4 Ways Sports Bars Can Leverage Sports During COVID-19

The NRA just reported that over 100,000 restaurants have remained closed during the pandemic. That is a startling statistic and should scare you into action. The good news is that sports-themed operators have survived better than most in our industry, and sports remains an authentic call-to-action for guests to visit your restaurants.

Which is why it’s time to double down on your marketing of the sports viewing experience you provide. Below we outline four strategies to improve your sports experience marketing and grow during these impossible times.

Market Off-Premise Tailgate Packages

Never before has off-premise dining been more important to your business. This is why sports can be a serious advantage for marketing your carryout menus. With the four major North American sports and NCAA football all in play right now, there is ample opportunity for guests to celebrate a game.

If they choose to do that at home, then they need to know that your food is ready to cater the moment. So, if you haven’t already, we encourage you to consider building a large platter offering and catering options as well. It’s simply never too late to make these sales, because you’ll have all three sports well into October.

Since your traffic volumes won’t give you the boost normally seen with on premise POP materials, you should use digital tools to market your new platter offering. Start by capturing an appetizing image of your platter. Take your time and get the pictures right so have great content to build your marketing around. You can use this guide we published on taking great food pics for Instagram, but don’t shy from hiring a professional food photographer either.

Then, if you have access to design resources you can create a great looking digital ad that can also be included in your restaurant’s email marketing. That same image can be featured as a meme or fitted with marketing text and titles. You can create multiple versions in very little time and then spread them across your social media. The images are also suitable for Instagram and Facebook as either a post or a paid advertisement.

In these disrupted times you’ve just got to lean into the problem. Carryout is no longer the nuisance most full-service dining operators believed and with all these sports running high right now, it’s the perfect time to lean into marketing your food for their sports experience. You better believe your competitors are doing just that.

Build Your Fan Clubs

If you like the game follow the leader, you need look no further than Buffalo Wild Wings and their ultra-interesting experiment in Cleveland. They, too, are leaning into their marketing by offering a Dog Pound experience for their guests that are extreme Browns fans. It’s a package where you get to hang out in a reserved area with thematic decorations and other rabid fans. Since you can’t go to the games, BWW figures you can get a taste of that experience in their dining rooms.

Of course this promotion would have looked different pre-COVID-19, but the idea is still quite clear. BWW is looking to leverage the desire for camaraderie around sports fans by delivering an experience. This is the exact same premise of building traditional fan clubs taken to an excellent and extreme level. You certainly don’t need to emulate the kitschy nature of the BWW experiment, but you can work hard to attract fan clubs.

There are some seating issues you may need to manage, but you can certainly reserve space for small groups of six or fewer and give them their game. Either way, once the pandemic is over and these groups do return to root for their favorite team, they will remember that you worked to give them a place to host that experience when

Talk About Sports in Your Restaurant’s Marketing

This next point might sound obvious, but I am on many of your lists and read the emails you send to your guests, so bear with me on this — less than half of you include a mention of sports in your direct marketing. Right now it’s a distinct advantage to have the ability to show lots of sports and you have to keep that top of mind to your guests.

Guests are making fewer restaurant visits. They want the ones they do make to be a unique and top-notch experience and sports is all about the experience. As further proof that sports works, we have seen the return of nearly over 90% of our SportsTV Guide subscribers accessing their guides as pre-pandemic usage. Given that 1 in 6 restaurants has not reopened since the advent of coronavirus, your super power might be that you have a ton of TVs and all the sports you can think of!

So scream it from the rooftops. Even our previous discussion of your platter still includes a sports reference. Call it your Tailgate or Game Day platter or any pithy name you can think of, but tie it directly to their sports experience. You can rest assured your guests want a place to go and sports is a potent motivator as people search for some grounding. Now’s the time to make clear how great your spot is for experiencing the game and that your food is just as good when you choose to have that experience at home.

Don’t Go It Alone

We say this a lot, but you really don’t have to do all this work on your own. Your wholesalers, both beverage and food have resources that you can leverage. Ask them for printed material if you think POP will be effective in your situation. They are also a great resource for design work. You will likely need to co-brand your message, but you also get your digital content created by an actual professional. It might be as simple as order this beer with our platter or the image of their product included on your food pic.

Another value wholesalers provide is collateral materials. From regular beef schwag to a special prize for a contest or event, these companies have a local marketing budget and it’s up to you to demand it be spent on behalf of your restaurant. Be savvy about your approach and ask them to collaborate, but never forget you pay them and not the other way around.

Frankly, with so many operators currently or even permanently closed, their budgets are likely not as depleted as they might normally be. If you don’t ask for their help, we can guarantee you won’t get it. Which is why enlisting anyone that has resources that can be deployed on your behalf, just make sense.