Company: Checkers/Rally's quick service restaurants

Programs: Merchandise and travel offerings

Program Types: Employee Incentive/Recognition

Program Details: Checkers/Rally’s joined forces with a report-card-carrying super-sleuth who possessed the authority to issue Speeding Tickets. These Speeding Tickets transformed to prizes, which were sourced by GDM, and prizes were to produce employee retention and rising sales. GeigerDonnelly Marketing developed and executed the Checkers/Rally’s Hi-Performance Super Human Crew Contest. Their spokesperson was named Holly, a fictitious cartoon-style character, who appealed to younger employees, aged 16-29. The program involved weekly mystery shopper visits to stores in order to identify which stores needed help in improving certain core disciplines including food quality, sanitation, and suggestive selling. Stores attempted to score a perfect 100 overall when mystery shoppers visited. GDM would tally scores and send stores instructional tips to increase scores on subject areas measured. Based on the restaurant’s score, Speeding Tickets were issued via mail. Each ticket was one sweepstakes mail-in entry for the Grand Prize Drawing. Grand Prizes included a 7-day Eastern caribbean cruise for the General Manager, 3-day Bahamarama cruise for the Assistant/Shift Manager, and inline skates for the crew. Checkers/Rally’s Top 15 restaurants in two regions were awarded prizes based on the greatest overall mystery shopper report card. Checkers/Rally’s overall Top 10 restaurants were awarded prizes each month of the promotion based on a weighted average score. Prizes awarded included: FUBU watches, Hewlett-Packard computers, Ferrari T-shirts, baseball caps, Sony AM/FM CD boomboxes, choice of a music CD, CD cases, sunglasses, Sharp 4-head VCRs, FUBU baseball caps, NASCAR analog watches, FUBU T-shirts, Ferrari polo shirts, GPX boomboxes, Tommy Hilfiger backpacks, and GPX AM/FM cassette personal stereos. Support materials included training guides for store managers, backroom posters for crewmember communication, tip sheets, and newsletters for contest period winner announcements.

Objective: The objective of Checkers/Rally’s Hi-Performance Super Human Crew Contest was multi-faceted. Their target was 1,000 Checkers/Rally’s quick service restaurants and its employees. To improve performance, the contest was designed to: · Increase sales over same period of prior year's sales · Focus attention of store managers on business basics including food quality, sanitation, and suggestive selling · Create a competitive team spirit among individual store crew members

Supplier: Chris Donnelly and Richard Turer, GeigerDonnelly Marketing, LLC, Foxboro, MA, and Dan Craig, Keystone Incentives, Norton, MA.

Results: The contest received enthusiastic response from employees and provided rewarding results. Sales rose approximately 7% above industry norms and employee retention increased. Approximately 1,697 prizes were awarded and distributed nationwide. GeigerDonnelly Marketing was retained to repeat the program for 2001 and 2002 sales initiatives.

Award Type: Gold Key Awards

Award Date: 2002