With years of experience in hotels and restaurants, this entry shows what can be achieved in a short timescale and how PR has had a direct impact on a client’s ‘bottom line’.
Russell’s is a 60-seat modern restaurant with four ensuite bedrooms located in the heart of the Cotswold village of Broadway. Prior to being taken over in February 2004, the building was the headquarters of the world-famous 1920s furniture designer, Gordon Russell. Today, it is a thriving restaurant business owned by highly experienced hoteliers, Barry Hancox and Andrew Riley.
Barry and Andrew’s initial approach was to Montpellier Creative, Montpellier’s sister design company, to devise an identity and website for the new restaurant. Spotting a possible PR opportunity, Montpellier’s B2C division approached Barry and Andrew to propose executing a PR programme to launch the restaurant. Russell’s was hesitant initially to appoint an agency outside London given the number of specialist Consultants they had worked with in London. However, Barry and Andrew agreed to meet with Montpellier and, in summer 2004, the agency was appointed.
• To generate awareness about the restaurant through targeted local, regional and
national media;
• To encourage new visitors to visit Broadway;
• To build upon Barry and Andrew’s excellent reputations locally;
• To profile key members of the team;
• To promote Russell’s as one of the more innovative and best restaurants with rooms
in the country.
The planning focused on how Montpellier could differentiate Russell’s from the dozens of restaurant and hotels that open in the Cotswolds every year. On researching the local market, the focus was on:
• Restaurants with rooms – a new concept that is gaining popularity in the UK.
Excellent food coupled with luxurious bedrooms giving an intimacy that hotels
can’t achieve;
• The heritage of the building - the designer, Gordon Russell is world famous and the
design of the restaurant and rooms reflected his 1920s heyday with
contemporary comfort;
• The Gordon Russell headquarters – this was well-known locally and many people
were intrigued to know what was happening to the building that had always
been a local landmark.
To generate media interest about a restaurant that does not exist and, in the very early stages, has no imagery or marketing collateral is a test for any PR consultancy. As a result, Montpellier explored alternative angles and sought out other methods of gaining the media coverage that would anticipate the opening.
Given that Russell’s was reliant upon extensive building work being completed; there was no definite opening date for several months. Therefore we focused on selling in feature ideas to local and regional media to run pre-opening features to anticipate the opening. This resulted in full page article in the Birmingham Post, half page in the Gloucestershire Echo, double page spread in Western Daily Press (West Country Life magazine) and a number of national newspieces.
As work to the restaurant entered its final stages and the design and décor were finalised, Montpellier Creative created an identity for the restaurant, based on the Gordon Russell logo. We advised that Russell’s create a small, but highly visual brochure that through its effective and attractive design would catch the eye of the media and customers. As areas of the restaurant started to take shape, we appointed a photographer to take some very attractive imagery that could be used for the brochure and website until such time that the restaurant was completed and he could return to do some more.
We recommended that Russell’s hold a launch event to alert the local community and the media that the restaurant was open. This meant that the short lead-in media would have reason to write about the restaurant and, it would give people involved on the project a deadline to work towards. It also meant we were in a position to start planning media visits. A champagne evening was held for 120 guests on 11th November and as a result the restaurant was full for lunch and dinner in its first week.
With completion of the bedrooms delayed by a month, our strategy was to focus on the local and regional papers and magazines as well as targeting some of the food writers and news reporters in national glossy magazines such as Waitrose Food Illustrated, BBC Good Food Magazine, Olive and Square Meal. Once the rooms were ready, we scheduled national travel writers down and since January 2005, The Guardian, ‘S’ magazine – The Express, GQ, Country Living and Square Meal have visited.
We achieved exceptional coverage which has had a direct impact on bookings. These have have remained consistently high since the restaurant opened. The Birmingham Post for example, ran two full page features on Russell’s in their ‘Weekend’ section pre and post-launch. This produced Russell’s first ever room residents and has produced about 25 room nights as well as about 40 diners, much of it is repeat business. Waitrose Food Illustrated ran a review of the restaurant in the February 2005 issue and this has resulted in the region of 60 enquiries and over 120 walk-ins. The Guardian newspaper ran a review in their weekly Saturday column, “Somewhere for the Weekend”. The piece which was published at the end of May 2005, generated over 80 enquiries and about 50 room nights and diners. Enquiries are still coming in.
“Overall, room occupancy has gone from 0% on 1st January 2005 to approximately 65% in June and this has to be largely due to PR. We are averaging 25 covers for lunch (with an average spend of £15) and 30 covers in the evening (average spend of £28) and these numbers are growing. Alfresco dining has also had an impact on this. Our busiest Saturday a couple of weeks ago was 80 for lunch and 80 dinner bookings” BARRY HANCOX, Owner of Russell’s.