Advertising Case Study

Anne Leonard-Palmer, Digital Marketing Manager, Bob Evans

Bob EvansCompany Background

Founded in 1953, Bob Evans Farms is a Nasdaq-listed,

$1.7-billion restaurant and retail food products company.

It operates nearly 600 restaurants in 18 states and

distributes a wide variety of refrigerated and frozen

foods across the United States and Canada.

Objective

In July 2010, Bob Evans set out to drive awareness of

its Facebook Page – the free public profile that enables

companies to share their business and products with

Facebook users on an ongoing basis. “National French

Fries Day provided a fun and uniquely engaging platform

for Bob Evans,” says Diane Walter, Digital Strategist at

Brunner, Bob Evans’ digital marketing agency. “The holiday

was a reason to celebrate with our fans, while also

driving awareness and trial of our Sweet Potato Fries.”

The company was looking to increase in-store traffic for

National French Fries Day by giving away a free Sweet

Potato Fries appetizer with any purchase on the day itself.

“This was the first giveaway we’ve done that was specific

to Facebook,” says Anne Leonard-Palmer, digital marketing

manager at Bob Evans. “We wanted to grow the number

of fans for the brand and, above and beyond all that,

to see if the idea would resonate with our audience.”

Approach

The campaign took place between July 6 and National

French Fries Day on July 13 with a strong call-to-action: “Free

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Agency:

Objective: Drive awareness of Bob

Evans’ Facebook Page and increase

in-store traffic for National French

Fries Day

Solution: Ads offering users a coupon

to receive a free Sweet Potato Fries

appetizer with any purchase on the Day

Key Lessons:

• Facebookprovidesan

excellent hub for in-store as

well as online promotions

• Anadwithastrongcall-to-

action, placed with relevant

geographic-targeting, can

create great interest and

participation

“The campaign taught us that we have a large, ready-made audience on Facebook that’s

receptive to the things Bob Evans is promoting.”

Advertising Case Study

Sweet Potato Fries With Every Purchase on July 13.”

Bob Evans made use of Facebook’s target filtering by

targeting users located in major Bob Evans markets

in 17 states. “We explored age and interest targeting,

but we thought that might limit our base too much,”

says Adam Miller, Digital Media Planner and Buyer

at Brunner. “So we went with very granular geo-

targeted approach by sitting down with a map of

each Bob Evans location and typing each town into

Facebook. Those with only one or two locations

received a zero-mile radius, while larger clusters

received a 10-mile radius, and so on. And the brand

is such an Ohio institution that we just targeted the

whole state.” The ads drove users to the Promotion

tab on Bob Evans’ Facebook Page, where users could

print a coupon to redeem in-store.

Results

• Thecampaigngeneratednearly85million

impressions, nearly 6 million of which were social

• Thecampaigngenerated21,352clicks,withan

average cost-per-click of well below a dollar

• ThenumberofpeopleclickingtolikeBob

Evans grew by 12,000 during the week of the

promotion and by another 5,000 during the 10

days following it.

• Duringthetwo-weekperiod,thenumberof

people who connected to Bob Evans’ Page by

liking it rose from 22,000 to over 40,000

• Thecampaignsawareturnoninvestmentof

between 200 percent and 300 percent. According

to Anne, the campaign “more than paid for itself”

• 2,181couponswereredeemed

“The campaign taught us that we have a large,

ready-made audience on Facebook that’s receptive

to the things Bob Evans is promoting,” says Anne.

The Future

Bob Evans is now intent on building a community

for the brand on Facebook. “Our campaigns will be

strengthened by our Facebook community. Instead

of pushing information via TV or radio, we now have

a lot of back-and-forth and daily conversations on

our live Wall feeds,” says Anne, referring to the place

on the Page where brands can communicate with

their fans through status updates. “There are a lot

of feel good things about the brand – farm heritage,

nostalgia – that the Facebook community can tap

into. We have a new tab on our Facebook Page

that acts as a hub for all our promotions. The only

challenge for us, going forward, is to have enough

room to talk about all the things we want to address

with our Facebook audience.”