Play date imc plan amanda

y a l p e t da

imc marketing plan

By Amanda Gani, Kelly Ho, Jasmine Lin, Silvia Wong

1 table of contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Current Situational Analysis 3. SWOT Analysis 4. Marketing Objectives 5. Target Market 6. Marketing Strategies (signature creative piece) 7. Marketing Tactics 8. Implementation 9. Evaluation of Performance 10. References

1

executive summary

Take a trip down memory lane at a unique new restaurant in Los Angeles, Play Date, where customers can eat all their favorite childhood dishes in a throwback setting. The first restaurant concept of its kind, Play Date is launching its grand opening on 8764 Melrose Avenue on August 6, 2016. At Play Date, customers can cozy up with friends in retro vinyl booths, while sipping wine out of baby bottles and digging into tasty grilled cheese sandwiches. Play Date’s menu offers an adult twist on childhood meals. Diners can amuse themselves with the vintage arcade game machines and jukebox sitting in the back of the restaurant, or simply whip out a few crayons and engage in “adult color therapy” on multipurpose table cloths. Play Date is not just about the food; it’s about the experience.

The goal of this integrated marketing communications plan is to raise Play Date’s brand awareness among local millennials, and to inform them that this is a one-of-a-kind dining experience that provides not just food, but also a nostalgic (and instagram-worthy) journey back to their childhood. We want to get locals excited to generate online and offline buzz about Play Date. We hope to take advantage of the current restaurant market boom and millennials’ “early on-set nostalgia,” and establish Play Date as a hot restaurant in Los Angeles right off the bat. We want to be the first place people think of when planning their high school and college reunions. Play Date is a place to make nostalgia a group activity, bringing old friends together to keep in touch, share stories, and feel more youthful and energized.

Dining at Play Date will allow you to escape back to the easier childhood days.

Our main marketing objectives are to develop brand awareness, build steady customer traffic and loyalty, and generate sales. We plan to achieve these objectives through our unique positioning, branding, and visual identification strategies. To maximize the effectiveness of these strategies, we plan to employ tactics involving celebrity endorsement, social media, sales promotion, event marketing, and mobile marketing. These elements will be implemented through social media, digital marketing, publicity, talent, print, and sales promotion.

Overall, Play Date is a fun, trendy restaurant that aims to make customers feel at home. The food and the environment together aim to bring diners back to an earlier phase in life and remind them once again that they are never too old to be young. Play Date is the best destination for adult play dates, and offers a unique experience you won’t be able to find elsewhere.

2

current situational analysis

To implement Play Date’s marketing plan, we first identify the first three P’s that make up the marketing mix. Our product is the restaurant, which includes our menu items (baby bottle wine, mac and cheese, etc.), friendly customer service, cozy atmosphere, and the unique nostalgic experience of dining out. Our price can be identified by a “$$” sign on Yelp, with our menu items averaging at an affordable $10. In terms of place, the restaurant is located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. This is a high foot traffic area that offers high visibility for our storefront, making it easier to reach local consumers. At the same time, we recognize that there are key competitors in the vicinity.

Play Date’s major competitors include hip, casual dining restaurants on the same price tier within a 15-minute drive of our location. The list includes Blu Jam Café, République, Larchmont Bungalow, and Café Gratitude. We studied Yelp reviews of these restaurants to analyze what consumers like and do not like about our competitors. Customers have complained about rude service and long wait time at Blu Jam Café. They are known for their breakfast foods, but not so much their lunch and dinner menu, and they do not serve alcohol. République is admired for its fancy Bauhaus décor, interior seating space, and “delicious simplicity.” However, the restaurant looks like a normal building from the outside, and people complain about the higher price ($15-25 per entrée) and lower quality. Larchmont Bungalow brags an extensive menu, and customers particularly go for their specialty, red and blue velvet cake. Café Gratitude is a healthy vegan restaurant that sells positivity, like we sell nostalgia.

Customers compliment their “cool vibes” and “modern and casual atmosphere,” and like to resonate with the positivity message. Compared against these competitors, Play Date’s restaurant concept offers something unique to the market.

