Krystal Lover’s Hall of Fame

|I got back to my apartment from Krystal a little while ago where I covered a Krystal Lover’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It was actually quite the production. Krystal provided complimentary meals for everyone in attendance and unveiled the special boxes for the inductees and plaques that will be displayed at the Krystal location of the inductees’ choice. The reason I was attending the ceremony to begin with was that 3 of the inductees are Chattanooga State Students. Patrick Mahan, Tyler Mullins and (oddly enough) Matt Davis. I had been in contact with a Krystal PR representative and it took an email or two to confirm that I was not the same Matt Davis being inducted. Small world. The trio (and a 4th inductee, Craig Shelton) are part of Nightvision Entertainment and their video submission was the first video submission to be accepted to the Krystal Lover’s Hall of Fame.

|At the ceremony I was greeted by Kenny Hammontree, Senior Marketing Coordinator at Krystal who offered me any information I needed and anything on the menu to boot. I didn’t order anything, looking back I slightly regret that decision but on the plus side I was able to interview Hammontree and talk about a number of things. I talked to him about the success of the Krystal Lover’s Hall of Fame marketing campaign (they’ve received submissions from as far as England), how many submissions they receive (5000 this year, out of that, 20 were selected), the loyalty of Krystal customers and the success of Kobayashi and the Krystal eating contests. Hammontree told me that many individuals who grow up in the South, grow up eating Krystal and they move away and then make a pilgrimage of sorts back to Krystal. I was able to share with him my own similar Krystal story; when my family and I lived in Maryland and visited Tennessee, we would take home up to 80 Krystal burgers.

|Don Welch of WTVC News Channel 9 was there as well interviewing the inductees. It will all make a great article and it’s really interesting to meet new people on each one of these field reports. Moving on and off topic, I will be making a 3-5 minute video for the Communicator to show to students at orientations this summer. I’m very excited about it. We’re adding an online edition to the paper in the Fall so I want to start stretching my video-editing legs. A big reason I write for the newspaper is because I love writing with a purpose, having the website will enable me to film with a purpose. Very exciting time. I’m thinking about loosely basing my video on NBC’s The Office, while still covering the basics of life on the Communicator staff. I’m still open to ideas so please let me know if you have any thoughts for this video.