local media insider

12 ways to increase Restaurant Week revenues and audiences

Alisa Cromer
Posted
Great use of image and brand in Washington D.C.
Photo

We reviewed dozens of well established Restaurant Weeks from around the country to come up with this list of Twelve Ways to build Restaurant Week revenues. Learn from the best from around the country, with examples, screen shots, downloads and summaries of useful trends. Just a few of these ideas could double traffic and revenues. Keep in mind, however, that the quality of the event works hand in hand with the workability of more sophisticated ideas; so use some of these tactics to improve on the Restaurant Week so that it is capable of sustaining additonal initiatives. This is a stair-step approach, but the stairway goes up and leads to securing an important franchise - and possibly more than one. Note: If you don't own the restaurant week in your market, an addendum at the bottom of this report shows a variety of ways to get in the game. 

1. Updating the brand

Restaurant weeks with a strong visual brand stood out from the crowd. Note to publishers, a picture of a giant perfectly grilled fillet mignon is not a brand, especially if it cannot be reproduced as a decal useable by restaurants and on a Facebook page icon. The logo has to look good small and large; don't forget to provide small and large downloadable images for restaurants from a link on the web site, such as the one in the top right image or below:

Here is an example of strong branding:

Catchy promotional phrases included: Make a date with Delicious, The Tastiest Week ever (Chicago), Eat your heart out LA.

2. Upgrading the website

If you can't knock out a navigable web site with its own natural URL, this may be the time to develop that internal skill.

The most important aspect of a basic restaurant week web site is navigability. While smaller events can post 20 to 30 names of restaurant on the home page, many more are just too big; look for three basic kinds of navigation: a. by area  b. by type of cuisine and c. all restaurants, with effective uses of maps. Restaurant listings should click-through to their Restaurant Week menus, and include directions and a booking bot from open table if applicable. Here's one from Denver that combines these attributes, starting with tabs for menus by cuisine and neighborhood. Note that sponsors always have a tab, mostly useful for SEO purposes, but important from a sales standpoint:


Adding social media feeds from FaceBook and Twitter, creates ongoing content and a sales opportunity. See "The Insider's Guide to Boston Restaurant Week" below: 

"

Note that this website was left up after the event to collect emails sign-ups all year long. Social media feeds can be sold directly to restaurants allowing them to self-post their own cocktails and specials directly to event goers. Or an upsell package could include tweets. Other documents to post online:

• Include on the website PR contacts box on the front of the site - not just under contacts. 

• Here are samples of other important information:  frequently asked questions (Long Island Restaurant Week), an  agreement and guidelines for restaurants (Silicon Valley Restaurant Week);  link to downlowdable logos to include on promotional materials, and a  complete online registration form that was the best one from our survey.

 A prominant vendor sign up button on all pages, especially the top half of the home page. with all of the information they need. See this one, bottom right hand, on the home page of  SiliconValleyRestaurantWeek: 

A "flipbook" for menus in Alexandria, that sounds like a neat idea was actually not; first of all the menu print was too small to read, and in any case, less navigable. We did not see one of these that we would recommend. 

3. Add razzle dazzle with a celebrity chefs

New York City's restaurant week drove traffic to the site by running recipes from a local celebrity chef, who posted recipes during the event. 

availalbe on the site:

We are seeing a lot of interest from local chefs in opportunities to participate in the raging celebrity chef trend created by the advent of TV shows like Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef. This can be a great upsell for some of your best restaurants during restaurant week, and evolve into a longer term campaign, restaurant guide that incorporates video. 

Tulsa Restaurant week also promoted it's week with celebrity waiters (TV and radio personalities) at various high end restaurants during the week. We especially like this idea for TV stations. Some restaurant weeks also power a food-related charity, which adds both an extra soft news angle and also gives people an extra reason to attend. 

4. Tiered packages and pricing 

We've seen restaurant packages from $200 to $395, but any price increase will be resisted and resented by restaurant owners. A better way to increase their investment is to offer tiered packages. SiliconValleyRestaurantWeek uses Chef Profiles to create an easy upsell; the the standard package is just $200 for an event, the Chef Package that includes print starts at $750, including print advertising in the program and a celebrity chef profile online.  Promoting chefs in the navigation bar helps them feel special, but the really value is in the additional SEO. A great solution for media without a print product: 

5. Adding a second restaurant week
If you have a very successful restaurant week, adding a second one is a great way to increase revenues and build a restaurant franchise over all. Spring and fall, or summer and winter are both good timing. As with most initiatives; surveying or talking the restuarnt community about seasonal preferences and demand for a second event is key; ideally you should have some unsolicited requests from them before adding another one. However, for media without an existing restaurant franchise, multtiple restaurant weeks can be the core strategy that engage the restaurant community, making the sector monetizable all year long.  Here's an example of Silcon Valley Restaurant Week's discounted tiered packages (shown above)  to also incent restaurants to sign up for both events:
A nice touch on these tiered packages is an additional promotional discount code for restaurant who participated in the last event. A notice on the registration page reminds them who to call if they do not yet have their code.  A great detail that helps glue restaurants to the event - and secure additional revenues. 

