Tag Archives: franchise

The Real Purpose of Obscure Holidays

Once in a while, we all try to figure out where the obscure holidays of the world come from, what their true purpose is and how someone could possibly come up with something that outrageous. Just so you get where I am coming from, here are some of the more normal ones and then a few extreme holidays.
We have…World Pasta Day, Waffle Day, Left Hander’s Day, National Tequila Day, If Pet’s Had Thumbs Day, Hug a Newsman Day and of course Save the Rhino Day just to name few. But who doesn’t like a good reason to party? …Whatever that reason may be.

One thing that we know is true is that businesses see a huge influx of customers especially if they choose to celebrate one of these unique holidays that sticks to their business values. We have seen events centered around Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick’s Day, but nothing compares to what we experienced with Philly Pretzel Factory and National Pretzel Day.

Fresh, hot and salty pretzels baked fresh ‘outta the oven… that is Philly Pretzel Factory’s specialty. And they shared them with their guests on Tuesday April 26, 2011 for National Pretzel Day where they gave a free pretzel to each of their guests all day long at their 100 + locations down the Eastern seaboard.

National Pretzel Day was founded in 1983 when Rep. Robert S. Walker of Pennsylvania declared his favorite food was deserving of a holiday. In April of 2003, Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell joined the bandwagon by re-declaring the unofficial national holiday celebrating all that the pretzel has done for the state.

Not only did they gain some major social media kudos points from all of their loyal fans as they posted photos all day long with their free pretzels, but they also secured some pretty awesome local and national television segments. In addition, each location participated in this unique holiday and their franchisees were able to be featured on a local level focusing on the nation’s oldest snack, the pretzel. As we saw throughout the day, fellow Philly Pretzel fans were more than happy to stop by their favorite pretzel shop in town for some snacks all day long in addition to their free pretzel.

By leveraging these obscure holidays, companies like Philly Pretzel Factory can place their product directly in the home of the consumer by utilizing both TV and print media.

JordyA Blog Post By: Jordy Patano (@jordypatano)
Jordy is a Public Relations Account Executive at No Limit and has a dog the size of a small horse. Seriously, he’s huge.

Social Media Skydive with the Bros of the Buzz

The social media team decided to be daredevils this week and shake up the format a little bit. Instead of both commenting on different topics, Evcon and Chadwick will each focus on one story from the week and try to give some more in depth thoughts about the subject. Hope you’re ex-girlfriend didn’t pack your chute, because we just hit 10,000 feet. GO!

Color Me Impressed
EC: I like to imagine that when the news broke of Color’s $41 million pre-launch funding round, a large quantity of people found themselves scrambling for napkins to clean the milk from their noses. I mean, how ridiculous does that sound? How does that happen without some sort of bubble existing? All I know is, you have to use the thing before you actually can decide.

Of course, using it is a bit of a pain. At least in the Android app, nothing is really labeled, and the interface is about as minimal as you can get. It’s also near-useless if you’re all by yourself taking a bunch of one-off pictures. You’ll probably never understand what the point of it is, then throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care… welp, moving on… Thing is, that’s not what it’s about at all.

The magic happens when you use it at a large event such as a concert or a Braves game. Everyone using the app within a certain proximity can see everyone else’s pictures being taken, forming a more collective viewpoint on what’s going on. “Serendipitous” moments abound when you can see what everyone else is doing around you.

The opportunities for brands to connect with fans in new ways using Color are also wide open. Even the viral and clandestine types such as @anonym_us and @cat_lanta can get in on the action and make their giveaways much more interesting. Personally, I’m still waiting for either of them to utilize foursquare.

In the future I can see these collective photo galleries being stitched together to create hugely awesome panoramic or three-dimensional visualizations of big events. Think Google Street View in terms of awesomeness. While I’m pretty sure that’s been done before a few times, Color’s network and infrastructure can really bring that to the masses once it reaches a wider audience.

Color Demo from Color Labs, Inc. on Vimeo.

Foursquare & Twitter Become Even More Brand Friendly

CB: We all know the success Facebook experienced when it opened its doors to businesses a few years ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Today, we see over 50 million interactions between brand and consumer on a daily basis. Facebook has opened the door, turned on the light and has checked under the bed for monsters for smaller Foursquare and Twitter.

This week, Foursquare released a new Pages page in which business pages are in one central location. Within 10 minutes of the release, Evan was following more than 200 brand pages on Foursquare (I think he has a problem). For a company such as Foursquare, whose platform is built off business buy in, this move only made more sense. As Foursquare continues to grow, businesses become more involved and are reaching out to Foursquare in order to claim venues and develop specials. This relationship will undoubtedly continue to prosper. In the future I see business taking up the major part of Foursquare’s site and will offer unique tips, advertisements and specials for their Foursquare Fiending Followers.

With the launch of brand pages on Foursquare, rumors quickly spread that Twitter could also be in the mix with setting up business pages. When I heard this, I was intrigued, of course, but also a bit confused. First, how many of you actually use Twitter’s website? … Crickets … The vast majority of pertinent Twitter users PREFER to use third party dashboards or mobile applications. The biggest perk of Twitter is quick, fast and easy info. I am unsure of how business pages will run on this platform. I am intrigued, but also apprehensive.

In-flight Entertainment

Dogboarding from DANIELS on Vimeo.

Chadwebsite1A Blog Post By: Chad Bryant (@chadATL)
Chad is the Social Media Director at No Limit and went turkey hunting over the weekend, only to kill a poor, defenseless squirrel. He now finds the taste of squirrel to be exquisite.
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Evan websiteA Blog Post By: Evan Connors (@evcon)
Evan is a Social Media Coordinator at No Limit and won free tickets to a pub crawl this weekend through Twitter!