Checkers & Rally’s: Buy Back The Block

Credits & Description:

Title: Buy Back The Block
Agency: Fitzgerald & Co
Brand: Checkers & Rallys
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Fitzgerald & Co, Atlanta
Advertising Agency: Fitzgerald & Co, Atlanta
Media Agency: Fitzgerald & Co, Atlanta
Pr Agency: Fitzgerald & Co, Atlanta
Production Company: Woven Digital, Culver City
Chief Creative Officer: Noel Cottrell (Fitzgerald & Co)
Group Creative Director: Ryan Boblett (Fitzgerald & Co)
Group Creative Director: Carl Corbitt (Fitzgerald & Co)
Creative Director: Dave Gordon (Fitzgerald & Co)
Associate Creative Director: Jean Tanis (Fitzgerald & Co)
Chief Strategy Officer: David Matathia (Fitzgerald & Co)
Account Director: Jeff Quick (Fitzgerald & Co)
Management Supervisor: Madison Gargan (Fitzgerald & Co)
Assistant Account Executive: Lauren Edwards (Fitzgerald & Co)
Director Of Emerging Content: Mike Mcgarry (Fitzgerald & Co)
Chief Media Officer: Liz Daney (Fitzgerald & Co)
Group Media Director: Anna Sherrill (Fitzgerald & Co)
Assistant Media Director: Jessica Fergen (Fitzgerald & Co)
Ceo / Chief Creative Officer: Benjamin Blank (Woven)
Head Of Studio: Kurt Anderson (Woven)
Studio Creative Director: Bridger Nielson (Woven)
Head Of Post Production: Matt Lividary (Woven)
Content Strategist: Kaila Mulcahy (Woven)
Creative Brand Strategist: Dina Gachman (Woven)
Director Of Brand Partnerships: Eddie Peña (Woven)
Brand Strategist: Eric Chan (Woven)
Producer: Ricky Lloyd George (Woven)
Client Services Manager: Ryan Lee (Woven)
Director: Alastair Mckevitt (Woven)
Pr Manager: Jose Martinez (Jose Martinez Pr)
Creative Director: Mike Groenewald (Fitzgerald & Co)
Executive Creative Director: Mitch Bennett (Fitzgerald & Co)
Executive Creative Director: Wes Whitener (Fitzgerald & Co)
Strategy:
Checkers’ “Fast Foodies Know The Deal” campaign celebrates our target—unabashed lovers of fast food. These Fast Foodies are young (mostly 25-34), lower-income, and many are seeing the neighborhoods around them slowly disappear. From that insight, we saw an opportunity to tell Rick Ross’s rags to riches story and launch the Buy Back the Block movement, helping save the communities Checkers relies on to thrive. But we knew we had to make every dollar work. So we secured a big, national exclusive with the New York Times that would then cascade into press all over the country: local, regional, and other national publishers. So not only did that press reach our key audience, it also reached key business influencers that would help spread the Buy Back the Block movement.
Outcome:
Aside from making a noticeable impact on our audience, we broke through mainstream barriers after being written about by the likes of New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, and XXL. Along with Ross being an active brand ambassador on social, DJ Khaled even shared the story on Twitter with his 3.27 Million followers. Other stats include:-1.8 Million hours spent watching content -Over 300 Million media impressions-Traffic up 4.4% and Sales up 1.6% in a declining category-And the movement continues. #BuyBackTheBlock
Campaign Description:
Our idea was to fuel a movement to empower our audience in a way only Checkers could, led by a successful neighborhood voice: rap mogul Rick Ross. Ross has always been a genuine fan of Checkers. His love for the brand began when he was working at a car wash right next to McDonald’s. Hardly making enough to afford his lunch every day, he would go to Checkers since they had the most affordable and best tasting food. So we sold Rick Ross his childhood Checkers. We followed him back to his hometown of Carroll City Florida, and told his story in a documentary about the Buy Back the Block movement. Then Ross dropped a hit song and video by the same name, with Checkers worked into the lyrics and album art as Ross raps about buying back his neighborhood one brick at a time.
Synopsis:
Checkers has a genuine connection with members of the community who are their biggest fans. Their audience is mostly lower-income, and can spot insincere attempts from brands. We needed to find a way to connect with them in a genuine way, with a limited budget.The opportunity we saw for the brand centered around the fact that much of our target lives in areas that are slowly disappearing as they lose ownership of the community. They feel like they’re being pushed out of the neighborhoods they’ve called home for years. And the success of Checkers is directly tied to the success of these communities.
Execution:
First we sold Ross his childhood Checkers. Then we launched a documentary about him doing it, and kicking off the Buy Back the Block movement. The film launched on Uproxx and BroBible, accompanied by articles about the deal and the movement.By leveraging Ross’ star power, we secured a national exclusive with the New York Times, which lead to reports in BET, Rolling Stone, Spin, and XXL. This different mix of publicity helped us spread the Buy Back the Block movement by hitting both our Checkers audience and high profile, key influencers. The promotional period ran from December 19th – January 8th. The Buy Back the Block song and music video, which call out Ross’s deal and the Checkers brand rose to the top of the charts and work as a constant reminder of the brand’s connection with the audience.
Relevancy:
Burger chain Checkers plays an important role in challenged communities. So to truly play our part, we launched a program for people to invest in their own community. Buy Back the Block is simple idea to ensure a living community with jobs, social interaction and hope. And we got the whole nation on board by partnering with 6-time Grammy-nominated artist and rap mogul Rick Ross offering him to buy his childhood Checkers. The partnership turned into a documentary, and a hit song and a video called Buying Back the Block. All of it covered by the nation’s top media outlets