Meet Generation N, an Ice Cream Hoagie and Give the Middle Finger to Restaurant Week

Labor Day is behind us. Summer officially ends next week. And we’re all focused on fall events, and what lies beyond Halloween. If you’re planning your holiday activations now, consider these innovative “Snow-cially Distanced” ideas from RWS Entertainment Group that put COVID-19 safety protocols at the forefront of your downtown holiday interventions. Then read on to learn why Middle Child is giving the middle finger to restaurant week, how COVID crystallized “Generation N” in just 90 days, and learn WTF is an “ice cream hoagie.” It’s definitely a Philly jawn, and you’re about to get educated with this 13^th edition of Bright Brother’s bi-weekly Covid Cliff’s Notes on Recovery. Bon appetite!

– Your Bright Brothers Team

Restaurant Weeks are typically big business for most downtowns and a vetted standard for helping local hospitality clients drive revenues. Or are they? We’ve seen mixed results across the country. From this pointed and opinionated response from Philadelphia’s “Middle Child” restaurant, known for their outlandish tone and giving the middle finger to the notion of a traditional restaurant week – to one of our clients seeing superior results from their fêted week. Teaming up with Downtown Norfolk’s talented team, this year Norfolk saw better results and success with “more restaurants reporting a better experience and more sales, and traffic and engagement at year-long highs”. Most impressively, they did it with a small fraction of the budget of previous Restaurant Weeks. With our help, and by utilizing social media ads, Norfolk took advantage of the extra time people are spending online; especially families whose kids are attending school from home. Well done, Norfolk!

Photo by Jay Wennington

Several restaurants in Downtown Tulsa, OK have teamed up to generate interest and create a special consumer play with “Weekends on Main”. This outdoor dining experience extends the eateries’ footprints with socially-distanced extensions of premise, and a handful of adjacent restaurants are serving up fine fare in a safe and secure space made irresistibly inviting under a canopy of twinkling overhead lights adorning the street; complete with buskers, live music and fireworks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through November 1. With adorable branding, and special activations, the time-limited events are driving awareness and pedestrian counts in a time of crisis, and we applaud the Downtown Tulsa Coordinating Council’s efforts in supporting this special activation.

Photo by Wiktor Karkocha

The IDA Annual Conference and Tradeshow is a seminal staple of our industry and with the pandemic playing havoc with travel plans, this year’s event is entirely virtual. What could be just another boring set of Zoom calls is NOT what’s in store for you this year. As a sponsor of this year’s conference, we can guarantee you’ll find value in the 40+ sessions, 100+ speakers and 6 Master Talks that IDA has meticulously curated. As we collectively navigate the crisis, moving “Forward Together” is not only this year’s theme – it’s the goal of our industry. Registration is now open and we highly encourage all of you to sign up today!

Photo: downtown.org

We absolutely loved this insightful article from Fast Company that will introduce you to Generation Novel – “a growing cross-generational psychographic of digital-first consumers galvanized by the disruptive effects of COVID-19”. The psychographic has been slowly developing over the past few decades, but COVID has been the catalyst to convert millions into a new kind of consumer in just 90 days. This is precisely the kind of psychographic we tend to identify when developing Personas for our clients, and this 6-minute read may change the way you target your marketing and messaging. How has the pandemic altered your consumer targeting, and what does this mean for your organization’s future events, activations and program planning? Let us know if you need help.

Photo by Pexels: Negative Space

Philadelphia is renowned for many things (think the Rocky statue at the Art Museum, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall), but “The City of Brotherly Love” is also very much associated with a distinctively local foodie culture and culinary traditions, like soft pretzels, cheesesteaks and of course, the hoagie. But have you ever heard of an ice cream hoagie? We agree with The Philadelphia Inquirer when they say it’s “perhaps the most Philadelphia way to enjoy a scoop”. Hands down, indeed! Our friends over at Weckerly’s (Exquisite Ice Cream) are the geniuses behind this local treat. This Fishtown *must-visit* scoop shop is known for their inventive seasonal flavors. Our fave is the limited-time ”honeysuckle”, made from gallons of summer’s finest hand-harvested honeysuckle nectar. With top-notch quality, Weckerly’s continues to push the envelope (or perhaps the spoon, as it were), with this inventive collab served Thai-style on mouth-watering, locally-baked sweet potato bread. What foods are undeniably local to your locale, and how are you embracing and promoting your own as a placemaking strategy?

Photo by Megan Kelly