Chipotle's Esports 'Challenger Series' a Bright Spot in a Sport-less Conundrum

Americans love to watch sports live on TV and at a time that live sports has disappeared Chipotle Mexican Grill has stepped up to the plate and hit a home run so to speak with Esports at chipotlechallengerseries.com  according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.                   

Stepping up to the plate for the first time, Chipotle is hosting its Challenger Series online and giving Esports fans the opportunity to compete against their favorite gaming and celebrity personalities to win $25,000 and free Chipotle for a year. Ok, I know many of you don’t think that Esports is a sport but don’t tell the millions watching live or playing on line.

So, Chipotle understands that we are in a period of physical distancing not ‘social distancing”. They will make a matching prize pool donation of $25,000 towards the winner’s choice of charities supporting the ongoing global crisis. The 2020 Chipotle Challenger Series officially kicked off on April 16th and is part of the brand’s larger movement to encourage social interaction during these unprecedented times.

The first tournament will be a Call of Duty Warzone Challenge, featuring it’s new “Quads” format. For those of you who don’t know there are over 100 MILLION people who play Call of Duty.  This is a great brand relevant move by Chipotle according to Johnson.

Chipotle continues to add new talent to an already star-studded lineup of celebrity participants, including: basketball stars Gordon Hayward and top hoops draft pick Tre Jones, baseball stars Cody Bellinger and Joey Gallo, fan-favorite streamers TimTheTatMan and GoldGlove, actor Cameron Fuller, music producer Sven Thomas, and athlete Demi Bagby. To elevate the viewing experience for fans, former professional gamer Chris Puckett will be shoutcasting the live broadcast of the competition.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Jersey Mike’s Customer Relevance has to be Consumer Facing

The team at Foodservice Solutions® and our Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson have been touting the strength, relevance, new electricity, and loyalty that Esports can bring to a foodservice partnership. Jersey Mike’s understand the relevance and importance of this new sector of sports most of you have simply over looked.

Here is an example from ‘GeekWire’ this week that will give you an example how important the tech industry thinks Esports is and how big they think it will get. According to Geekwire “Microsoft agreed to pay game streaming star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins between $20 million and $30 million per year to join its Mixer streaming platform and leave incumbent leader Twitch, according to a new report from CNN detailing the arms race among tech giants to land big names for their streaming services.

Ninja is one of several high-profile streamers recently poached from Twitch, which Amazon bought for close to $1 billion in 2014, by the likes of Mixer, Facebook and YouTube. CNN reported that streamers with 10,000 or more concurrent views on Twitch are receiving offers of more than $10 million annually while smaller streamers can get up to $1 million.”

For those of you who are just now hearing about Esports the follows and players are younger demographic, with 75 percent of esports fans being millennials. What demo is your target market? 

As for Jersey Mike’s Subs extending its partnership with Team Liquid, a leading international esports team, through 2022. You should know that Team Liquid, which competes across 17 distinct esports.

Program elements include:

·         Jersey Thursdays. The two brands feature content from superstars across Team Liquid’s competitive lineup. Every first Thursday of the month, Team Liquid gives away one Team Liquid jersey and a $50 Jersey Mike’s gift card to fulfill a lucky fan’s sub sandwich craving.

·         Jersey Mic’d. During the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) matches, Team Liquid mics up their players to capture the realest moments in esports, available for fans to download.

·         Subs for Dubs. Team Liquid and Jersey Mike’s celebrate Team Liquid tournament wins by offering fans special discounts on sandwiches, meals and more.

·         New Sub Bombs. Interaction with players and their chat through the “JerseyMike’s” Twitch account, mass gifting to their chat a “sub”scription to that channel.

Are you integrating new electricity into your brand? Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, Online ordering, delivery, plant based foods,  sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? This new partnership does all of that. 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Pizza Hut is Building Consumers Top of Mind and Share of Stomach

Looking a customer ahead, Pizza Hut is building top of mind brand relevance with the fastest growing sport and some may argue most valuable customer sub-set of any sport today according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® while creating new electricity for Pizza Hut’s customers and brand.

Once again Johnson give Greg Creed and his team credit for not only looking a customer ahead but doing it with in a way that integrates Pizza Hut’s brand of virtual restaurants with the first official Virtual Stadium rights deal in Esports.

Electronic Arts Inc. the National Football League (NFL) announced the launch of the EA SPORTS Madden NFL 20 Championship Series. This year’s MCS enhances the connection to the sport as all four Madden NFL Major tournaments occur during key NFL moments – the NFL Kickoff, the NFL playoffs push, the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft. Additionally, official NFL partners Pizza Hut and SNICKERS will serve as official MCS sponsors, heightening the connection to the League.

Rachel Hoagland, NFL Vice President, Head of Gaming & Esports  “We view esports as a key accelerant to growing the NFL. It enables new ways for young fans to engage in the sport through Madden NFL competition,” “Competitive Madden unlocks great potential as the authenticity it provides enhances engagement and the connection between our 32 NFL Clubs and football fans around the world.”

