HuHot Creates Fire Sale Demand with Facebook Gift Card Promo

12/12/2011
Hospitality executives exploring creative ways to leverage social media can look at this week's promotion from HuHot Mongolian Grill.

Every holiday season, the company offers an in-store promotion for customers who purchase gift cards, giving away a $20 gift card with the purchase of a gift card of qualifying value. This year, HuHot leveraged its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/huhot) to create a giftcard "fire sale" for the holidays.

The company gave away a $20 gift card to the first 200 purchasers of $50 gift cards. HuHot used a custom Facebook tab and a hidden page on HuHot.com with a Paypal link. The promotion began at 10 a.m. MST on December 12 and was sold out in just under an hour and a half. Over the years, the company has brought similar promotions to its Facebook fan base, and each year the gift cards sell out faster and faster.

"This year the fire sale was a huge success!," says Monica Minford, director of web development for HuHot Mongolian Grills. "The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we can’t wait to break the record during next year’s fire sale."

The promotion included a twitter countdown announcing the kick-off, with regular updates on how many gift cards were left.

For consumers who missed out, HuHot Mongolian Grill is offering a free $20 bonus card for gift card purchases of $100 at their restaurants until December 31.
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