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Case Study

Creative Guild helps Turtle Jack’s drive increased sales by telling ‘Food Stories’.

Since they opened their doors in 1992, Turtle Jack’s Muskoka Grill has always been committed to serving fresh, house-made ingredients prepared with care. To further elevate their menu in more recent years, Turtle Jack’s has also made a commitment to offer humanely raised, antibiotic‑free chicken, Animal Care Certified pork fed on a 100% vegetarian diet, sustainably raised salmon and many other healthy eco-conscious menu options. The pieces were in place, the brand’s passion for quality was there, but something was missing. Guests weren’t responding to these premium signature dishes any more than any other items on the menu.

Then, in 2017, Creative Guild started working with long-time client Turtle Jack’s to better tell these stories. The ‘Food Stories’ program was born and the rest is history. We now photograph their signature menu items a few times a year and promote them as part of an ongoing ‘Food Stories’ series. Turtle Jack’s Food Stories are posted online, shared via email with their loyalty program members and highlighted in-store through menu inserts, lobby banners and posters.

Since the launch of the Food Stories program, in a short period of time and with relatively minimal investment, Turtle Jack’s has seen the sale of their signature food story menu items consistently increase by double-digit numbers, with some up in sales by over 50% as a result of these campaigns.

Platforms

Social Media
Print
In-store POS
Web

Our Role

Creative Concept
Art Direction
Creative Development
Paid Media Strategy

OVERALL GLUTEN-FREE SALES INCREASE OF

44%

year-over-year
SALMON DISH SALES INCREASE OF

26%

Year over year
Problem

Challenge

The brand needed a way to better showcase the quality of the food they serve and highlight the recipes and ingredients unique to their restaurants that would help them stand out from the competitive set and get their guests coming back for more.

Thinking

Strategy & Approach

The concept was to break the mold. Our idea was to photograph Turtle Jack’s buzz-worthy signature menu items in a high-end magazine style not often used in the fast casual space. We then built a robust campaign around each one, but using only very cost effective in-store and online tactics – leveraging a high-low approach.

The most recent of these were launched in early 2019.

Result

Final Experience

With each new Food Story we’ve launched, Turtle Jack’s has consistently seen the sales of that food item increase by double-digit numbers, with some up in sales by over 50%.

The beautiful photography of the gluten-free food items launched January 2019 lent well to eye-catching POS and on-line campaign graphics. As a result, this campaign created a 44% increase in overall gluten-free menu sales (YOY), with the top seller being the Yellow Coconut Curry Bowl featured in the promotion. As a result of the new creative and tactics launched in February 2019 for the True North Seafood Company food story, the Pineapple Mango Salmon dish saw a sales increase of 26% (YOY).

All Turtle Jack’s Food Stories are available for viewing at www.turtlejacks.com/foodstories.

“Creative Guild has supported us in our overall growth strategy, new brand identity, creating unique integrated campaigns and has identified opportunities to strengthen relationships with our guests through our loyalty program.

We are a strong team with great collaboration. We have yielded strong program results, YOY sales growth and gained the respect of our franchisees.”

Somer Mullins, Vice President of Marketing, Tortoise Restaurant Group