Dive Brief:
- Chain restaurant Wingstop is celebrating National Chicken Wing Day on July 29 with a virtual party and giveaway, the company shared with Marketing Dive via press release.
- The brand is hosting a 24-hour virtual DJ festival for Wingstop Wing Day (WSWD). Beginning at 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 29, the chain will livestream an international music festival at wingstopwingday.com, featuring DJs from around the globe and curated by DJ Jazzy Jeff.
- Guests who order wings online that day or in stores will receive five free bonus wings with any order using the code "5FreeWings." For every five free wings redeemed, the restaurant will donate $1 to Wingstop Charities.
Dive Insight:
Wingstop is tapping into the pent up desire for live music with its latest effort, as the pandemic has canceled summer festivals around the world.
By creating this content in a virtual stream, the chain restaurant has an opportunity to entertain and reach the audiences of these DJs, who will likely share their performance information with their own fan bases on social media. Curator DJ Jazzy Jeff alone has almost 1 million followers on Instagram. This outreach effort may help the brand ramp up wing orders around National Chicken Wing Day.
The virtual music festival aligns with Wingstop's past efforts of creating campaigns designed to spread on social media. In March, the chain used its billboard budget to pay fans $10 to wear branded merchandise, a strategy that turned wing customers into walking billboards. Consumers could visit a microsite to get a free branded sweatshirt and then post Instagram photos of themselves wearing the apparel to win money.
The latest National Chicken Wing Day giveaway follows the brand's strategy from last year for the fast food holiday that involved giving away five free chicken wings to anyone ordering wings and then donating money to local charities.
