Be Innovation

Chili’s did some market research and found out that most of the restaurant chains in their category have rather bland food compared to their own.  So naturally, they decided to tell the world this very discovery in a new ad campaign.

But this time, they did something that really speaks to the times we are living in.  They decided to go after the social media space, and go after it in a big way.

In Wednesday’s post, I discussed how more companies trying to enter the social media playing field will imminently cause the space to be overcrowded and boring.  But Chili’s, in my opinion, is going about it in all the right ways.

The campaign is based around a fictional restaurant chain called “PJ Blands“, which already sounds like a play on Friday’s.  And of course they have the traditional television commercials, which feature PJ Bland himself discussing the amazing new “cardboard-style” menu items at his restaurant.  This then leads to the decision of the featured consumers to choose taste, and eat at Chili’s.

Then, to back up the commercials, they created a website for the fictional restaurant.  And the website it dynamic, featuring many of the same things you would find on a REAL restaurant’s site.  It offers things like career applications, menu items, history of the company, and PJ himself discussing how amazing the new restaurant is.

After that, you can find a Twitter account for PJ, a Flickr account, all their commercials on YouTube, and much, much more.  It’s obvious that Chili’s recognized the need to go social, and put the time and money into it to get it right.  This is a story that has the ability to spread.  It builds the right kind of message, fun and casual, that will spread links.  All of this goes to build brand awareness of the Chili’s restaurant chain and makes them a player in the social media landscape.

For other companies that are looking to test the waters in our Web 2.0 world, exploring how Chili’s went about launching the PJ Blands campaign is a good start.  I commend the advertising people who came up with this idea, and the higher ups at Chili’s who saw the value in committing resources to this type of project.

But that’s just one man’s opinion.  Check out the campaign for yourself and tell me what you think in the comments area below, or by sending me a quick email.  It’s the opinion of all of us that really matters.

We operate in the era of perpetual online expansion.  New forms of social networks and media channels continue to develop and grow all around us.  As consumers, we have more options than ever before on who we talk to, how we communicate and share information, and where we spend our time.  And companies, seeing the potential, have started to join us in this new space.  Successful efforts by those early corporate adopters of social media have led to an increased demand for other companies and competitors to join in the race.

But as more and more companies look to focus their attention online, they run the risk of turning this platform into just another commercialized media outlet.

The social web was built for creativity.  Companies that are most successful offer us genuine ideas, fun promotions, odd games and characters, and easy to find information.  They use various networks to deliver one unique voice and help us discover things that we really want or need.

The problem comes when companies enter the space with no real plan or vision.  Too often, the higher ups who control the money will consider online marketing just another form of advertising, throw some money at it, and leave it at that.  Since they won’t take the time to understand it, they may decide that whatever it is that they are doing is not working, and abort or change the strategy.

Unfortunately, there are too many companies that are too conservative to do anything differently.  We are in danger of allowing this online space to grow boring as more corporate blogs, and Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages discuss and share the same old information.  There are now social media consultancies that offer to get you started and coach you through the social web.  Content runs the risk of being generic and bland.  And all of the sudden, you’ll have thousands of companies just promoting themselves slowly and sparingly with no real rhyme or reason.

True social media success, from a corporate perspective, really cannot be measured. At least not in dollars and cents like CEO’s are used to measuring everything else.  It is a presence, an overall sense of being there for the consumer, a connection and personalization of brands and services.

This post from Chris Brogan goes through a list of things to measure for solid online content.  It is important that as more companies go online and try to communicate with users that they generally put effort into it.  If your company has a problem with communication or consumer backlash, throwing money at it will not make it go away.

Be real, be original, and save us from “social blanding”.