Downtown Detroit’s Favorite Irish Pub
PGN Agency has a rich history with local restaurants in Metro Detroit. From Green Lantern’s Pizza to Savvy Slider’s, Crispelli’s, and Jim Brady’s. PGN nods to the industry for much of our marketing and branding experience.
Over the last year, we’ve had the extreme pleasure of working with Downtown Detroit’s favorite Irish pub, The Old Shillelagh. Since 1975, The Old Shillelagh has had its doors open to Michiganders, Detroiters, and travelers alike, offering live music, Irish fare, and boisterous celebrations.
Their largest celebration of them all, however, is St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, you can find a countdown going year-round on the homepage of their website. Patrons are so eager to celebrate this holiday that The Old Shillelagh has an annual “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” party just to ease the anticipation.
The truth is, The Old Shillelagh doesn’t need the help of our agency to get people in the doors on March 17th – there’s usually a line by morning! PGN Agency’s goal for this St. Patrick’s Day campaign was to:
- Spread awareness of the 48th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Party
- Stir up excitement
- Increase engagement
- Sell bottle service reservations
With the help of Facebook event pages, Instagram event reminders, weekly paid advertisements, and enticing photography, we launched a month-long campaign that not only generated anticipation for The Old Shillelagh’s 48th Annual St. Patrick’s Day party, it got the whole party STARTED!
Executing a Successful Multimedia Campaign
There were a lot of parts moving in this multimedia machine. PGN Agency had quite a few deliverables, including:
- 2 large posters announcing the week’s lineup of events.
- Individual Facebook event pages.
- Bottle Service pop-up for the website.
- Custom photography + videography to promote the food specials and bottle service, rather than using stock images.
- Weekly ads to boost traffic to FB event pages, website, and bottle service requests.
- Daily CRM to answer questions and reciprocate the excitement of eager customers.
- Day-of event photography.
Add “Party Planner” to our list of services, please!
In a situation like this, it’s best to work smarter not harder. With the help of Instagram and Facebook tools, we made sure this campaign was user friendly. This means that important links, dates, and information were easily visible and accessible. We accomplished this with the help of:
Facebook Events
When it comes to large public events, Facebook is great for both organic and paid reach, gathering a head count, and sharing event-specific information that you may not want to clutter your timeline. It also serves as a calendar reminder for guests that respond “Interested” or “Going”. The Old Shillelagh had a combined total of 1,232 RSVP’s for their St. Patrick’s Lineup of events.
Instagram Reminders
Did you know? When sharing a post to Instagram, you can “Set a Reminder” for events by providing Instagram with a simple event name, date and time. In turn, followers can opt into receiving reminders of your event as the date draws near.
Instagram CRM
Another neat Instagram feature when sharing a post to Instagram is the option to receive messages from followers. From the user’s end, they’ll see a “Send Message” link underneath your image. We found that this tool was a great way to start conversations and answer questions with interested customers.
Facebook Messenger
Similarly, we increased conversations in Facebook Messenger during the running of this campaign. The Old Shillelagh’s account received 228% more messages than the previous month! We set up some messenger automations that greeted customers right off the bat until a real team member was able to respond to them.
Engagement Ads
All of our paid advertisements were run as Engagement Ads. Engagement Ads are more about interaction than reach. These advertisements are ideal if your objective is to reach users who are most likely to be interested in your business. In this case, we wanted to reach friends who were very interested in partying in Downtown Detroit on St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, we reached over 17,000 of those people with the event page alone!
You can see a few examples of this strategy in the graphics below. Better yet, check out The Old Shillelagh on Instagram and Facebook!
The Party of the Year
We could tell you about The Old Shillelagh’s biggest party of the year, or we could show you! Keep scrolling for in-depth analytics.
The Results of the Campaign
It’s no surprise that this campaign was a hit. The Old Shillelagh has a loyal customer base and sees thousands through the door every St. Patrick’s Day! PGN Agency had a blast sharing in the excitement. The cherry on top of the holiday season, besides a hugely successful party? The Old Shillelagh was also featured alongside 24 other nationwide establishments named The Best Irish Pubs in America!
PGN is Your Multimedia Marketing Agency
Marketing is multi-faceted. It’s important to work with marketers and designers that have proven success in all marketing mediums. *Cough, cough* We’re talking about PGN Agency – your local and nationwide marketing & branding agency for the past 39 years. You can check out more of our diverse portfolio HERE and stay up-to-date with our local Royal Oak agency HERE
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