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As Erbert & Gerbert's looked for ways to differentiate itself in a competitive category and position itself for growth outside of its current Midwestern and Western markets, sticking to its story premise seemed like the wise strategy. Last year the company redesigned units and increased the number of franchisees. And with a little extra money left in its budget, management intended to create a modest radio spot to help underscore those efforts. The idea was to help the company stay rooted in its quirky heritage and stay within its modest budget, but position it for growth.

“We needed to help them find their voice,” explains Dustin Black, art director at Minneapolis-based Colle + McVoy, Erbert & Gerbert's ad agency.

Instead of radio, Colle + McVoy suggested that a stop-motion animation video would play better with the 16- to 35-year-old demographic Erbert & Gerbert courts. The agency recommended airing it on Internet sites like YouTube, as well as on late-night TV, which is a natural fit, because many of Erbert & Gerbert's locations near college campuses are open until 2 a.m.

Colle + McVoy created “The Human Flipbook,” a story told, without words, on a T-shirt. Like old-fashioned flipbooks that show motion when pages change quickly, the video tells the tale of a hungry boy in search of a good sandwich, as a torso changes T-shirts. The story is satisfying and gets its point across without the classic beauty shot of a sandwich.

The 42-year-old president and CEO of the chain, Eric Wolfe, admits he didn't really “get” the idea of viral marketing when it was first presented to him. “I was looking for the food shot,” he says.

But Wolfe was converted after seeing the results. The Human Flipbook spot aired late night on MTV and Comedy Central and was posted on YouTube in September 2007, when almost immediately it racked up thousands of comments from viewers. Watching the video lead some viewers overseas to long for an Erbert & Gerbert's, while locals said they were running out to get a sandwich. And, of course, the cost-effectiveness stayed within the company's modest budget.

The Human Flipbook tallied up 1.4 million views from mid-September 2007 to mid-June 2008 and same-store sales increased 5 percent.

“YouTube is this great equalizer. You do not need a great media buy for a good impression,” says John Krings, Erbert & Gerbert's COO.

The advertising team experienced the effects of that equality. In order to keep costs low, it actually ironed 150 decals onto 150 T-shirts and filmed an intern wearing each of the shirts in sequence over a period of 9 hours, one of the ways Erbert & Gerbert's managed to have such success with an annual ad budget of $500,000.

The team then created a “making of” video to show how it was done, which is also posted on the Human Flipbook site. That extra footage has garnered even more online traffic. “We wanted to slice and dice the material to get as many miles out of it as possible,” Krings says. “We didn't want people to think that this was faked or that it could have been Photoshopped.”

While conventional wisdom may shun an Internet effort for a chain with a limited geographic reach, Black says it is an advantage to get national—and international—exposure. “It sows the seed for new, fresh markets,” he says. “Someone in Minnesota sees it and feels part of something much larger.”

Currently Erbert & Gerbert has 45 units, with 17 in development. Expansion plans call for two or three units to open in 2008, and for new growth to come from franchising.

To sustain that kind of growth, though, and to honor a milestone, the chain needed a bigger bang…literally. When Erbert & Gerbert started planning its 20th anniversary, it wanted to build on the success of the Human Flipbook and the success of its first two decades.

“We were on the heels of the Flipbook, and so we decided to take the same quirky, wholesome approach, the same good tools, to create something fresh,” Black says.

Instead of sticking with the typical customer appreciation day, Colle + McVoy created “Candle Cannon,” which, as its name suggests, shows a series of different experiments using a giant cannon to blow out birthday candles, some from distances of up to 180 feet. As became the case with Human Flipbook, the team created a dedicated Web site for the birthday promotion, which includes a “making of” video and coupons for a free soda at the restaurant. A smaller 3-foot cannon was made available to franchisees who wanted to do their own off-beat celebrations.

The site had attracted 972,000 total views as of press time (from March 2008 to mid-June 2008), and between 5,000 and 6,000 consumers had downloaded coupons.

In addition to boosting sales, Erbert & Gerbert Marketing Manager Veronica Miller-Deutsch says the marketing effort boosted morale: “It motivated every team member. The hourly staff could now see the place they work in the Internet.”

Erbert & Gerbert management is delighted that their offbeat approach has been a success and thinks the results demonstrate how the chain is “never quirky for quirky's sake,” but is when it hammers home the mission and messages of the concept.

Krings adds that the chain has legitimate reasons for trying something different: “I think one thing we have learned in our collective experience is that if you create communications that look like what the leaders are doing, you are helping them out. If people see a sub, they think, 'I want to go to Subway.' That is the danger.”