I've heard this question a number of times from AHT readers without a Sonic in their area and from friends and coworkers here in New York City, where the nearest Sonic is 60 miles away (Waretown, New Jersey).
Over the weekend, I ran into one of the writers behind the two-folks-in-a-car Sonic commercials and asked him if he knew.
He said that it's basically a better deal for Sonic to buy ad packages on a national basis on cable TV, which is why all you Sonic-less folks see them anyway. An added benefit, he said, was that this strategy has coincidentally built up hype for the drive-in burger chain whenever it enters a new market.
If you watch "The Hills" on MTV you may have seen the beginning of a new set of Sonic commercials called, "The Stalls". I you don't get MTV and would rather just see the first of these commercials, you can check it out on YouTube. This first one might make you wonder what's gonna happen next ...
same thing with dunkin donuts. i am a bostonian living in LA, so it is TORTUROUS to see dunkin donuts waved in my face in commercials all the time when the closest one is a plane flight away!
I live near Chicago and for years they have been running Sonic commercials on TV, when the nearest one was in Indiana. Well, we finally got a Sonic here over the summer and the years of commercials really have hyped the place up. The average afternoon lunch wait is about 2 hours and the line for the drive thru winds through the Walmart parking lot that is next door. As for the food, it's good fast food.. on par with Whataburger or Hardee's, definitely not worth the 2 hour wait.
I'm mostly used to this sort of advertising bundling. Heck, I used to get Dunkin Donuts coupons in my newspaper in Minneapolis, when, at the time, the nearest DD was hundreds of miles away.
Sonic ads on nationally-distributed channels doesn't bother me, but some other ad bundling is definitely going on, since I saw a Sonic ad on what the Nielsen DMAs consider to be my "local" stations (Burlington, VT, about 120 miles away), and considering that there are no Sonics in either VT or any of the bordering states, it's a bit ridiculous (it's ~350 miles to the nearest Sonic for me)
I have five Sonic's near me in Houston that I go to. There are probably over a hundred in town and one in every small town on the road between here and anywhere else.
I go mostly for one thing. Their drinks. They have the best crushed ice. They even sell it buy the bag.
Their onion rings are also really good. They make them from scratch in each store. It takes them over two hours to batter them.
I used to buy advertising for national companies for local markets and I find it hard to believe that they are getting that good of a deal buying nationally. It certainly is easier to buy nationally and they certainly get some hype for people on road trips passing a Sonic. But advertising is EXPENSIVE, especially when when are reaching people who aren't even able to use your product. And buying the absolute cheapest schedule is not always cost effective anyway.
Of course, without seeing the numbers, it's hard to say what kind of deal they are getting by buying nationally. But considering that hardly anybody buys ads this way (even national brands tend to buy a lot of local advertising), I'm really surprised.
@ megannesta: Don't be so disheartened. I'm a former Rhode Islander living in Arizona which is a newish market for DD. I've been to a few of the Dunks out here and it's just... not the same. Sigh.
I miss my giant iced coffee and cheap bagel sandwiches....
Hubby and I have grumbled about this more than once. I finally had a chance to check one out while visiting a friend in Charlotte, NC, and although the burger wasn't all that amazing (good, but not OMGFABULOUS), the cherry limeade is the stuff that dreams are made of.
They are doing an excellent job building hype, because my friends from the Northeast ask me about Sonic all of the time, being that I'm from the South and they are all over the place (no one likes to get out of their truck down there).
I'll agree with the other comments here. I'm actually pretty "meh" on their food items, but I do enjoy their sodas (mmmm, nothing beats a cherry limeade after a whole day working in the sun...)
That reminds me of a night last summer when my friends drove from DC to Delaware to get some kind of milkshake at Sonic, just because they'd seen a commercial for it on TV. Naturally, they arrived just as the restaurant was closing, but somehow the band of five (slightly hysterical, I'm sure) twenty-year-old girls convinced the teenage boys managing the restaurant to open back up and serve them milkshakes...
