Making Mona Lisa copycat-sad

The copycat(er)
Big Mac - Mona Lisa - McDonald's Belgique









The 2nd copycat(er)
Neviot - Mona Lisa

The Original

Brunch Mona Lisa

Benihana Kuwait: Bloggers Unite

PLEASE COPY THIS POST AND POST IT IN YOUR OWN BLOG, TUMBLR, FLICKR PHOTO OR WHATEVER IN SUPPORT OF A FELLOW BLOGGER.
FOR THE STORY, SKIP TO THE END.

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My Benihana Experience

A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.

We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Maki’s negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldn’t order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didn’t work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since I’m on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).

I shot the two videos [video one and video two] above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above. Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.

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The above post is a reproduction of Mark Makhoul’s original post on his blog 2:48AM. Mark, a blogger living in Kuwait, is now the subject of a $18,000 lawsuit filed by the Kuwaiti franchisee of global Japanese restaurant chain Benihana. Mark’s crime? Posting a mildly critical restaurant review on his blog, 2:48AM. A frank but even-handed review, even if negative, does not warrant legal action and that this is not how global brands like Benihana should engage with bloggers.
Despite a massive outcry on blogs, social and mainstream media, both Benihana in Kuwait and Benihana of Tokyo, the New-York based franchisor, have steadfastly refused comment and the court case is, as of the time of writing, still set to commence on 8 March 2011.
Benihana in Kuwait first deleted critical comments from its Facebook page and then blocked anyone who had been outspoken against them. Benihana of Tokyo has not replied to a single request made using the contact form on its website, despite a promise to return comments within 24 hours. Neither has it responded to calls on this from bloggers and journalists.
We are defending bloggers’ rights to freedom of expression.
We believe that suing a consumer for expressing an opinion is totally unacceptable. We believe that a company arrogant enough to ignore the very real expressed concerns of thousands of consumers is arrogant enough to think it can press ahead with this suit – one which would set a very worrying precedent for Middle East bloggers. We want to send a clear message out – that today’s consumer has the right to express an opinion online – whether that be satisfaction or dissatisfaction – without fear of bullying and litigation from companies.
Consequently, today, 14 February 2011, bloggers are posting a copy of Mark’s original My Benihana Experience post to their own blogs and Facebook pages.
In an effort to highlight both Mark’s predicament and Benihana’s apparent keenness to sue bloggers, friends of Mark and fellow bloggers around the world can join us in re-posting a copy of Mark’s original Benihana post today. They sued him – will they sue all of us?
It’s not too late to join us! The day is young…
You can follow the hashtag #BenihanaKUW on Twitter and Like the Boycott Benihana Kuwait page on Facebook.

Facebook, saved a local restaurant

To see at the happy crowd at Bistro 17 (facebook|website) on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, you’d never think that just 3 months ago, they were close to shutting down for good. Owner Anna Buckingham says,

“Business was so slow at that point, even during the tourist season, that we were wondering if we should call it quits.”

But now this French-themed restaurant with mouth watering brie and an obsession with containers and dogs is a word-of-mouth sensation and always busy. In fact, they’re one of the few restaurants doing really well in the off-season

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From closing to thriving… To what do they owe this remarkable turnaround?

Fortunately for Anna, one of her regular patrons runs a Hilton Head Island Facebook page with 65,000 fans.  Anna tends to make friends with all her customers. So they teamed up, and created this winning combination:

• 
  
• Promotion and contests on the Hilton Head TravelTell Facebook page.
• Radio-style call-in contests
• Free mimosas

Partner With Large Facebook Pages

I’ve used this tactic myself in the past. When I was helping a Myrtle Beach hotel group grow its fan-base, we partnered with a large (200,000+ fans) Myrtle Beach destination Facebook Page to run a contest. The hotel group only had about 2,000 fans before this co-promotion. Within 24 hours we had crossed the 5,000 fan threshold and had 1,000 new emails from people who had indicated they were interested in receiving discount stay offers.

And it’s worth it to partner with smaller pages, too. Previous to this contest, we met another local marketer who had a Myrtle Beach themed page with 8,000 fans. He generously re-posted our contests for a few weeks and helped us gain hundreds of new fans.

Radio Style Call-In Contests

You’ve heard these all your life. I had too, so it was kinda thrilling to participate in one. And they work surprisingly well on Facebook. This means we should try to repurpose tactics that worked before the Internet and find out they work with the Internet.

Watch a video of how to answer Facebook contest call-ins!

Complimentary Alcohol? How Can You Go Wrong With That?

You have to be careful. Choose the wrong alcoholic drink, and you attract the wrong crowd.

But Bistro 17 chose to give away bottomless mimosas with breakfast. They’re not the first restaurant in the world to do this – in fact, none of what we’re talking about is completely new, but it all fits together and it gets more business. Fortunately, people who just want alcohol don’t tend to be attracted to the bottomless mimosa concept. It’s a common brunch item, and it fits the Bistro 17 menu. It’s also the kind of sparkly incentive that attracts more people and adds to the social lubrication that makes it fun restaurant to spend time at.

Passions and Promotion

Anna would shoot me if I didn’t mention her passion – Bistro 17 is dog friendly. They have dog bowls and treats on hand. She says,

“When people have their dogs here, they talk to each other more, and it’s a completely different place.”

For the business, it provides a unique advantage – one that increases social activity, which will solidify customer devotion and increase chances for word of mouth activities.

For example:

What can we learn from this to apply to promoting other local businesses? Having a secondary passion helps promote a local business.

