Brisket Channel proves to be ultimate reality TV

Remember the Brisket Channel on Duluth TV?

It was on for 13 hours and five minutes over the Memorial Day weekend.

It turned out to be quite a hit, once reruns made it to YouTube. Nearly 400,000 viewers tuned into the Internet version of the smoked brisket marathon developed for Arby's by the Minneapolis ad agency Fallon.

So popular was the website that each unique visitor spent an average of 38 minutes on the site, watching a brisket slow cook in the same manner that Arby's prepares brisket for its customers. It also helped that visitors had a chance to win one of $20,000 in prizes that included a 10-gallon hat, lasso and beef-scented candles.

"We were blown away by that," said Matt Heath, Fallon creative director, of the viewership.

And the client was pleased. "Thirty-eight minutes is longer than a lot of TV shows," said Jeff Baker, Arby's senior brand experience director. "It was a great idea based on simplicity."

Besides setting a Guinness record for the longest TV commercial, the brisket show and limited brisket sandwich offer set the stage for Arby's new "we have the meats" advertising campaign that Fallon launched earlier this month.

Results for the fledging ad campaign so far are inconclusive. But Rocky Novak, Fallon's managing director, said: "We're seeing a lot of social media love." Arby's said it does not release sales figures. But when it first made the brisket sandwich limited-time-offer available in October of 2013, "we declared it the most successful [limited-time offer] in the brand's 50-year history,'' said a spokesman Wednesday.

Gone as Arby's pitchman is Bo Dietl, the former New York City police detective who was the face and voice of Arby's for nearly two years. To quote Dietl from a commercial for Arby's fish sandwich, "Really?" Yeah, really.

In fact, the new Arby's commercials are faceless. The only human element seen by viewers is of a person from the shoulders down wearing a chef's jacket. A roast beef or turkey or corned beef sandwich is the star of the commercial.

"The LSR [limited service restaurant or fast food] industry is not hyper-focused on food. There are a lot of entertainment factors," said Heath. "We wanted to see how close we could get to the food. We didn't want to put a face in there. It's about the finished product."

Among the tag lines used for the new set of Arby's commercials are "this is meatcraft," "fear not the meats," "meats crafted with a heavy hand" and "it will change you."

"We feel like we have an incredible heritage of meats and that presenting them in a simple way was the best way," Baker said in an interview earlier this week.

Arby's new advertising campaign will be accompanied by a new branding campaign that the Atlanta-based company announced in June. The branding effort includes remodeled exteriors, revitalized interiors and staff training.

Based on some consumer testing, Arby's message and image could use a little retooling.

According to the food industry consulting firm Technomic, sales and market share at Arby's have declined in each of the last two years, placing the roast beef king a distant second behind Subway in the non-hamburger sandwich sector and ahead of a hard-charging Jimmy John's.

"Arby's is considered to be unique because its about roast beef, not hamburgers, not chicken. We're talking about an older, nostalgic brand," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president for Chicago-based Technomic. "Clearly there are some advertising opportunities and some innovative opportunities."

Novak said the new Arby's advertising campaign is all about what goes between a bun or two pieces of bread in the Arby's kitchen.

"The main takeaway first and foremost is that this is about the meat that is put in the sandwich," Novak said.

Tristano said Arby's scores well with consumers on a number of metrics, including service, decor and "craveability." But it doesn't score so well on prices, healthy options and "advertising that makes me hungry."

"By focusing on what differentiates you, that creates memorable and creative advertising," Tristano said. "Freshness gives you a stronger feel of healthiness."

And credit for a new Arby's feel may come down to a Texas-smoked brisket that took 13 hours to cook and five minutes to carve.

David Phelps • 612-673-7269