attracted a lot of attention and ballooned its following with a 200 per cent growth in the first week— including the attention of well followed TikTok figures securing a membership. Some of the followers that have secured membership into Grill’d’s secret club include Olympians Harry Garside and Sam Fricker, Bondi Lifeguards and TV personalities Harrison Reid, Trent Maxwell and Dean Gladstone– alongside a plethora of social media personalities. Keeping up with the customer After over two decades in business the Melbourne-founded business now has grown to over 170 stores nationwide, concurrently with its customers. Engaging the younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha customers is what prompted the business’s pivot to such a unique social media and marketing strategy. “We’re using TikTok to stay connected to Gen Z and a younger customer. Our brand tone of voice and personality is irreverent and youthful so TikTok is the perfect place to bring that to life through trends like unhinged moments and lore drops,” Harriet Blue, Grill’d, senior media and channel manager, told Inside Retail. “We’re constantly researching emerging social media platforms, testing beta features on existing social media platforms and identifying key trends that are influencing our customer outside of social media. We know that gamification is important to Gen Alpha so you can expect to see that from us next,” Blue said. Club Grill’d The power of celebrity influenced Grill’d’s new approach to TikTok, “Our social team was inspired by Chris Olsen’s ‘Club Chris’ TikTok account that’s private. We hadn’t seen any brand go private before so it was a risky move for us to be one of the first,” Blue said. The Australian food retailer is best known for its ‘healthy burgers’, fresh approach to business in the sector. And the ‘secret club’ concept is no different and is reflective of Grill’d’s positioning in the market. “As a brand we aren’t afraid to push the boundaries,” Blue said. “Our marketing team’s ethos is to fear indifference and be remarkable. We take this lens with everything we do and even if our ideas don’t always work we’re encouraged to learn from those experiences.” Whilst most brands are down to be discovered on TikTok’s explore page Grill’d has flipped the traditional social media logic; like one of its patties- retreating from “chasing reach by trying to be speak to everyone and instead focusing on those wanting to have a real connection with our brand,” Blue said. “Creating scarcity has driven a sense of FOMO which has tripled our followers in a week.” Measuring campaign cut through Grill’d has a three point strategy for measuring the success of its latest TikTok strategy– acquisition of followers, engagement rate and community sentiment. “We’re tracking well ahead of target,” Blue said regarding the set KPIs that support that the team is onto a successful strategy so far with “a higher engagement than when we were public and the community’s feedback has been really positive,” She added. However, despite the hype created from taking things private the plan is to switch back to a public profile. “We’ve been blown away by the response to Club Grill’d so this likely won’t be the last time you see us go followers-only,” Blue said. “Post-stunt, when we go public again, retention will be a big focus and we’re working on a strategy for this.,” Blue finished.