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Minsky's 40th anniversary a prime example of accomplishing a lot through one event

Midwestern gourmet pizza chain Minsky's got maximum promotional punch out of its 40th anniversary celebration with a campaign that not only permeated social media and did some good for communities around its Missouri and Kansas locations, but also connected customers to the chain in innovative ways.

July 7, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Midwestern gourmet pizza chain Minsky's got maximum promotional punch out of its 40th anniversary celebration by managing to come up with a promotional campaign that not only permeated social media and did some good for communities around its Missouri and Kansas locations, but also connected customers to the chain in a number of innovative ways. 

Minsky's so-called "4-for-40" fundraiser linked the chain's 40th anniversary celebration with fundraising efforts for four not-for-profit organizations, including KC Pet Project, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Turn the Page KC, and the Alex Smith Foundation. Minsky's also got the local ABC affiliate involved to extend publicity for the campaign, which ultimately raised a total of $30,000 for the four charities. 

The fundraiser got underway with Minsky's own donation of $1,000 to each of the nonprofits at a kickoff party. Then, through the month of May, the chain donated 15 percent of its
in-store and online tickets to the customer's charity of choice. They even connected that part of the fundraiser to special coupons and online ordering codes that designated the orderer's charity of choice. And finally, they managed to combine all of this with a reward of 5 percent off the customer's entire order — in addition to the 15 percent donated to the customer's favorite nonprofit.

The chain maximized publicity by giving each charity an extra incentive to promote the fundraiser through its own channels: The organization that received the most donations during the campaign would receive matching funds from Minsky's.  

If you're counting, this means that one promotional campaign around an anniversary — an event that's almost always far more noteworthy to the brand than to its customers — managed to check off no fewer than 11 marketing priority boxes (and probably more that we've forgotten to include):

• community and cause marketing;
• relationship marketing;
• event marketing;
• transactional promotion;
• customer and brand loyalty promotion;
• affinity marketing;
• reverse promotion;
• mobile, online and social media marketing;
• alliance and cross-media promotion;
• public relations; and
• B2B marketing.

It's a good reminder that, with a little forethought and a lot of creativity, any event or milestone can be used to further many promotional objectives. 

For the record, the top donation-getter in the fundraiser was KC Pet Project, which took in nearly $15,000, though the campaign managed to give all four organizations a substantial monetary boost.

The big winner, however, would have to be Minsky's, which managed to roll a lot of business objectives into one package that ultimately helped the community. 

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.