Name Change -

The Challenge

Once Steakhouse goers reach a certain age, they pick one and settle down, rarely deviating from their establishment of choice

In order to accelerate this behavior, Grain worked alongside creative partners Walrus, to launch the Smith & Wollensky Name Change campaign. In essence, Smith & Wollensky would reward patrons who were willing to take a pledge of allegiance to the restaurant with the utmost piece of flattery: the restaurant would take on their name. Each day (for an entire month,) the restaurant would renamed itself after a patron. They changed everything – the signs out front, the matchbooks, the waiters’ jackets, even the names on the knives.

But how were we going to get people to take the pledge?

What We Did

Grain’s launched a hyper-targeted local media effort with Dealbreaker, Above the Law, Martini Media, NYTimes and Google (SEM) to drive NYC steak-eaters to the S&W pledge page. We rolled out a Native Content program with Dealbreaker media to feature the story and the daily-name  on their homepage for an entire month.

The Result!

By the end of the month, Grain had driven over 28,000 visitors to S&W’s pledge page and generated nearly 400 new reservations. Digital media efforts garnered over 16MM impressions – nearly 2x the contracted volume – due to the popularity of the Native Content.

The Smith & Wollensky “Name Change” campaign  received a 2013 North American Effie Award.

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