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BACKGROUND
Smokey Bones is THE PLACE to get your meat fix. Renowned for its baby back ribs, Smokey Bones has enjoyed an enthusiastic fan base over the years. Another extremely popular item on the Smokey menu is its signature smoked wings. The restaurant has 60 locations, mostly in the eastern parts of the U.S. with concentrations in Florida and New York. Our agency provides design and consultation services and works as an agency partner for all of the chain's marketing and advertising needs.
CHALLENGE
Like many restaurants, Smokey Bones succumbed to COVID restrictions and faced a dramatic fate with shutdowns. But leadership developed a plan: With seating limited or restaurants closed altogether, Smokey Bones began employing its most valuable asset, the chain's kitchens. Smokey Bones initiated virtual delivery-only brands available via third-party delivery service apps. The concept dubbed Ghost Kitchens involves preparing the items in Smokey Bones kitchens under unique brand names that are available for delivery, takeout and catering via these third-party apps only.
SOLUTION
Smokey Bones tasked us with designing and developing unique brands for its Ghost Kitchens concept. Ghost Kitchen brands include the Wing Experience, Burger Experience, Bowl Market, Tender Box, and Bite Hall (the unifying brand under which all the individual brands are marketed). Once we developed the brand design and tone, we activated email, social media, and display marketing. We built brand awareness for the Wing Experience, focusing on college towns and ran a few exciting campaigns including free wings for a year and a collaboration with Red Bull. We also created a fun TV spot for the Burger Experience!
RESULTS
The Ghost Kitchens concept is so successful that following the waning restrictions of COVID, the virtual restaurants are running strong even as Smokey Bones restaurants are back to full capacity. Stay tuned for more exciting campaigns to come during football season.
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Brand Designs
BACKGROUND
The Original Pancake House is a chain of pancake houses in 28 states across the United States serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have franchises in Canada that started in 1958 that are still operating, and have recently expanded into both Japan and South Korea. The Original Pancake House follows traditional, homestyle recipes and touts fresh, wholesome ingredients for all the chain’s fares. The South Florida franchise group with 10 locations sought the services of Ryan William’s Agency and we became its advertising agency of record.
CHALLENGE
The South Florida franchise of The Original Pancake House was experiencing decreases in YTY sales. The marketing messaging had grown stale and ineffective. The company brought in Ryan William’s Agency to revitalize its marketing efforts.
SOLUTION
RWA started by putting together a marketing plan for immediate launch and then a one-year marketing plan and budget. The restaurant chain was heavily print skewed, reaching a declining senior demographic. Print was supplemented by a cable schedule also targeted at seniors. The creative was flat with no direct call-to-action and no clear brand messaging. Traffic on weekends was strong, but weekday traffic was lacking. RWA recommended shifting media to a younger target market and launching new creative with strong product messaging and trackable calls-to-action.
We cancelled all existed media, consolidated budget dollars and shifted to broadcast television, flighted radio promotions and zip-code-specific print inserts and direct mail. Media was placed on a split target: 25-49 families, men 25-54 and seniors. New creative with “not just for breakfast” messaging was developed with specific messaging created for each target. Promotional periods were scheduled with limited time offerings promoted through media and with onsite table tents and signage. RWA worked with individual store managers to effectively launch each promotional period within the OPH ranks. RWA also resurrected the company’s rewards system, creating a stronger customer retention effort.
RESULTS
Within a year, RWA had increased The Original Pancake House’s overall sales growth to 14% YTY. In following years, OPH tracked at at least 5% over previous year’s sales figures until after approximately five years, the franchise was sold and our services were discontinued.
BACKGROUND
Established in 2009 by Amy and Scott Angelo, Oceana Coffee Roasters is one of Florida's original coffee roasters, with a roasting facility and retail location in Tequesta, Florida. Oceana Coffee roasts a long line of single-origin coffees grown in many countries throughout the world. The company's specialty, fair trade and organic coffees are roasted in small batches, are award-winning and coveted by a large local base of coffee connoisseurs.
CHALLENGE
The Angelos' retail and online sales had leveled off to a point where word of mouth and their own grassroots marketing wasn't enough to sustain the increases that they had enjoyed in the company's earlier years. So the industrious couple reached out to Ryan William's Agency to increase sales of its existing mail-order and retail markets and begin a campaign to reach new mail-order customers nationwide. The goal of the Angelos was to slowly and carefully grow that end of the business, as it was tended by only themselves and a handful of part-time workers. Rapid growth, they feared, could overwhelm the modest mail-order business.
SOLUTION
RWA started by polishing the company's brand and story and incorporating both into a robust email marketing campaign as well as into Oceana Coffee's existing website. Communications one to three times weekly with the company's database of customers were broken down into four general silos: educational eblasts about the coffee itself and its origins; reminders of upcoming events, from tastings and pairings to trivia nights at the Oceana Coffee retail location; sales and promotions; and the company's involvement in many charitable endeavors. We also made a powerful public relations push, an area outside of our traditional lane, to garner coverage both locally and nationally. And finally, we covered all of Oceana Coffee's bases via social media.
RESULTS
Although Oceana Coffee did not share sales figures with RWA, the company reported increased sales both locally and nationally, with online sales regularly originating from outside of South Florida. We also acquired coverage in a number of publications throughout the region and scored on-air features, including interviews with the Angelos, with multiple television news outlets.
BACKGROUND
Jon Smith Subs has been a client of Ryan William's Agency for well over 20 years. Founder Jon Smith is a creative, enthusiastic and outspoken entrepreneur and his quick serve restaurants and fresh, exceptionally tasty cuisine reflect his character and drive to create a better class of submarine sandwich and associated side dishes. His restaurants cater to families and a frequent blue-collar lunchtime rush for those seeking larger portions and fresher, better-tasting food. The music piped into his locations is always country and his ideas for creating new campaigns are sometimes irreverent. Jon Smith is a hands-on entrepreneur and Jon Smith Subs is the ideal client.
CHALLENGE
At the time Jon Smith approached Ryan William's Agency, the sandwich shop in virtually everyone's lexicon was Subway, with 15,000 locations worldwide in 2001. Since the inception of Jon Smith Subs, Jon had competed with the giant with his handful of shops by serving fresh, better-tasting sandwiches. Hot subs are cooked on a flat griddle at the time an order is placed. Cold subs are sliced fresh from whole meats not unlike at a delicatessen. Clearly the class of cuisine outshined the behemoth with its cost-cutting, assembly-line methods. However, Subway's deep pockets put the chain front and center in the mind of most seeking a sub sandwich. Jon's advertising campaigns would need to be quite memorable to compete in the local market.
SOLUTION
RWA has created many, many campaigns for Jon Smith Subs over the years in a wide variety of mediums including in-store, outdoor, online, radio, print, direct mail and more. Inititaives range from interior signage and window clings introducing new sandwich options to billboards and radio spots that speak to those seeking bigger portions containing high quality, fresh ingredients. Two of the edgier campaigns were: "Good Cuban, Bad Cuban" depicting an image of a Cuban sandwich juxtaposed with an image of Fidel Castro; and "I Hate Jon Smith" paired with an image of a golden retriever lamenting about how when his family brings home a dinner from Jon Smith's there are never leftovers.
RESULTS
High-quality ingredients and bigger portions freshly sliced and grilled in combination with attention-grabbing advertising served Jon Smith quite well with a number of new locations opening throughout Palm Beach County over more than two decades. Recently, the franchise rights were sold and Jon Smith Subs continues to sell and open new locations throughout South Florida.