Key Environmental Trends

The restaurant industry is currently experiencing a surprising boom, as Americans are spending more eating out than ever before. Despite the relatively weak economic state of the country at the moment, sales at food service and drinking places in 2015 have actually increased 8% from 2014, more than double the pace of growth for total retail sales. Average spending on food services in 2015 also reached a new peak of nearly $1,900 a person. One of the primary social factors driving this growth is that Americans are getting married and having children later. Adults with children are less likely to eat out, whereas adults who do not have children have the time and freedom to do so. Secondly, there is a new cultural perception about eating at a restaurant– it is no longer seen as a rare luxury. In fact,

considering people’s busy lifestyles, eating out is sometimes seen as a necessity– people need to eat out because they do not have time to cook. Lastly, with the advent of the Internet and social media, dining out has now extended from simple food consumption to representing an experience that is shared on social media (Lee).

Without a doubt, millennials are the key generation driving these growths and changes. Millennials also happen to be the biggest contributor to the quickly increasing population in Los Angeles, as they are attracted to the city’s urban lifestyle (Romero). Millennials ages 18 to 28 eat out more often than Gen X or Baby Boomers. 53% millennials eat out once a week, compared to 43% of the general population (Lutz). Millennials eat out 3.4 times a week on average, versus non-millennials at 2.8 times a week regardless of income and household composition, and on average, spend slightly more on dining than non-millennials (Barton, et al.). Specifically, millennials make up the highest percentage of age groups to eat at casual-dining establishments (Lutz). Because millennials are active brand advocates on social media, they highly influence their friends’ choices when they broadcast their preferences.

Boston Consulting Group and Barkley and Service Management Group surveyed 4,000 millennials and 1,000 non-millennials to analyze their spending habits. According to the survey results, millennials like to spend their money on restaurant meals and drinks more than electronics, beauty products, apparel, and footwear. They are more likely to eat out with friends and co-workers, as they do 65% of the time, versus 43% for the general population. Millennials invest more social and emotional value in casual dining – respondents indicated that they want to feel like they can “easily catch up with friends” and “leave my responsibilities behind and relax.” They also eat at restaurants during off-peak hours twice as often as non-millennials. “Hip-ennials,” the largest millennial segment, is a primarily female group made of people who want customized orders, attentive service, good value, an orderly dining environment, and to try new foods. When it comes to dining, millennials as a group care about fast service, happy hour and late night menus, décor, entertainment, menu and drink variety, wi-fi, new food and beverage combinations that incorporate unique menu ideas, and digital, mobile, and social media marketing promotions (Barton, et al.). Blu Putnam, chief economist at the CME Group in Chicago, noted that millennials’ habits of taking pictures of their food is a key part of the service-ondemand economy (Lee).

According to Digiday, millennials have a stronger affinity to the sentiment of nostalgia than previous generations (Dua). Nostalgia is the yearning for an earlier and better time. This affinity can be seen through popular social media habits today like the app TimeHop and the hashtags #throwbackthursday and #flashbackfriday. According to the CTO of RocketHub, products based on nostalgia tend to depreciate slower over time. Consequently, many brands are now dabbling with “nostalgia marketing” by appealing to nostalgia. Deep Focus CEO Jamie Gutfreund said, “You want to relive that feeling [of nostalgia] and brands know they can trigger those emotions in consumers.” Jannine La Saleta, a marketing professor specializing in nostalgia marketing, found that nostalgia induces feelings of social connectedness, which makes people value money less and spend more freely. Many psychologists attribute millennials’ affinity to nostalgia to the economy and technology. Millennials are coming of age to enter peak earning and spending years in the context of an economic turmoil and difficult job market.

As a result, Cassandra Mcintosh, senior insights analyst at Exponential, theorizes that millennials end up romanticizing simpler times. Millennials are also the first digital natives to have their lives instantly and constantly chronicled online.

By taking into account the current landscape of the Los Angeles restaurant market and millennial habits, Play Date will structure its integrated marketing plan to maximize its opportunities in this context.

