Unique Promotional Events for your Business – Pancake Day

Using unique promotional events to maximise turnover and profit during important calendar days.

Unique promotional events are one of the best ways of getting customers through your door. Bookings for Christmas often need to be made months in advance. Other religious festivals such as Eid are leading to larger profits for food sector businesses. Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Father’s Day have all been determined as the three busiest single-day holidays of the restaurant calendar.

This means competition is high and your potential audience can be thinly spread. So, what about days that don’t draw as many punters, such as the ever-popular Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday? How could you maximise on those days that are less pronounced on the nation’s restaurant calendars? And how could our range of business finance options help you to achieve success during these key calendar dates?

The unique event occurs on the Tuesday immediately preceding Ash Wednesday in February or March. It has roots in the tradition of clearing out the pantry of eggs, flour and lard, or fat. Making pancakes was a great way of getting rid of any food that might tempt families over Lent.

Shrove Tuesday is one day that always gains national attention. You’ll know it’s coming by the countless news articles to the supermarket aisles suddenly cluttered with batter mix and squeezy lemon bottles. Schools across the country hold pancake-themed events, television presenters compete to see who can be the best tosser and social media explodes with these temptation-topped treats.

Supermarkets often do the best out of this time of year, with parents and children (sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which) dashing out at teatime to buy the necessary components for a flipping good time. The nation’s favourite – the noble, dignified sugar and lemon – is, without doubt, the ‘go-to’, timeless pancake of choice. For many, it sparks memories of yesteryear, the same great taste they remember from their childhood. Store shelves are often emptied of other favourite toppings, such as recent contender for the crown Nutella.

It’s not only Nutella who are linking their brand awareness with the annual holiday. Everyone from Harrods to Jack Daniel’s are joining the pancake party?

So, ask yourself? How can you leverage this national passion? Could you upgrade your menu to include decadent pancake selections, pleasing those who want to leave the hard work to the professionals? Could you utilise your best social media strategies to jump on the bandwagon and promote your venue, service or product? The event could even coincide with a refit or refurbishment of your facilities, in which case, why aren’t you making the most of this golden opportunity?

Delicious-looking imagery, instructional videos, and the ever-reliable infographic can all help boost your reach on social media and get those diners through the door! Customer engagement is key, so consider including a poll. These can act as a superb tool for encouraging potential customers to interact with your brand, whilst also acting as a useful barometer to gauge the popularity of some of your prospective toppings. (Spoiler; Lemon and Sugar wins every time; you’ll see!)

Spatulas? Sauces? Fruit? Frying pans? Who gives a crêpe if life gives you lemons? Whatever your speciality, consider how you can best serve the needs and desires of your customers with the best seasonal deals to make you unique events memorable and profitable.  And, if your business lacks the capital to increase the rate of production, the client turnover or the marketing push necessary to get your brand out into the open, contact us today.  We have a team of experts on hand to help you navigate a range of financing options from business loans to finance lease.