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Wild Wing Cafe SMS campaign sees 72 percent opt-in

Family sports bar and restaurant Wild Wing Cafe ran an SMS campaign to engage its patrons and found that out of the 900 consumers that showed up, 72 percent texted in for a chance to win prizes.

The company found that SMS was a successful tool that could be used to engage existing and new customers. Wild Wing Café has been using SMS since 2007.

?Texting prompts appeared on window signage and staff members were trained to encourage patrons to enter the contest while they were dining,? said Rachel Jensen, marketing coordinator at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

?This improved rapport with the customers and added value to their dining experience,? she said.

Wild Wing Café is a local family sports bar and restaurant serving Buffalo wings, food, and beer across the United States.

State of Text helped power the initiative.

Consumer engagement
The promotion took place in Marietta, GA.

Consumers were encouraged by the Wild Wing Café waitstaff and in house point-of-sale to text the keyword HUNDO to the short code 84464 for a chance to win 3 Wild Wing $100 gift cards.

In addition, the company used window signage to promote the SMS campaign.

Customers were also encouraged to text the keyword DOLLAR to the short code 84464 to win dollar shots for the evening.

?The strategy was to embrace our clientele in a text to win offer during our Annual Crawfish festival in May,? said Ed Herson general manager at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

Consumers can text-in for a chance to win

SMS rewards
The company is using SMS, as opposed to other methods of getting the word out because it finds it to be the most effective.
 
?Our SMS campaigns with State of Text Inc have always netted us a 35-70 percent rate opt-in rates,? said Ryan Bing, manager of Wild Wing Café, Atlanta. ?We had around 750 people that day and received right at 560 opt-ins.

?We have steered away from many of our paper advertisements due to the effectiveness of each SMS campaign,? he said. ?We at Wind Wing Café are more than pleased with the results we have been receiving via SMS sinse 2007 which have only continued to grow.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York