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THE WHAT AND WHY OF POP-UP RESTAURANTS

Have you noticed your attention span getting shorter?

Don’t worry, it’s nothing to be ashamed about. You’re just a product of modern life.

Fresh and new have become  a standard feature in a lot of industries and it’s finally reached food and beverage. Say “Hello” to pop-up restaurants!

 

What the heck is a pop-up restaurant?

Pop-up restaurants are appropriately named temporary restaurants that “pop-up” for a short period of time and then shut down.

Usually lasting only weeks or months at a time, these boutique style eateries offer a unique blend of quality, exclusivity and novelty to patrons. Though they’ve been around since the 70s,  pop-up restaurants have just started to gain mainstream popularity in the last decade.

Pop-ups are perfectly suited for our instant gratification culture. They offer a fresh experience but don’t overstay their welcome, but how exactly can they compete financially with traditional restaurants?

 

Why pop-ups make sense as a business model

To better understand the merits of a pop-up’s unique business model,  check out this fun infographic from intuit.

Pop Up Restaurant

via: pop-up Restaurant [Infographic]

 

Our experience with pop-ups

We got to enjoy the fun of pop-up restaurants first hand when we visited New York last week.

The best way to describe “Broadway Bites”, a collection of pop-ups we saw,  would be to call it a high quality outdoor food court.

Broadway Bites

A company called Urban Space, organizes the event, which includes over two dozen restaurants.  Broadway Bites is a great example of what pop-ups are all about. It  features a different lineup every year, and lasts a few weeks. This year it was only around from October 6th until November 14th!

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Pop-ups and the hotel biz

Besides the obvious fact that pop-ups are additional competition for traditional F&B venues there are a few other reasons the hospitality industry should be paying attention to them.

 

1. They can be integrated into hotels

Some properties, like the Marriot, are offering space in their hotel lobbies to pop-up restaurants. It’s a great way for them to give guests a novel dining experience  that’s different with each stay.

 

2. The pop-up concept can be applied to a lot more than just restaurants

The idea of temporary, unique and exclusive that comes with pop-up restaurants is powerful. It’s a good starting point to discover  other opportunities.

Hotels can apply the model by offering pop-up shops in their lobby, offering pop-up bars or something else. The bottom line is that by using the pop-up mentality hoteliers can give guests a unique and interesting experience while differentiating themselves from the competition.

What do you think about pop-up restaurants? Will the whole pop-up movement only exist for a short period of time like the restaurants involved? Give us your thoughts in our comment section below! 

4 Surprising Marketing Lessons from a Dead Plant

A few months ago, McConnell Marketing lost a beloved friend.

His name was Mr. Tea and , despite being a tea plant, he was a valued member of our team. We were all excited for the day we’d be able to harvest his leaves and enjoy some office-grown tea.

Unfortunately Mr. Tea didn’t get to live out his life’s purpose,  but that doesn’t mean he still can’t give us something of value. In fact, here are some lessons from our brief adventure into to  tea cultivation that are just as true for marketing! 

 

1. Sometimes, despite plenty of love and nurturing… it’s just not meant to be.

We’ve had other plants in our office before… they’ve all died. It’s not a matter of effort, it just doesn’t work out. There’s just something about our office that kills them.

Marketing can be like that too. Sometimes your idea, design or strategy is just wrong. It doesn’t matter how well you execute it, how much preparation you put in or how good you think it is, it just isn’t the right fit.

The worst thing you can do in this situation is  continue to pour energy and resources into something that you know won’t work. Step up and cut your losses instead of continuing to water a dead plant!

2. Failure comes quickly when you set yourself up for it.

Tea isn’t meant to be grown in Ohio, it’s not a very hardy plant. Tea needs a warm, sub-tropical climate to thrive.

Trying to grow tea in our office was an exercise in setting ourselves up for failure.

Think about that idea when it comes to your next project. Are you setting yourself up to fail ? Can you avoid it?  Step back from the whiteboard for a minute and try to identify disadvantages and obstacles to success before you encounter them! You might be amazed at the results.

3. Fluorescent bulbs are not an acceptable substitute for sunlight. 

Mr. Tea first started to show signs of distress after being moved away from his window ledge due to a construction project. The problem was  that the light from the office’s fluorescent light bulbs was not a good substitute for natural sunlight.

“All that glitters is not gold” comes to mind in this situation as does The idea that some things are too good to be true.  It’s important to keep in mind that all alternatives are not the same when it comes to a problem.

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Don’t tell him that bling isn’t real

An obvious example of this in marketing is in communication. Just because you can communicate the same message through email as you can in a meeting, does not mean that you should. The social cues that come along with a face-to-face meeting just can’t be matched by a Skype meeting or phone call.

Be wary of options and why you’re choosing them. Is it out of convenience and ease, or is it really the best choice?

4. Never, Ever give up. 

We recently replaced Mr. Tea’s empty spot on our ledge with a bromeliad. It’s a hardy plant that requires little attention and grows in a variety of conditions. Hopefully we’ve learned from our mistakes and aren’t setting ourselves up for failure this time. We’ll do our best to keep this guy in real sunlight and if he dies, we’ll probably get another plant.

