(Editor’s Note: This story has been revised from an earlier version to correct the location of Florida State, which is in Tallahassee. Daily Report regrets the error.)
With just a little more than two weeks until the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl, the Baton Rouge-based title sponsor is ramping up its marketing and social media efforts to promote the Shreveport bowl game and build the Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar brand in the process.
“We’re doing all kinds of things to build awareness,” says Walk-On’s founder and co-owner Brandon Landry. “We have a unique opportunity as a sports bar to promote this bowl so we’re just having fun with it.”
In early October, Walk-On’s announced it had signed on as the bowl’s title sponsor.
Sponsoring a major national sporting event was something the rapidly growing sports bar and restaurant chain had always wanted to do, and the Independence Bowl seemed like a particularly good fit for several reasons, Landry says.
The game is based in Louisiana, Walk-On’s home state. The bowl’s tie-in conferences are the SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference team, both of which are areas where Walk-On’s presence is strongest. Perhaps most importantly, the game is nationally televised Dec. 27 on ESPN, at a time when no other bowl game is being played or televised.
“Most people two days after Christmas are either hanging around the house or at the hunting camp watching bowl games so this one is really highly viewed,” he says.
Adding to the synergy between Walk-On’s and the bowl game this year: The two teams selected to play—Florida State and Southern Mississippi—are located in Tallahassee and Hattiesburg, respectively, two markets where Walk-On’s will break ground on new restaurants in 2018.
As part of its promotional effort, Walk-On’s has held Instagram contests for free tickets, text-and-win contests, and offered various deals on Snapchat and other social media sites.
It’s planning to feed the two football teams at two different north Louisiana Walk-On’s locations on the day before the game. Landry is also planning to feed the ESPN announcers during the game with signature Walk-On’s dishes like fried boudin balls and seafood gumbo.
It is, as they say, the kind of publicity money can’t buy, except Walk-On’s did have to pay for the five-year sponsorship of the game. Landry cannot say how much the deal was worth because of a nondisclosure agreement. But he says it’s well worth it given the national exposure, which includes eight national TV commercials that will air during the game on ESPN, the restaurant’s corporate logo in the middle of the field and the welcome video Landry cut that will air before kickoff.
“We really want to make sure we represent ourselves in the best way possible,” he says. “Everybody in Louisiana knows us, but this will be an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to the rest of the country.”
—Stephanie Riegel
