A Case Study

A Case StudyDigital Branding For Social Content

Hello everyone, Im Paul and this is Sam, together we run Ignite Hospitality Marketing, a digital marketing & branding agency for Hospitality.1

We collaborate with clients globally to help them excite and delight their audience. Youll see how this purpose is realised through digital branding & social content.

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We work with large & small clients all over the world with great brands such as Bella, D&D and Smith & Wollensky3

The Team

We do everything in house with marketers, strategists, designers and web developers. And this enables us to create really great content for our clients because we can animate, develop apps and design engaging content.4

Tell the story: As an agency that works with so many different hospitality businesses we kept coming across similar problems with regards branding and content. Yet another picture of a cocktail on a Friday! Another food shot. 5

In the traditional model branding is done at the outset and feeds channels, activity, interiors. Branding is dictated to these silos from above. Doesnt seem to be effective.6

Often given brand guidelines, here you go heres our brand. Thats not a brand, thats an identity.

Weve all seen it, we all have it. You end up with a brand booklet, rules and guidelines that direct your activity. Theres nothing alive about this. It doesnt grow. Its not about experience, its restrictive by nature.

Design needs a framework, it needs guidelines but thats what they are, guidelines to shape a journey which is what brand development should be about. 7

Digital is often used as the amplifier. Not the most effective way of doing things. 8

The problem?

Traditional branding treats digital as an implementation channel, rather than central to brand exploration.

The big problem here is that it treats everything in silos. Digital is seen as an implementation channel, rather than where the brand is truly able to come to life beyond the physical location of the restaurant. Your brand is bigger than your interiors, than your physical location. You customers are online, experiencing your brand, It gives you the wings to grow bigger, open new avenues, new ideas, to connect with and attract new custom9

Digital Branding

Opportunity to create experiences, interact, try out ideas, test & learn.

Ultimately feel out what your brand is, and what makes it powerful.

This got us scratching our heads and thinking: There has got to be a better way to go about this! There has got to be a better way to integrate digital into the branding process.Digital branding means you are constantly receiving feedback in terms of engagement and comments which offers a tremendous advantage to the process. 10

Talk you through each of these elements of the framework in detail hopefully you can take away with you and try it out. Used all over the world engaged everyone from serving staff to CEOs successfully. 11

Wollenskys Grill

Wrapped up using Wollenskys Grill slide12

This is a rollout brand concept developed by S&W in the US. Created one, currently looking to roll out across United States. This was the perfect context to apply our framework as it was now and had the potential to really carve out an identity.When we applied this framework with WG it worked so well that the CEO, Michael, stopped us when we were presenting the Experience Principles, walked back into the restaurant, removed the greeters tie, took table cloths off the tables and changed the music. He walked back into our room and said, right, lets continue. Amazing.13

SAMFocus on branding/digital content today.Part of this framework set brand strategy, feed it through to key digital hubs, get the message out there across many channels, test and learn always feeds back in to brand strategy to continually evolve communications. 14

In order for digital branding to work you have to work across the business. Get people together managers, waiters, barmen.As an agency we always work with the full scope of a team including managers, waiters, barmen, customers, CEOs etc.Get buy-in from everyone. No one is being told anything, very much about collaboration. Removes the TA DA moment. Enables us to engage with everyone. This makes the branding process real, rather than something super-imposed. 15

Stops ppl from speaking from the I16

People will say the service, the food, the atmosphere. Just like everyone else. If you want to develop a strong digital brand it has to be more to it. 18

Bring it out with a brand examples:Security with a logo on it, then examples of them, then onto discovery. 19

Local restaurants often in this spaceVery powerful window to somewhere else20

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Loreal sits here. 24

Gordon ramsey. 25

Lidl was here. Now theyre moving over here to discovery. 26

Precise ramen, no nonsense. 27

Write down 5Gives chance for the quiet guy to have their voice heard. Very democratic. Completely even playing field. Removes fear. 30

Throw it together, see what sticks.

Start to create clusters and themes.Then probe those themes push them, ask what really makes them special and go to the nth degree.

Distill it down, build it out. Keep asking questions.Clusters together.

The 5 Whys?

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Now up to explore, build. We did this with Wollenskys Grill. Best way to describe is through experience principles and content pillars 36

Bring it out with a brand exmamples:Security with a logo on it, then examples of them, then onto discovery. 37

Experience Principles

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Place Of Craft

At the heart is the butcher, one of the last true craftsmen of the modern age.

Nose to tail from the market to your plate, back to basics eating - full of integrity and passion.

Some of the themes that came out with wollenskys grill39

Best Of Tradition

No trends, no bull.

Holds up the best of tradition, but is a place to let loose.

PAULExperience principles are what you want people to feel emotionally when they come into contact with any brand communication. 41

Content pillars that support our social strategy and experience principles. Take experience principles, and provide a framework for communication. Gives you tangible pillars from which you can create social content. Ensure that any content plan or marketing activity reflects these pillars. Just because weve got to this great place, we have to educate around the concept. So you start mellow and crescendo into the full experience.

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Authority on meat. 382 Likes 89 Comments

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405 Likes13 Shares

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#butchersnotes45

75k Views

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1,702 Likes133 Shares30% uplift YOY

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This is an example of what they did in-house. Rough and ready, makes it real. 48

536 Likes15 shares

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Get a bit more extreme 50

Everywhere the butcher goes he sees meat. 512 Likes36 Shares40 Comments

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414 Likes 13 shares

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Social: A Journey

This is the crescendo. 53

Multi-Channel Campaigns

SAM54

The whole cow supports the butchers angle. 55

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Buy in across the group they held big party, everyones very excited. CEO up there. Thats the head chef. Buy-in across the group. 60

Results

3.6 million impressions66k clicks14k entries34% Conversion Rate

So far6,200 entries 3 million reached122k clicks4% average CTR67

Results To Date(campaign live for 1 week)

1 million impressions40k clicks4k entries7.5% Average Click Through Rate

Overall Results

PAUL69

+151%

+700%

The reason it works, on the ground real revenue, is because digital branding is at the heart of the strategy. It runs throughout the business completely integrates as part of the restaurant and speaks it on every level. It continues to evolve and grow as you test it. Real fans for the restaurant through this approach. Very excited about the concept and whats happening. Coming to life in the actual restaurant.71

www.ignitehospitality.com @ignitetweet +44 (0)20 7697 0151

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