Thursday, April 6, 2017
Today's Specials:
GUESTS: Study: 59% of Millennials Quit Loyalty Programs
More than half of Millennials quit loyalty programs, but that doesn't mean they're not useful. It just means bars & restaurants need to tweak their programs. Here's how.
DID YOU KNOWs…
Most Underrated Cocktails
It seems like every day a new type of liquor or pairing is popping up. Vine Pair took it upon themselves to revisit the classic drinks by asking seven bartenders their opinion on the most underrated cocktails. Any takers?
Is Pepsi Political?
Pepsi is getting some serious side-eye from their recent Ad featuring Kendal Jenner. In the Ad, the model breaks through a riot to offer a police officer a Pepsi; but it has received backlash on social media that claim the Ad criticizes the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Pepsi, take a political chill pill.
World’s Best Restaurant
Eleven Madison Park in New York has earned the title “World’s Best Restaurant” announced at a ceremony in Australia. Diners can expect a PRICEY tasting menu and fine wines. Here are the other restaurants that made the top 50 list.
INSTAGRAM RESTAURANT RESERVATIONS
Why it matters to you: this new Instagram feature will give you a direct path to millennials.
Instagram has been a crucial marketing tool for restaurants and has just recently announced it can do more than just marketing. Instagram will soon let people book appointments and make reservations via a business’s profile. The new feature is set to be introduced within the next couple months and will provide Instagram’s more than a million users a direct path to restaurants. Roughly 80% of Instagram’s users follow a business from their personal account.
This reservation feature could have a huge impact on the restaurant industry. Making a reservation is not a “like” or a “follow” but it’s a call to action that will show which followers are the true engagers. Essentially, restaurants will now be able to measure the success of their social media promotions in a more profitable way. Another reason to make your restaurant’s food pictures look as great as possible. This comes at a time of other changes including new sensitive content screens as well as a new lower-speed version of Instagram for users with limited internet.
EATING CHALLENGE TRAGEDIES
Why it matters to you: eating challenges can leave your restaurant susceptible to liabilities.
Many restaurants host fun competitions as a way to get the community involved with the brand and spread word-of-mouth. One common competition that many restaurants host include a variety of eating competitions where guests are challenged to consume a large amount of food in a short amount of time. This past weekend, two tragic and preventable deaths occurred within 24 hours of each other both from competitive-eating. A 20-year-old college student and a 42-year-old Colorado man died in separate choking incidents tied to eating competitions: one involving pancakes; the other, doughnuts.
It is extremely important for restaurants to be on high alert when hosting an “eating challenge.” Choking is the fourth-leading cause of unintentional injury or death and happens frequently at competitive eating events. Most of the times, restaurants are fully prepared with safety equipment and properly trained staff that could assist in an emergency. Sometimes these eating challenges offer a fun way for guests to feel connected to the restaurant but often, they can be quite dangerous.
AMAZON TO STREAM THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Why it matters to you: Amazon will soon be expanding into the sports scene.
The NFL’s Thursday night streaming package is moving to Amazon for a one-year deal. Last year Twitter had the streaming deal however Amazon is paying roughly five times what Twitter did, but they can afford it thanks to multiple NFL revenue streams. Unlike deals in the past with Yahoo and Twitter, Amazon streaming will not be free and will require an Amazon Prime account ($99 a year for full functionality, or $8.99 a month for streaming only) to watch. This helps to explain why the company is so quick to spend the extra cash required for the deal.
This fits into a larger pattern of what we’ve seen from Amazon expanding into sports rights. In addition, Amazon has started to pursue sports documentaries in their video content section included in the Prime membership. Most likely the NFL keeps landing one-year deals to be extra cautious whether the streaming market will crash due to the rapidly moving technologic landscape. For now, if your guests are looking to live-steam NFL games they will soon need to pay for an Amazon Prime membership.
