This project has humbled me. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic our local restaurants were struggling to stay in business. I had just started at the Bank of Utah as their Marketing and Communications Specialist in March. That was around the same time that everything shut down. So one of our primary objectives in that first week was to do two things. 1. Help the struggling community while maintaining the social distancing mandates put in place by the local government. 2. stay top of mind with our customers.
From April 15 – May 15, 2020, Bank of Utah sponsored the Chow Down Challenge. This campaign invited the public to support local restaurants by ordering food to go, taking a photo of their order, and posting it on social media. The post needed to include the local restaurant’s name and location, and the hashtag #BoUChowDown and @BankofUtah. Bank of Utah then pledged to give $20 to participating restaurants for every takeout or delivery order photo that customers posted during the spring campaign.
Being new to the team, and new to the Bank, I called all 17 branch managers to notify them of the social event. I then called all our customers who were restaurant owners to ask if they would be willing to participate in the Chow Down Challenge. This resulted in 55 participating restaurants, all of which were so excited to be a part of the event. We encouraged these restaurants to post and share Bank of Utah’s Chow Down Challenge on their own social media platforms. I also created flyers for restaurants to share with their customers at their locations.
The bank publicized the Chow Down Challenge on a limited budget through traditional media relations; organic and boosted social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; email blasts to customers and a bank blog post featuring a restaurant bank customer. In all of its social posts, the bank featured a link to a landing page on the bank’s website for more information. I was the main contact and coordinator for the event and created the marketing collateral for all the various channels.
Results:
The Chow Down Challenge was a hallmark success.. Bank of Utah distributed nearly $8,000 to local restaurants, averaging around $200 each. Some restaurants gave the cash directly to employees. The campaign generated 5,201 web page visits, making it the third most visited page on bank’s website during the campaign. Much of this traffic can be contributed to the 14 news stories that were generated. This included features in the Standard-Examiner and the Salt Lake Tribune. The estimated reach of the news stories through the various media channels was over 300,000 media impressions in one month.
Finally, the campaign won Bank of Utah a Sales and Marketer of the Year (SAMY) award from Utah Business. I was honored to be featured in the Utah Business magazine as a result.
