Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. has offered the summer Campfire Meal promotion off and on for the past 19 years, but this year the brand is expanding it with a multi-barrel multimedia marketing approach, the company told Nation's Restaurant News.
The Lebanon, Tenn.-based family-dining chain brought back the foil-baked meals on May 2 after a one-year hiatus. It will begin supporting them with national television advertising on Monday, following on teasers and other marketing over the past month, including billboards, radio and social media.
“The first time we introduced Campfire was in 1997,” said Don Hoffman, Cracker Barrel’s vice president of marketing, in an interview Thursday. “I call it a ‘returning favorite.’ It’s never been a permanent menu item. The last time we ran Campfire was two years ago. It has a cult-like following over the time we’ve run the program.”
To reintroduce the Campfire Meal offering this year, Hoffman said Cracker Barrel researched the essence of why it was popular, finding the promotion was tied in with sociability and family time together for their customers.
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“Television advertising that starts Monday will be reflective of some of those themes,” Hoffman said. “We went back to the memories of Campfire Meals, which is something most people can relate to.”
The promotion began May 2 and runs through Aug. 14, Hoffman said, and nearly 4 million of the meat-and-vegetable meals are expected to be sold this year. Campfire Chicken is offered at $9.99 for the entire promotional window. Campfire Beef is available until June 26 for $10.99, followed by a Campfire Mixed Grill, which is chuck roast and smoked sausage, from June 27 through Aug. 14 for $10.99. Campfire Meals come with a choice of buttermilk biscuits or corn muffins.
“We do a surprisingly good job delivering this rather complex meal,” Hoffman said of the foil envelopes in which the vegetables and proteins are cooked. “It’s a little labor intensive, but the payoff is really good. It has become a reason to visit. This is all about creating reasons for people to visit your restaurant in unique ways.”
The Campfire Meals appeal to many senses, Hoffman added. “Once you open the foil envelope after it’s cooked in its own juices, spices and herbs, it’s an amazing olfactory steam that wafts up into where you are sitting,” he said.
Hoffman said the company this year wanted to employ as many marketing channels as possible, starting with teaser roadside billboards that were wrapped in “foil” before the May 2 debut.
Customers are greeted in stores with lenticular posters — which give the illusion of depth and appear to move as the guest passes — at the host stand, with the image of the foil envelope opening.
Hoffman said the company is also using call of its media channels, including Spanish language radio ads in Hispanic markets.
“We’ve created specific video for the channels that it will run on, such as YouTube, Facebook and some other paid media buys we will place,” he said. “We’ve written specific creative content like Twitter. We’ve got a hashtag, #GetCampfiredUp. We’ve written special content for Facebook.
“The idea in marketing now is to not take one creative idea and spread it across different channels,” he explained. It’s to write dedicated and unique content for each channel that our guests consume. That’s a first for our company.”
The Campfire Meals promotion is also running longer than it has in the past, covering 15 weeks in the restaurants, he said. “There could be some menu fatigue,” Hoffman said, “so we’re changing the configuration about halfway through so it will give guests another reason to try it.”
The company has conducted teaser campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and it will be using Vine and possibly Tumblr for this promotion, Hoffman said. The company also made its first buy on SnapChat, he added.
“We’re in every touch point in the business,” Hoffman added, saying the Cracker Barrel retail stores are selling connected products like cast-iron cookware, Campfire seasonings, thermoses and music.
The promotion will also include music videos from a fictitious family band called The Camps, which will be posted on YouTube.
“We’ve tied in every facet of the Cracker Barrel business platform behind Campfire,” he said. “That’s distinctly different and unique than in the past.”
After two weeks of less traditional media around the Campfire Meals promotion, Hoffman said, “We expect another significant lift in our business with the national television schedule that we run.”
Hoffman added: “If you can create something with a fan following, you’ve hit something special and magical. Campfire Meals is that for Cracker Barrel.”
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has 636 Cracker Barrel locations in 42 states. It owns the fast-casual restaurant Holler & Dash, which opened in March in Homewood, Ala.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
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