How to Increase Restaurant Week Traffic by 257% – Bright Brothers Strategy Group

From a melting wax panther with a message to share, to a 257% increase in Restaurant Week traffic, to a honey bear helping raise funds for parks, to insightful ways to leverage the despised automobile in a time of crisis, and the holiday content you need to launch this month – we’ve got a helpful harvest of tidbits, pointers and facts to share with you this week, and we think you’re gonna love it. Thanks for reading and hope to see you next week at the first-ever virtual IDA Annual Conference & Marketplace!

– Your Bright Brothers Team

How’s your district doing? Our consulting clients are killing it! In this shameless plug we’re proud to say that last week, on a client call, we reported the following:

Site traffic is up 20% Y-O-Y overall
Recent Restaurant Week traffic was up 257% (excluding PPC)
Outbound traffic to merchant websites for the week-long promo more than doubled
We continue to bring in new demographics (doubled our 18-24 and 65+ audiences, and increased our 55-64 demo by 60%)
We saw more families, a massive increase in retail visits as well as tourism dollars

If your district is not thriving at this point in the pandemic, you’re not doing something right. Give us a shout. We can help.

The San Francisco Parks Alliance is the only 501c3 citywide nonprofit organization dedicated to parks and public space in San Francisco. Their mission is to “champion, transform and activate parks and public spaces throughout the city” and they do a gorgeous job of it, to boot. We absolutely loved this fundraiser designed by local artist “fnnch” that includes a “Honey Bear Hunt” map to accompany their “random acts of art” campaign. Can you help them reach their matching goal of $10,000?

The car is king. And for many of us that’s not what we want to hear. As an industry, we’ve railed against automobile traffic for decades now. But with the current pandemic situation cars are trending in a big way. As we pointed out last month, in part one of two special placemaking reports; the automobile is taking precedence, at least for the time being, and we need to embrace it. In our second special placemaking report, we look at how the trend is reshaping retail, restaurant and vetted events, and include recommendations for how your BID or district can get behind the wheel and hit the road for holiday activations and placemaking.

Photo by: Erik Mclean

We feel seen. As we predicted, holiday shopping is going to look very different this year and you need to have your seasonal content ready to go this month. Help your retailers by coordinating a holiday shopping campaign ready to go in October rather than November. This Holiday 2020 Preview from Kantar’s supports our suppositions and recommendations for Q4, and if you’re one of our clients, you’re already working on that content. Don’t let this holiday blindside you. Get the resources you need to stay one step ahead by taking a cue from your brothers (Bright Brothers, that is)!

The monstrous effects of climate change are very real, and if you live anywhere in the U.S. you’ve probably been witness to smoke-filled skies as the west coast continues to burn and the acrid, sooty air blows east. Visitors to ZooTampa in Florida can see the effects of increased heat in action with a series of wax art installations designed by activist Bob Partington that slowly melt away. Over several days the message “More Heat. Less Beaches.” is revealed; underscoring the Sunshine State’s struggles with rising temperatures, extreme heat, coastal flooding and a record hurricane season. The saddest sculpture of all features a mother Florida Panther disappearing before your very eyes, leaving her lone cub to fend for itself. How’s that for sending a message?