Luck Had Nothing To Do With It - The Ongoing Success of Seven Lucky Gods
How we worked with one of our oldest clients to bring a fresh, new restaurant concept to life
Seven Lucky Gods
Hyde & Co were our first ever social media client back in 2013, kick-starting the whole Duchess story, and as their business has grown, so has ours!
In 2018 they floated the idea of a brand new concept for the group: a vibrant, Japanese style restaurant inspired by the Izakaya bars of Tokyo. And just like that, Seven Lucky Gods was born.
We've worked with the Hyde & Co group for several years, and having launched a number of their venues, we knew exactly what was needed for Seven Lucky Gods. Starting from scratch meant implementing the usual marketing toolkit, including:
- Setting up new social media channels
- Copywriting for the website
- Arranging and managing photoshoots
- Writing and distributing press releases
- Organising and running a launch event
- Managing influencer outreach in opening weeks
What they needed
What we did
The initial launch activity was met with a lot of anticipation, as at the time there was nowhere else in the city offering what the Hyde team had created. We worked to build the social audiences ahead of launch, ensuring there was a healthy following ready for the inevitable ‘noise’ of opening week, and also worked closely with the team to create a distinctive and dynamic tone of voice. Press releases were picked up by titles across the city, and responses to all of the invites we sent out to the launch party - inviting influencers, press, friends and family and fellow hospitality faces - were snapped up!
Launches always generate a certain degree of hype, but all too often things quieten down after the first few weeks and we were adamant that wasn’t going to happen with Seven Lucky Gods. We focused hard on growing the Instagram account, creating eye-catching content, sharing all of the amazing user generated content and driving stories – all of this worked wonders and 7LG currently stands at over 16,000 followers on Instagram, and is easily one of our most active client accounts.
Throughout lockdown everything changed, so we switched the focus across all of Hyde’s accounts to promoting their online delivery service, Hyde at Home, which offered cook-at-home meal kits and bottled cocktails for delivery across Bristol. Once lockdown was lifted we thought we were out of the woods, but just a week after reopening our doors in July disaster struck in the form of a positive Covid test amongst the kitchen team. 7LG was the first venue to shut its doors due to a positive case in the city, and it was one hell of a learning curve for everyone involved – ourselves included. Working closely with founder Nathan, we decided honesty and transparency was the best policy, putting a statement out explaining what had happened across all social media channels, communicating the situation to the press and contacting customers. It was met with the most amazing response, with a huge amount of support and love from both customers and the industry alike, and the diary has been almost fully booked ever since!
Seven Lucky Gods has been a brilliant success story for the Hyde & Co group, gaining a loyal fanbase and bags of critical acclaim from customers and restaurant critics alike. It’s been a great success for us here at Duchess Media too, and we’re extremely proud of everything we’ve achieved, including growing a hugely active social media following, creating some awesome content and being able to see a fully booked restaurant most days of the week. Their popularity isn’t showing any sign of waning, so long may it continue!