Relatively new to the social media scene are two visually oriented apps: Snapchat and Instagram, more than 10 billion videos were posted by Snapchat users in April 2016 this year, up from 8 billion in February 2016.
Both are increasingly scene as ways to market a pub’s food and drink offers to their ever more “connected” customers and most importantly the only cost to an operator is the time taken to disseminate their marketing messages to potential customers.
Recent research by Canadean found 35% of consumers worldwide thought about the food they would pair with a drink before buying it and this trend is even more widespread among older adults, with 43% of those asked claiming their drink purchasing decision was affected by the dish they would eventually pair it with.
Ronan Stafford, senior analyst at Canadean, said: “Encouraging young adults to consider pairing alcohol with food will be a crucial way to grow volumes of wine, beer, and even some spirits. It is inevitable using more visual social media platforms would benefit pub businesses, but, operators should start thinking beyond social media to promote their offer if they wanted to stay ahead of the trend.”
Both Snapchat and Instagram are easy to set up and both offer a great way to interact with customers, especially in food-led establishments.
You don’t have to worry so much about what to say on Instagram either as it’s all about the pictures, so it’s a much easier marketing strategy than Facebook or Twitter.
Simply post shots of plates, beer fonts, back bar and weird spirit bottles (the Crystal Vodka skull bottle, for example) to gain attention on-line and post pictures of events such as Hallowe’en and Christmas decorations when they are a buzzing social trend.
These are much easier marketing tools for time-pressed publicans to use as they’re simple, instantaneous and on most occasions, an easy win.
In a recent survey of 200 chefs also 46% used social media to increase sales, 52% to increase footfall and 86% to gain positive reviews.