They run the commercials constantly out here in the SF Bay Area and the nearest one is in, what, Tracy? But I agree, those ads have made me painfully aware that they have tater tots and I don't. Woe.
I concur with eatorama that the drinks are sublime. Sonic even has half price drinks during "Drink Happy Hour" between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. seven days a week, which means that large cherry limeades for DH and strawberry fresh fruit slushes are a regular occurence most weekends!!
I concur that the burgers are average, although I do love the tater tots. I try not to miss the "Ultimate Tots" when they have them (about once a year). They are a meal by themselves!
Agreed, the burgers are nothing to pine over. The tots are pretty good. The drinks are what I always went for-- real limeades, cherry limeades, shakes, etc. They will also mix a drink however you want-- they have the actual syrups and a fountain, so if you want to you could get a chocolate-grape-vanilla-strawberry-cherry Dr Pepper. Not that you should, but it's nice knowing you could.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for answering this question. Every time a sonic commercial comes on I get angry because there are no sonics within 130 miles from where I live. This has been a question in my house for months. Its just funny to see it when I checked the site!
I haven't tried any of their food in over a year or two, I just got tired of being let down every time. And whoever makes the drinks at the sonic near my house has to be totally lazy. Every time I've ordered a fruit smoothie, it has giant pieces of fruit floating in it (for example, a quarter of a banana). The last time I went there, my lime slush literally had two whole limes chilling at the bottom of the cup. No lime slices, just whole, untouched limes.
Me and a friend drove all the way to Indian (from Michigan) just to try Sonic. It was great. Luckily, Sonics are starting to open all over Michigan these days!! Too bad I'm not there too see it!
I've voiced this complaint to my husband about this over 5 years ago, since we'd get excited when we'd see a commercial every few months. Of course, I knew the reason why they did it.
I think it is worth national advertising because of the hype and the pockets of franchises they have across the US. That tv show with those blonde knuckleheads (forgot the name of it) did a lot of advertising for them too.
We would drive from Cleveland, OH to Bristol, TN (~9 hours each way) to go to a Sonic, since that was the closest one. Of course, by then I had gone to one in SW Kansas visiting with the in-laws and was hooked. The drive was worth it.
They've opened one in Pittsburgh since, so it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive each way for a fix.
In Cleveland, you can't get a *quick* burger for breakfast unless you stop at a crappity Steak n Shake. You have to wait until lunch time to get something like BK, Rally's, Wendy's, McD. BK isn't bad, the others plain suck.
When I do go, I usually get a hamburger, chili cheese tater tots, and split a Route 44 cherry limeade and a foot long coney with the husband.
The Pickle-Os were awesome. I wish they were still on the menu. :(
Does no one else have the exact same problem with other chains? I am subjected to Jack in the Box commercials all of the time, and the closest one to me is a four hour drive across state lines. (I am only 20 minutes away from Sonic...still far, but worth it for a grilled cheese, tater tots with pepperjack, and a root beer with vanilla. Oh, and the breakfast burritos are yummy, too, and served all day.)
@brittj8585, really I don't see this as being any different than an ad rinning here in Michigan for resorts in Las Vegas, a cruise ship line, the state of Arkansas (which we do see here), etc. I'm just not sure why fast food chains should be any different than the rest of these.
We've been watching "easy button" Staples commercials for years, with no Staples gracing the city limits of this huge town. Although I hear they are planning to move in sometime.
They tell you how to make it on the DD site. It's not very hard at all, and a hell of a lot cheaper to make at home. It takes a little trial and error to ge tit to your tastes, but once you perfect your recipe, you'll never pay for another iced coffee again, nor care if a DD opens up near you at all. Well, unless you crave a sugary sweet DD doghnut.
