Local Restaurant Used Sociallybuzz to Execute The Most Successful Yelp Campaign

June 2, 2012 - PRLog -- The following is a recent case study for a campaign http://www.sociallybuzz.com executed using Yelp.

Company:
Opening its doors December 11th, 2011, MLT serves homemade authentic Philly cheesesteaks for South Beach customers to enjoy. The traditional cheesesteak with thinly sliced rib eye steak; melted cheese of your choice, fresh Amarosa bread and grilled onions is just how Geno's makes it.

The menu also includes some other delicious homemade comfort foods such as grilled cheese sandwiches, mac-n-cheese, braised short-rib sliders, fried chicken and fresh waffles.


What is Yelp?
Yelp is an online city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the know. Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great — and not so great — in your world.


Campaign Overview:
At Sociallybuzz, we understand that social network review websites are very important for growth and customer acquisition of any restaurant. Millions of consumers use Yelp to review potential restaurants and make final buying decisions on where they will spend their hard earned money to dine at. Consumers are also constantly looking for restaurants to call their own, take their friends and brag about to their family. The difference between a bad review and a great review online can really make or break a restaurant reputation.

Since MLT Cheesesteak was a fairly new restaurant, we decided to do a campaign on a social platform that would build up its reputation by having actual customers rave about their amazing experience and food. This would trigger genuine word-of-mouth, build customer loyalty and increase repeat walk-up customers as well as sales before, prior and after the contest.

The Sociallybuzz team developed a fun and compelling YELP competition to drive elite Yelpers and influential foodies as a way of increasing social and brand awareness of MLT. We specifically chose Yelp to tap into their most influential users, the Yelp Elites, who competed in a strategic eating contest featuring one of MLT's most popular cheesesteak sandwich. Ten Yelp Elites engaged in an eating contest with the MLT “Miami Heat” Cheese Steak. After 3 rounds, 3 cheesesteaks and lots of peppers, 2 semi-final winners were picked to go head to head for a chance to win a $50 MLT gift card based on who ate the most spicy Cheese Steak the fastest.

Objective:
To activate the following for MLT Cheesesteak;

- Local Brand Awareness
- Consumer Loyalty
- Loyalty Tracking
- Positive Word-of-Mouth
- Increase Sales
- Increase Facebook Fans
- Increase Twitter followers

Obstacles:
- On the day of the eating contest, it started raining with a chance of thunderstorm.

Results:
We successfully achieved and executed all of our goals and objectives.

1)  The localized online chatter about the MLT brand have increased dramatically since announcing the eating competition
2)  We significantly increased their consumer loyalty
3) They gained positive word-of-mouth and reviews on Yelp as well as other social networks
4) Sales increased even before the eating contest took place
5) We increased MLT's Facebook fans and Twitter followers to consumers who lived or worked within a 5 to 10 mile radius, who are grilled cheese and cheesesteak enthusiasts
6) The contest was trending on Yelp weeks before the contest

Conclusion:
All contestants and attendees took home an experience of a lifetime and the winner left with a $50 MLT gift card. When anyone searches for MLT on Yelp, they are greeted with great reviews from satisfied customers.  Therefore, the number of authentic reviews in which MLT received from completing such a campaign remains priceless.