The event as marketing
By Mike Mitchelson

Hey, you. Restaurant owner. Yes, you. Tapped for marketing ideas in these slow economic times? Got a great, proven product but need to remind diners that you’re still out there, churning out the good stuff day after day?

How about giving away menu samples for two hours on one of the restaurant’s slow nights during the week to a crowd of, oh, say, 150 snappily dressed people? Yep. Throw a party and give away food for two hours. What’cha think?

Yeah, it’s been done in some form or another through the years, with varied success and failure. But what if said party included the demographic you’d like as your regulars, who’d pass along tales of the great food they sampled from the event. And what if said party was advertised—no expense to you, other than the food you donate to the event—on local radio and television stations and in one of the fat, glossy magazines found at every grocery store checkout lane? And blasted out in e-mails?

Now that sounds more interesting, doesn’t it?

The Sample Circuit is one such organization providing an event-driven marketing option to showcase restaurants. There’s also Sip ’n Sample, and Buon Gusto magazine (remember Buon Gusto?) used to promote monthly shindigs called BG Happy Hour at various Twin Cities eateries. The premise is similar: the company provides the restaurant advertising, marketing and an audience in exchange for discounted or free food and drink. That audience imbibes, enjoys and, hopefully, with that blast of marketing, word is spread about how great the restaurant is.

“If they really enjoy the food and they’ve never been there before, they’ll be back,” said Kiersa Notz, the former owner and editor of Buon Gusto. “It’s a great way to introduce a bunch of new people to your restaurant with little investment.”

Buon Gusto spread its events to a variety of restaurants, ranging from La Bodega to The Loon Café to Santorini. All attracted large crowds of “foodie” types who read the magazine, mid-week, between 5 and 7 p.m. The restaurant was asked to provide samples from their menu and specially-priced drinks in exchange for promotion, which included print advertising in the magazine, Web site advertising, and e-mail blasts. Notz said she also encouraged the restaurant owner to include a meal discount to entice attendees to stay for dinner. And the model worked, she said. One event at the former Nochee (now Harry’s Food & Cocktails) still stands out: “It drew about 400 people on a Wednesday,” she said.

At a recent Sample Circuit event at Chambers Hotel (featuring foodstuffs from its restaurant, Chambers Kitchen) the model still appeared effective. About 175 people packed into the top-floor space (weather prevented use of the patio), mingled, noshed and sipped wine and martinis. Each person paid $38 for the experience, and left with a gift bag filled with upscale goodies such as vodka samples, martini mixers and chocolate truffles. And those attendees could feel good that a portion of the ticket price always goes to Second Harvest Heartland.

In addition to having a big crowd mid-week that might linger for more drinks or a meal, the restaurant receives from Sample Circuit all its marketing muscle as soon as it signs on. It’s not just random e-mail blasts, either. The Sample Circuit targets a relatively well-off demographic, and the restaurants it chooses (upscale, takes reservations, and employs an in-house executive chef with creative control) and its sponsors (Kettle One vodka, The Marquette Hotel, Maserati) all want the disposable income that comes with it. Sample Circuit’s “media partners”—Mpls./St.Paul Magazine, FM radio’s Cities 97 and WCCO TV—are similarly inclined.

It’s this bundling of connections that Sample Circuit uses to promote the event and the selected restaurants to as much of that demographic as possible. “We have partnerships to do a multi-tiered marketing platform that all goes back to the restaurant,” said Sample Circuit CEO Tara Rea, who operates the event locally with company president and co-founder Ryan Nelson.

The “multi-tiered” platform includes 1/3- to full-page ad in Mpls./St. Paul Magazine, radio exposure on Cities 97 and television advertising on WCCO’s channel 4. In addition, Rea said, there’s the weekly e-mail blasts to 50,000 people, and advertisement and Web links on Sample Circuit’s Web site, on which the average viewer spends 4.5 minutes—a near eternity in cyberspace.

Rea and her group pick dates between Tuesday and Thursday that aren’t busy for the restaurant, from 5:30-7:30. “The restaurant can turn around for late seatings by 8 p.m.,” Rea said. Upcoming Sample Circuit events are at Otho and FireLake in Minneapolis, and Pazzaluna in St. Paul.

Sip ’n Sample was founded by Delaney Collins, who was part of Sample Circuit, but said he now has no affiliation with it. Sip ’n Sample has its own partnerships and sponsors, such as FM radio station KS95, the alternative weekly newspaper City Pages and the Minnesota Lynx. The events showcase samples from a restaurant’s menu paired with wines chosen by the chef, Collins said. Sip ’n Sample also provides the restaurant a cut from the ticket sales—which increases with the number of attendees—and pays servers a $32 gratuity. “It’s not all about ‘exposure,’” Collins said. “Restaurants get exposure because they have a sign out front. Restaurants also need people, and they need a vehicle in place that pays for the time people are there.” (Rea said Sample Circuit pays each server used $50 for working the event.)

Upcoming Sip ’n Sample events are at Tryg’s, Café Lurcat and The Melting Pot in Minneapolis and Kozy’s in Edina. Events cost $25 per ticket, and are also timed mid-week, from 5:30 to 7:30. A portion of ticket sales also benefits a charitable organization: listed on the company’s Web site is the Domestic Abuse Project.

Events are probably a restaurant’s best tool for promotion, said Notz, who is now a partner with National Restaurant Marketing. “I don’t think restaurants get much from print advertising anymore—and I used to sell it,” she said. “If I were a restaurant owner at this time, I would really go to guerilla marketing to promote the business. I’d look to events and that type of thing as a way of marketing. Word-of-mouth is where it’s at; it’s a matter of just getting those people in there.”