I've always liked Sonic, but it does seem that the quality of the food has gone way south in the past 5 years. I can't quite identify what it is exactly, but usually the fries and onion rings are a cold gloppy mess of oil and flaccid side food. Also, I think they changed the bread company for the buns - seems much cheaper now.
i guess its the same with long john silvers. i live in louisiana, so long john livers might as well not even exist. i think its a west coast thing? i have no idea. i see the commercials all the time.
Sonic confuses me. If the weather is at all inclement, my experience is hampered. I don't like eating in my car, so the stalls are horrible in my opinion. Sitting at the table is fine, but since the Sonic just opened in my town, it's crowded all the time.
The burgers are fair, better than most fast food joints and the tots are very good. The onion rings are excellent. They have great drinks, but take note they change the size of their cup during the "Happy Hour" so I think your getting about the same for the full priced drinks if you figure it out.
I'm just glad I don't have to frequent creepy carnivals and circuses to get my Corn Dog fix anymore. They have corn dogs and they are good.
The newness of it had me going quite a bit at first and I did enjoy quite a few burgers, but now that it has kind of lost it's shine, I'm seeing it as it really is. Just another fast food joint with a gimmick.
The main places I've seen Sonic ads on cable in NYC has been on the Atlanta-based Turner channels (TNT, etc), and it sounds like the ads are part of the satellite feed for those channels. The space they set aside to sell to local businesses in the markets they service tends to get filled with spots that are *really* local.
We just got a Sonic last summer. As far as their hamburgers go, A&W is better and In & Out by far the best. The toaster sandwiches, onion rings, tots, and cherry and strawberry limeades are where it's at. But I HATE their stupid commercials!! Thank goodness for TiVO so I don't have to change the channel every time I see one!
Wow--I had no idea this many people were excited about Sonic! I live in Oklahoma City where Sonic is headquartered and my entire life myself and everyone I know has gone to Sonic, but no one is that excited about it. It is really not that great, there are just so many of them everywhere (about four near my home now!) that it is mainly just out of convenience. They really are not as good as in the "old days" -- they just have a fantastic marketing department (believe me, I have a friend who works there). But as other posters have said, the cherry limeade is the thing to get if you go. Just don't expect a great burger. Most people here prefer Johnnie's Burgers.
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44 Comments:
If you watch "The Hills" on MTV you may have seen the beginning of a new set of Sonic commercials called, "The Stalls". I you don't get MTV and would rather just see the first of these commercials, you can check it out on YouTube. This first one might make you wonder what's gonna happen next ...
LunaPierCook at 3:20PM on 10/07/08
same thing with dunkin donuts. i am a bostonian living in LA, so it is TORTUROUS to see dunkin donuts waved in my face in commercials all the time when the closest one is a plane flight away!
megannesta at 3:23PM on 10/07/08
Haha, so true Adam! We don't have any close by in San Diego. It was on a Vegas trip that we actually stopped by one. I must say it was quite tasty. :)
johnnytakes5 at 3:24PM on 10/07/08
Sonic stinks... We have them all over the place here in Austin. It's not worth the hype, folks.
Ten years ago it might have been worth the hype, but they've gone downhill in a serious way.
ronzoni at 3:26PM on 10/07/08
@ronzoni, must be the Austin stores ... the ones in South Carolina wuz good!
LunaPierCook at 3:30PM on 10/07/08
I live near Chicago and for years they have been running Sonic commercials on TV, when the nearest one was in Indiana. Well, we finally got a Sonic here over the summer and the years of commercials really have hyped the place up. The average afternoon lunch wait is about 2 hours and the line for the drive thru winds through the Walmart parking lot that is next door. As for the food, it's good fast food.. on par with Whataburger or Hardee's, definitely not worth the 2 hour wait.
Eagles409 at 3:54PM on 10/07/08
I'm mostly used to this sort of advertising bundling. Heck, I used to get Dunkin Donuts coupons in my newspaper in Minneapolis, when, at the time, the nearest DD was hundreds of miles away.
