Your Football Sanctuary Is Calling
Commitments, presentations, obligations. We say, when it’s time for football, escape to football.
Buffalo Wild Wings |Your Football Sanctuary Is Calling
Commitments, presentations, obligations. We say, when it’s time for football, escape to football.
Buffalo Wild Wings |Challenge
From the early 2000s to around 2012, Buffalo Wild Wings was one of the fastest growing brands in the restaurant category. As the brand grew, it made the mistake of trying to compete with the casual dining category. Business slowed down, product and service quality declined, and with it customer satisfaction among their core audience of 20-something sports fans. Arby’s acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, refocused it on their core audience and occasions, and tasked us to create the first advertising campaign from Buffalo Wild Wings in more than two years. They wanted the campaign to recapture their turf as America’s #1 sports bar, and to position the brand as the place to be to watch football.
One Story
Buffalo Wild Wings is a sports sanctuary for fans. Endless TVs. Endless beer. Endless wings and a stadium-like, energized atmosphere. So we wanted to reignite their sports equity and re-establish them as the place to be for the game. To do this, we developed an insight-driven campaign: “Escape to Football.” The new campaign explores the reality that everyone has commitments and obligations in life that can keep them from what they love. The spots show how fans getting stuck in relatable life scenarios—being stuck late at the office, a PTA meeting, touring homes or taking family photos that they ultimately escape from to arrive at their favorite gameday destination: B-Dubs.
Many Voices
The campaign ran across television, radio, digital and social throughout the 2018-19 football season.
“The campaign was inspired by a situation familiar to all of us – it’s game day and we’re stranded somewhere, instead of watching the game live.”
– Jeff Baker, Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for Buffalo Wild Wings
Press

Buffalo Wild Wings And DraftKings Launch Fantasy Football Partnership
Forbes
Amid Agency Review, Buffalo Wild Wings Tries Some (Literally) Breakout Work
Ad Age
Buffalo Wild Wings celebrates the football season by urging people to ‘escape’ to the restaurant
The DrumBuffalo Wild Wings Provides a Football Refuge for Guys Trapped in Mind-Numbing Situations
Ad Age