3

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Internal

+ First restaurant concept of its kind in L.A. + Offers a unique selling proposition: childhood food served in a restaurant setting and an overall fun dining experience creating nostalgia (e.g. jukebox, table cloths for adult coloring) + Menu featuring classic and innovative items : e.g. grilled cheese & wines served in baby bottles + Happy Hour specials available + Affordable prices for casual dining + Comfortable and aesthetically pleasing dĂŠcor fit for relaxing and hanging out with friends + Good for hosting small groups / parties + Wifi available in store + Hip, trendy location with lots of people traffic and high number of millennial residents around location of restaurant (Barragan) + Open 7 days a week

Weaknesses -

New restaurant = no brand awareness, no brand equity Inexperienced wait staff – require further training Online reservation system not yet established No valet parking (only street parking available) Small business with limited financial resources

External

Opportunities

+ Robust restaurant industry growth despite economic slowdown (Lee) + Increase in average spending on food services ($1,900 / person) (Lee) + Rise of the ‘foodie culture’ - Americans view eating out as an “experience” (Lee) + High number of millennials living in L.A. (Romero) + Millennials have a regular habit of dining out; they enjoy spending money on food and drinks (Lee) + Millennials value the social and emotional aspects of casual dining (Lee) + Millennials experiencing early on-set nostalgia (90’s kids), which means there is an appeal to nostalgia marketing (Dua) + Millennials like to share on social media, which constitutes powerful buzz marketing (Lee)

Threats

- High competition around the same location (many similarly priced restaurant options) - Millennials growing increasingly health conscious (Watson) - thus may not respond well to menu items like grilled cheese sandwiches and drumsticks - Rise in minimum wage ($15 by year 2022) (Davidson) – thus may add to restaurant’s financial strain

4

marketing objectives

Considering that Play Date is a brand new restaurant, the primary marketing objectives are to 1) develop brand awareness, 2) build customer traffic, and ultimately 3) generate sales in order to break even as soon as possible. We want Play Date to be a name that pops up in customers’ evoked set when they evaluate dining options. With enough awareness and buzz generated both offline and online, we hope to receive a steady stream of customers per week and make as many sales as possible. As time goes on, we hope to convert some of our new customers into loyal customers. In terms of specific, quantifiable metrics, the objectives are as follows, starting from the launch date:

1) Develop brand awareness.

• Achieve brand awareness among 10% of target demographic by end of month 3 (i.e., achieve successful brand recall / recognition among 10% of target population) • Reach 500 followers on Instagram by end of 1st month and achieve an audience growth rate of 5% per month for the next 11 months • Reach 500 fans on Facebook page by end of 1st month and achieve an audience growth rate of 5% per month for the next 11 months

2) Build customer traffic and eventually loyalty.

• Serve at least 200 diners per day or 1,400 diners per week • Convert 5% of new customers into loyal customers by end of year 1

3) Generate sales.

• Achieve gross sales revenue of at least $276,000 by end of month 3 (calculated based on the approximation of 200 diners / day, spending an average of $15 / head)

5

5

target market

The target Play Date diners are young and trendy Los Angeles millennials between the ages of 18-28 years old. In terms of psychographics, we are targeting the so-called “Experiencers”- young, enthusiastic, and social individuals who value not only products, but also overall experiences. The majority of this target group are in the early stages of their careers, are financially independent, and have moved out of their parents’ home. Because of their busy lifestyles, they most likely do not have time to cook and thus miss home-cooked meals. Even more so, they miss the warm feeling that comes with a home-cooked meal.

Though they have a relatively low disposable income, they enjoy spending money on fun experiences, which include checking out new, trendy restaurants with friends after a long day at work.

They tend to consider restaurants with 2 dollar signs ($$) on Yelp, which translates into the approximate price range of $11-30. Many in this group, especially females, may self-identify as “foodies.” Not only do they take pleasure in eating out, they enjoy taking photos of food and sharing them on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc.).

These young adults do not take themselves too seriously. A typical conversation among friends in this group may involve reminiscing the “good ol’ college days,” and bonding over current struggles in dealing with the realities of young adulthood - unexciting entry-level jobs, rent payment, relationships, etc. Overall, they carry the responsibilities of a young adult, but are nostalgic about earlier, carefree days as a child.

Typical consumer snapshot: Name: Christine Wood, Age: 24 Self-description: Recent college graduate. Entry-level Marketing Associate. Foodie & Traveler Living situation: Share an apartment in West Hollywood with 2 friends What do you like to do after work?: “I am usually so tired after work that I don’t bother cooking. Neither am I a really good cook, so my friends and I like to find a dinner close by and eat there. It’s always relaxing to just catch up and hang out with them after a stressful day at work.”

