As the brand manager for all of Easton Porter Group's east coast luxury properties, I had the opportunity to re-think and optimize their earned media content strategies. Here's a quick overview of my impact on the digital presence of one of my favorite brands, a restaurant in Charlottesville, VA's Historic Downtown Mall, Red Pump Kitchen.
CONTENT STRATEGY
Bringing the physical to life on digital channels
Red Pump Kitchen was an extra fun challenge for me, not just because of the proximity to downtown Charlottesville where I live, but because of its status as a bit of a black sheep amongst Easton Porter Group's portfolio of luxury properties. Charlottesville's restaurant scene is booming, and the foodie community is alive and well. Unlike other EPG properties, Red Pump Kitchen always seemed to struggle to find its place amongst the local competitive set.
I had the unique challenge of bringing to life, not only the digital experiences at Red Pump Kitchen, but also playing a key role in reimagining the physical experiences that would set Red Pump apart from the competition on the Downtown Mall.
Here's a quick overview of one of my favorite digital and physical campaigns to bring Red Pump Kitchen to life online, and on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall.
High Brow and Happy Hour
During my first few months at Easton Porter Group, I quickly realized that Red Pump Kitchen's happy hour was a key differentiator from the competition. Not only did our happy hour last one hour longer than most others on the Downtown Mall, but our drink specials also offered a huge bang for your buck given the size of the drinks and the quality of the alcohol. The problem? Red Pump Kitchen had a reputation for being an upscale place- a reputation we had hard earned. Essentially, we had to strike a balance between letting the town know that our happy hour was best without cheapening the overall experience and reputation of the luxury restaurant. The solution? Monthly specialty events that brought Easton Porter Group's attention to detail and eye for beauty to life within the context of what we do better than everyone else: Happy Hour.
We hosted these happy hours monthly on the outdoor patio, and the theme was always on-trend for the season, complete with drink partners invited from around the state to co-host the event and create specialty cocktails for the occasion. My favorite themed happy hour was a Polynesian Party on the Patio featuring an upscale Tiki Cocktail created by our bartender + Belle Isle Moonshine from Richmond, VA.
Aside from the chance to produce some really fun, engaging events for the community, these happy hours resulted in an increased knowledge about how great Red Pump Kitchen's daily happy hour truly is, and ultimately, increased revenue in that category. Of course, the ultimate strategy is to get carefree drinkers to stay for dinner and dessert, but I'm proud of this small but successful role I played in the development of Red Pump Kitchen's presence in an otherwise crowded restaurant scene in Charlottesville, VA.
WHERE'S CLAIRE?
Brand Strategy • Digital Strategy • Content Strategy • Creative Execution • Team Management • Partnership Strategy • Sales Strategy