Geno Church of Brains on Fire

Geno Church’s claim to fames are that he was born the son of a preacher-man, scored 50 points in a high-school basketball game, was in a glam-rock band (while he was a Leif Garret look-alike) in the 70s and nobody can ever figure out where his accent is from (it’s Southern). Oh and he’s a quoted, sought-after and stalked thought-leader in uncovering the DNA of sustainable word of mouth movements and building them from the ground-up. Seriously. Addys. Wommies. Forrester Groundswell Awards. And a finalist for an EFFIE (we won’t know the results for a couple of weeks).

Brands Geno’s loved on include Fiskars Brands, the American Booksellers Association, Rawlings Sporting Goods, National Family Partnership, Charleston Parks Conservancy, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and Rage Against the Haze (South Carolina’s youth led anti-tobacco movement).

He contributes to the topish-ranked Brains on Fire blog (www.brainsonfire.com/blog), speaks at events nationally and abroad (we almost lost him in South Africa last year – twice) and is widely quoted in blogs and traditional print on a regular basis. Geno’s Southern, approachable and probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. No kidding.

Michelle Makowski of Intuit Back to Speakers Blake Cahill of Visible Technologies

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

The final session of the conference featured a case study on Houlihan’s Restaurants, presented by Jen Gulvik, VP Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

In the past few years Houlihan’s has undergone a tremendous transformation. Spreading the word about this has been an interesting challenge. They’re not a national advertiser. While they are in some major markets, they don’t have the budget that many of their competitors do.

The task was to see if they could turn their customers into a marketing force. In the past many of their restaurants had established e-mail lists, it was one-way only. However they do receive a large amount of customer feedback, and this is increasing. She thinks this matches the trend of customers taking control of their brand experiences.

At a WOMMA event a year ago, Jen realized that they’re in an industry (food & beverage) that is heavily talked about. Why not take advantage of that?

First step was to determine who their brand lovers were. They created and sent out a survey. Some quick metrics: 114,949 sent, 18,695 received. From there they began to build out a program, an advisory group. This group would advise them on menu choices and other brand assets. They also developed a program for the HouliFAN’s.

The primary communication channel with the advisory group is the HQ, a password protected site that allows Houlihan’s to provide information to the fans. It also allows them to participate in coversations and get feedback.

One of the first things they did was ask the advisory group, what would you do? Early on they saw an issue related to the removal of fajitas from the menu, or as Jen said, a fajita-freakout.

Once the site was established with the advisory group, it expanded to the entire fan-base, the HouliFANs.

Soon afterwards they rolled out a new menu and used their fans and the site to spread the word. They found that 35% of the fans had spread WOM about the menu.

The program is still new and growing but they’ve been thrilled with the response and feedback they’ve received.

Geno Church of Brains on Fire

On the agenda

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

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