Sonic ads on nationally-distributed channels doesn't bother me, but some other ad bundling is definitely going on, since I saw a Sonic ad on what the Nielsen DMAs consider to be my "local" stations (Burlington, VT, about 120 miles away), and considering that there are no Sonics in either VT or any of the bordering states, it's a bit ridiculous (it's ~350 miles to the nearest Sonic for me)
kaszeta at 3:55PM on 10/07/08
I have five Sonic's near me in Houston that I go to. There are probably over a hundred in town and one in every small town on the road between here and anywhere else.
I go mostly for one thing. Their drinks. They have the best crushed ice. They even sell it buy the bag.
Their onion rings are also really good. They make them from scratch in each store. It takes them over two hours to batter them.
eatorama at 4:18PM on 10/07/08
I used to buy advertising for national companies for local markets and I find it hard to believe that they are getting that good of a deal buying nationally. It certainly is easier to buy nationally and they certainly get some hype for people on road trips passing a Sonic. But advertising is EXPENSIVE, especially when when are reaching people who aren't even able to use your product. And buying the absolute cheapest schedule is not always cost effective anyway.
Of course, without seeing the numbers, it's hard to say what kind of deal they are getting by buying nationally. But considering that hardly anybody buys ads this way (even national brands tend to buy a lot of local advertising), I'm really surprised.
rubinow at 4:21PM on 10/07/08
@ megannesta: Don't be so disheartened. I'm a former Rhode Islander living in Arizona which is a newish market for DD. I've been to a few of the Dunks out here and it's just... not the same. Sigh.
I miss my giant iced coffee and cheap bagel sandwiches....
modysoul at 4:29PM on 10/07/08
My folks live in Barneget which is next to Waretown. I have experienced Sonic. To those in NYC/North Jersey...don't worry you are not missing out.
davey at 4:33PM on 10/07/08
Oh my god. I've been wondering this for so long and have complained about it regularly. I just thought it was just Sonic being mean to me.
LHSK12 at 4:52PM on 10/07/08
Hubby and I have grumbled about this more than once. I finally had a chance to check one out while visiting a friend in Charlotte, NC, and although the burger wasn't all that amazing (good, but not OMGFABULOUS), the cherry limeade is the stuff that dreams are made of.
trillian42 at 5:15PM on 10/07/08
They are doing an excellent job building hype, because my friends from the Northeast ask me about Sonic all of the time, being that I'm from the South and they are all over the place (no one likes to get out of their truck down there).
Laurel E at 5:16PM on 10/07/08
@modysoul, i'm glad someone understands my plight! :) :)
megannesta at 5:21PM on 10/07/08
I'll agree with the other comments here. I'm actually pretty "meh" on their food items, but I do enjoy their sodas (mmmm, nothing beats a cherry limeade after a whole day working in the sun...)
kaszeta at 5:34PM on 10/07/08
That reminds me of a night last summer when my friends drove from DC to Delaware to get some kind of milkshake at Sonic, just because they'd seen a commercial for it on TV. Naturally, they arrived just as the restaurant was closing, but somehow the band of five (slightly hysterical, I'm sure) twenty-year-old girls convinced the teenage boys managing the restaurant to open back up and serve them milkshakes...
ChristineB at 5:37PM on 10/07/08
are they any good? i wish in-n-out burger would migrate to the midwest
suburbangourmet at 5:39PM on 10/07/08
They run the commercials constantly out here in the SF Bay Area and the nearest one is in, what, Tracy? But I agree, those ads have made me painfully aware that they have tater tots and I don't. Woe.
mschlock at 5:40PM on 10/07/08
I concur with eatorama that the drinks are sublime. Sonic even has half price drinks during "Drink Happy Hour" between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. seven days a week, which means that large cherry limeades for DH and strawberry fresh fruit slushes are a regular occurence most weekends!!