You might think that this lesson conflicts with our first one, but it doesn’t. Cutting your losses and quitting are very different things.

Not giving up means that after you kill that bad idea you attack again from a different angle. You try a different solution. You try until you succeed.

Mr. Tea never succeeded in becoming the full grown harvested tea plant we all wanted him to be, but we’re sure if he had a choice, he would never have stopped trying. RIP Mr. Tea.

 

What marketing lessons have you learned from common office decorations? Let us know in our comments section below!  

5 Tips for Better D.I.Y. Video Content

Better video

Special thanks to our videographer friend Andy for helping us with this post!

Everyone knows that Google is the most searched site in the world right, but who is number 2?

Nope, it’s not Yahoo, AOL or Bing. It’s not even Facebook or Twitter.

Actually,  YouTube is the second most used search engine world wide! 

Think about that for a second. If your brand isn’t using video as part of their content marketing strategy imagine how many searches, clicks and views you’re missing out on!

At the same time, quality matters. You can’t just put out low quality stuff for the sake of getting into video.  You want to make something that you can be proud of, that represents your brand appropriately.

It’ll take some practice, but here are some suggestions to get you on your way to producing great video content!

1. Keep the camera still!

Having a shaky camera distracts your audience and makes a video look amateurish. Luckily it’s a pretty simple problem to fix. Just find something to set your camera on!

If you don’t have access to a tripod, use a stack of books, a step stool, or even someone’s shoulder as something to set your camera on to cut down on shakiness.

If you’re shooting your video with a smartphone you might want to invest in a Smartphone tripod adapter, which will allow you to mount your phone on a traditional camera tripod!

2. Pay attention to lighting

It’s hard to achieve the level you see in professionally done videos without bringing in your own lights and diffusers, but you can get a step closer by just paying closer attention to the light sources you do have. Here are a few basic rules of thumb to keep in mind.

  •  Try to avoid having a strong light source behind your subject. For example, if you’re shooting indoors, don’t frame a shot with your subject standing in front of a window.
  • Pay attention to light color: incandescent bulbs, fluorescent bulbs and natural sunlight will all give your video a different look.
  • If you’re shooting indoor your video is probably dimmer than you think. Try improvising with lamps, overhead lights or even flashlights to make your shot look as good as possible.

3. Use a microphone for audio

Having good audio creates a huge difference in video  quality especially if you plan on shooting someone speaking. It’s definitely one of the easiest ways to add quality to your video production,

The best way to do this is by buying a microphone. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy, really anything is better than the built-in microphone on your smartphone.  Lavaliere style microphones are a great option and are available for just $30 on Amazon. That price is well worth the improvement in your content’s quality!

If you still don’t think buying a microphone is worth it, watch this video that shows the difference between using a camera’s built-in mic and using a lavaliere mic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymr9fPOENU

4.  Plan your shots

Actually picking your shots, what lighting to use, framing your subject etc.. is something you’ll get better at with experience. There are some basic things you can do right away to improve your shot composition though.

  • Rule of thirds: imagine a grid try to keep your subject 1/3 to the left, or right.
  • If your subject is looking a certain direction leave some room in the direction they are looking
  • Don’t cut off your subjects head, leave a little margin.
  • Try not to shoot a person from a low angle, it looks awkward.
  • Include motion, action shots and interesting visuals.

5. Edit appropriately

Editing  can make or break your final product.

Though professional level desktop tools, like Adobe Premiere, are ideal, you really only need the basics. In fact there are a number of great free or cheap apps available for smartphones and tablets that have all the functionality you’ll need.All you should be looking for in a video editor is the ability to trim, rearrange shots and overlay an audio track.

Before you start cutting away you should watch a few videos that are similar to the style you’re trying to create.  Pay attention to how long each shot takes, what type of cut they use (does the scene fade away or jump to the next shot), and anything else.  There are plenty of different stylistic choices you can make and they can have a big impact on the mood impact and watchability of your video.

Need some more help on a video project? Our video production team has the skills and creativity to help your brand shine! Contact them today. 

5 Creative Hotel Marketing Ideas for the Holidays

 

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What’s your killer holiday marketing message?

It might seem early, but if you’re in the hospitality industry you know that this is the time of year to start getting your holiday marketing materials together.

If you’re still looking for the perfect campaign or just want to try something a little different this year check out these creative holiday themed marketing messages for inspiration!

1. 30 Years of White House Ornaments

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For over 30 years the Willard Intercontinental in Washington D.C. has decorated its lobby Christmas tree with White House ornaments. The historic hotel, which has hosted almost every president since 1853, embraces it’s location in the heart of Washington.

 Photo via USA Today 

2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… and Promote your Property!

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Though it’s not necessarily a marketing tool, this collection of hotel inspired etsy projects compiled by HotelChatter.com could definitely be used as the basis for a  unique holiday campaign.

Photo Via Etsy

3. Guilt-Free Holiday Shopping

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Hotel 1000 in Seattle understands that despite the unnecessary money we spend on ourselves between Thanksgiving and New Years, the holidays are really all about giving back.

