouth spreads like wildfire, but even worse is that most companies don’t know how to sufficiently address the negativity online,” she said. “When marketers ask for consumer participation, they need to realize that they’re opening the door to an ongoing, organic dialogue and not a controlled focus group.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
In light of that, restaurants must walk a fine line as they search for more creative ways to target customers, according to New Jersey-based marketing consultant and educator Len Kornblau. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
“They have to be really careful not to be offensive,” he said. “Burger King is edgy without being offensive.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Consumers in the Tampa area don’t seem to find Rapcat offensive. In an online poll by TV station Bay News 9, 64 percent of the respondents said the animal services department should focus on other issues, and 35 percent said the department was justified in issuing its Rapcat advisory. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Burger King’s wildly popular website featuring the Subservient Chicken, which debuted in 2004, touched off the craze for getting consumers to interact with brands through microsites and consumer-generated video. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
By necessity, those online programs have to steer toward edginess because consumers—especially the coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic—are accustomed to viewing, uploading and interacting with similar Internet content, Kornblau said. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
“You have to be creative in your approach to get the attention of these users and hold it to get your message across,” he said. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
It’s also by necessity that restaurant chains have to devote more time to interactive marketing because consumers have shifted their use of media, Kornblau said. Years ago marketers did not want to advertise on cable TV because it wasn’t considered mainstream. It is now, however, and so is the Internet. “If [viewers] don’t feel they have something worthwhile to watch on TV, they’ll go to the Internet, and you can attract a younger target on the Internet,” he said. —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Whether a restaurant chain can launch a website like Rapcat or Subservient Chicken “really depends on where you are positioned in the industry,” Kornblau said. “You would not expect McDonald’s to do something like that.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
Marketers don’t have to go over the top to reach consumers in new ways, according to Mickey Taylor, co-founder and creative director of ad agency G&M Plumbing, based in Manhattan Beach, Calif. “I think everybody’s striving for a great idea,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think it has to be edgy to be great. We never set out to shock.” —With pressure mounting for restaurant chains to give their marketing programs a creative boost to grab consumers’ attention, the online promotions they consider harmless may have the potential to generate unexpected controversy.
