French Toast and Meeting Expectations: One Key to Sponsor Activation
Posted: 10/1/2009 9:22:01 AM by
Vinu Joseph | with 2 comments
After reading Jim Andrews’ take on IHOP’s NFL-themed menu last month, I wondered what could incite such a passionate screed against stuffed French toast. And so it was that I found myself walking into an IHOP on a recent Sunday morning for the first time in nearly a decade.
Upon walking in the door, I was greeted by two smiling hostesses wearing NFL team jerseys. When I sat down, I received the regular menu, as well as a special menu featuring the NFL-themed items such as a line of Quarterback Scrambles and the much-maligned AFC and NFC French toast and pancakes. Cheesy? Yes. But it got my attention, which is what these promotions are designed to do.
I ordered the strawberry AFC French toast (despite my NFC leanings) and waited to see what I’d get. And what came out was a slice of stuffed French toast that looked like a football, right down to the icing laces. It looked just like the picture from the menu. And it actually tasted pretty good. At the end of the meal, I walked away satisfied both by my breakfast and the promotion.
My culinary adventures aside, one of the common failings in sponsor activation is poor execution. You’re invited to check out a sponsor’s exciting new Web site, and the content is self-serving and rarely updated. You visit a sponsor’s interactive display at a festival, and it’s staffed by disinterested employees.
For all the effort sponsors expend to capture the audience’s attention, some sponsors don’t know what to do when they finally get it. I’d like to think consumers want sponsors to bring great things to the table. Too often, those same consumers are left disappointed by the outcome.
If a sponsor is being positioned as enhancing the consumer experience, then it needs to live up to that billing. Realistically what enhances the experience at a local fair will probably be different in scope than what enhances the experience at a pro sports event.
Then again, sometimes the consumer just needs a piece of French toast to come out warm and looking like a football. Kudos to IHOP for delivering on expectations.
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Filed under: sports, activation