Many Restaurant Business editors haven't been to an Arby’s in years, but we’ve had numerous conversations recently about its smart commercials and social media campaigns. The ads worked—they got our attention. Then came the marketing for its loaded curly fries. It was the extra push we needed to get us in the store.
So one Friday, five of us trekked over to the Arby’s in Chicago’s Ogilvie train station. Unfamiliar with the full menu, we took a few minutes to decide what we wanted, but all of us opted for some configuration of the 2 for $5 deal. After all, it’s just $5, no big loss even if we weren’t fans. But here’s the thing—we were. While there was some debate over whether we preferred the fries with the cheese and bacon or without, we agreed on one thing: We’d all go back. While we don’t think it’s an all-the-time restaurant for us, the creativity of its marketing and innovation on the menu—even though it wasn’t too outside the realm of its normal menu—convinced these lax users to come back in.
