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It's Time For Tamil - Nadu
A restaurant launch can be stressful enough, but throw in a couple of lockdowns for good measure and we really had our work cut out for us!
Nadu
Now, fewer things bring us more joy than a new restaurant opening in Bristol, so back in September last year when Raja Munuswamy; owner of the notorious Nutmeg, gave us a call about “something new” it was like Christmas had come early.
Raja and his business partner Saravanan had a brand new concept for their next restaurant, completely different to what they currently had at Nutmeg; A vibrant Sri Lankan restaurant celebrating the flavours and spirit of Tamil culture. Their vision was to take the history, people and cuisine of Tamil Sri Lanka, encapsulating their own heritage, and bringing it to the heart of Stokes Croft.
Launching a new venue for such an established hospitality business requires consideration and planning, especially when the concept is so different. They needed to work quickly with rolling out the full marketing toolkit, which included:
- Setting up new social media channels
- Tone of voice and brand aesthetic
- Concept, design and creation of a new website
- Content creation and management
- Writing and distributing press releases
- Organising the launch
- Managing influencer outreach in opening weeks
What they needed
What we did
With Nadu still only at the concept phase, we started from scratch. We spent time listening to their business concepts in order to develop a strategy for a marketing and launch plan; setting up social media, building their website, and ramping up press interest in the venue.
The challenge with any new business launch is establishing a buzz, building anticipation and getting people talking, and in Nadu’s case they found themselves in a particularly tough spot when it came to opening; the date they’d been working towards was halted due to the very short notice lockdown which occurred in November! After agreeing that it would be doing a disservice to Raja and Saravanan’s vision to open without customers being able to enjoy the ‘full’ Nadu experience, they decided to delay. We maintained the plan (although delayed) and got the ball rolling for the new launch date...
After several successful press stories and a well-received social media teaser campaign, Nadu was fully booked for opening week, but this was scuppered by a second setback. After five days of trade (remember Tier 2?!), we fell back into lockdown and had to close the restaurant to guests.
We instantly became instrumental in helping Nadu and the team adapt to the ever-changing landscape, and as they rapidly switched up their offering so did the way in which we marketed them. Regardless of them now only running delivery and click and collect, we continued to regularly collate content for them and grow their social media presence, utilising influencer outreach and the buzz we had already created, and it generated amazing results. By the time it came to officially open the doors, admirers of Nadu that had waited patiently were now able to visit.
Since then the restaurant has continued to grow in popularity, acclaimed reviews and a huge amount of support from both customers and the Bristol hospitality industry.