How often do you use social media?: “Probably too much. I am on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat a lot. It’s how I kill time when I’m bored at work. It’s also the first thing I check in the morning.”

To better understand our target population, we conducted a survey and gathered 63 responses, with approximately 50% females and 50% males. Majority of the survey responses are between the ages of 21-23 years old (54%), while 33.3% of the responses are between 18-20 years old, with the remaining being 24-29 year old.

Based on their responses, we gathered the following key insights about their dining and social media habits.

Dining habits: • Majority of the respondents dine out more than once a week (49.2%), while 23.8% dine out once a week. (Figure 1) • Almost all respondents like to dine out for dinner (98.4%), 39.7% like to dine out for lunch and 20.6% go out for happy hours. (Figure 2) • When choosing a restaurant, 74.6% of respondents claim that the top 2 factors they consider are food quality and price. The third most important factor is the type of cuisine. (Figure 3) • Majority of respondents (61.9%) spend < $15 on a meal (before tax and tips) while 33.3% spend between $15-25.

Implication: Our findings support the secondary research data stating that millennials have a regular habit of dining out, especially for dinners. This powerful trend of wanting to dine out clearly plays in Play Date’s favor. Moreover, considering that price is an important factor that these target customers evaluate, the fact that Play Date’s menu falls into their typical spending price range for a meal implies that the restaurant has great potential in capturing this audience.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Information Search Habits for Restaurants: • Most respondents cited Yelp (85.7%) and friends’ / family’s recommendations (69.8%) as the two primary sources they rely on when browsing for new restaurants.

• Friends’ / family’s recommendations (77.8%) and Yelp (76.2%) are also what motivate them to actually go try a restaurant for the first time. 30.2% of respondents also cited online / social media ads to be motivating factors.

Implication: Our data shows that when considering a new restaurant to try, respondents tend to conduct an external information search through sources like Yelp and friends / family. Thus, in order for Play Date to become part of consumers’ evoked set when they are evaluating dining alternatives, we need to focus on buzz marketing (i.e. word-of-mouth or friend-to-friend advertising), as well as establishing a positive online presence on Yelp.

Social Media Habits: • Facebook (88.9%) is the most frequently used platform among respondents, followed by Instagram (74.6%), Snapchat (50.8%), and Twitter (6.4%).

• Despite Facebook being the most popular social media platform, people most often share their dining experiences on Snapchat (49.2%) and Instagram (34.9%) in the form of photos (80%) • People are most motivated to share their dining experiences on social media if they have an overall positive dining experience (41.7%) or if the food is aesthetically pleasing (41.7%).

• 60.3% of respondents claim that they would be motivated to follow a restaurant’s official social media accounts, if promotions / coupons are offered via those platforms. 42.9% would follow the accounts if there is aesthetically pleasing content and 23.8% would do so for informative content.

Implication: Because Facebook is the social media platform that the target population uses most frequently, it will be very important to have a strong Facebook presence to encourage customer engagement (i.e. Facebook page). In addition, marketing messages need to be present on Snapchat and Instagram as well, as those are the two platforms on which people tend to share their dining experiences with others. In order to increase the probability that Play Date diners share their dining experiences, attention needs to be given to both their overall experience and the visual presentation of the food. Furthermore, in order to entice people to follow Play Date’s social media accounts, exclusive promotions / coupons plus aesthetically pleasing content should be offered via those channels.

Where Else Are Customers Going To?

We asked respondents to list 1-3 of their favorite restaurants in Los Angeles and the most popular restaurant, cited by 10% of respondents, is République. This data confirms our secondary research data about competitors in the vicinity of Play Date (Please refer to Section 2: Current Situational Analysis).

Although République may pose fierce competition, we believe Play Date is positioned uniquely and will appeal to this target market differently, as it has a unique restaurant concept with more affordable prices.

6

6

marketing strategies

In order to achieve the three primary objectives 1) develop brand awareness, 2) build customer traffic, and 3) generate sales in order to break even as soon as possible, Play Date aims to stimulate patronage by giving guests a unique, nostalgic dining experience. This will motivate diners to share their experience with friends through word-of-mouth and on social media, thus generating buzz about Play Date.

Our marketing strategy incorporates both print and social media strategies in order to drive brand awareness and express Play Dateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key brand message: You are never too old to be young.

