Hardee’s recently rolled out a new addition to their Made From Scratch biscuit line: Biscuit Holes. Rolled in cinnamon and sugar and served with icing for dipping, Biscuit Holes are now available at all participating restaurants, priced at $1.29 for six and $1.99 for 12.
Hardee’s is also asking customers to name its Biscuit Holes with a multi-platform, customer-interactive promotional campaign. The internal marketing debate over the name led to many colorful suggestions, sparking the idea for the product’s advertising campaign.
“We knew there would be a big market for Biscuit Holes when we learned that some of our biscuit bakers have been making a similar product for the rest of their restaurants’ staff and they loved them,” says Brad Haley, Hardee’s executive vice president of marketing. “They really are irresistible and it’s almost impossible to eat just one. But what to call them was a big challenge. One of my favorite options was ‘Biznuts,’ a cross between ‘biscuits’ and ‘donuts,’ since the closest thing to them are donut holes. But there were many other suggestions that were very funny. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat them here.”
The introduction of Biscuit Holes will be supported by a multimedia, integrated platform including advertising, online, mobile, and social media. Key among them is a new microsite called www.NameOurHoles.com.
Some of the new commercials feature a man-on-the-street survey format in which people were asked what they would call the new Biscuit Holes. After hearing such suggestions as “B-Holes” and “Heavenly Balls” and seeing how much fun people were having with the task, the microsite was developed to let everyone try to “name our holes.”
“We love to entertain our customers, but we also like to create ways for our customers to interact with the brand to entertain themselves,” says Brad Rosenberg, Hardee’s manager of digital strategy and marketing. “The NameOurHoles.com microsite does just that. Think you can come up with a funnier or more creative name than Biscuit Holes? We want to hear it. If it makes the cut, we’ll share it with all of our online fans.”
After submitting a creative name to the microsite, visitors can then automatically Tweet it to their followers or post it on their Facebook wall for their friends to see. Visitors can also make video submissions, some of which will be pushed to the Hardee’s YouTube channel where there are additional options to share with friends.
Customers with Internet access on their cell phones will be able to submit their Biscuit Holes name through a mobile optimized site of NameOurHoles.com. Mobile fans can also see product information and photos, watch the Biscuit Holes commercials through streaming video, share the site, and even send a personalized Hardee’s mobile greeting.