6. Going mobile

Diners will be "on-the-go" while participating in restaurant week, so it makes  sense to have a mobile site or app. Philly.com has a great app that is simple and contains the key elements diners need: Time, date, price, right up front. Then allows users to get directions,  see the menus or reserve a table. Here are some screenshots to use as wireframes for a basic mobile app:

7. Contests. Most of the contests we looked at were in the range of  win a "$100" gift certificate to a dinner package. However, there were a few stand outs in which the prizes were more significant. 

Contests are important because they drive traffic to the website, but also they collect the data on people interested in the event to help build the next event, and also simply more data on diners in your market. One of the "it's a shame" moments after a great restaurant week is that no one has "the list" of all the attendees for next time, or for any other restaurant related initiative (a restaurant wants to buy an email blast - do you have an opt-in list?).  Collecting the data can help you turn your restaurant week into a franchise  building opportunity.

The San Diego Tribune,  a veteran of restaurant weeks and data collection experts,  offered tickets to the La Jolla Concourse D'Elegance to anyone who downloaded the restaurant week mobile app:  It include a $200 dinner at a Las Jolla restuarant, two night stay at the history Las Valencia Hotel downtown, and tickets to  3 VIP coctail parties during weekend. 

The presenting sponsor of New York Restaurant week offered a Norwegian Cruise on a maiden voyage of a new ship.

Our favorite contest is a very simple one,  that is both significant AND builds data for the restaurant category:  Win 52 Restaurant Weeks, a contest to win 52 gift certificates to restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. The prize is already built into the sales package. Here's the clever promotional ad for this contest in an otherwise drab online site:

Traverse City has a slightly different take on this contest for its Restaurant week: Win $1300 in restaurant gift certificates, which amounts to the same thing. 

A  great idea with viral "legs" and also ripe for local, regional and national coverage: A contest to "give away" a restaurant start-up to a local chef. From Worley, Idaho, here's how it's done. A local kitchen appliance supply dealer sponsored this one. This contest was not associated with restaurant week, but we could see it being a winner, especially if combined with a Celebrity Chef promotion. 

Finally, don't overlook restaurant week as an opporunity to create a mini "Best of" Contest by asking diners to "vote for the best" menu or restaurant. This will get your restaurants signing up their customers to win .... and collecting data for your media company. Make sure you hand out lots of small-size forms that restaurants can leave on the table with the check. 

8. Expanding reataurant week into the travel franchise

Some cities are also travel destinations and for cities like Denver and Chicago, restaurant week has been a jumping off point to pormote travel guides. There are a number of ways to monetize travel, either by selling sponsorships to hotels or partnering with a booking engine or other e-commerce based travel site. The guide should recommend and review sponsoring hotels nearby.  Find more information on developing a travel products strategy.  Here's an exmaple of a promotion for hotels from Chicago's Restaurant Week: 

The possibilities here are many. Restaurant week site  can be part of co-promote a travel guide or vice versa. It still needs its own natural URL, but gives an opportunity to upsell a variety of destinations for the week. Here's the "hotels" page in Denver: 

Keep in mind that this site is maintained by the Denver Convention and Visitors Authority. Look for these partnerships and keep in mind that your local CVA and Chamber is also a competitor; so these relationships and franchises need to be handled strategically. If your media covers a travel destination, understand who owns the natural urls (travel is an SEO play) and provides content-oriented hotel booking services; and opportunities to compete or partner. Restaurant Week may provide a foot in the door. 

9. Sign up diners to receive Deals on Meals information or a newsletter during the year

Note also on the above screenshot that Denver's CVA is collecting names for it's Discover Denver Dining newsletter. Why not be the media in your market that contols this data? Restaurant week is a great time to ask visitors to opt-in to receive either a newsletter, or just more information. Just as broadening the event to hotels requires an overall travel products strategy; deepening the relationship with the restaurant community means thinking beyond a one week promotion and revenue generated. Boston Restaurant Week (see image above) puts an email sign-up box directly in the home page promotion all year. 

