The brand evangelists
While Heinz and Southwest went large with somewhat guided campaigns, Chick-fil-A took a big risk that seems to be paying off. The fast food chain's "Biggest Fan" contest provided little direction beyond asking consumers to tell the brand how much they love Chick-fil-A. The campaign, which is still in progress, has attracted a hearty handful of brand evangelists, who in turn have connected with about 40,000 (and counting) viewers.
When speaking to a Chick-fil-A contestant, one gets the sense that he isn't simply talking to a person who grabbed a camera, followed a few loose guidelines and slammed together a commercial. Although the videos may not be as polished as those that took top honors for brands like Southwest and Heinz, the passion contained in the entries would make a marketer jump for joy.
Anna Boney, a 25-year-old third grade teacher who enlisted students to make her pitch as Chick-fil-A's biggest fan, is emblematic of the brand's primary resource in this campaign. A life-long devotee of the chain, Boney explains that the food and the company's values mesh well with her life, adding that she couldn't see herself making a commercial for another brand.
Like many of her fellow contestants, Boney told me that it was "sad" that I had not eaten at a Chick-Fil-A. Visiting the Chick-fil-A website (a first for me), I found that the nearest store was about 25 miles from my apartment. By Los Angeles standards, it might as well be on the moon, but according to Paul and David Grace, two brothers who entered the "Biggest Fan" contest, true devotion knows no geographic bounds.
The Grace brothers, who live in Boise, Idaho, are about 300 miles from the nearest Chick-fil-A in Ogden, Utah. The brothers make the trip as often as they can, never going strictly for the food, but often finding reasons to be in the area, they say. Accordingly, the Graces made a video that spoofs their own obsession with Chick-fil-A by depicting a road trip where the husband makes his wife sit in the backseat so that the food can ride up front.
While that creative choice draws on their regular Chick-fil-A road trips -- the Graces report shuttling chicken back to Idaho for friends who have never been to a store -- the brothers might as well have plucked a story from David's professional life. A recent college graduate, the 24-year-old says his application to the FBI listed Phoenix -- a city he has never been to -- as his primary choice because it has a number of Chick-fil-A restaurants.
Choosing to work in a city you've never been to because it has your favorite fast food chain may seem odd to most people, but that's exactly the point of the contest: finding the most extreme fans of the product. And when you speak to David and Paul, you get the sense that you're talking to men on a mission. They use the verb convert when they speak about introducing people to Chick-fil-A, and when they learned that I've never sampled the food, they were quick with suggestions about what to order when I finally do eat there.
But the passion of the Chick-fil-A contests brings up the question of motivation. Namely, how does a brand inspire this kind of passion?
For the Graces, two powerful factors seemed to be at work. First, a spirit of competition galvanized them to enter, according to Paul, who chided one contestant's claim that he was the biggest fan because he drives 30 miles to his nearest Chick-fil-A.
"Our plan is to win it all, end up in Atlanta [the corporate headquarters] and make our case for opening a store in Boise," the brothers say. "There are really a lot of people here that want Chick-fil-A."
The promise of dialoging with the Chick-fil-A corporate seems to also have lured another contestant.
Jenny Swem, who shot a video that picked up on the company's theme of saving cows, admits that working for Chick-fil-A is something she'd like to try.
Swem, a 23-year-old Air Force veteran and active member of the Florida Air National Guard, says she sees the contest as a way to get her foot in the door working in Chick-fil-A's marketing department. But unlike Cates, the pastor who won the Southwest contest, Swem seems to be less enthusiastic about working for another brand.
Chris Tarpy, a 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, also expressed a desire to work for Chick-fil-A's marketing department. But first and foremast he seems to be interested in the food.
For Tarpy, who makes a point of traveling hundreds of miles to new store openings with his friends to win free meals, the contest has an obvious lure: 40 months of free Chick-fil-A. However, talking to Tarpy also illustrates a critical feature in Chick-fil-A's social media experiment: values.
"It's not just about the food," Tarpy explains. "The whole company is about making a difference in the world, whether it's supporting charities or college sports, those are things that are important to me because they're a big part of my life."
Tarpy's video gives a humorous account of Chick-fil-A's role in his life by walking the viewer through a day that includes a shower curtain emblazoned with the company's logo and a dresser drawer full of the chain's shirts.
After speaking with Tarpy and watching his video it's hard to say that any prize could be his sole motivation. Like many of his fellow contestants, Tarpy seems bent on doing right by Chick-fil-A because the company is -- and always has been -- an important and positive part of his life.
Conclusion
When I started working on this article, I was hoping to find an answer to a question that had been nagging me: What would possess a person to make a commercial -- without pay -- for a brand?
I wondered that because, truth be told, I don't think I'd ever make a commercial for a brand. So, I suppose I was hoping to find a shared personality trait that makes a certain group of people brand advocates.
But finding that commonality has thus far proved quite elusive.
Making generalizations about brand advocates isn't easy or worthwhile, and maybe that's the point. The very term seems to miss the mark entirely. And the language marketers use to talk about these people serves only the brands, when in fact the goal is a conversation that draws consumers into the fold.
In speaking with the consumers who entered these contests, it became apparent that they related to the brand as individuals, and that the campaigns worked because each brand -- in its own way -- found an approach that allowed them to converse with its consumers on a one-on-one level, even if the contest involved thousands of people.
Returning to the question of what would possess a person to enter one of these contests, I can only say that I have no interest in being a brand advocate. However, if the right brand asks in the right way, I may just take the time to tell them -- and others -- what I think.
Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.