Hospitality

Case Study
Ruby tuesday

ChallEnge 

In the summer of 2010, Ruby Tuesday unveiled a new menu that highlighted new, healthier options made with fresher ingredients. As Ruby Tuesday’s public relations agency of record, Ackermann PR was asked to create awareness for the new menu as part of the company’s brand transformation, “Fresh Taste, Fresh Place.”

    Plan

    With 656 company-owned Ruby Tuesday restaurants, the new menu announcement was national news in terms of scope; however, Ackermann PR had the idea of unveiling the changes  to the local and regional media first through an “invitation-only” event to be held at the headquarters of Ruby Tuesday in Maryville, Tennessee. The idea being that the robust local and regional coverage would enhance the national coverage that would follow.

    One day prior to the new menu taking effect, Ackermann held a “Cooking with Chef Peter” event in the state-of-the-art test kitchen at Ruby Tuesday. Ruby Tuesday is one of the only brands in the casual dining segment to have an executive chef, and  Chef Peter Glander is a media darling. We invited members of the local and regional media, including newspaper, television and a few select high-profile bloggers. Each member of the media was assigned his/her own cooking station. Chef Peter taught them how to prepare one of the ‘Fit & Trim’ dishes from Ruby Tuesday’s new menu. A ‘Fit & Trim’ menu item has less than 700 calories.

    During the cooking lesson, Chef Peter talked candidly about his culinary passion, fresh ingredients at Ruby Tuesday, and why guests we’re going to love the healthy items on this new menu. Ruby Tuesday’s Marketing Director, Mark Young, was also present to answer reporters’ questions, and to hand out copies of the new menu.

    The day the new menu appeared on tables at Ruby Tuesday restaurants across the United States, we distributed the news nationally.

       

      Impact

      The media coverage of the Cooking with Chef Peter event and the new menu was outstanding! Not only did we have 100% participation of local and regional media at the event, the national distribution of the news appeared on the homepage of Yahoo! More than 50 stories were generated, with a total circulation of more than 2.1 million.

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      “As the public has become aware of what they’re eating and if it’s healthy, Restaurants have had to meet those demands. Ruby Tuesday aims to do just that with their new ‘Fit & Trim’ options”.

      • Elizabeth Trexler, The Daily Times