Firkin Group of Pubs
Immersion:
The Firkin Group of Pubs is the largest chain of English style pubs in Canada. They're customer friendly and community focused, which is why they say, "Everyone's a little different." and "One's just right for you."
Firkin takes their business seriously but not themselves, generally displaying an irreverent attitude in their marketing. We've worked with Firkin since 1998, developing a brand with a cheeky personality that reflects the in-pub experience.
Insight:
In 2008, the economy began to slow, sales slumped, marketing budgets shrank. We needed to give people a new reason to visit Firkin. It not only had to be of interest to the target audience, it also needed to be newsworthy to create PR opportunities. Through research, we identified two powerful insights about our key customers:
- student debt was a major worry for them, and
- this group loves to participate and co-create
These insights led us to create Firkin University (FU) - a virtual university whose sole purpose is to help eliminate post-secondary student debt.
Ideas:
We initiated the "FU to Student Debt" campaign in 2008 and, following that initial success, mounted a new program in 2009. The campaigns consisted of two phases - one to attract applicants and a second to conduct voting
We offered students and recent graduates a chance to win 1 of 5 - $5,000 awards. Applicants needed to make a persuasive argument as to why they were worthy of Firkin debt relief, by submitting a 200-word essay or posting a 60-second video to the FU website.
The program launched with strong P.O.S. in the pubs, a radio campaign, public relations activity and video projections in high-traffic urban areas. In 2009, we also sent out Firkin street teams armed with video cameras to selected colleges and universities so students could apply right on the spot. A Cineplex promotion encouraged participation with an SMS trivia contest about student debt and the FU2 campaign.
Since social media was an obvious choice for this demographic, we created our own Facebook group, Twitter account and YouTube channel. When you align the message with the interests of your target audience, the results are powerful and instant. "Say FU to Student Debt" generated over 300 members in the first week and YouTube views exceeded 13,500.
Once all applications were received, new P.O.S. and radio spots introduced the voting phase. We invited the public to vote online for those most worthy, with finalists to be selected from the top twenty by a group of impartial university faculty. Here's where the program went viral.
Contestants started their own Facebook groups and actively solicited votes from friends and family. Bloggers and the media started to talk about the program and what began as paid promotion, suddenly became a news story.
Impact:
The results of this promotion were astounding:
- over 600 applicants
- more than 60 Facebook groups created
- YouTube views exceeding 13,500
- over 100 entrants to the Cineplex trivia challenge
- PR impressions above 7.5 million
- extra 2 million impressions from media coverage in Metro Toronto, Breakfast Television and Torontoist.com
- more than 30,000 unique votes cast
Firkin pubs reported a sales lift during the promotion despite the economic downturn and a decline in the overall industry.
The contest winners, along with their families, celebrated at a Firkin pub where they received their awards. They, and many others within this demographic, have become Firkin brand advocates as a result of the promotion.
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