How Crack Shack’s March Madness Promo is Built to Win

Here we are again, March has arrived and with it the Madness has begun. The 12 days of tournament play is among the most profitable all year for sports-themed operators. Filling every inch of your restaurant is possible on the first Thursday & Friday, but the rest of the tournament can leave a lot to be desired.

But it doesn’t have to be with some creative and effective marketing.

Meet the Crack Shack. This chef-owned fried chicken joint does more than just serve some of the best food in San Diego (they have five locations on SoCal and one in Las Vegas), but they appear to be expert marketers. Check out this email they sent to promote their bracket promotion during the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament.

Crack Shack March Madness promo email

Here’s How It Works!

The offer is a simple exchange offer. The restaurant gives the guest a reward by offering a chance to win ongoing prizes and a grand prize to anyone to anyone that participates in the contest. The guest needs to visit one of their locations and drop off their completed bracket to qualify.

It’s as simple as that.

But just because they have the structure of a good idea, doesn’t mean that it will succeed. This promotion is winner because it gets the basic aspects of a limited-time offer, coupled with a relevant cultural event just right. Crack Shack harnessed those elements and crafted a high-quality promotion for this year’s Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Here are five things Crack Shack got 100% right in their March Madness-related promo.

#1 The Offer is Relevant & Trackable

This was delivered on the eight full days before the tournament. This is exactly when your guests are considering how they will spend the first two days of the tourney. Because there is a deadline, guests must visit before the tournament begins. This will make for an easy comparison to see if it actually encourages guests to visit in time.

Oh, and don’t forget all the amazing data you will get from a promotion like this. Name, cell phone, and email are all fair game if someone wants to be eligible for their prize. This promotion will deliver a bevy of email addresses and contacts to which you can market in the future, regardless of how they came to know about the promotion.

#2 The Call to Action Will Drive Traffic

Included in the offer is a bonus 10% discount just for completing a bracket and delivering it to the restaurant. If you have ever had their chicken, you would know just how excited people get to visit them. This added bonus is a strong call to action for their audience and will excite guests that might not even be basketball fans to stop by and complete a bracket.

#3 The Offer is Valuable

With a grand prize of free fried chicken for life, Crack Shack has made the reward well worth the little bit of time for guests complete their brackets. But they didn’t stop there. As we reviewed above, the additional discount for taking the time to visit adds additional value ed-hrvatski.com. Rightfully so, these guys believe that their guests will go out of their way to visit based on this offer.

#4 The Offer is Easy to Redeem

Since there are literally millions of brackets completed each year in anticipation of the tournament, it’s easier to get folks to fulfill this requirement, because they are likely already doing it. Because the offer is made via email, Crack Shack was able to include a link to the bracket so guests can easily download it and be flexible when they complete them. Once the redemption is done, guests are directed to follow their social handles on Instagram and Twitter and Instagram to see how they did in the contest.

#5 The Offer is Fun

Before the NCAA Men’s Tournament, begins there are 68 teams with an opportunity to win it all. That is just plain fun all by itself. The Crack Shack’s approach gives their guests another reason to get excited that is connected to the tournament while simultaneously deepening their relationship with the guests. Their design and execution reflect that attention to keeping it fun.

What Will Happen?

While we can’t definitively predict the results of this or any other promotion, we are happy to assert — if you are going to succeed in creating a quality email promotion, this is an example of a well-conceived, designed and implemented campaign. No matter what you do with your email marketing, this promotion is a demonstrable best practice and is worthy of your attention.