Missed Opportunity: How Rigidity in Rules Cost a Fast Food Giant a Creative Collaboration
And Three Ways to Keep People Safe and Informed During a Weather Emergency
This Week …
Did the Employee Handbook get in the way?: Chick-fil-A vs. Shake Shack through a PR lens
Communications in a Weather Emergency
Where is that guy going?
1. Deep Dive: Chick-fil-A’s Loss is Shake Shack’s Gain
Overview
You may have heard about Mira and her viral TikTok Chick-fil-A lunch break food reviews. Mira, known as MiraTheSiren on TikTok, posted videos reviewing her employee meal each day since her employment began in January.
The videos, shot while on break at Chick-fil-A, initially grew her TikTok following by 50,000. Typically, they feature Mira sitting at a table in the restaurant, wearing a Chick-fil-A nametag, and offering her critique of sauce flavors, sandwiches, sides and drink combos. Her upbeat personality, true love for sweet tea, and enjoyment of the fast food meals connect with the Chick-fil-A community. So far so good!
The Situation
However, on Monday, April 15, Mira posted a video saying that Chick-fil-A’s “upper management and PR” asked her to stop posting videos explaining that rules within the employee handbook prohibit the making of such videos. Instead of offering her a “collab,” Chick-fil-A asked her to stop posting. Mira was selective and professional with her words, saying that she was sad to stop posting, and to her — at that time — 70K followers, that she was open to other collaborations. She added that Chick-fil-A management was not requiring Mira to remove the food reviews from her feed.
Talent Available!
By the following Monday, we learned that Shake Shack had jumped at the chance to collaborate with Mira. In her first Shake Shack video, Mirathesiren is surrounded by sandwiches and sauces. Her first Shake Shack food review has 1.4M views with her ever-growing number of loyal followers, rallying in her support. As of this week, Mira’s TikTok followers are 128K. This propels Mirathesiren into “influencer’ status by social media standards.
Let’s Break it Down
The Possible View from the Chic-fil-A HR Department:
Can you hear them? And I bet the lawyers got called in, too. Pesky questions still matter and need to be explored:
What if everyone starts posting videos online? By offering a collab deal to Mirathesiren, Chick-fil-A’s actions could signal their approval for other employees to review their food while at work, taking videos in their restaurants.
What if the videos become negative or turn against company beliefs?
We’ve never done anything like this, where is the line?
But we have an employee handbook!
The Hopeful View from the Chic-fil-A Marketing Department:
I hope the HR department and the Marketing department got together. I hope the marketers fought the good fight. I hope they offered a new perspective and pointed out that the digital strategy could evolve and be more inclusive to new points of view and new distribution channels:
What are the opportunites to view this development as a positive?
Our Team Member mantra is, “The secret ingredient is you!“ What if we expand the meaning of that philosophy to include Team Members advocating for the company using their voice?
We have plenty of evidence Mira is a talented spokesperson with good judgement. Let’s start a Team Member influencer program, and ask Mira to help create it with us.
Let’s ask Mira how to approach a conversation about reviewing a Team Member’s creative work to ensure it aligns with the company.
But, alas, however these conversations went internally, they let the opportunity to collab with Mira go.
What do you think of this _andgrace? Highlights of her analysis include: “This has to be one of the most wild corporate dumb blunders I have seen in a long time. Like the kind of mistake that someone makes, and they just throw away a phenominal assest and opportunity. … This is so bananas.”
Bottom Line
Upside for Chic-fil-A:
While missing a direct collaboration opportunity, Chic-fil-A benefited as the popular TikTok influencer gracefully exited her food review gig, maintaining a positive and professional image that reflected well on both her personal brand and her employer.
Upside for Shake Shack:
They get to work with Mira as a collaborator and explore tapping into a new, younger audience, boost brand visibility, and create engaging, viral content that drives sales.
2. Established Channels Save Lives
Since Friday, I have been watching how organizations throughout the Omaha area have been sharing (or not sharing) weather emergency information during the severe weather systems that moved through the Midwest.
Here are three ways to keep people safe and informed. (If you are thinking these sound basic, they are and yet …):
Any organization that is responsible for clearly communicating information to people to keep them safe should have well established channels including:
a webpage or website, with responsive design that functions on mobile devices with a clear and timely location for emergency news
social media channel/s that are:
consistenly updated throughout the year
with easily searchable name/s that can be found by people who haven’t previsouly followed your organization and without confusion on which channel is official
content management and staffing plan to continually post the most relevant and helpful information accurately and quickly, even after 5pm and over the weekend.
Established and well utilized channels can save lives. Exemplars from the Omaha tornados:
Local television and radio websites, social media, and broadcasts
National Weather Service
Omaha Rapid Response (Volunteer coordination)
The first and fastest fund set up:
Here are some non-emergency accounts that did a good job:
3. Quick Question…
I would like to interview the driver of this red truck that appeared in the Nebraksa/Iowa tornado news coverage from Friday.
Top questions that come to mind:
What is that up ahead?
Why are you driving toward it?
Thank you for listening.
Before we go:
Zach Bryan
He is in Omaha for two nights of concerts tonight and tomorrow, but he had some extra time to go to one of the hardest hit areas and volunteer. Very cool Zach!
