When steakhouse Smith & Wollensky asked us to come up with a way to turn more patrons into regulars, we created a campaign that made people not only feel like regulars, but like they owned the place. Literally.
Every day for a month, we changed the name "Smith" in Smith & Wollensky to the name of a customer who took an online pledge to make Smith & Wollensky their steakhouse.
But we didn't stop there. We changed the name everywhere – on the signage, the matchbooks, the napkins, even engraved on steak knives. The hostess would also answer the phone with the new name each day. Call and you might have heard, "Spadaro and Wollensky," or, "Lewkowicz and Wollensky."
The campaign picked up a good amount of press and earned an Effie award and a One Show merit.