I concur that the burgers are average, although I do love the tater tots. I try not to miss the "Ultimate Tots" when they have them (about once a year). They are a meal by themselves!
Mizbee at 5:45PM on 10/07/08
Agreed, the burgers are nothing to pine over. The tots are pretty good. The drinks are what I always went for-- real limeades, cherry limeades, shakes, etc. They will also mix a drink however you want-- they have the actual syrups and a fountain, so if you want to you could get a chocolate-grape-vanilla-strawberry-cherry Dr Pepper. Not that you should, but it's nice knowing you could.
Laurel E at 5:53PM on 10/07/08
+1 on the burgers being just OK.
+1 on tater tots being great. I love tots. An overlooked side item and nice to see them bucking the fries trend.
+1 on good drinks. The cherry limeade is their signature drink, and they use fresh-squeezed lime juice for them.
Adam Kuban at 5:57PM on 10/07/08
Thank you, thank you, thank you for answering this question. Every time a sonic commercial comes on I get angry because there are no sonics within 130 miles from where I live. This has been a question in my house for months. Its just funny to see it when I checked the site!
styska1 at 7:09PM on 10/07/08
I haven't tried any of their food in over a year or two, I just got tired of being let down every time. And whoever makes the drinks at the sonic near my house has to be totally lazy. Every time I've ordered a fruit smoothie, it has giant pieces of fruit floating in it (for example, a quarter of a banana). The last time I went there, my lime slush literally had two whole limes chilling at the bottom of the cup. No lime slices, just whole, untouched limes.
jboylan at 9:15PM on 10/07/08
cherry limeade and vodka reminds me of high school.....
banananne at 9:45PM on 10/07/08
Me and a friend drove all the way to Indian (from Michigan) just to try Sonic. It was great. Luckily, Sonics are starting to open all over Michigan these days!! Too bad I'm not there too see it!
smile at 2:55AM on 10/08/08
I've voiced this complaint to my husband about this over 5 years ago, since we'd get excited when we'd see a commercial every few months. Of course, I knew the reason why they did it.
I think it is worth national advertising because of the hype and the pockets of franchises they have across the US. That tv show with those blonde knuckleheads (forgot the name of it) did a lot of advertising for them too.
We would drive from Cleveland, OH to Bristol, TN (~9 hours each way) to go to a Sonic, since that was the closest one. Of course, by then I had gone to one in SW Kansas visiting with the in-laws and was hooked. The drive was worth it.
They've opened one in Pittsburgh since, so it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive each way for a fix.
In Cleveland, you can't get a *quick* burger for breakfast unless you stop at a crappity Steak n Shake. You have to wait until lunch time to get something like BK, Rally's, Wendy's, McD. BK isn't bad, the others plain suck.
When I do go, I usually get a hamburger, chili cheese tater tots, and split a Route 44 cherry limeade and a foot long coney with the husband.
The Pickle-Os were awesome. I wish they were still on the menu. :(
Cassaendra at 7:45AM on 10/08/08
Does no one else have the exact same problem with other chains? I am subjected to Jack in the Box commercials all of the time, and the closest one to me is a four hour drive across state lines. (I am only 20 minutes away from Sonic...still far, but worth it for a grilled cheese, tater tots with pepperjack, and a root beer with vanilla. Oh, and the breakfast burritos are yummy, too, and served all day.)
brittj8585 at 11:34AM on 10/08/08
@brittj8585, really I don't see this as being any different than an ad rinning here in Michigan for resorts in Las Vegas, a cruise ship line, the state of Arkansas (which we do see here), etc. I'm just not sure why fast food chains should be any different than the rest of these.
LunaPierCook at 11:43AM on 10/08/08
This is similar to Geico ads in MA. They run them all the time even though Geico auto insurance isn't offered in MA.