Lessons: Social Is The Common Theme

If you haven’t noticed, being friendly and building relationships is core to all of the strategies mentioned above.

• Make Friends: People with large Facebook pages don’t post your stuff for free if they don’t like you.
• Focus on Service: No matter how much you promote a service business, if the people aren’t friendly, you don’t have service, and you won’t be able to keep or multiply the customers.
• Alcohol makes people friendlier – generally 
• Use Social Objects: Both the Bistro 17 doggie dishes and the patrons’s dogs are social objects – they make conversations easier to start and they warm the heart. Smiles are more likely. And smiles at restaurants are good for business.

Hell Pizza New Zealand|Deliver me to Hell!

Pizza and zombies - not a combination that immediately leaps to mind, but then Hell Pizza is not a company that adheres to the conventions of its category.
Recognising that consumers spent more money online, Hell Pizza have wisely created strong content to pull customers into that environment. Adding vouchers to the end of the video journey was a brilliant way to link video activity to sales.

Brand names in the pizza delivery sector tend to be fairly uninspiring. Outside of the big brand names like Dominos and Pizza Hut, most cities around the world are home to at least one pizza delivery firm with a vaguely Italian sounding name. Hell pizza had already marked itself out from the crowd with its unusual name, but when it came to engaging its consumers it still needed something different.

Most food delivery companies focus on their products. TV and online activity tends to be little more than another expression of the outlet's menu, but Hell Pizza recognised that online orders tickets were on average 30% more than telephone orders  - so devised a purely online strategy to shift consumers from their phone to their laptop.

What separated Hell Pizza's viral video was the interactive element. In "Deliver Me to Hell", viewers watched as the brave Steve attempted to cross a city full of zombies to deliver his pizza. At the end of each clip, viewers were given a choice of what should happen next, sometimes sending Steve and his consignment of pizza margaritas to a gruesome end.

Anyone who could successfully direct Steve safely through the zombies received a voucher for free bottles of Coke, and they were entered into a draw to win a year's supply of free pizza - powerful incentive to complete the mission!

"The first point of the campaign was to make a wicked innovative adventure online that had never been done before, and the second was to drive sales", said a Hell director Stu McMullin. "Hell Pizza has always been a tech forerunner and we employed good local kiwi talent and directors. In NZ we are one of the largest online companies.  We average 22% online for total pizza sales and 35% of that is in town centers. Our web average ticket is 30% more in value - so we are all about getting customers online."

Since the campaign started Hell have seen a strong spike in sales online and of those people that were ordering and using the free coke vouchers, 43% were new customers.

BRAND:Hell Pizza

BRAND OWNER:Hell Pizza

CATEGORY:Food

REGION:New Zealand

DATE:July - July 2010

MEDIA OWNER:YouTube

MEDIA CHANNEL:Branded Content,Online,TV

Mc Donald's - Playland

For kids, McDonalds is a fun, exciting place. They wanted to bring that feeling back to adults. So they did something only Macca’s could. They built an adult-sized Playland in the middle of Sydney. It wasn’t your average Monday Morning. Grown-ups engaged with McDonald’s in a way they hadn’t for years. People see “I’m lovin it” in all their ads. This time they felt it.


Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia.

Mini Cooper “The Car That Became a Hamburger”

In a partnership with Lanchonete da Cidade fast food chain, one of the trendiest in São Paulo, they developed the Cooper Burger, a sandwich inspired by the origin of the car, made with typically British ingredients. Besides the meal, upon the order, the customer received an exclusive place mat and a coupon for a test-drive and a 10% rebate on the acquisition of products from the MINI Lifestyle collection. Over 5 thousand sandwiches sold in just 2 months. Over a thousand test-drives performed, bringing forth twice the expected sales for Brazil. Highlight in targeted television programs, newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites. Today, the sandwich is part of the restaurant’s permanent menu.

Agency: Pepper São Paulo, Brazil.

Real chips in an artificial world.

To present the product in an attractive manner, large breast model holding the chips & saying Real chips in an artificial world.

Burger King} Chucky, Freddy, Jason, Scream

We were asked to communicate that Burger King stays open until the wee hours of the morning. Thomas and Kris came up with the following campaign showing the villains of the night that we know all to well, enjoying their favourite meal after a umm night out. The ads were shot in South Africa and Dubai by French photographer Ben Dauchez and retouched by Thomas himself. A job well done! The series comprises of four ads which will run in press and outdoor.


“Open late. Now open until 4AM every night. Burger King. Have it your way.”




Advertising Agency: Tonic, Dubai, UAE
Creative Director: Vincent Raffray
Art Director: Thomas Derouault
Copywriter: Kris Richardson

Burger King|Have it your way

VIA

Personally i loved the hilarious playing on a typical stereotype and how to mess with “ Americans blonds” who would believe anything told...American gullibility.

Advertising Agency: Tonic Communications, Dubai

Creative Directors: Vincent Raffray, Khaled Gadallah
Post: Chimney Pot, Dubai
Production House: Zoe, Beruit
Director: Chadi Younes

Domino's listened

Domino's will be marketing their new pizza aggressively in the next several weeks with advertising on many top-rated entertainment and sports programs, sampling opportunities throughout the country and a strong web-based presence. They will also motivate trial with a special introductory offer of two medium, two topping pizzas for $5.99 each.
www.pizzaturnaround.com

Kudu restaurant: Drive thru since 1988

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Creative Director: Mehdi El Alj
Art Director / Copywriter: Noel Denola
Published: November 2009