Thursday, January 8, 2009

Critique of TGIF tie-in with Food Network and URS-2

I found this to be a very interesting article - paraphrased here:

Pairing Food with Franchise - Tessa Wegert, Jan 8, 2009

When the show debuted last February, (TGI Friday's) announced it would be featuring the winning recipes on its menu for restaurant-going viewers to judge for themselves. The Friday's "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" menu is back. And this time, it comes with a nice selection of online media.

To promote its connection to the show, Friday's has established a presence on the Food Network site ....

Where Friday's could have done better is in its selection of page placements on foodnetwork.com. The chain has the "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" section covered with a sponsorship. That's a no-brainer. Given that its spokesperson-slash-Food Network chef also hosts two other unrelated shows, however, placing additional banners in those sections of the site would have been a stealthy move.

Like many TV chefs, Fieri has a big personality. Viewers will either love him or hate him, without much in between. And if they love him, they'll love him on his other shows as well. What a perfect chance for Friday's to expand its reach and up the odds of reaching potential customers by covering more Fieri-related pages.

Contextually, there's no connection between, say, "Guy's Big Bite" and the custom menu at Friday's. But Guy represents a common ground that's just as likely to be traversed by a new or already loyal customer as the site section that overtly promotes "Ultimate Recipe Showdown."

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