Moe's Southwest Grill Franchise Kicks-Off First National Branding Campaign with "Burritos for Life"

Moe's Southwest Grill, whose mouth-watering burritos have propelled it to the second fastest growing Restaurant chain in the nation, is launching its first national branding campaign with Burritos for "Life" Burrito Eating Contest and Sweepstakes. The promotion, which officially kicks-off July 1, builds on Moe's "A Moe's Burrito in Every Hand" branding strategy as the Atlanta-based fast-casual chain seeks to own the burrito category. Company officials say the Burritos for "Life" promotion is an innovative strategy to increase brand recognition and generate same-store sales lift throughout the chain by capitalizing on the growing popularity of competitive eating.

"Burritos for "Life" is a unique promotion that leverages popular curiosity about competitive eating to reinforce Moe's free-spirited and irreverent brand position, especially among the 18 to 34 demographic," said Matt Andrew, vice president of operations and brand leader for Moe's Southwest Grill. "The eating contest will not only help in our crusade to get a Moe's burrito in every man, woman and child's hand, it is also very strategic in that it generates interest in Moe's on the local level first and then keeps that interest as the contest progresses to a national event."

According to Andrew, a local, store-level, burrito eating contest will be held in every Moe's restaurant beginning in mid-July. Thirty contestants will participate in three 10-person preliminary rounds at each store, with the winners of each round going head-to-head-to-head to be the local restaurant champion. Local restaurant champions will then compete in regional contests, from which five regional champions will emerge to compete in the national burrito eating finals September 2 in Atlanta.

"The five national finalists along with the franchisees who produce these five finalists will receive a three-day, two-night trip for two to Atlanta to compete in the burrito eating finals which will be held on the campus of Georgia Tech prior to the Georgia Tech-Notre Dame football game," Andrew said. "The finals will be a high-profile, high-energy event, and our message is that only Moe's is going to do something like this."

The national winner of the Burritos for "Life" burrito eating contest will receive a grand prize that includes a custom built Moe's motorcycle by legendary designer Roger Bourget - and literally, Moe's burritos for life - vouchers for 2860 burritos, enough for one burrito a week, 52 weeks a year, for 55 years. As part of the Burritos for "Life" promotion, Moe's is also sponsoring a random-drawing Burritos for Life Sweepstakes whose grand prize is also burritos for life (again in the form of 2860 vouchers). People can enter the eating contest or the sweepstakes at any Moe's Southwest Grill restaurant.

In addition to traditional media, the web will be a key component of Burritos for Life promotional strategies. There will be a Burritos for Life micro-site live during the contest period, July 1 to September 2, an online burrito eating game, and Moe will even get his own profile on MySpace, the social networking site that counts 27 million members. While web marketing will be somewhat of a new venture for Moe's, Andrew said the reach of the web is too big to ignore.

"Moe's has always been ahead of the curve in terms of branding and promotion, and the web is increasingly where Moe's target demographic goes for information, media, and social networking," he said. "Consumers want to interact with brands on levels other than the in-store retail level, and the web is the tool that lets them do that. This is a great opportunity for us to evaluate the effectiveness of web marketing, and at the same time, reinforce the Moe's brand platform of being cool, innovative, and consumer-oriented."

The Burritos for Life Burrito Eating Contest and Sweepstakes are open only to people 18 years of age or older; no purchase is necessary.

About Moe's Southwest Grill
Moe's Southwest Grill offers fun, fresh Southwest cuisine with a healthy twist. The Atlanta-based company was founded in December 2000 and currently has 800 Franchise units signed for 38 states. Moe's Southwest Grill ranks number 11 in Inc. Magazine's 2005 Top 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies and was presented with the 2004 "Hot Concepts!" award presented by Equal® and Nation's Restaurant News. Moe's Southwest Grill is part of Atlanta-based Raving Brands, a multi-brand Restaurant Franchise company.