Sponsored by UPshow.
It’s no secret that advertising special offers in-store can be a major boon to restaurants. Not only can this strategy help restaurants drive additional sales among guests who might otherwise be unwilling to try a premium offering, but it also helps restaurants work through slow-moving inventory and can even help diners discover a new favorite meal that might convert them into loyal guests. But marketing these promotions hasn’t always been an easy feat, especially when stores are spread across several states.
Take Erin Everett, a media and marketing consultant who is based in Houston, Texas. She works with three Chick-fil-A stores in Houston, but she also works with one store in St. Louis, making it difficult to manage in-store promotional materials. Until recently, she relied on in-store chalkboards to share marketing messages with guests.
“They were very limiting and frustrating,” Everett says. “Chalkboards require weekly or biweekly upkeep, depending on what was on the boards. I usually work remotely, but this meant I had to go into restaurants to update them.”
Additionally, this time-consuming, manual process meant restaurants had less flexibility for their promotions. The chalkboard would list one promotion until it was time to update it again. Without the ability to change promotions quickly or even to change them for dayparts, these restaurants were losing out on valuable promotional real estate.
The leadership at these Chick-fil-A stores decided there was a better way—they replaced their chalkboards with UPshow, a TV-based marketing and entertainment solution that allows businesses to promote specials, show customized content, and provide customers with a steady stream of hyperlocal entertainment. By installing UPshow screens, these Chick-fil-A locations were able to do away with their cumbersome chalkboards and digitize their in-store promotions.
Now, Everett is able to update specials remotely, saving her time and the drive from store to store. Additionally, because UPshow messaging can be quickly updated at home via computer or phone and rolled out to locations, stores are now able to change promotions as often as needed or run multiple messages at once.
“Now I can upload from home, and if we’re running more than one promotion in a week, it’s simple,” Everett says. “I can upload one early in the week, then take it down and replace it with a new one. UPshow has also added more variety in the ways we reach our guests.”
Everett says the UPshow TV system can also help with store- and company-wide initiatives. For example, if the brand wants to increase downloads for the Chick-fil-A mobile app, the TV can display messages about it instead of solely relying on frontline employees to talk about the perks. Additionally, UPshow integrates with the stores’ social media accounts, making it even easier for Everett to manage her workload. Not only is it easy to upload social media posts, but Everett can also schedule posts ahead of time, so that she’s free for other projects.
“Social media is such a big part of my job on a daily basis,” she says. “Now I can use UPshow to not just promote our social media accounts, but also to communicate with people who are coming into the restaurants.”
It’s easy for Everett to display the photos she and the Chick-fil-A store teams take in-store on the UPshow TVs, while also encouraging guests to share their photos, too. This helps Everett establish communication with guests and build a sense of community.
“The world is constantly changing, and we are becoming a lot more digital,” Everett says. “With so many helpful tools available, why would you want to continue doing something old-school, like using a chalkboard?”
By Peggy Carouthers