Play Date positioning: To:

Young and trendy Los Angeles millennials between 18-28 years old. These people carry the responsibilities of a young adult, but are nostalgic about earlier, carefree days as a child. They enjoy checking out new, trendy restaurants with friends, bonding over the struggles of young adulthood, and taking photos of their dining experiences to share on social media.

Play Date is...

The fun and unique restaurant that (1) bonds people socially and emotionally over food and shared memories, (2) creates an experience to meet the psychological need/desire for nostalgia, and (3) satisfies their desire to have an aesthetically pleasing and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Instagram-worthyâ&#x20AC;? dining experience.

Play Date makes nostalgia a group activity, and presents an affordable yet appealing destination for visitors to organize social gatherings and reconnect over sharing stories about the past. Overall, Play Date exists to remind people that they are never too old to be young; it is the best destination for adult play dates.

Reasons to Believe: Insights About The Power of Friend Recommendations and Social Media

In our survey, we found that 49.2% of respondents dine out more than once a week, and 77.8% will be motivated to try a restaurant for the first time because a friend recommended it. Most of our

survey respondents are heavy social media users. 41.7% stated that they are likely to share their dining experiences on social media when the food is aesthetically pleasing. 17% prioritized having a unique dining experiences as an important consideration for selecting a restaurant. Also, 42.9% of respondents said they would follow a restaurant on social media if there is aesthetically pleasing content and 23.8% would do so for informative content.

Based on these findings, our key insights are that: (1) millennials seek unique dining experiences to share on social media, (2) social media shares by friends can encourage people to try a restaurant for the first time, (3) aesthetically pleasing content can entice people to follow a restaurant brand on social media.

The Play Date Experience:

Play Date responds to these three key insights, by giving guests a unique restaurant experience that encourages content seeding, in that it motivates people to share their Play Date experience with their friends on social media. Play Date’s brand identity on social media is also tailored to create a visually appealing experience that encourages people to follow and support the brand on social media.

The Play Date brand concept is unique and different from that of other restaurants, as it presents visitors with a one-of-a-kind social dining experience centered on the feeling of nostalgia. “Nostalgia is the warm, fuzzy emotion we feel when we think about fond memories from our past,” explains Erica Hepper, Ph.D., a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey. “When we experience nostalgia, we tend to feel happier, have higher self-esteem, feel closer to loved ones and feel that life has more meaning.” Nostalgia is a universal human tendency that is commonly found in young adults coping with big life transitions, such as leaving home, beginning college, and starting careers. Although there is sadness when we remember what has been lost, nostalgizing helps people relate their past experiences to their present lives to create greater meaning, increase social connectedness, and feel a boost of positivity. “Nostalgia is not just about doing retro, but finding a balance between something that feels current but is still evocative of the past.” It’s about storytelling, communicating a sense of authenticity for the brand and reflecting its core values (Dua).

Play Date’s brand image features a modern take on a “throwback” theme. Play Date aims to take guests on “a trip down memory lane”, and transport them back to their childhood days with vintage interior design elements (such as jukeboxes and vintage arcade game machines), and a menu of reimagined childhood dishes presented with an adult twist (like wine in baby bottles). Play Date’s retro theme is situated in a modern context, to appeal to social media-obsessed millennials eager to show off unique dining experiences on Instagram and Facebook. The interior is planned in such a way that it is social-media friendly, with good lighting for photos and a bright, kitschy color scheme.

A big part of Play Date’s brand image is also its focus on the social experience. Play Date encourages people to reminisce about “the good ol’ days” with a group of friends, and its environment and promotions (such as the referral card promotion) focuses on bringing people together to participate in nostalgizing as a group activity.

The restaurant’s brand visuals (on social media and print advertising) also convey a trendy, old-meets-new vibe. They are aesthetically pleasing and are thus fun to share on social media. Play Date’s marketing communications establish a tone of playfulness, friendliness, warmth and fun, through vintage pastel colors and modern, bold visuals.

Play Date Visual Identity and Signature Creative Piece:

Play Date’s image conveys a trendy, fun and retro vibe. On social media and on its website, Play Date establishes a consistent tone of playfulness, friendliness, warmth and fun, through the use of vintage pastel color scheme and bold graphic design. Play Date’s visuals are tastefully designed, and built to appeal to image-conscious millennials.