10. Use video for promotions and upsells.  The Chicago Restaurant Week gained extra exposure when HuffingtonPost deployed a "video," basically just some photographs from last year's restaurant week uploaded to a gallery and set to music using the "Ken Burns" effect.  This is a simple technique that any media can use to create a video that showcases their event visually to both next year's attendees and restaurant. There is nothing more convincing than an image of crowds of happy diners!  We did not see video in the packages, but adding a video of Chefs interviews, or  making a meal may be well-received.

11. Selling more sponsorships. While most of the revenue comes from restaurants, don't overlook sponsorship opportunities. This is a great way for mature events to increase revenues. Typically sponsors like media and Open Table will be promotional partners. However, many events are also securing national brands, such as  American Express and U.S. Foods, who appear on multiple restaurant week sites. These two are worth courting.

Looking through the contest sites, we found sponsors included liquor brands who are a natural: Grey Goose and Cointreau (Charleston Restaurant Week), the local bank, and high end auto (Lexus of Denver). For auto, here is a great opportunity to place a new car in from of VIP cocktail parties, next to the red carpart. One key to selling larger sponsorship packages is adding value;  the presenting sponsor should have it's marquis name on all the home page positions The mobile app is another opportunity for a more interactive sponsorship;   power a online-ordering site, text opt-in club, cooking school, or related vendor. Silicon Valley Restaurant week tapped a local movie theater sponsor, who offered a $3 discount to diners who presented a receipt from a participating restaurant during the week: 

Who sells tickets around the area of restaurant week in your market? A dramatic theater or group of theaters may want to get involved.

 Washington D.C's restaurant week scored as most creative for its presenting sponsor, MLA, Meat & Livestock Australia, which held its own Australian Lamb Contest during restaurant week:


Australian Lamb | Aussie Lamb Contest

Over the course of Restaurant Week, participating restaurants will be encouraged to feature an Australian Lamb dish on their prix-fixe menus.

Restaurant Week diners will be encouraged to come back here to vote for their favorite lamb dish onAustralian Lamb's Facebook page. The prize for voting includes an Australian Lamb dinner prepared by the winning restaurant for you and nine of your friends.

Restaurants currently participating are:

1905 Restaurant | American Tap Room - BethesdaClarendonRockville | Bandolero | Belga Cafe | Cafe du Parc | Lincoln | Perry's Restaurant | Willow

Restaurant

Only in Washingon, D.C. ... ?

Another way to add value to a cash - or just very important - presenting sponsor is a corner peel. This idea was deployed by the San Diego Restaurant Association for its most important partner, The San Diego Retaurant Association:


Keep in mind that this idea could have been used for a cash sponsor, such as Lexus, to promote one'offs, such as test drive a car to enter a contest for $100 dining gift certificates awarded every day during restaurant week, or?  Lots of ideas  here once a sponsor is identified, and their needs and interests understood.

Most restaurant week sponsors are donating product but could also be offered an upsell for a more prominent role, an annual marketing package.  We especially liked how well  Spokane's winery and brewery sponors were presented on the restaurant week site, which has a great brand look and feel. Here's the front page promotion for "Drink Local" in the top rotater, followed by its page on the site. An upsell to the sponsors if you can pull it off and wrap it into a larger SEO/guide/video sales strategy:


Denver Restaurant Week's web site simply advertises the CVA's online list of wineries with the great slogan "Make your Denver Restaurant Week Wines Your Every Day Wines" whose execution is a little lackluster:

12. Extending restaurant offers

One of the best ideas is a simple one from Baltimore Restuarant Week, which allows participating restaurants to extend their fix priced offer after restaurant week and promoted them on the web site with a special icon:

Some Restaurants are Extending!

Though we're nearing the end of Winter Restaurant Week, there are a few restaurants that have extended their prix-fixe offer. Please note the following:

  • Extending restaurants can be identified with the (e) symbol
  • Please contact the restaurant directly for their extension dates and changes to menu.

Again, we thank you for supporting Winter Restaurant Week and we encourage you to contact the restaurants directly for details on extension dates, hours and menu offerings.

This was surely driven by the requests from restaurants; and we see more opportunity here. Restaurants have already done the hard work of creating,  cooking, and serving  a fixed price offering, and now are great candidates for promoting that offering in an advertising campaign, directory listing or area of the site with discounted fix priced menus. Add a video and a recipe from each restaurant, to fire up the annual contracts!

