Taking Outreach Lessons From Denny's

by Brenton Balvin, Guest Blogger

I love what Denny's restaurant is doing to try and attract the college crowd, via Nation's Restaurant News (subscription required):

Denny's plan is to become a "social gathering" place for students who want to study for exams or meet with friends over a sit-down meal instead of grabbing a quick burger at a fast-food drive-thru, Polydoroff said.

To lure them in during the promotion, Denny's is offering meal deals because students are on a budget, he said, and using free Wi-Fi , text messages and banner ads on Facebook to communicate with students because they are heavy users of those media.

"It's pretty new and significant for us," Polydoroff said. "We never did text messaging before."
Marketing support also includes direct mail, coupons and ads in college newspapers.

Denny's is striving to communicate to their desired customers in a way that those people can understand. This is the business world's attempt at 'meeting people where they are at.' Younger generations of people are more and more entrenched in the world of technological conversation and expertise.

Are our churches keeping up? How are those of us in ministry using the communication tools of technology to connect with people in their congregations? I know that some churches are taking advantage of today's technology in communicating the Gospel, but I think this kind of thinking needs to become even more prevalent.