Play Date’s Visual Identity

The brand’s visual identity plays around with bold black graphic design juxtaposed against soft vintage pastels, to visually communicate the restaurant’s image as being simultaneously vintage and modern. Play Date’s logo features the brand name printed in a vintage cursive font and is accented by a modern-looking graphic milk bottle. The logo appears as a rich black design over pastel shades and looks both playful yet grown up. Overall, this conveys the brand’s message that Play Date guests are never too old to be young.

All marketing collateral (such as referral cards, loyalty cards, print ads and social media ads) communicate this visual identity.

Play Date Visual Identity

Play Date’s Signature Creative Piece

In order to deliver the brand message that one is “never too old to be young”, we aim to develop a series of whimsical print ads that are consistent with Play Date’s visual identity.

The ads will be simple yet bold typographic posters, featuring a series of quotes about youth and childhood (such as “adults are only kids grown up, anyway” - Walt Disney) placed against a pastel background. The clean, modern aesthetic will complement the brand’s visual identity and complete the visual Play Date experience, by presenting bold words contrasted against “childish” baby pink, blue and yellow shades.

The ads will be featured on Play Date’s social media pages, magazines, and will be printed as posters to be pasted around the restaurant, as well as around the Melrose area. A new quote poster will be printed each month to counteract the wear out effects of advertising.

y a l p e t da

youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re never too old to be young.

y a pl e t a d “adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”

- Walt Disney

7

7

marketing tactics

To maximize brand awareness for Play Date, we intend to organize our campaigns into two phases: the Grand Opening Week (August 6-13, 2016) and the Ongoing Campaign (marketing programs which go past the dates of the grand opening week). As our target audience is millennials, digital natives who often refer to the internet and social media platforms for food recommendations, most of our marketing tactics will involve digital marketing and social media.

1. Grand Opening Week (Aug 6-13, 2016) Celebrity Endorsement

Guest performance by Melanie Martinez: Electropop singer Melanie Martinez is the muse of Play Date - she is striking with her signature doll-themed attires and throwback-themed songs “Cry Baby” and “Sippy Cup”, a perfect match to the nostalgic mood Play Date aims to create for restaurantgoers. For our grand opening, we will feature Melanie Martinez in a thirty-minute guest performance.

Social Media Talent Recommendation: To promote her Play Date gig, Melanie will also blast the news to her two million-plus followers across all her social media handles (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), allowing us to bring in visitors who are avid fans and may respond better to a call-to-action coming from Melanie, such as an invitation to dine at the restaurant.

Recommended copy for @MelanieLBBH Twitter/Facebook promotional posts: “ Performing Pity Party, Sippy Cup, and more at the @PlayDateLA grand opening tomorrow. Hope to see u there! ”

#Tagyoureit Campaign:

As digital natives, millennials are constantly trawling through their Facebook and Instagram accounts to see what their friends are up to, what they’re eating - and, upon viewing these pictures determining which next cute restaurant they want to check out. To tap into this audience, the week of the grand opening, Play Date will encourage customers to take photos at the restaurant and share the content on social media using #tagyoureit and @PlayDate hashtags. We want customers to show off what a cute and fun restaurant Play Date is to their friends - whether it’s a picture of a friend tensely working the crane machine to win a unicorn plushie, or a close-up shot of our signature, mouthwatering grilled cheese sandwiches.

One lucky winner will stand a chance to win tickets to a Melanie Martinez concert. The campaign closes on August 14. Winners will be asked to email Play Date their addresses, and the tickets will be mailed within ten business days. At Play Date, we also want to reward more than just one customer for supporting our restaurant. We intend to reward 15 of our social media followers who used Play Daterelated hashtags with a free bowl of macaroni and cheese at their next visit. The Play Date L.A. Social Media Manager will privately message the followers via the social media platforms they used to post the photos.

2. Post-Grand Opening Marketing Campaign (Aug 13 - Nov 26, 2016) Social Media Instagram Programs: • @PlayDateLA: We will post a minimum of one picture per day on our Instagram account. It could be an image of our signature Play Date dishes, the interior design of the restaurant, or a positive customer review of what aspect of Play Date they enjoyed while dining here.