Bonus:  Create an ongoing site based on restaurant week content

Restaurant Week is one of the best tactics to help build a restaurant franchise. It shows off the media's true promotional one-to-many and digital chops. But as you can see from all the ideas from around the country, it can be the strongest tactic in a larger strategic plan to create dominance with a variety of important franchises:  Dining, Travel, Wine, Entertainment, Events, and Market Data or even agency services.   

Once you have a relationship with restaurants  it's always easier to invite them to an event to show them their digital report card, offer a video that can be used on their web site as well as content during restaurant week;  or a prix price menu in a new section online. 

Our favorite way of building the franchise from restaurant week, however is organic: Create a website of recipes from restaurant week; which also can an upsell to a stand alone print magazine. Here's an example of an online  recipe book from Philly.com, Center City Cooks: 

This provides unique content, SEO value and upselling opportunities, plus acting as a spring board for multiple restaurant weeks. 

Summary

Our ten ways to increase Restaurant Week revenues and audiences using examples from around the country: 

1. Create a strong visual brand with small and large versions of the brand logo available for use

2. Upgrade the website. Best sites were navigable by all restaurants, area and cuisine,  and restaurant listings included a map and menu. Also include: PR contacts; social media feeds; large buttons top half of home screen and all pages for vendor sign up; frequently asked questions for diners and merchants; online merchant sign-up form with all the relevant information such as packages, and downloadable menu template and agreement. 

3. Celebrity Chefs  and recipes 

Include recipes from one or more local chefs as an added value of visiting the site, and possibly an upsell for restuarnts. 

4. Don't raise prices, create tiered pricing 

Two or more simple bundled packages for restaurants who have the desire and capability to participate in additional promotions, such as a Chef's profile, video or recipe on a combo page, onair or print advertising, or ongoing restuarant guide. 

5. Add a second event 

For more mature restaurant weeks, a second event is an opportunity to leverage the resources, relationships, infrastructure and sales effort. Think in terms of buidling not squeezing the franchise. 

6. Go mobile 

Diners are on the go and a simple four page mobile site and/or app should have: Page one: View all, by cuisine, by area, and search buttons; Time and date, price, sponsors; page 2: List of  restaurant names; Page 3: Individual restaurant address and phone number, open table booking button, links to dinner and lunch menus, type of cuisine and payment options; Page 4: Menu.

7. Create a bigger contest 

instead of just gathering gift certificates for ongoing giveaways, larger contests included the following: 52 Restaurant Weeks contest gives away 52 gift certificates; a cruise; a full weekend stay during restaurant week with tickets to a major event, hotel, VIP parties. Also "Best of Restaurant Week" contest gets restaurants gathering data on diners for you. 

8. Expand into the travel franchise

For markets that are a travel destination, include hotels and other destinations in the site as a sponsorable upsell or affliate relationship.

9. Collect e-newsletter opt-in list 

Ask site visitors to sign up to recieve more restaurant deals or a restaurant newsletter. 

10. Include video 

Use digital photographs of the event in a montage to music for next year's promotion. Upsell chef profile videos, or recipe making videos as part of the week and for future content. 

11. Sell bigger sponsorships

Open Table is a typical sponsor with great SEO value. Other large national sponsors are American Express and U.S. Foods. Local sponsors include the Lexus dealership; liguor brands; local bank, and a local theater that offered discounted tickets to people who showed up with a receipt from a participating restaurant. Specific to the sponsor contests can add value to any sponsor, especially if related to food; rich media ads such as corner peels can add value to a large presenting sponsor; wineries and breweries can be upsold as sponsors with a package that includes a profile on a prominent page on the site; other promotions to "Make your restaurant week wine your every day wine." 

12. Allow restaurant to extent their Prix Fix offer and promote it 

Create a site with recipes from Restaurant Week chefs. Searchable by course and season. 

Addendum: If you don't own your restaurant week

Quite a few local media do not own the restaurant week that is already established in their markets. If the market is very large, you can still hold smaller events (restaurant weekends, more regularily, more selective group?). But there are also ways you can still cash in as a media partner that helps other media build the event, but also provides cash, data and content for your own company: Bring in larger sponsors and split the revenues in return for promotional air time given to the event/sponsor; be the restaurant video partner and create a Our City Cooks area on the site using restaurant week chefs;  sponsor/create a Top Chef's contest during restaurant week, use to create an area on your own site, collect data and sell a sponsor. The more your media brings to the table, the more leverage you will have. 

Alisa Cromer

The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and  MediaExecsTech,  developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine,  to showcases perspectives from around the  world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.