Moe’s Southwest Grill has been known for its innovations. Enter its most recent example: The unveiling of its new in-restaurant artwork that features foodscapes–stunning landscapes made with Moe’s fresh ingredients–that have been featured in their commercials over the past two years.
The six new pieces of artwork that will be in its more than 650 locations by year’s end honor the music pioneers of the past and present. And its impact on the customer experience will be definite.
Dominic Losacco, VP of Global Marketing for Moe’s, told Loyalty360 that the company has always seen things differently.
“We’ve always seen things differently at Moe’s, and we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to see and engage with our food in an entirely new way,” Losacco explained. “Leveraging augmented reality to bring to life our artwork and food was the perfect platform to allow guests to experience something new while visiting our restaurants. We always encourage our guests to play with their food, and the implementation of this technology adds another layer of that experience for our customers – each of piece of art is literally made out of our food. Moe’s actually stands for Musicians, Outlaws, and Entertainers, as an homage to those who pushed the envelope on creativity and irreverence, and inspired the Moe’s brand and spirit. We, too, want to push the envelope on creativity through food, music and art, and using the AR technology is another iteration of our brand doing that.”
Sixteen years ago, Moe’s founders honored musicians who consistently pushed the envelope with creativity and irreverence when naming the brand: Musicians, Outlaws, and Entertainers. It has developed into a nationwide restaurant franchise that serves high quality ingredients with endless combinations in a family-friendly and welcoming environment that rocks.
The Augmented Reality (AR) aspect will launch with “Foodstock”, a salute to Woodstock, the legendary music festival that celebrates its 47th anniversary this week, and will eventually be incorporated into all of the pieces. The new AR-based art will be viewable through Moe’s new Rockin’ Rewards loyalty app and will give guests an opportunity to interact with the art and bring Moe’s 20+ fresh ingredients to life through their mobile phones. Specifically, guests can leverage the AR feature to play the onion drums, see bees buzz and literally create sweet melodies with Moe’s 17 quintillion high-quality food combinations that customers can customize to fit their unique lifestyles and tastes, all while having fun.
“We’re constantly looking to innovate the dining experience and take what people come to expect from fast-casual restaurants and flip it on its head – from making fresh, quality food you can feel good about eating, to creating dynamic, interesting in-restaurant experiences, like with our AR installations,” Losacco said. “The AR experiences are accessed through the app directly so it gives users an opportunity to use the app in a new way. Not only can they track their points, order, and redeem rewards, but now they can actually make music, discover hidden Easter eggs, and interact with our freakishly good ingredients, all within the app via the AR artwork – it’s taking the loyalty app and changing it from a functional to an experience-driven engagement with our customers.”
For Moe’s, its most loyal customers aren’t just those who eat at its restaurants frequently, but those who really embody the Moe’s culture.
“They embrace the Welcome to Moe’s! mantra and are inspired by the irreverence and humor we’ve built our brand on,” Losacco said. “We want our customers to be themselves at Moe’s, starting with how they make their meal and ending with how they feel in our restaurants, and the experiences they enjoy until they leave the door. The definition of loyalty hasn’t so much evolved for us, as the way we interact with those loyal customers. Technology has allowed us to reach them, and them to reach us in an entirely new way, a way that’s transparent and open, and has allowed us to build the best restaurant we can to continue relating to those customers.”