• Social Influencers: To increase brand awareness among our target customers aged 18 to 29, we will partner with L.A.-based social influencers with a large percentage of millennial female fans such as Chriselle Lim (@chrisellelim, 643K followers) and Jenn Im (@imjennim, 1. 2 MM followers).

Chriselle Lim and Jenn Im are fashion and lifestyle YouTube influencers and have subsequently accrued large followings on their Instagram handles. Partnership program can involve the influencer posting pictures of the Play Date restaurant on their personal Instagram accounts, or “taking over” the @PlayDateLA Instagram account for a day. For this takeover day, they would be responsible for creating social posts and would direct their followers to the @PlayDateLA account. Partnering with social influencers is incredibly important as during the initial three months of the store’s opening, Play Date will be in the incubation phase, so it is important to designate these influencers as innovators and trendsetters that build hype for the product and encourage their millennial followers to check out this new restaurant on Melrose. Recommended copy on @imjennim’s account: “Hey guys! I’ll be catching a break from adult-ing today and taking over @PlayDateLA ‘s account. Head on over there to check out what I’ll be having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! :P” • Sponsored ads: With the goal to build customer traffic, we will first increase social traffic to our @PlayDateLA Instagram account. To advertise on Instagram, we will utilize Facebook advertising tools Power Editor and Ad Creation to use geolocation technology to target our ads. To make our sponsored ads stand out in a user’s Instagram feed, our sponsored ads will appear as simple yet bold typographic pastel-themed posters, with nostalgia-evoking quotes such as Walt Disney’s “Adults are only kids grown up, anyway”, with a hyperlink embedded in the description box that drives the user to the @PlayDateLA account.

Play Date Facebook page: • As a restaurant, it is ultimately the food and ambience that drives customers to visit the establishment, hence as a visual-intensive social platform, Instagram is our main platform to advertise.

• Facebook is also an important platform because it is a social platform notable for its two-way communication features. Most of the content will be re-posts of pictures published on the @ PlayDateLA Instagram account, as well as notices of sales promotions. It is an additional opportunity for Facebook users to tag their friends in the “comments” section of our posts, which is another means to encourage them to check out the restaurant.

Sales Promotion Referral Program:

Our primary research indicated that friend-to-friend advertising is effective because people are more likely to visit restaurants based on their friends’ recommendations. In response to these findings, we will create a referral card that gives customers a 10% off discount for inviting friend to join the program. Designed in pastel pink and blue colors, Play Date loyalty card - limited to one stamp per visit - can be used by customers to redeem a free Play Date dessert of their choice up to $10 after the 10th stamp.

Play Date Loyalty Card

Play Date Social Media Referral Program Post

8 Play Date Social Media Referral Program Card Event Marketing Food Bloggers Unite:

Invite prominent L.A.-based Instagram food bloggers such as @midtownlunchla (13.1K followers) and @eater_la (131K followers) to brunch at Play Date and blog about the event on their social accounts. We could also boost our brand presence on Yelp - the #1 platform for food/service reviews by inviting the Yelp Elite Squad to our event. Yelp Elites are members of the Yelp community who write stellar reviews and provide high quality tips and more.

Mobile Marketing (Partnerships with Food Delivery Apps)

With the busyness of climbing up the career ladder, millennials don’t have much time to prepare home-cooked meals. They’re always on the look-out for simple solutions, hence the birth of Postmates and UberEats - apps that make food delivery a simple phone-tap away. Play Date can partner with these apps to provide special promotion codes to encourage app users to try out our food.

Example of Promotion on Postmates: “Need a quick dinner fix? Get $5 off your first Play Date order with the special code: PLAYDATE5. All discounts apply at the check-out.”

8

implementation

Media Plan

Media Plan Overview

Play Date will feature a pulsating schedule, as ads will be placed in various media throughout the year, but the number of advertisements will increase in small, short bursts around special days such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. During these times, we will partner with L.A.-based influencers to release Play Date-related pictures and videos into the social media landscape. This brings Play Date to the forefront of resident millennialsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention, reminding our target audience that Play Date is the go-to place to catch up with friends and family for the holiday season.

Social Media: Play Date Facebook and Instagram accounts will be updated on a daily basis to bring the brand to the forefront of customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; social news feeds. #Tagyoureit campaign will run briefly in August because it is part of the Grand Opening Campaign.

