Advertising is an essential part of any and every business today, be it restaurants, auto-mobile, health-care or any other business you can think of. Restaurants, specifically have made a radical transformation in the way they advertise and gain customers’ attention. And aptly so, as it is nothing new that the attention span of today’s customer is reducing and further probably will get even shorter as more visuals and clips overtake the streets, screens and literally everywhere.
Your restaurant business needs advertising to endure long-haul. The good news is, with meticulous planning and mindful execution of your adverts, it is completely possible to get customers coming back and attract new ones, of course.
Savvy marketing executives know that proper advertising holds immense potential to make a dying business bounce back with twice the force. It does not just help build up a great brand reputation, but also helps in promotions, such as the announcement of a revamped menu, discounts, and offers, etc.
In a nutshell, restaurant advertisements can help you:
- Raise awareness for your brand
- Drive potential customers to your restaurant
- Promote both existing and new menu items for sales
- Differentiate your offerings from your competitors
It becomes of paramount importance that restaurants strategize their advertising techniques accordingly and not just keep up with the trends, but try to set new trends with creative ideas that hold enough potential so as to hold customer’s attention and make them drool and crave for your delicacies at irresistible prices.
While most of the adverts are easily forgettable, some end up being viral but have a life-span of a drone-ant (only 3 weeks!). And there are some which really point towards a greater social and cultural paradigm shift.
Anyhow, our motive is to filter and sort out the best ones for you which are part of important trends you need to pay attention to. So that you don’t just spend bucks on advertising but actually get the sweet results.
Pressure building up? Fret not. We have compiled the ultimate break-down of effective and inspiring ideas for designing adverts for your restaurants, which will stick in the mind of the viewers even after a while of getting off the screen.
1.Dunkin’s Fool the Foodies, Starbucks’ Coffee Challenge: Tapping the new-gen YouTube and Instagram stars
Restaurants are turning towards influencers over conventional celebrities.
These new media stars have a more focused follower base and tend to have an edge over celebrities or promotional ads directly from brands. This is in confirmation with a study conducted by The Shelf on restaurant marketing trends.
Restaurants have adapted to this reality well in time.
In fact, the influencer marketing campaign was the main focus for 24% of the restaurant ads which we analyzed.
These influencers were picked majorly from Youtube and Instagram as these platforms emerged as the top choices for running these campaigns.
2.McGold Card, Crusto-Currency: campaigning for your loyalty programs
Customer loyalty is huge in today’s consumer-driven market. It might not be immediately noticeable, but customer loyalty is the one thing that will ultimately decide if your business stays in business in the long run. Loyalty programs have existed since 1982, but only recently they have come under the radar of big restaurant chains and fast-paced restaurants(QSRs) have too adopted to this trend worldwide, wisely so.
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5% of these advertisements were entirely focused on a loyalty program, while many others mentioned loyalty somewhere in the ad.
3.Scroll-thru instead of drive-thru: promoting mobile ordering and delivery
Netflix and chill is not just a catchphrase to define Millenials anymore. It is more than that. It has made a new segment of buyers emerge in the market, the one which has adored delivery and online-ordering since a long time ago. Now the glamourization of this habit has only resulted in the increased audience who loves online-food-ordering.
Restaurants are putting in huge efforts in promoting online and delivery services, don’t take our word for it, the proof is provided ;
35% of the advertisements we analyzed were solely focused on mobile ordering and/or delivery.
KFS’s ad is an example of how drive-thru is a thing of the past and has been successfully over-taken by scroll-thru on social media.
4.Crazy taco filters on Snapchat: Making use of the stories format
‘Stories’ are everywhere, seriously, started from Snapchat, then Instagram and when Facebook bought Instagram and Whatsapp, we all know how stories were introduced in nearly every social media app we can think of, well mostly.
A whopping 500 million of the population in the world uses ‘stories’ to consume and share information and details about their lives and business alike these days. ‘Stories’ format acts as a brilliant way to connect with both, Millenials and Gen Z.
Take inspiration from here:
Taco Bell Snapchat Filter
These kinds of campaigns spread like wildfire, but sometimes just plain, simple friendly conversations tend to do the trick too. For example:
In fact, many advertising experts say that — “Magic happens not only when an ad is relevant to an individual — which is primarily driven by data — but also when viewers are rapt and great creative makes an emotional connection”
For even more exciting ideas and helpful insights on advertising for restaurants, check out our blog on Restaurant Advertisement Ideas derived from analyzing 500+ restaurants ads!
