Seattle's landmark burger joint, Dick's Drive-in, recently decided to expand and build another drive-in location somewhere in the nearby Seattle suburbs. In order to decide where to build it they did an online consumer poll. With over 119,000 votes cast, the winner is clearly the Northend, which includes Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, Edmonds, and the South Everett area.
Dicks also had an online video contest in which several winners would receive $100 gift certificates. They used their Facebook Fan Page to promote the contest and the results were staggering. A number of great submissions were placed on YouTube. The First Place winner was my favorite too, titled the “Whiteboard Pitch”. In the video they pitch how building a Dick's in Everett “can make a better world”. You can see also the 2nd, and 3rd place (tie) winners on Dick's homepage, at least for now.
Dicks Drive in Whiteboard Pitch
This is a great real-world example of how an established local business has done a great job of harnessing social media to create incredible market-buzz for next to nothing. And they now have an instant, grateful following of customers in the Northend anxiously awaiting the opening of their new location.