The Bloggess, Fantasy Football & Restaurant Marketing

November 3, 2009

Three things that have nothing in common, no?  Well, you may be right about The Bloggess, although I’d love to hear her definition of fantasy football.  The Bloggess is who Bette Midler would be today if she were a Gen Xer (or Yer, how old are they now, anyway?) and sported a Texas accent.  I stumbled upon her  ramblings yesterday (The Bloggess’, not Bette’s) and found them quite entertaining.  Be duly warned that she may a bit bawdy and profane for some tastes, however she is solely to blame if I’m a bit sassier than usual in my writing today.

Now that we’ve got that bit out of the way, what I really want to talk about is fantasy football as it relates to internet marketing for restaurants.  Yes, really.  While on ESPN.com this morning, it dawned on me that there are many similarities between running a successful fantasy football team and executing a profitable restaurant website marketing campaign.  Yes, really, and no, Matt, it was not simply to justify my time spent on football rather than work.  Yes, really.

For those of you unfamiliar with fantasy football, it is a hobby in which nearly 25 million people, such as Matt and myself, are “owners” of a football team comprised of NFL players.  Each week, the players earn a score based upon their performance and the total of each player’s score determines the team score.   The object of the game is to garner the highest point total from your roster on any given week.

In fantasy football (FFB), you hear a lot about the “must-start” player, which refers to a player who is so reliable and necessary, you simply must have him in your lineup every week, regardless of opponent or challenging circumstance.  If you have Peyton Manning on your roster, he is your starting quarterback every week, period.  The restaurant marketing equivalent of the must-start?  An effective website.  A restaurant simply must have a user-friendly website that is designed to convert human visitors to restaurant guests and to rank well in search engine queries. Period.

The term “sleeper” is used quite often in fantasy football.  A sleeper is a player who is not well known at the start of the season, yet he has the potential to perform very well and may just become this year’s gridiron superstar.   Twitter appears to be the current sleeper in restaurant marketing.  Twitter certainly isn’t the most popular social network in the country (Facebook has a firm grip on that spot with more than 30 times the number of unique visitors as Twitter), however it is the fastest growing network, boasting an increase of 867% in unique visitors when compared to November 2008.  From the Kogi truck in L.A. to the Naked Pizza outlets, there seem to be no shortage of case studies touting the many possibilities a Twitter campaign offers to a restaurant’s marketing mix.  The results have been so positive that by this time next year we may be placing both Twitter and Facebook in the “must-start” category for restaurants located in larger DMAs.

Just as most every football season has a sleeper, every season has a bust.  As you might guess, this is essentially the opposite of the sleeper; a player who is expected to perform very well who doesn’t live up to the hype.  MySpace, anyone?  In 2007, MySpace was the elite of social networking.  Even as recently as October 2008, MySpace usage outpaced Facebook by nearly nine million unique visitors.  14 short months later, MySpace’s relevance in the social media marketing conversation is nearly extinct.  The site not only has lost nearly 10% of the 40 million visitors it enjoyed last October, it has seen it’s usage drop 7% year-over-year while both Facebook and Twitter have realized increases of 208% and 867%, respectively, in that same time frame.  Ouch.  To use fantasy football parlance, if you haven’t already done so, feel free to cut MySpace at any time from your roster.  Clearly your time is better invested elsewhere.

Both the FFB team owner and the restaurant marketing professional must do thorough research to realize maximum reward for their effort.  In FFB, there are league rules dictating how many players at each position a team can have on the roster at any given time and from there, the team owner must decide which lineup will earn the maximum number of points in each game.  Likewise, an online marketer must decide which internet channels and marketing initiatives will bring the highest returns for the time and money invested.  Neither arena offers guarantees of success, however; this year’s sleeper could very well be next year’s bust.  The internet marketer and the FFB owner alike must assess what, if any, risks they are willing to take to reap the possible rewards while giving careful consideration to mitigate the risks where they present themselves.

Both also have to remain focused on the big picture.  It’s fairly common as an owner to become fixated on one position or player, inevitably leading to a miscue in another area.  Similarly, even the most experienced of us can get caught up in the latest marketing trend (see Twitter, above) while losing sight of the other components that are necessary for a successful campaign.  SEO, local search, quality copywriting, pay-per-click campaigns and reputation management may not be the latest shiny object, however an online marketing strategy that ignores these elements puts the entire program at risk of failure.

Finally, in both FFB and restaurant marketing, the winner has to have reliable data from which to draw sound conclusions.  Trying to lead a profitable website marketing campaign without strong analytics is akin to making roster decisions based solely upon last week’s performance.  Both attempts are shortsighted and unlikely to result in a trip to the Super Bowl.

There you have it; fantasy football and internet marketing success together in slightly less than 1000 words.  See, Matt, I really was working today!

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