Continuing on our topic of the most successful social media influencer campaigns, we present our examples that are tried and tested with restaurants. As you will see, the micro-influencer topic is quite a prevalent one with caterers; however, there are plenty of ways a restaurant could collaborate with them. From PR products to giveaways and creating a mecca for influencers, these restaurants did it right. We hope these examples will inspire you to launch your own influencer marketing campaign!
SCHOOL Restaurant
A brunch is in and of itself a wonderful way for a restaurant to become desirable among its visitors. However, when paired with influencers’ posts, a brunch can turn into a real powerhouse of social media marketing. And that’s exactly what SCHOOL Restaurant in Toronto did – they’ve invited influencers to their brunches in exchange for their beautiful photos of the restaurant’s mouth-watering dishes.
SCHOOL did their campaign as a PR product, meaning they didn’t pay the influencers for the exposure but rather invited them to taste the meals for free for their honest documentation of their experiences. This resulted in very organic and authentic posts that raised the awareness of the restaurant’s instagrammable brunches and prompted other users to tag the meals they enjoyed in this restaurant, spreading the name on social media like a wildfire.
McDonald’s
Now, you’d think that such a huge household name as McDonald’s does not need further introductions or creative advertisement methods. Well, you’re wrong, as McDonald’s fast-food chain is also among the avid users of social media influencer marketing.
Another thing that might seem logical here is that McDonald’s, being a business of an enormous scale, does not have to spare expenses for their marketing strategies, implying that they surely work with celebrities on paid promotions. Wrong again – McDonald’s, instead of working with IG’s stars, cooperates with a group of micro- and macro-influencers to advertise their food. This, in turn, showed McDonald’s in a different light than just that of being a giant corporation, but of a restaurant that’s near and dear to you for always being there.
Burger n’ Fries Forever
Burger n’ Fries Forever is a real success story of ‘just another burger joint’ becoming tremendously successful. Their success was driven because of two factors – the aesthetics of their places and, of course, their work with social media influencers.
Burger n’ Fries chose to work with micro- and macro-influencers who were asked to share photos of their burgers and the views they saw while eating them. And this pure simplicity was the key to a successful campaign as it not only spread the word about Burger n’ Fries Forever but also became a sort of a mecca for creators doing their own content in the backdrop of the restaurants’ aesthetic interiors.
Foxies Bake Shop
Foxies Bake Shop, a bakery known best for its monster-sized and deliciously instagrammable cookies, has established a name for itself because it collaborated with social media creators.
Since Foxies Bakery Shop isn’t a large-scale business (yet!), they chose to work with micro-influencers exclusively. However, they didn’t only ask the influencers to share photos of their divine cookies but also did a series of giveaways through them. And what’s a better promotion than giving people the taste of their baking! This, combined with the launch of their eCommerce website, which allowed them to step outside the boundaries of their own city, guaranteed Foxies Bake Shop a solid outreach and slew of new customers.
Guerrilla Tacos
Guerrilla Tacos, a local taco joint in Los Angeles, had its fair share of troubles because of Covid lockdowns, just the same as millions of restaurants worldwide. However, they soon overcame the obstacle by being one of the first ones to offer “Emergency Taco Kits” following the shutdowns. Their “Emergency Taco Kits” included basic ingredients for DIY tacos plus four toilet paper rolls. And everyone who remembers the first lockdown remembers the mayhem that toilet paper caused in those months. This small-but-thoughtful addition prompted the restaurant’s followers to order their taco kits and spread the word about this essential care pack throughout social media. Thus, Guerrilla Tacos stayed very well afloat during the pandemic and used user-generated content for their own benefit.
Chipotle
Chipotle, a well-known fast-food brand, chose a whole different route for its marketing strategy. First, they figured out that Gen Z was, in fact, their top customer with the most take-out orders in a week. Then, they found a platform where Gen Z resides – TikTok. And lastly, they launched a series of challenges, like the #ChipotleLidFlip during the summer when their audience was on their school vacation, and voila – Chipotle is a bona fide player among the TikTok audiences.
Of course, it didn’t happen with a snap of a finger – Chipotle also hired a couple of Gen Z creators who already were Chipotle fans and collaborated with them to boost the awareness of their challenges.
Dunkin’
Dunkin’ is another example of a big-name restaurant taking over TikTok and getting through to the Gen Z audiences. Dunkin’ chose to work with Charli D’Amelio – a real TikTok celebrity with over 130 million followers on the platform. To mark their collaboration, Dunkin’ released a new drink called The Charli, named after the content creator. And this simple idea proved to be genius – a video of Charli picking up the drink in one of the restaurant’s drive-throughs has been viewed a million times. On top of that, Dunkin’ announced that five lucky followers who have recreated Charli’s video are at the odds of winning a virtual meeting with the TikToker herself. Dunkin’ sold ‘tens of thousands of drinks’ in a couple of days after the announcement, gained loads of new followers, and spread the awareness of their brand to absolute new heights.
So, as you can see, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for social media influencer marketing. However, this also means that there’s plenty of room for creativity which might just lead to better-than-expected results. And, to make it all this much easier, why not try and launch your campaign with us, the Agenic team!
