Case Study: Grand Opening of Wendy’s Flagship Restaurant

Nature of Work
Communication Strategy
Event Management
Media Relations

Challenge
Wendy’s built a state-of-the-art restaurant near their headquarters to serve as the brand’s Flagship restaurant.  Under discussion for several years, internal expectations were very high for this one-of-a-kind restaurant.  The ground breaking and opening dates moved several times, making deadline management a challenge.  In addition to having the newest technology, the location featured a Community Room to house a Wendy’s Museum that needed to be created and installed.

Two plans were produced: one for the Community Room and Museum, and the other for the VIP grand opening event.

• Community Room/Wendy’s Museum. The museum consisted of two main elements: a timeline and display cases.  Getting buy-in on which historic moments and mementos to include proved challenging.  We first tackled the timeline, choosing the company milestones to highlight and finding photographs to illustrate the company’s heritage.  We then developed themes for the display cases and culled through memorabilia for interesting items from the brand’s history.
• Grand Opening Event.  This plan consisted of media relations, speech preparation, show flow and onsite logistics.  There was considerable media interest in this new restaurant while it was being constructed, and there were requests for on-camera interviews at the grand opening event.  When we discovered that a local group planned to protest during the VIP reception, we made a slight change in the media relations plan to reduce the chance for protest coverage.  Reporters were invited to visit the restaurant prior to the grand opening event, giving them ample time for interviews with a senior officer and videography. 

Results
The Flagship restaurant remains the most unique location in the chain, and customers enjoy dining in the Community Room surrounded by Wendy’s memorabilia, often taking time to study items in the displays.  The restaurant opened on time, with solid local media coverage.

Community Room Photos