Wingstop asks fans to route its food truckWingstop asks fans to route its food truck

Wingstop Inc. is putting the final route of its new food truck into the hands of its social-media-savvy customers.

The Dallas-based quick-service chicken wing chain, which debuted its promotional food truck in June, has asked fans to decide where it will end up in September by voting at the microsite www.wingstoptour.com.

“They can urge their friends to vote on social media,” Wingstop spokesperson Kimberly Balega told Nation’s Restaurant News Tuesday from the tour’s stop in St. Louis.

Balega said social media users are posting photos with the hashtag #WingstopTour on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The truck made its debut on June 12, when Wingstop launched its $110.2 million initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange and handed out samples near the market’s marquee in New York City’s Times Square.

Fans are now voting on where the truck will end its “Wingstop Flavor Tour,” which started in Brooklyn, N.Y., in June. On Sunday, the first round of voting will end and the chain will open balloting from among the five finalist cities for the Sept. 18-22 destination.

“Cities currently scheduled on the tour will not be eligible,” Wingstop said. Those cities include: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, St. Louis and San Francisco.

“The purpose of the Wingstop Flavor Tour is to give back to communities that have embraced our brand,” Flynn Dekker, Wingstop’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

“We have been to four cities so far,” Dekker said, “and have seen first hand the positive energy we can bring to communities by serving up free food and partnering with charitable organizations. Now, we're asking our fans to tell us where to bring that energy for the final stop.”

Wingstop is not alone in sending food trucks across the nation to offer free food. Olive Garden, the division of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc., this summer has four food trucks traversing the nation, offering free samples of its new breadstick sandwiches. That tour employs the social media hashtag #BreadstickNation.

For Wingstop’s tour, the company is working with the National Basketball Association and various charity organizations on the 10 stops before September.

For example, for the tour's Brooklyn kick off, Wingstop partnered with the Brooklyn Nets from June 19-23 to build a new playground for Children of Promise, NYC.

Wingstop on Tuesday held the No. 22 spot on Nation’s Restaurant News proprietary Social 200 rankings.

Wingstop, founded in 1994, has 745 restaurants in the United States as well as Indonesia, Mexico, the Phillippines Russia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
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