Lake Forest-based Johnny Rockets Group Inc. is hoping free music downloads, an iPod giveaway and a MySpace page can help it lure some younger customers.
The retro-style restaurant chain, known for its jukeboxes that play 5 cent doo-wop songs, said it’s building on a marketing campaign it started a few months back to reach a “hipper” crowd and give its “classic” hamburger and shake image a “bit more modern edge.”
New York’s Cornerstone Promotion created the work. It includes downloads from eMusic.com, customized mix lists, iPod giveaways, promotions on college radio stations and a “genealogy” chart that connects classic songs to today’s hip musicians,think hip-hop, R & B; and rap.
The marketing also includes a Johnny Rockets page on MySpace.
Privately held Johnny Rockets is reportedly spending “several hundred thousand dollars” on the campaign, according to the New York Times.
The bid kicked off last month, and is expected to hit several major markets, including the Southland, San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Washington, D.C.
Cornerstone is promoting it through Web sites visited by college kids, such as Artistdirect.com, Bolt.com and Pitchfork.com. College radio stations also are being targeted. And Cornerstone’s staff is giving out postcards for music downloads and free Johnny Rockets shakes and fries at stores college students frequent, such as skate shops.
PainePR in Irvine also is getting the word out through press releases.
The moves are among the changes that Johnny Rockets Chief Executive Mike Shumsky has made in the past six years.
When he came onboard in 2000, the restaurant chain had been losing money, expanding too fast and saw a churn in its executive staff.
Shumsky restructured Johnny Rockets, including cutting staff and other costs, simplifying operations and training and improving customer service.
Johnny Rockets, which has about 200 restaurants, 25 of them in Southern California, now is looking to grow. It hopes to more than double its size in the next five years.
Checks average $10. Sales at an average restaurant are $1.2 million annually.
Mimi Somerman, Johnny Rockets senior vice president of marketing, recently told the Dallas Morning News that some of the planned restaurants are expected in Texas, where the company has five locations.
Johnny Rockets has restaurants in 29 states, including Texas, Nevada, Washington and Michigan, and several countries, such as Mexico and Kuwait.
More NetScope
Last week, I mentioned that Irvine-based NetScope Inc., which handles online marketing and Web site work, recently picked up a few assignments and started a division.
Since, I’ve gotten some staff updates.
The shop, which has 21 workers, said it is looking for three workers, two for its new division focusing on search engine marketing.
The search engine group now has four workers and is drawing interest from existing clients and new ones, such as Irvine-based Quartics Inc., Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co.’s Shea Homes and Irvine’s Takagi Industrial Co. USA Inc., part of Japan’s Takagi Industrial Co.
Soldier Sites
Two Orange County shops teamed up to start a Web site for soldiers and their families.
Newport Beach-based Caliber Media Group, which handles online sales, e-mail marketing, Web design and more, worked with Irvine-based Web site designer The Family Post Inc. to create WebsitesForHeroes.com.
The program lets people sponsor Web sites for military families that feature photo albums, streaming videos, interactive calendars and more. The sites cost $170 per year.
Caliber Media handled the design and development of Websitesforheroes.com. The Family Post handles individual Web sites.
Both shops are using existing staff to handle the project, but are “readying” to make hires if demand spikes, said Kelly Hartman, director of sales and marketing for Caliber Media Group.
Caliber Media and The Family Post are promoting the site through marketing and public relations, including blogs, online marketing and getting sponsors.
In other news, Caliber Media Group continues to hire more workers to handle an uptick in work.
The shop, which has 14 employees, added five people in the past year in business development, design, technology, support and administration.
The bigger staff helped with several new assignments, including doing Web site redesigns for Haskell & White in Irvine, Lennar Corp.’s inland division and Santa Ana’s Red Mountain Retail Group Inc.
Meanwhile, The Family Post, which focuses on interactive, personalized Web sites, has seen more clients asking for help with digital scrapbooks.
Comic Relief
Orange-based Kaplan Communications Group, which does promotions and marketing, is busy putting together a 40- to 60-page program for the 2006 Comic Relief benefit.
The event, which raises money to help families in New Orleans, features comedians Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams and airs live from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah’s in New Orleans on HBO and TBS on Saturday.
Kaplan teamed with Orange County Printing in Irvine to print the program.