Their 12 Days of Comfort, Joy and Cheer Promotion was a great compromise. It provided a checklist of local boutiques where guests could shop and have 12% go towards a local non-profit.  If guests received a stamp saying they visited each store on the list they would be entered to win a prize.

Photo via HotelChatter.com 

4. French Chocolate

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The Ritz Paris is all about style and substance, and their 2012 Christmas promotion had plenty of both.

During the holiday season the hotel’s boutique offered a limited holiday edition chocolate ball entitled the “Ritz Paris Christmas Ball” , created by Ritz pastry chef Sebastien Serveau. The chocolate’s wonderful flavor was complimented perfectly by its outstanding presentation in a gold foil lined box.

5. Ginger Bread Elevator

 

Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 10.14.05 AM Did the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago go too far when they transformed one of their elevators into a gingerbread lined masterpiece?

We don’t think so.

This outlandish design  transported users straight into a scene from “The Nutcracker” complete with 222 pounds of frosting and 103 pounds of chocolate!

 

Still working on your holiday marketing idea?  We can help! Check out our website or send us an email to info@mcconnellmarketing.com for more information.

 

HOW TO POST LIKE A PRO: 6 TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

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Creating great posts are one of the most important activities you can do on social media. (next to listening) Post are the basic tools of communication on social media, so brands need to make sure that theirs have a level of professionalism that reflects well on them.

If you are posting for a company or organization, make sure your posts look professional with these 6 tips. 

1. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar

The Problem: Typos and poor grammar are one of the quickest ways to make your posts look unprofessional. Just because social media is a less formal way to communicate doesn’t mean you get to skip the fundamentals!

The Pro fix: WAIT… Before you click post,  make sure to step back and re-read what you just typed. Start with spelling, since that will be the most obvious mistake to your audience, then move on to grammar and punctuation. A little attention to detail can go a long way.

Twitter is a bit of an exception however. There’s a bit more leeway when it comes to using abbreviations and shorthand in tweets due to the length limitations. As a rule of thumb, it’s fine to use abbreviations as long as you don’t compromise clarity.

For instance your post will still look fine if you use RT instead of Retweet

2. Use Photos Responsibly

The Problem: Using low quality images will not only make your social media presence look unprofessional, it will annoy your audience and decrease interaction. No matter how good your content is, if it doesn’t look good it won’t get clicks.

The Pro Fix:

  1. Subscribe to a stock photo site
  2. Crop your images to correct dimensions

Using royalty free stock photos will not only give you a library of high resolution images to choose from, it will keep you from committing copyright infringement. Most images found on google image search or pulled from the web are copyrighted, and if you’re posting for a company it’s extremely important to avoid using them.

The second part of this fix takes a little effort, but is well worth it. Find out the exact size specification each social media site uses so that you know exactly how to crop your images so they will look as good as possible.

For example, If you upload a photo to Facebook that doesn’t have the right dimensions, it will get resized.

Wrong Dimensions: Logo squished and hard to see.

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Correct Dimensions: Nice big eye-catching image.

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3. Don’t automatically cross post content

The Problem: It’s tempting to have your Facebook posts automatically published to Twitter, unfortunately the time you save isn’t worth the ugly tweets you’ll generate.

The Pro Fix:  It’s definitely okay to post the same content to all of your social media sites, just take the time to craft each post for the site it’s going to be shown on.

A Facebook post is too long to put on Twitter and vice versa. Not to mention the fact that Facebook allows you to  hide links and Twitter does not. (See the next tip)

4. Hide those links

The Problem: On Facebook, posting a URL automatically generates a link preview, which usually contains a picture and a short piece of the content of the link. Unfortunately this will give you a cluttered post.

The Pro Fix: When posting to Facebook you can actually delete your original URL without eliminating the preview. Posting links in this way results in a much cleaner look.

For example: With link (messy)

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Without link (clean)

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Unfortunately, on  Twitter , links have to remain part of the body of a tweet. However, there is a simple way to make your tweets look cleaner while saving some of your 140 characters. Use  a link shortener like Bit.ly. Bit.ly will not only shorten your links but it even gives you the option to create custom links that are easy to remember as well as track links you’ve already made. 

5.Use an optimal post length

The Problem: Posts that are too long or short not only look bad, but result in less engagement.

The Pro Fix (For Twitter): It sounds too simple, but one of the best ways to increase your number of retweets is to make your tweets more easy to retweet. Do this by  leaving enough room in your tweet that someone can retweet your post without exceeding 140 characters.

The Pro Fix (For Facebook): Having the correct length isn’t nearly as important on Facebook as it is for Twitter, but it’s still worth paying attention too. According to Fastcompany.com the best length for a Facebook post is just 40 characters. If that seems too short don’t forget that images are a powerful way to get your message across.

6. Remember who you’re representing

Without getting into an entire content strategy discussion, here’s a good rule of thumb for professional level posts. Don’t forget that your posts aren’t coming from an individual they are coming from a brand, company or organization. Be sure to post appropriate content that represents your brand well, and never be negative!

 

Need help with your brand’s social media strategy? McConnell Marketing offers full service social media services from basic strategy to dedicated account management. Email us: info@mcconnellmarketing.com