23 Restaurant Promotions That Worked

• Sales Increased in the first year by 21%
• Sales growth continued into the second year by 19%

13. Applebee’s Increases Lunch Sales with ‘Smart’ Strategy

To promote the restaurant’s quick lunchtime service, Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill launched a multi-channel campaign. Customers are guaranteed their lunch within 14 minutes or the meal is free. To fill that time, select Applebee’s restaurants have provided QR Codes at each table for customers to scan as they wait, directing them to either the Applebee’s Facebook page or YouTube content created by the chain.

Result:

14. Fans Go Loco for Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Taco Bell wanted to celebrate with a new, bold product. With the successful introduction of the Gordita and Chalupa in the past, they looked to innovate where no one else had: the taco shell. Partnering with Frito-Lay, they created a fully seasoned chip-like taco shell and fans couldn’t be happier.

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15. ‘Oh, Yes We Did’: Domino’s Overhauls Its Brand

With sales stagnating and stores closing due to customer dissatisfaction, Domino’s needed to turn their brand around. They re-invented their menu with new recipes and retrained every pizza maker then got the word out to customers through commercials and a rented billboard in Times Square where customer reviews were presented – good or bad. This was the beginning of a series of unique restaurant promotion ideas the brand leveraged in the next decade.

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16. Redefining Mobile Marketing: Jack in the Box Takes to the Streets

With the popularity of food trucks on the rise, Jack in the Box wanted to think outside their brick and mortal business model. A 34’ truck dubbed “Jack’s Munchie Mobile” was created with all the kitchen equipment available at their restaurants. The mobilized restaurant has attended over 100 events in Southern California. This can be an answer for many independents asking “how to promote my restaurant”.

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17. See More Sales: Papa Murphy’s Uses SMS to Reach Customers

In order to reach their customers in unique and effective ways, Papa Murphy’s partnered with Phizzle to start a text-message based restaurant promotion. Three or four times a month, an SMS blast is sent out to participating customers with a coupon for free items.

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18. Push for Pizza: Red Tomato Pizza creates One-Touch Pizza Ordering

Looking for a way to win out against their large chain competitors, Red Tomato Pizza of Dubai developed the VIP Fridge Magnet. Customers simply set their pizza preferences on the company website, connect the magnet via Bluetooth to a smartphone, and with a single push of the button, pizza is on its way.

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19. Hot Dog! Nathan’s Fans Eat It Up This Restaurant Promotion

Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest began as a small publicity stunt. Their goal was to get a photo of the restaurant in a local paper. Over the past 40 years, the annual contest has become an international spectacle, with the restaurant spending their entire advertising budget on the event rather than television commercials and other traditional advertising media. Events like this one can result cost-effective for promoting a restaurant especially to students and a young audience.

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20. Play With Your Food: Domino’s Launches Pizza Video Game

Domino’s leads the market when it comes to mobile ordering for good reason: they are constantly redefining customer engagement  — this time with Pizza Hero, an iPad game that lets customers virtually build their own pizza and then order it. Customers can also apply for work through this game.

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21. Culinary Crowdsourcing: McDonald’s Menu hits the Masses

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, McDonald’s asked their German customers to design a celebratory burger. A web application was created where users could build a completely customized burger, post their creation to a gallery, and vote on their favorites. Thus, the Pretzelnator was born, but not without plenty of competition.

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22. VIP Treatment: Domino’s Rewards Loyal Customers

The first of its kind to team up with Foursquare, Domino’s led the geo-targeting race of restaurateurs by offering a free pizza to the “Mayor” in Liverpool each week. The success of this campaign caused Domino’s to roll this restaurant promotion out to the rest of Britain.

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23. Hell Pizza: Friendship’s Trial by Fire

The Ghost Pepper Challenge was just gaining speed on YouTube when Hell Pizza of New Zealand turned it into a game for their customers. Upon request, the hottest peppers known to man were placed on a single slice of a pizza pie. Friends and family would sit down together to eat, but one unlucky diner would end up with a mouth full of fire.

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Restaurant Promotions Work Best When Built From the Bottom Up

We’ve written before about marketing and how to improve sales with promotions from Valentine’s to Independence Day (across the world) to Ramadan in the Middle East.

However, ramping up sales is better done (more sustainable in the long term and without a deterioration in margins) with a marketing and promotional strategy built from the bottom up and inside out; from store-level merchandising to modernized neighborhood marketing, to national and multi-national product and brand launches, fostering differentiation and innovation to retrofit the restaurant competitive advantage.

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