Hooters’ promotion encouraging consumers to play hooky and watch the college basketball tournament games at a nearby outpost includes for the first time a way to redeem offers from a mobile device.

During March, consumers can visit the mobile-optimized micro site http://www.hootershooky.com to download game-day food offers that can be redeemed by displaying them on a mobile device at one of the chain’s locations. The effort also includes a chance to win a trip to Dallas for the college basketball finals, with customers automatically entered when they download a coupon or post a photo featuring a Hooters waitress on Instagram using the hashtag #HootersHooky.

“One of the biggest differences between last year’s Hooters Hooky promotion and our current promotion is that we’re giving consumers the opportunity to redeem our game day food offers using their mobile devices,” said Monica Afanador, digital marketing manager at Hooters of America, Atlanta. “By giving them the opportunity to utilize their mobile device, we feel we will significantly increase our download and redemption rates this year.

“Consumers are using mobile more and more for everything they do, so we’re making it easier for them, and we believe this will ultimately drive more traffic to our stores during this promotion,” she said.

“In addition to reaching out to our fans on social media through our brand pages, we’re also giving them the opportunity to win a trip to Dallas for this year’s college basketball finals through an Instagram contest. Fans can post a photo with a Hooters Girl on Instagram using the hashtag #HootersHooky during their visit to earn a bonus entry in our Dallas trip giveaway.”

Playing hooky
With 60 percent of the traffic to Hooters.com coming from mobile and tablet devices, the mobile-optimized microsite for the promotion is a good way to drive engagement with the promotion.

The site encourages consumers to “Play Hooky at Hooters” and sign up for free game day food offers. On mobile, users can scroll down and sign up using their Facebook profile or by manually keying in their name, mobile phone number and email.

Customers are also asked to select their excuse for playing hooky at Hooters, with their choice including “Costas gave me pinkeye” and “The FBI called…can’t talk about it.”

Users must also check a box indicating they want to receive email and text messages from Hooters and another box indicating that they have read and agree to the official rules and the terms of the privacy policy.

If users continue to scroll, they can view the photos posted to Instagram showing Hooters waitresses.

The Hooters Hooky promotion consists of several different food offers during the month of March when customers purchase a drink.

On March 13 and 14, consumers can download a coupon for a free Buffalo Chicken Dip with a drink purchase. The chain will offer customers a free Fried Pickle appetizer with a drink on March 20 and 21.

On March 27 and 28, customers will be able to buy 10 wings and get 10 for free with the purchase of a drink.

Reaching consumers
By offering free food and making it easy for customers to download and redeem coupons via mobile, Hooters is giving college basketball fans a reason to visit one of its locations during the tournament games taking place this month.

Coupons can also be printed out to redeem at a Hooters location.

The promotion is a way for Hooters to drive awareness of its new spring menu, which includes the new Buffalo Chicken Dip.

“Mobile plays an important role in all of our marketing promotions,” Ms. Afanador said. “Whether it’s through social media, contests, gaming or advertising, we make sure to include at least one mobile component in each of our national campaigns.

“We want to reach consumers where they spend majority of their time, and today, that’s on mobile,” she said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York