MCS Major live tournaments will occur in Pizza Hut Stadium—the new home of competitive Madden NFL. Pizza Hut Stadium is the first-ever official virtual stadium rights deal in esports. SNICKERS will return for another season after its impactful Madden NFL 19 highlights integration and MCS Moment of the Year Award voted on by the Madden NFL community. SNICKERS will continue to surround the biggest plays and most memorable moments of the MCS.

Marianne Radley, chief brand officer at Pizza Hut "Pizza and sports go hand in hand, and esports is no exception. Pizza Hut has always been a trailblazer in the gaming space, from the days of tabletop Pac-Man in our restaurants, to now, becoming the first-ever brand to have an official virtual stadium rights deal in esports,"  "The goal of all our partnerships is to create 360 fan engagement and we are thrilled to join forces with EA sports to create memorable experiences that connect fans to their favorite sports like never before."

So, is your brand looking a customer ahead?  Are you looking to grow business like you did yesterday or do you want tomorrow customers? Just where is your brand headed? Are you building a larger share of stomach or a larger share of Top of Mind or both?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, plant based  foods,  sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why?

If you are looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Battle for Share of Stomach

Topgolf Fresh Food, Fun, and esports a Recipe for Success

Interactive participatory fresh food experiences filled with hand held food for immediate consumption continue to garner favor with consumers of all ages particularly Millennials in search of discovery according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®

When Topgolf announced a new partnership with esports company Super League Gaming, making it the latest chain to latch onto the rapidly growing market for competitive video gaming edifying its leadership position with foodservice interactive participatory branded relevance, the team at Foodservice Solutions® knew that incremental success was close at hand.

Topgolf will kick off its Super League Gaming event series this month in Las Vegas with Super League Clash Nights, which is based on the popular mobile game "Clash Royale." The partnerships comes on the heels of a partnership between Topgolf and electronics company TCL to create TCL esports lounges in certain Topgolf venues. The lounges will feature real-time gameplay broadcasts on TCL televisions, including live streams and video content from Twitch, YouTube and other digital platforms.

Matt Edelman, chief commercial officer for Super League Gaming stated “Topgolf has established one of the most impressive experiential brands in the world and recognizes that esports can be a significant additional growth engine for their business,”

How have your edified your brand with relevance?  Did you know that the average number of concurrent viewers of the video game viewing platform Twitch has more than doubled to 1.3 million over the past two years? Leagues have emerged around popular video games such as "Overwatch," "Fortnite," and "League of Legends." Top players can earn millions of dollars, and even traditional sports leagues such as the NBA have created their own leagues.

While restaurant chains have slowly dipped their toes into these waters as they’ve sought new ways to lure customers who are less likely to dine out than ever. Buffalo Wild Wings, for instance, features video games heavily in its new store design.

Topgolf is the latest entertainment destination to feature esports. The 52-unit concept calls itself a “sports entertainment community” that boasts a “fan base” of 100 million.  Topgolf’s multilayer complexes feature high-tech golf balls, gaming, climate-controlled hitting bays, events, music and handcrafted cocktails, as well as a menu featuring appetizers, flatbreads, sandwiches, burgers and a kids menu.

Johnson can’t remind food retailers of the value of strategic partnerships often enough since they are a proven platform driving top line sales and bottom-line profits. This relationship is an outstanding example how a brand can drive incremental adoption putting new electricity in your brand relevance.

Food retailers today must understand that relevance drive trial and adoption this new partnership with T-Mobile does that well.   Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing and esports.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Sports Technology Drives Customers into Restaurants

Interactive and participatory eSports just might be the bridge to revive the restaurant sectors disappointing, dismal, declining year over year customer counts according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Not only do all ages participate in eSports but millennials can’t seem to get enough, when they are not playing, they are watching. The new video game phenomenon of esports has made another inroad into the restaurant business with the installation of terminals for simultaneous live play inside the GameWorks fun-and-food chain.

Why you might want to contact someone about eSports its growing at 17% a year. New eSport Lounges enable 20 to 40 guests to play the same video game simultaneously, either casually or in tournaments offering prizes to the winners.  GameWorks said it plans to hold tournaments at least once a month. Players can have food and beverages brought to their seats from The Works Kitchen, the restaurant component of GameWorks branches.

eSports is evolving and is already constituted a $138 billion business by the end of 2018, according to research and consulting firm IDG Consulting. Restaurants potential of landing players and onlookers has prompted other restaurant operators to embrace the emerging “sport” as a way of drawing young consumers’ attention.

Chains the ilk of Buffalo Wild Wings, for instance, recently opened a new prototype that features a section called the MVP Room, which is wired to host esports contests and broadcast the competitions onto TVs throughout the restaurant. Included in the room is a six-tap self-service beer dispensing system.

Even, Jersey Mike’s Subs sponsored the North American League of Legends Championship Series esports tournament this past summer. “We’re looking at the customer of tomorrow,” CMO Rich Hope told Restaurant Business when the 1,600-unit chain announced its backing of the esports league. “We’re looking at customers who are 13 instead of 27. They’re hard to reach with traditional media. This is an opportunity to reach them in an environment they’re in.”

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information