Brewhouse Xtras

'Tis the season of the brackets. From the NCAA Tournament to Scott Van Pelt's MC Bracket to Colin Cowherd's Hollywood Actor Bracket, it seems every sports fan has one at this time of the year. At Scotty's Brewhouse we didn't want to be left out so we created the Brewhouse Burger Challenge.

This week is your last chance to help us pick the next great burger for the Scotty's Brewhouse menu. Four weeks ago, the long road to the final two started when almost 300 of you submitted your ideas for a new burger to appear on the Scotty's menu.

"We were thrilled to get so many entries,"  said Angela Vosmeier, Director of Menu Development. "We knew people would be excited about this, but never dreamed we would get this many ideas."

After collecting all the entries Vosmeier and Luke Duncan, Director of Kitchen Operations, set out to narrow the field down to 16 finalists that would compete in the challenge by looking at several criteria.

"First, they had to use the ingredients list we had provided them on our web site," commented Duncan. "We then looked at creativity, what would taste good and also how it would fit into the Scotty's brand." 

After spending hours going through the process the two finally narrowed it down to 16 burgers. Then, we turned it over to each of you to help us make the final decision.

Each week the burgers were posted on the Scotty's Brewhouse website so everyone would have an opportunity to vote on which burger they thought should move on to the next round. Each week the votes coming in grew. Starting at 480 the first week to nearly 5,000 the week of the final four.

"As you know, we love to get our guests involved and we felt what better way than to allow them to help us create a menu item," said Scott Wise, President and CEO of Scotty's Brewhouse. "I felt people would get involved and vote, but I had no idea we would get close to 10,000 votes over the course of this competition."

After all the voting, we are now down to the final two; the Fit to be Thai'd Burger and the Confused Buffalo Burger. Voting this week moves into the stores as the two burgers will be available to order so that voters can taste them. Guests can now cast their vote simply by ordering their pick to win at their local Scotty's Brewhouse from now until we close on Sunday.

So what happens to the winner? Well, a former winner, The Shewman Special, has won several awards, including being named as one of Indianapolis Monthly's Top 25 Burgers in Indy. But ultimately the prize is your burger on the Scotty's Menu.

If you would like to get more information, including pictures of the final two burgers as well as ingredients each uses, check out the Burger Bracket Challenge page on our website. 

"Oh no! what did I miss?" that was the initial thought that went through my head when I saw we had 250 new Facebook fans since the last time I checked a mere 20 minutes earlier. 

Scott loves to give things away and promote being a Scotty's Fan on Facebook. We normally have good success with these types of promotions, but I had yet to see anything like this, it was happening so fast. I started scrolling back through all the posts trying to figure out what offer he had made.

Earlier in the day we were just 50 fans away from 12,000, so I figured it had to be a gift card or prize to our 12,000^th fan. I also knew it had to be something substantial as we had eclipsed the 12, 200 mark in minutes. When I finally got to the post I had to blink twice and then re-read. Here is what I saw: 

"Almost 12,000 Facebook friends... If you post on your wall and tag us: "Like Scotty's Brewhouse and mention my name in a post on their wall. We both will get a $50 Gift Card."

"It was just supposed to be for the 12,000^th fan," Scott said as I ran into his office. "But we will figure something out because I want to make it right."

We had just told anyone who was reading that post that if they got someone new to fan us and tag it on our wall we would give them both a $50 gift card. How could we turn this into an opportunity?

First of all, we immediately posted on the wall that we had misspoken and clarified exactly what the original post was supposed to say. We already had several comments from other fans questioning if the offer was real, while others even were saying that we obliviously meant the prize would go to the 12,oooth fan. Fans can be your greatest advocate if you treat them fairly and interact with them on a daily basis.

Secondly, we noticed several fans had commented that they were disappointed that people who had been fans for years weren't getting anything.

Our solution was to offer a $5 off coupon to ALL of our Fans. On top of that we wanted to do something more. Earlier in the week Southern Indiana had been devastated by tornadoes and Scott wanted to help the people affected by this. 

"That's when I had the idea," said Scott. "We could tie these two things together and use the power of our 12,000 fans to help others in need." With that Scott decided to give 10% of every check from people using the $5 off coupon to Tornado relief for Southern Indiana.

The result of the "mistake" has turned into a success story. Not only did we not lose any fans because of this, but we have gained more because they wanted to help with the Tornado victims as well as wanting to get $5 off their next visit.

The moral to the story. When you are active in social media and post on multiple platforms a day, odds are you will make an error that could lead to an epic "fail". When these situations arise you have two choices, ignore the issue and alienate fans or see it as an opportunity and embrace it.

What about you? Have you witnessed a company do something you knew was going to blow up in their face? How did they respond? What would you have done? 

The Madness is here. One of the best times of the year is upon us as we pick our brackets, place our bets, talk smack with friends, and immerse ourselves in all the games.

As I was setting up our employee bracket challenge yesterday on cbssports.com, it reminded me of how far we have come with technology and the way we watch and experience sports.

I will sound like an old man here, but back when I was a kid you had to wait until Monday after the selection show to get your brackets. You didn't go to espn.com, you waited for your paperboy to deliver the paper.  I remember cutting the bracket out and asking my mom to make copies for me at work so I could make multiple picks.

Now you can watch as the online brackets are filled out in real time and make your picks the instant the announcements are completed. Not only is this great for the average fan, but it is great for restaurants like Scotty's as well. Now we can engage with our guests and allow them to be a part of our "company pool".

The other amazing change is that each and every game is available to watch on your TV, computer, iPad or cell phone. Gone are the days of hoping your team was important enough that their first round game would be televised. At Scotty's we are now able to keep fans of all teams happy by showing multiple games every day of the tournament.

While talking with Scott yesterday, he noted the new "import your bracket picks" allowing him to join multiple pools without having to fill out multiple brackets.  

"I joined 4 brackets yesterday and I don't have much time to spend doing this. But, the fact I could import my brackets, allowed me to get it all done in about 15 minutes," he said.  "As we know, spending too much time on it causes you to make all the wrong decisions - some of the best picks are by my wife choosing her favorite mascot or team color."

With Twitter and Facebook it has also now become an even more interactive experience. I find myself looking at twitter for updates on my team, and following their Facebook page to talk with other fans around the country. 

It started with 32 teams, then 64, now 68? It used to be a paper bracket now it's digital, on your phone, instantaneous. What is next? How will the tourney evolve as we move forward? What is your favorite part of March Madness today? We would love to get your thoughts and opinions.  Please comment below.

If you want to join our Bracket Challenge you can do so here.

With over 1,000 positions to fill, Scotty's Brewhouse realized that they needed to be creative with their benefits to attract quality employees. Scotty's, which always seems to be on the cutting edge of restaurant technology, recently updated their benefits package to be cutting edge as well.

"We are in a very competitive industry," said Scott Wise, CEO and President of a Pots and Pans Production, which manages the four Scotty's Concepts.  "You have to try new benefits and incentives to get and keep the best people."