Earls is a premium casual restaurant chain that has been in Canada for over 30 years. It started in 1982 with a father and son team that opened up a beer and burger joint in Edmonton. Their signature item was the Bigger, Better Burger. But a lot has changed since 1982.

The Bigger, Better Burger is still one of the most popular items on the menu but as Earls evolved from a burger and beer joint to a kitchen and bar that offered "something for everyone," it lost some of its original magic. Coupled with increased competition in the category, consumers had less reason to choose Earls. In recent qualitative research, consumers described Earls as average, boring and generic. Yet Earls' core competitors were described as lively, upbeat, sophisticated and warm.

It needed to find ways to reinvigorate the brand's appeal to the core target and make Earls a hotspot destination again.

Although Earls had been known for its great burger for a long time, it wanted to be known for more than that, namely steak. And while Earls produced a steakhouse quality product, perception within the core target audience lagged.

Our challenge was how to position Earls as a steak destination. To start, Earls added a special rib-eye steak to the menu for the promotional period and outlined the following business objectives: drive guest counts, double steak sales vs. the previous year's same period and positively shift perceptions on quality of food and service.

For most consumers, going out to eat steak is not a regular occasion. That's why consumers are reluctant to risk that special steak satisfaction by visiting a non-steakhouse restaurant: there is no bigger letdown than a steak done wrong for a price so big.

The strategy was to drive awareness and trial by inviting people who had experienced a bad steak anywhere to come to Earls for a complimentary steak done right. It was called Earls' Steak Redemption Event.

As the Earls target audience are heavy social media consumers, it kicked things off by searching several different social outlets like Facebook, Twitter, UrbanSpoon, Yelp, etc. to find disappointed steakhouse consumers and personally invited them to Earls to redeem their bad experience. Consumers were shocked that a restaurant took the time to seek them out and then were as equally surprised by the great-tasting steak Earls offered. With added touches like personalized invitation cards and a Steak Redemption knife gift as a keepsake, it proved that Earls took steak as seriously as steakhouses and served up a great experience as well. The entire experience was captured on film and posted to YouTube.

The design focused around carefully crafted seals and weather-treated backgrounds signalling Earls' dedication to quality and detail. The campaign used traditional radio, OOH, newspaper and online to do the heavy lifting in terms of reach and frequency. Once consumers arrived at Earls, the in-restaurant collateral elements (including feature cards, washroom posters and coasters) put the final touches on driving conversion and trial.

In mass media markets, guest count was up 7.8% while steak sales increased 88% vs. last year. But even in non-media markets, steak sales smashed their original goal and were up 60% vs. last year due to strong in-restaurant collateral and event support.

But the most compelling outcome of the Steak Redemption Event was consumer qualitative feedback that Earls proved it has great steak and changed their minds about how they feel about Earls and the quality meat they serve. Consumers said they would be back to visit Earls for steak again soon and this was proven with post campaign steak sales increases of 27.2% in media markets and 8.61% nationally.