World Cup & Local Marketing: A Match Made in Heaven
Over the past few weeks, restaurants, bars and even coffee shops across the country have been cheering for the red, white and blue to advance in this year’s World Cup. For many soccer friendly pubs, restaurants or cafés, the success of the American team has caused Tuesdays afternoons to feel like Friday nights – with many restaurants seeing an increase of over 50% in daily sales and say that promoting World Cup specials has been like “having an extra month’s worth of sales.”
During moments of national athletic pride – whether it be the World Cup, Olympics or other international event – fans tend to want to share in the camaraderie with other fans. Regardless of who they are cheering for, there’s nothing like cheering with others in a crowded bar with a cold beverage in your hand.
Small business owners can capitalize on this energy by making their restaurants, bars and cafés a destination for fans. Aside from keeping their regulars happy, new customers seeking a spot to watch the game may become repeat customers!
While it might be a little late for your restaurant, bar or café to jump on the World Cup bandwagon this year, we’ve pulled together a few tips that have seemed to work for several restaurants and bars:
- Have a variety of international beers available, at a variety of price ranges.
- Change your operating hours to accommodate the various game times. Opening earlier and closing later could pay off! Just ask the manager of Legends Sports Bar.
- Host a “million dollar bracket” on Facebook like Fadó Irish Pub.
- Promote food and beverage specials: brunch specials (for those early games), all-American food specials (like wings and burgers) or red, white and blue drink specials.
- Create special baked goods with international flair like the “World Cupcakes” from Magnolia Bakery.
Need more ideas? Check out these 22 NYC Bars and Restaurants that are pulling out all the stops for their World Cup fans.
Are you running any World Cup specials? How are they working out for you? Share your feedback in the comments section below!
