United States
North American textile services rental company, TRSA, sponsored a marketing campaign to drive the restaurant business of one of the most popular restaurants of the year – Mother's Day. Video ads were broadcast to encourage booking in places where linen diapers are used.
The US Mother's Day Tablecloth Restaurant Business (Sunday May 9th), a two-week TRSA social media and remarketing campaign for consumers, fulfilled its mission to help these customers with laundry services. Web analysis showed a high number of viewers for the campaign video, and the operators of linen, uniform and facility services for the TRSA members reported increased demand from restaurants after the celebration.
"From Alsco Uniforms' perspective, we've seen a boom in the restaurant business, especially restaurants that use table linen," said Ben Fox, director of sales and marketing for the Salt Lake City-based company, the nation's largest restaurant laundry service. Since Mother's Day weekend is usually the busiest time of the year for restaurants, the demand for hygienically clean reusable textiles such as napkins and tablecloths is accelerating the processing and delivery of laundry to laundry service.
“Fine dining definitely had a breakthrough weekend. When talking to our national customers, they were fully booked all day, ”he stated.
Alsco employees in US locations began working with the company's purchasing team back in February to ensure proper inventory levels and encouraging customers to place orders early. Covid-19 was a factor. "We had to be very strategic as the markets reopened and the demand for inventory increased in addition to the increased demand for Mother's Day," said Fox. "With all the indications that we were able to cover the storage requirements of all of our customers for the entire weekend through additional communication."
The campaign started on April 28th and ran until Mother's Day. It was a milestone for TRSA in reaching customers from the linen, uniform and facility services sectors. "This is the most engaging video we've had in the industry," said Jeff Wile, owner of Infinite Laundry, Coral Springs, FL, who has been campaigning online for TRSA and industry operators for a decade.
The TRSA video and the TRSA campaign were aimed at typical gourmet customers with remarketing ads on the Google AdWords platform. A narrator reads the script and says, "On this Mother's Day, give your mother the gift she really wants … the gift of sitting down for a fine dining experience with delicious food surrounded by loved ones. There is nothing like that Ambience of the white table linen on Mother's Day. Call and reserve today! "
The video ads were served 39,648 times on Google's YouTube platform, and 44% (17,445) of those who received the ad watched the 30-second video to completion. Facebook / Instagram games received nearly 6,000 video views with 7,969 ad impressions.
Such high-level video engagement is a testament to the quality of the video content and the custom audience used to target the ads. "Most other YouTube campaigns range from 15% to 35% depending on length, content, audience and other factors," added Wile. The commitment of TRSA members to share the content on their own social media channels also contributed to the success of the campaign.
According to Womply, a software and data company that works with credit card processors to collect data for 4 million small businesses in the United States, Mother's Day and the previous day are the two busiest restaurant days of the year. The previous day results in a sales increase in the restaurant industry that is higher than the day itself: typically 62% more (versus 60%), making it the biggest day of the year overall. However, the 60% increase on Mother's Day, which makes it the second biggest day of the year, is "a particularly impressive accomplishment," says Womply, as 17% fewer restaurants are open that day.
Another sign of a strong Mother's Day: the laundry service is overflowing with last-minute requests from restaurants for inventory or special items. “No matter how much you encourage customers to order extra, sometimes they are even surprised by last-minute bookings. Our operations teams were on standby all weekend to make sure specials could be dealt with in a timely manner, ”said Fox.
