Buffalo Wild Wings Hosting H-O-R-S-E Game As It Promotes ‘Sports Live On’ Mantra

Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, Buffalo Wild Wings is hosting a game of H-O-R-S-E on its Twitch channel between Thomas “Snacks” Lee, the Jackson State team manager who drilled a long range three-pointer off the bench a few weeks ago, and @Maxisnicee, a rising Instagram star who is best known for his NBA impersonations.

Snacks and Max will be facing off at home, keeping with the trend of in-home highlights, playing with balls of socks and a laundry basket live over Twitch.

“Ever since sports were canceled or postponed, we’ve been looking for ideas to engage with sports fans to help fill the void,” said Seth Freeman, chief marketing officer for Buffalo Wild Wings. “The H-O-R-S-E game was inspired by all the social media videos we’ve seen of people continuing to play sports at home–from whiffle ball bat flips to mini hoop dunk contests. We wanted to get in on the action ourselves and, knowing anything we did would have to be virtual, we figured a game of H-O-R-S-E made a lot of sense.”

Asked what Buffalo Wild Wings hopes this campaign can accomplish, Freeman said it all comes down to keeping fans engaged from home.

“Buffalo Wild Wings was built around a love for sports–it’s in our DNA. As we’ve all seen, sports fans have found new and unique ways to keep competing during this time,” said Freeman. “So, even without live sports, we felt it was important to make the most of the situation and shift to a strategy that leaned into the makeshift sports people were playing at home–like chipping golf balls into a cup or coming up with crazy ping pong ball trick shots. The whole goal of the #SportsLiveOn campaign is to keep sports fans entertained. And keep sports living on.” 

Buffalo Wild Wings had to scrap one of its most ambitious sports sponsorship activations to date when the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was canceled. The brand had been building a pop-up bed and breakfast inside one of its Chicago restaurants for the First Round. Asked what it was like go from not knowing whether the tournament would be played to potentially playing without fans and then the tournament being completely canceled, Freeman said they were left with no choice but to adjust quickly.

“As an NCAA partner, we were monitoring developments very closely as we had major marketing efforts in the works–including TV ads, experiential, social and PR. We had contingencies in place depending on the outcome, so we quickly were able to pivot to adapt to the situation at hand. We’re equally as disappointed as our fans were that the tournament was canceled.”

Buffalo Wild Wings was ultimately forced to close all of its company-owned dining rooms across the country, shifting to a to-go only model, but Freeman says their takeout and delivery operations have exceeded expectations. Guests who order through the company’s website or app receive free delivery during the month of April, and restaurants are offering buy-one-get-one deals on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to other specials.

Tonight’s game of H-O-R-S-E is the first in a series of live competitions called “Sports Live on – LIVE!” from Buffalo Wild Wings. The company says the next competition could be in golf, soccer, football or anything else and that it may continue the #SportsLiveOn campaign even after the return of live sports.