Restaurant Menu Marketing

6 replies
Last week I was at the Cheesecake factory and noticed that there menus now include ads. The ads were not only for big corporations but for small business and online business. Has anyone tried advertising in menus? Do you know of any other restaurants that do this?
#marketing #menu #restaurant
  • Profile picture of the author HeyAdMan
    There is plenty of money to be made selling ads on menus, take-out menues, coffee mugs, placemats, etc in restaurants.

    Ads are everywhere ... what you have to ask yourself is will it be effective for whichever business you are consideriing selling to ... or is it only going to benefit whoever sells the ad.

    As far as ads on an inhouse menu if you are Coca~Cola, Pepsi, etc. that may be feasable but for it to be even remotely a good ROI for the biz paying for the ad it would be better on the Take-Out Menu.

    The reason restaurants will allow it is because it is delivered FREE to them and since they need this it cuts the cost of what they would have to pay otherwise for the menus, take-out menus and coffee mugs.

    People will sell you anything with your name and ad on it. When I was first getting into advertising years ago it was exciting to me everytime I saw a new place to put somebody's ad and that was excellent for me.

    How well did it work for the biz owner paying for that ad?

    This is not at all meant to be a negative because I believe many advertisers can benefit from these various ads ... but not all media is good for every type of business.

    Ask yourself this question ... who was on the menu that you saw?
    Can you even remember?

    You will now have to go eat cheesecake 7 or 8 more times while that ad is on that menu for it to be effective enough for you to remember.

    The kinds of advertising I eventually evolved to was direct response advertising ... the kind that make you reach for your wallet when you see it. Now that is what will excite whoever is paying for the ad. RESULTS!


    Again I am not at all saying menu ads don't work. They work real well for me because I get them and call the advertisers to see how I might can help them because I don't even have to convince them that they need to advertise because they are already doing it. I just do a needs analysis and see what they need and supply that to them.

    I've sold ads on grocery cash receipt tapes and that works really well for SOME businesses. I've also turned down business from would-be advertisers when they called because that just wasn't the right media for that particular kind of business. I would however suggest something that would give them an expected return on their investment even if I was telling them to give business to someone else. In the end they always respected that and I would often times get referals from them.

    Probably wasn't what you wanted to hear but it is here to give you a full perspective and perhaps a different way to look at a thing instead of "is there any money to be made here?"

    When you can give someone a good ROI they will follow you wherever you go.

    I hope this helps.

    Randy
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    For B2b I would think it would be a brilliant idea. Menu's, place mats... seem like a great way to target business people who go to lunch daily and meet and talk about ideas. I have never done it but I have heard good things about it, and it makes sense.
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    • Profile picture of the author HeyAdMan
      or for perhaps some businesses within very close proximity who may find that their customers also frequent that particular restaurant.
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    I know people who first go out and find restaurants interested in receiving free menu production, and then go out and round up people who want advertising.

    Its an interesting idea. The same concept can be applied to hotels (creating channel guides with an ad or two on them). I've never tried it myself but thought about it.

    I wouldn't suggest advertising offline marketing services on them though, it would be a pretty broad range of people.

    Matt
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    • Profile picture of the author HeyAdMan
      Originally Posted by freudianslip27 View Post

      I know people who first go out and find restaurants interested in receiving free menu production, and then go out and round up people who want advertising.

      Its an interesting idea. The same concept can be applied to hotels (creating channel guides with an ad or two on them). I've never tried it myself but thought about it.

      I wouldn't suggest advertising offline marketing services on them though, it would be a pretty broad range of people.

      Matt
      Matt the way I would do on these things is I always asked the restaurant that was going to get the free menu, coffee mugs, etc. (since they were getting these free) ... who do they know that they would like to see them get first option for their biz category on the menu, mug or whatever. I would then ask if they had the phone number handy.

      It was surprising to me how many times when I did that that they would actually just go ahead and call them to let them know what we were doing and that I was coming by. It was almost a lay down at that point.

      They almost felt "obligated" to help Shelby's restaurant (or whoever) and of course since I was doing all this for free for Shelby ... she just naturally wanted to help me by calling them to tell them what was going on.

      I was just pretty much stopping by to get what they wanted on the menu, mug, etc and to pick up my check.

      This type selling is fun and everyone wins!

      Got any ideas on how this can be used in Offline marketing?

      Randy
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  • Profile picture of the author joa
    the whole idea for mat ads is 50% off Free Pie With Meal$$$$$$$$low cost production cost
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