Digital Marketing: Sponsored ads will run continuously until the end of October. In November, leading up to Thanksgiving, Play Date will be ramping up promotional collaborations with social influencers.

Due to this increase in social media spending with influencers, we have decided to pause our sponsored ads campaign for November.

Publicity: Food Bloggers Unite will be a two-part event in late August - this is a period when the initial fanfare of the grand opening dissipates and we need to boost brand awareness by tapping into the avid followers of food blog influencers.

Talent: Melanie Martinez will only perform at Play Date and advertise her concert for two days leading up to the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grand opening.

Print: Our signature typographic print advertisements are low-cost and attention-grabbing with the bold quotes and pastel colors, so they will be distributed year-round.

Sales Promotion: The referral program is available year-round because we want to consistently encourage customers to introduce their friends to Play Date.

Marketing Budget

9

9

evaluation of performance

We will evaluate the success of our campaign based on three components: (1) brand awareness, (2) customer traffic, and (3) sales. All these components are ultimately aimed at establishing brand equity for Play Date.

For the brand awareness component, we aim to establish Play Date as a top-of-mind brand in a customer’s’ evoked set when they are seeking a new dining experience and/or looking to hold a gathering for friends. We will measure this in three ways. (1) First, we aim to carry out brand recognition and brand recall surveys three months after Play Date’s launch. We expect to achieve successful brand recall and recognition among 10% of those surveyed. (2) Second, we expect to reach 500 followers on Instagram by the end of the first month, and achieve an audience growth rate of 5% per month for the next 11 months. (3) Finally, we also expect to reach 500 followers on Facebook by the end of the first month, and achieve an audience growth rate of 5% per month for the next 11 months.

For the customer traffic component, we will measure the number of customers visiting the restaurant in the first three months, as well as loyalty card redemption rates. (1) We expect that our campaign will generate an average of 200 customer visits per day (1,400 customers per week) in the first three months of its launch. (2) We also expect an average of 120 loyalty card redemptions (i.e. the card is completed with 10 stamps) at the end of 12 months.

For the sales component, we will measure the gross sales revenue generated in the first three months after launch. We anticipate that our campaign will generate $276,000 per month in gross sales revenue, in the first three months of its launch.

We will also quantify the success of the campaign by measuring our audience’s social media engagement with Play Date. We will measure this in three ways. (1) We expect our campaign to generate 200 new user posts (in the form of videos, pictures or text) about Play Date by the end of the campaign’s first month, and continue to grow by 2% a month for the next 11 months. (2) We also expect to achieve 220 new Play Date mentions on social media (using the @PlayDateLA, #PlayDateLA and #TagYoureIt tags on users’ organic personal social media posts) in the first month of the campaign’s launch, followed by a 2% growth per month for the next 11 months. (3) Finally, we expect to reach 500 likes, shares and comments on each social media Play Date post, in the first month of the campaign’s launch, followed by a 2.5% growth per month for the next 11 months.

10

references

Barton, Christine, Egan, Chris, Froman, Jeff, and Koslow, Lara. “Millennial Passions.”

Food, Fashion, and Friends.” BCG Perspectives. The Boston Consulting Group. 2012. 21 May 2016.

Barragan, Bianca. “Mapping Los Angeles’s Most Popular ‘Hoods for Millennials.” Curbed. 14 Dec 2015. 20 May 2016.

Davidson, Paul. “California Reaches Deal on $15 Minimum Wage.” USA Today. 29 Mar 2016. 21 May 2016.

Dua, Tanya. “Why Millennials are Afflicted with ‘Early On-Set Nostalgia.’” Digiday. 15 June 2015. 21 May 2016.

Lee, Don. “Restaurants are Booming Despite Financial Market Turmoil. Los Angeles Times. 17 Feb 2016. 21 May 2016.

Lutz, Ashley. “5 Ways Millennials’ Dining Habits are Different from their Parents.” Business Insider. 25 Mar. 2015. 21 May 2016.

Romero, Dennis. “Thanks, Millennials: L.A.’s Population Tops 4 Million for the First Time.” LA Weekly.

3 May 2016. 21 May 2016.

Watson, Elwood D. “Younger Consumers are Trending Toward More Health-Conscious Eating.”

Huffington Post. 10 Apr 2015. 20 May 2016.