Home Run Burger: Ribbon-Cuttings and Reopenings
Home Run Burger, known for its award-winning burgers, fresh-cut fries and 28 toppings, contracted REED to coordinate and promote its new Nashville location’s grand opening and ribbon-cutting, followed by the grand reopening of its flagship location in Louisville.
INSIGHT:
With so many burger options, connecting and engaging with the local community is essential. By giving back and fostering relationships with prominent content creators, community members, media outlets and customers, you can stand out from the rest.
STRATEGY:
REED researched each market to establish a charitable partner for Home Run Burger to give back to and celebrate joining and rejoining the community. REED partnered with local youth baseball groups to tie into the restaurant’s theme. REED also worked closely with each market’s local chamber of commerce to invite community officials to the ribbon-cuttings and share remarks about the business’s growing local presence. Lastly, the team developed and executed media and influencer relations plans to secure visits to the restaurant and coverage before and after the openings.
ACTIVATION:
REED developed media angles in an editorial calendar and a list of local and restaurant trade media for strategic outreach for the openings and ribbon-cuttings, including drafting and pitching a media alert to invite local media ahead of the events and a press release to announce the openings and charitable donation. From there, the team pitched local broadcast ahead of the ribbon-cutting, which included coordinating a segment and appearance on WKRN’s Local on 2 lifestyle show in Nashville.
To drive restaurant traffic and guide partnership efforts, the team developed target influencer lists in each market aligned with Home Run Burger’s brand, began outreach and coordinated visits. REED also monitored for and shared influencer coverage as available.
REED conducted charitable partner evaluations for both locations and coordinated partnerships with the two baseball groups, Rose Park Middle School Baseball Club in Nashville and Wolves Baseball Organization in Louisville. We invited them to the ribbon-cutting celebrations, facilitated all communication and coordinated Home Run Burger’s $3,000 donation to each.
For the ribbon-cuttings, REED coordinated with the two local chambers of commerce and secured branded balloons, ribbon and a custom big check for the openings. REED also visited both events to help staff and run the ceremonies.
RESULTS:
Throughout the Nashville project, REED garnered 34 total pieces of media and influencer coverage, reaching over 490 million people. The Home Run Burger team was so impressed with the results that they expanded the Nashville scope with REED to continue with influencer partnerships.
Throughout the Louisville flagship project, REED garnered 13 pieces of media and influencer coverage, reaching over 300,000 people.