DON’T DO IT.
JACK ASTOR’s SQUARE ONE SOFT-LAUNCH
Jack’s Square One had fully revamped their iconic resto to bring younger diners in the doors. So to set up the new flagship as a go-to for younger crowds, we needed to convince Gen Z to be the first to pull up. Unfortunately, there’s nothing Gen Z hates more than being told what to do.
So, how did we get the yutes of Mississauga to come check out the new Jack’s? We told them not to.
We played with the power of a little reverse psychology, to get the hardest generation to reach, to reach Jack’s. Littering Mississauga with our unbranded, mysterious QR Codes, we tempted our target with one simple instruction, “Don’t do it.”
2 weeks, a viral reddit thread, and 500 rebel rewards later, and the all-new Jack’s had Gen Z lining-up at the door.
YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.
We placed badass bait all around Jack's Square One location, littering Sauga streets with unbranded QR code stickers, placing mysterious digital OOH boards in Square One Mall, even hyper-targeting social and digital ads to tempt our target online, as well as IRL.
NO REBEL SHOULD GO UNREWARDED.
Anyone who was bad enough to break the rules–and “do it”–was brought to our microsite and greeted with a cryptic anon message that with an invite and a gift card to come experience the all-new Jack’s at Square One.
THE RESULTS
Over half of our rewards were claimed within 24 hours of launching the campaign, so we pushed budget to double-up on gift cards after day one.
Even after the digital restock, our QR sticker was posted on reddit, and all remaining rewards were claimed in a single day.
We exceeded our campaign expectations by 100% and got 2x as many people in the doors of the all-new Jack’s – and all we did was tell them not to come.