Marketing Lessons from the Life and Death of AJ Bombers

by Tom Snyder on Jul 02, 2025

When AJ Bombers announced it would close at the end of 2025, it marked the end of a chapter not just for Milwaukee’s burger scene, but for those of us who were part of the early wave of social media marketing. AJ Bombers wasn’t just a restaurant. It was one of the first examples of what could happen when a brand fully embraced the emerging digital landscape to create not just customers, but a community.

Long before it was AJ Bombers…even before it was “The Corner”…the space was home to McGillicudy’s, a Water Street bar where, in a previous life as a Milwaukee Radio personality, I once did my live radio show on a snowy St. Patrick’s Day. Years later, I watched that same corner become a hub of social media innovation. In the late 2000s, Trivera was among the first agencies in the region to advocate for using social media as a brand-building tool. Around that same time, Joe Sorge, through AJ Bombers, was showing what that looked like in practice. We became aware of each other as two entities riding the same wave: Trivera with its Social Media University events in 2009 and 2014, and Joe with a burger joint that had somehow turned Twitter into a business engine.

With the news of its closing, I found myself reflecting not just on the burgers or the nostalgia, but on what we as marketers learned by watching Joe Sorge in action. While customers were enjoying the novelty of the social media moment, we were witnessing a masterclass in brand-building in real time. And now, with the brand’s final chapter being written, there are new lessons to take away—just as important as the ones we learned during its meteoric rise.

AJ Bombers wasn’t just a case study in early digital success, it became a brand that defined an era. And now, its story offers a full-circle view of what happens when brand, audience, and execution align… and when they drift apart. Here are four enduring lessons every marketer should take from its journey.

1. Community is the strongest brand currency

AJ Bombers didn’t build a following. It built a tribe. Tweetups at the restaurant brought Milwaukee’s early Twitter community together in person. Fans were encouraged to post ideas for new menu items, share photos, and leave their Twitter handles on the graffiti-covered walls. Joe Sorge’s active, authentic engagement created a two-way dialogue that made people feel heard.

The results were immediate and measurable. One social promotion led to a 30% increase in a featured item’s sales. The “Barrie Burger,” a peanut-butter-topped creation named after a regular who championed it on Twitter, became a cult favorite based on Twitter feedback. As someone advising clients on digital strategy, I often pointed to AJ Bombers as a living case study in community-driven branding.

This kind of connection goes beyond likes and impressions. It showed us that brands who invite their audience into the creative process don’t just build awareness. They build loyalty.

Practical application:
Create a clear, visible path for your customers to influence what you build, offer, or share next. Whether it’s a content series, a feature set, a product update, or event programming, let people see their fingerprints on your brand. Loyalty follows inclusion.

2. Platforms are tools, not foundations

In 2010, I wrote The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Realtime Marketing with Foursquare. AJ Bombers earned a spot in it. At the time, they were masters of the platform. Free cookies for check-ins, badges for group visits, even rewards for the “mayor.” It was smart, fun, and worked beautifully. Until it didn’t.

As Foursquare faded from relevance, AJ Bombers had to shift its digital strategy. But the brand’s deep identity had become intertwined with platforms like Foursquare and Twitter. That’s a risky place for any brand to be.

Practical application:
Step back from the channel and ask: if this platform disappeared tomorrow, how would we continue to serve, support, and engage the same people? Build systems—not just posts—that preserve relationships even when platforms shift.

3. Brands built on personality need a succession plan

In AJ Bombers’ case, the voice of the brand and the voice of its founder were largely one and the same. Joe Sorge wasn’t just a restaurateur; he was the public-facing persona of the brand on every digital channel. That alignment worked incredibly well, until he and Angie Sorge stepped away from day-to-day operations in 2018.

From there, the brand tried to maintain the same personality without the same person, and it never quite clicked the same way. The product remained, but the voice—the connective tissue—that had made customers feel part of something, changed.

Practical application:
Capture and document the core voice, values, and tone of your brand while it’s still organic. Whether you’re growing, hiring, or planning for continuity, make it possible for others to express the brand with the same authenticity—even if the original voice steps aside.

4. When Nostalgia IS...and isn't...the right strategy

As the years passed, many of us who had once gathered for tweetups at AJ Bombers moved on. Social media changed. The novelty wore off. Yet the restaurant remained largely unchanged. It was still fun, still familiar—but not particularly fresh. When news of its closure broke, the outpouring of nostalgia was immediate. People shared stories of their first visits, their favorite burgers, their Twitter handles on the wall. But most of those stories ended the same way: “I haven’t been there in years.”

In response, the brand is leaning into that nostalgia for a final sendoff—reviving retired menu items, revisiting old claims to fame, and inviting the community to help say goodbye. As a strategy for closure, it works. Nostalgia can be a powerful way to honor a legacy, generate one last wave of engagement, and drive revenue while wrapping up operations or fulfilling contractual obligations. But if the goal were long-term growth instead of graceful exit, this playbook would’ve needed to surface much sooner. Used late in the game, nostalgia is a solid strategy for winding things down—not for building things up. When it’s part of a living, evolving story, it reinforces relevance, sparks renewed connection, and drives continued success. One use preserves memory. The other extends meaning.

Practical application:
Use nostalgia intentionally—and early—if you want it to do more than soften a landing. Look back at the moments that earned loyalty, then reimagine them for today’s audience. Change the format. Refresh the message. Keep the soul, but let it grow. That’s how legacy becomes leverage.

The AJ Bombers Legacy

The rise and fall of AJ Bombers wasn’t a failure, it was a full arc. It was a brand that hit at exactly the right time, rode a wave of momentum longer than most, and gave all of us in marketing a case study we won’t forget.

But in the end, AJ Bombers legacy is to remind us what a brand is...and what it's not.

It’s not the Peanut Bombs, the tweetups, the Foursquare badges, the Food Wars win, or even the quirky tone of voice that made you feel like part of an inside joke. Those were brilliant tools. For a time, they worked incredibly well. But they weren’t the brand.

The brand was the connection people felt. It was the sense of belonging. It was walking into a place and being greeted by your Twitter handle on the wall. It was feeling seen, heard, and part of something that felt alive and local and human.

That emotional resonance is what built loyalty. It’s what created community. It’s what powered the momentum.

And it’s what had to be preserved when the tools changed, the trends faded, and the founders moved on. Because that is what the brand actually was.

So here’s the real question: as your business evolves, as your audience shifts, and as the platforms and tactics continue to come and go—will your brand hold up? Will it still matter to the people it’s supposed to serve? Will it adapt and thrive with intention, or will it peak and slowly fade into nostalgia?

Sixteen years from now, will your brand still be relevant and flourishing…or will it be fondly memorialized in a social media thread?

Decide now. And build with that future in mind.

About Tom Snyder

Tom Snyder - Trivera Tom Snyder, founder, president and CEO of Trivera, a 29-year-old strategic digital marketing firm based in suburban Milwaukee. Tom has been blogging since 1998, sharing the insight gained from helping businesses and organizations reinforce their brands by taking full advantage of digital and web technology as powerful tactics.