But it's good marketing. All I want is a sonic burger, probably because I know i cant have one.
jonny509 at 12:04PM on 10/08/08
I liked the one in Vegas on Sahara Ave. None here in San Francisco though but you wouldn't know it because of the ads.
negtiveEclipse at 1:22PM on 10/08/08
A better deal for them?! Bah! I'm sure they air them nationally just to tease me...
jourgy at 3:59PM on 10/08/08
We've been watching "easy button" Staples commercials for years, with no Staples gracing the city limits of this huge town. Although I hear they are planning to move in sometime.
lambowner at 4:50PM on 10/08/08
To those who miss their DD Iced Coffee.
They tell you how to make it on the DD site. It's not very hard at all, and a hell of a lot cheaper to make at home. It takes a little trial and error to ge tit to your tastes, but once you perfect your recipe, you'll never pay for another iced coffee again, nor care if a DD opens up near you at all. Well, unless you crave a sugary sweet DD doghnut.
Raiders757 at 5:28PM on 10/08/08
I've always liked Sonic, but it does seem that the quality of the food has gone way south in the past 5 years. I can't quite identify what it is exactly, but usually the fries and onion rings are a cold gloppy mess of oil and flaccid side food. Also, I think they changed the bread company for the buns - seems much cheaper now.
FattyMelt at 5:37PM on 10/08/08
shit. i always wondered this ever since i lived in gainesville, fl and now nyc. thank you.
chinolam at 8:55PM on 10/08/08
I once saw a Sonic commercial at a resort in the Domincan Republic. It is really amazing how many people wonder this very question...
esgood at 10:22PM on 10/08/08
i guess its the same with long john silvers. i live in louisiana, so long john livers might as well not even exist. i think its a west coast thing? i have no idea. i see the commercials all the time.
delilah at 12:31AM on 10/09/08
HA! long john livers... excuse my dislexia. that made me laugh.
delilah at 12:33AM on 10/09/08
Sonic confuses me. If the weather is at all inclement, my experience is hampered. I don't like eating in my car, so the stalls are horrible in my opinion. Sitting at the table is fine, but since the Sonic just opened in my town, it's crowded all the time.
The burgers are fair, better than most fast food joints and the tots are very good. The onion rings are excellent. They have great drinks, but take note they change the size of their cup during the "Happy Hour" so I think your getting about the same for the full priced drinks if you figure it out.
I'm just glad I don't have to frequent creepy carnivals and circuses to get my Corn Dog fix anymore. They have corn dogs and they are good.
The newness of it had me going quite a bit at first and I did enjoy quite a few burgers, but now that it has kind of lost it's shine, I'm seeing it as it really is. Just another fast food joint with a gimmick.
BigWoollyMammoth at 9:10AM on 10/09/08
Thank you for reading my mind...
FamishedFem at 3:01PM on 10/10/08
The main places I've seen Sonic ads on cable in NYC has been on the Atlanta-based Turner channels (TNT, etc), and it sounds like the ads are part of the satellite feed for those channels. The space they set aside to sell to local businesses in the markets they service tends to get filled with spots that are *really* local.
johnny_clueless at 11:57PM on 10/10/08
We just got a Sonic last summer. As far as their hamburgers go, A&W is better and In & Out by far the best. The toaster sandwiches, onion rings, tots, and cherry and strawberry limeades are where it's at. But I HATE their stupid commercials!! Thank goodness for TiVO so I don't have to change the channel every time I see one!
buffy at 5:42PM on 10/11/08
Wow--I had no idea this many people were excited about Sonic! I live in Oklahoma City where Sonic is headquartered and my entire life myself and everyone I know has gone to Sonic, but no one is that excited about it. It is really not that great, there are just so many of them everywhere (about four near my home now!) that it is mainly just out of convenience. They really are not as good as in the "old days" -- they just have a fantastic marketing department (believe me, I have a friend who works there). But as other posters have said, the cherry limeade is the thing to get if you go. Just don't expect a great burger. Most people here prefer Johnnie's Burgers.
gourmetgal at 1:42AM on 10/13/08