Chick-fil-A’s largest product launch in company history is the new Spicy Chicken Sandwich. This company invented the chicken sandwich and now is spicing it up with a viral giveaway of its newest menu item. The giveaway is being powered by Wildfire Platform, a technology developed by Mobilization Labs (Disclaimer: I’m currently on the executive team and serve as VP of Marketing & Business Development).
The site was launch in the early hours on Friday morning and has just exceeded 500,000 spicy reservations in the first day and a half. Unlike any other product giveaway in history, this program goes out of its way to provide a personalized experience. First, the guest selects the restaurant nearest to their location. Then, they can choose a date and time to visit the restaurant based on availability. After registering for a free sandwich, the guest receives a personalized email from the local operator welcoming them into their unique store location. This provides a personalized experience and a direct feeling of connection and engagement with their local Chick-fil-A restaurant. The guest can print their ticket from home and take it into the store location for redemption where they will be greeted by the local operator.
Each operator has a dashboard where they can see in real time the number of sandwiches given away, who will be coming into their location, and the time of their visit (ie Monday, May 31st from 5-7PM EST). This allows each store operator to plan appropriately for the increased number of visitors and ensure that each person has an unexpectedly pleasant experience. This ties in with Chick-fil-A’s vision of creating raving fans.
You see, many large scale giveways that go viral result in unexpected problems. One example of this was Denny’s Grand Slam Giveaway in 2009 as reported by AdAge. These problems can do more to tarnish a brand rather than elevate it to drive more business. First, the technology platforms and websites used to drive these giveaways are not scalable enough to handle the increased load on the servers. The second problem is that the store owners and operators have no visibility into what is coming and are often overwhelmed with people coming into the location to redeem the offer. To date, most companies and organizations have to take a best guess, but the Wildfire Platform allows the company to know exactly what is coming so that they can be well prepared. 
Since 2004, Mobilization Labs has been developing technology that pioneers an entirely new genre of technology called “social mobilization”. The Wildfire Platform combines the viral power of social networking with real-world grassroots action to mobilize large teams of supporters into action on behalf of brands, causes, and even political candidates. Our software has been used by Presidential campaigns, Fortune 500 companies, international non-profits, major motion pictures, and multi-platinum artists to advance the passion of volunteers and fans worldwide.
The company is currently hiring for several intern positions this summer (sales, new media marketing, training/implementation) and also looking for partners to resell the Wildfire Platform and build service offerings around the technology. Please feel free to contact us at sales @ mobilizationlabs dot com.
Ha! I can see how you’d feel that way. For the operators, they like being able to know the demand that is headed their way so they can ensure you have a good experience when you show up.
Good experience = You might come back:)