The Keg is aiming to reinforce how hard it works to provide a hospitable dining experience, even if it doesn’t show you a single meal being served.
In “See You Tonight,” a new 60-second anthem spot created by KBS Toronto, a voiceover describes how important the nightly ritual of dinner is to individuals and families, while staff at The Keg, from servers to cooks to hosts, are shown spending their days preparing to serve guests.
[iframe_youtube video = “5d5YQYN963o”]
The Keg handled media buying internally. A 30-second cut-down version of the spot will be running as part of its regular media buy on TSN during Raptors and Maple Leafs games, with the 60-second version part of a high-impact media buy that will see it run in-cinema for the next six weeks, as well as during events like the Grey Cup and NFL playoffs, the Super Bowl, the Oscars and the Grammys.
Ryan Bullock, VP of marketing at The Keg, says the new 60-second spot takes a slightly different focus than the one in the 30-second spots it has been running over the past 15 years or so, which have been around the consumer and their in-restaurant experience while dining at the restaurant chain. Even though it is also running 30-second spots that maintain that focus, the longer spot shows the work that goes into providing that experience night after night.
Bullock says the restaurant has done well in terms of sales growth and attracting new audiences since he joined two years ago, but one of the main objectives in the new campaign is to maintain its loyal customer base. Although The Keg has toyed with the idea of shifting its broad, 25- to 60-year-old target over the last few years, Bullock says its research has not only enforced that continuing to go after “loyalists” is the best route, but that doing so could also attract new guests and increase visits from occasional customers.
“We have these loyalists that are coming out, but when our competitors are trying to attract a younger demo, do we move away from the loyalists?” he says. “We’ve decided we don’t want to do that because everyone can have this kind of experience here. This spot isn’t meant to attract a wider or different demo, it’s saying if you’ve been to the Keg, you’re going to understand why that meal you love is so great, or if not, you’re going to see the care they put into dinner and maybe decide it’s worth coming out more.”
