Swedish burger chain Max leads the way in monitoring influencers online
Max is a popular Swedish burger chain which started operations in 1968 in the town of Gällivare in the far north of the country. Today its burgers are enjoyed in over one hundred restaurants not only in its native Sweden but also around the world in far flung countries such as the United Arab Emirates.
A key to the company’s success is ensuring it keeps up with changing trends in how businesses communiecate with their customers. This strategy, headed up by Kristoffer Stenqvist, Head of Media and Digital Marketing at Max, sees the company rapidly roll out new PR campaigns, communications strategies and changes to its product lines in line with customer feedback.
This dynamic approach to customer communications as well as the company’s position as a market leader makes it an exciting place to work, says Kristoffer. It’s no wonder that Max is one of the most well-regarded employers in Sweden.
How Max Became One Of All Ears First Clients
Max is already an active user of media monitoring services, seeing it monitor social media using Notified, as well as Retriever for traditional print media. When All Ears first released its monitoring service for audible media, Kristoffer got in touch with us immediately, and Max became one of our first clients. Our partnership with a leading company like Max just weeks after the release of our service is something we at All Ears are incredibly proud of.
Max is Sweden’s second biggest hamburger chain, earning over two billion Swedish kronor (approx. $226m USD) in revenue.
“We’re always curious about what is being said and written about our company — it’s a part of understanding and being in contact with our customers, and a way in which we can ensure we’re informed of current trends,” says Kristoffer.
Media monitoring played a decisive role for the company’s product range earlier this year.
“We became aware that our customers had created their own new product, based on our popular BBQ Sandwich burger. These customers banded together and started a petition to have us put their creation on our menu, something we were happy to do after having seen just how engaged these customers were with our products,” says Kristoffer enthusiastically.
“Another important reason why we feel it’s important to monitor what people are saying about our company and brand is to provide good customer service. Even if customers are positive about our brand, just a simple acknowledgement from the company’s official channels can go a long way to leaving a lasting good impression.”
Max also uses media monitoring to follow exactly how news about their company is spreading, “For example, if a newspaper or TV program mentions our company, there’s a good chance we’ve already spoken to them beforehand. But for us, it’s also important to continue to monitor these sources, so that we are able to follow up with them where required.”
Getting Max On Board
When Max first contacted us, we ran a sample search in our audio archive for mentions of the company in the near 1500 sources monitored by All Ears. Food is a keen interest for many, and was reflected in the search results, having brought up results from YouTube superstars MatGeek, Laki Doris and Joel Wetzel. Frequency of mentions of Max during the first half of 2017.
A whole lot more results about Max were found in local radio news, where the hamburger chain’s new menu offerings frequently feature. In both cases, few if any at all of these mentions would have been found with a traditional text-based media monitoring service. After having seen these results, Max’s communications team were quick to take up the service. With the ability for All Ears to integrate with existing media monitoring platforms, the way forward for them was clear.
“It is useful for us to be able to import search results into Notified. It means that we can understand what is going on in just one place, and provide for better workflow management by not having to use yet another system for this additional capability.”
I asked Kristoffer about his impressions of the collaboration between All Ears and Max, since we got in contact with each other in the beginning of the fall:
“We’re worked together since October 2016, and I have only positive things to say about working with the All Ears team. They are responsive and easy to work with.”
Finally, what are your thoughts on the how the media landscape might change in the future and what role spoken media might play in that?
“Our belief is that the better technology becomes able to track the mysterious black hole that this type of media has traditionally been, the more important it will be as a communication method for businesses. An example of this is podcasts, where both the number of podcasts as well as the number of listeners continues to grow. We want to be a part of the conversation and the discussion that goes on as a part of it. It is the natural next step, from printed media, to digital media, to audible media. It’s also great to be a part of a supporting a new Swedish company with an exciting new product which helps to solve a big problem for businesses.”
