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Shake Shack means business when it says it wants to compete. So much so that it successfully poached a TikTok star to promote a new menu item.
According to Steph So, Shake Shack’s senior vice president of digital experiences, the chain saw an opportunity to promote its Chicken Shack sandwich after it came across content creator Miri, who goes by “mirithesiren” on TikTok.
At the time, Miri was working at Chik-fil-A and quickly gained popularity for making daily videos of her free employee meals. The videos often included new menu items and tips on what to order.
Miri’s viral videos soon got the attention of Chick-fil-A’s PR team, which told her she could no longer post the videos due to company rules. In April, Miri said she would no longer make Chick-fil-A content. Just days later, Shake Shack hired her.
“We thought there was such a niche,” So said during the Lead Innovation Summit in New York City on Thursday. “We engaged her, ‘We don’t you come to Shake Shack and make videos for food that we have?.”
Miri, who has more than 140,000 TikTok followers, ended up “shooting some really viral videos for us and our products,” So said. Miri has since posted sponsored content eating Shake Shack and has a long-term partnership with the chain.
Ultimately, it comes down to what’s big on social media, So said. “It’s really listening to the content people like and the videos people watch.” The impressions and engagement Shake Shack received from that effort “were far beyond what we could’ve gotten through in-house channels,” she later added.