Opening a New Restaurant? Tell The World

Opening a New Restaurant? Tell The World. With all the bad news in the economy these days anybody who opens a new restaurant is making some good news which is in short supply. Westwind Communications recently promoted the opening of the Frankenmuth Brewery in Frankenmuth, Michigan and has obtained some great PR as a result. How did we do it?

Pre-Opening PR

The excitement of the announcement of a new restaurant cannot be understated. It means there's someone who has faith in a community by spending their money to build a facility and equip it. Furthermore, the new restaurant is bringing new jobs to the area. With all the job losses these days a good-paying restaurant job that can't get outsourced to a foreign land is a very good job to have. With a new restaurant there's the excitement of the unknown and as a restaurateur you need to tap into that emotional curiosity.

How do you do that?

Depending upon how many people you plan on employing you can have a job fair. The Frankenmuth Brewery owners told me about the fair and we publicized it far and wide. When it was announced, the job fair attracted 1000 people in person and another 500 who applied online... all for about 100 positions.

The local media promoted the event in advance and covered the turnout. TV stations from the affiliates of NBC, ABC and FOX covered the job fair extensively with taped or live shots, and print and radio did their share as well. The extra coverage made people aware of job opportunities outside the immediate market area. In fact, one new hire told me his mother saw the TV coverage in Chelsea, Michigan which is about 100 miles away and called him up and told him to go apply. It obviously worked.  The job fair publicity does double duty too. Besides the job openings it also announces to the public that "Hey, there's a new brewery and restaurant opening in Frankenmuth."  BAM. Free publicity for your restaurant. Can't beat that.

Have a Pre-Opening Event For Local Charities

Every restaurant needs a few days of operation to help train the staff - the so called 'shakedown cruise.'  You want to make sure everybody and everything is working as expected and there are a couple of ways to do that.  One way that can also raise money for a local cause is to have a shakedown cruise night where patrons pay a flat fee and then the restaurant donates all the money to a charity. Frankenmuth Brewery organized such an event and Westwind Communications announced it to the media. The media coverage was great again. TV and news reporters came out to see the activities and once again the resulting PR in effect announced the upcoming grand opening a few days later.

Announce the Grand Opening

We then announced the grand opening and again three TV stations did live shots from the brewery, The Detroit News ran a full page story and numerous broadcast and print media continued to mention the Frankenmuth Brewery opening many weeks later. National Beer Magazines are doing stories and more will come.

Why did the good publicity happen?

First, it's a good story in a down economy in an economically depressed state. Second, there was some serious cache that we were able to tap into considering this is one of the oldest breweries in America. People want this brewery to succeed and that certainly helps. Third... it's the secret sauce we use... no really... it's the beer... actually it's the numerous angles we took by promoting the sometimes mundane activities like a job fair and charity event, that combined with the fact that we went out and got the PR. We "told the world" and so can you. Don't be shy about your opening. Capitalize on every opportunity.  Make sure everyone knows about it. Shout it from the roof tops!

One more thing, I noticed on this promotion: People REALLY LIKE BEER and the MEDIA REALLY LIKES BEER TOO!