Joshua Swanson

I was invited to speak at the 2015 National Restaurant Show and the topic I chose was “Understand & Engage Millennials Using Social.” As a restaurant marketing consultant I spend a lot of time trying to identify campaigns that will compel first time diners to try your restaurant. Currently, your biggest potential audience is Millennials. Below I’ve linked to my slide show from my NRA Show talk and embedded a few fun tweets sent out by the 500 or so in attendance.

–> DOWNLOAD THE SLIDE SHOW FROM MY PRESENTATION

Here’s the summary of the talk:

How do Millennials think, feel and act and how can Restaurant Professionals turn these characteristics into covers? If we as restauranteurs can understand this generation and what inspires them to take action, then we can craft successful marketing messages and achieve our goals of filling our tables with this powerful individualistic and creative generation.

My strategy is always to start with the data. For instance, at 92 million strong Millennials are the largest generation in history. Born between 1980 – 2000, they grew up in an era of high-tech / high-touch. For restaurateurs, knowing that 42% of the 92 million Millennials visit upscale casual restaurants once per month means it’s important to embrace this generation as the next group of potential new customers. My talk focused on dissecting generalizations about this inspiring generation and then extracting actionable marketing campaigns to reach this audience.

 WHAT THE AUDIENCE SAID (or tweeted)

Awesome session about engaging #millennials with @joshua_swanson @nrashow #chicago pic.twitter.com/HHPyr62ZtK

— Turnstyle (@getTurnstyle) May 16, 2015

@Joshua_Swanson Thanx! Great event today #NRAshow on #Restaurant #marketing to Millennials. http://t.co/IfIBh9aVe5 pic.twitter.com/LJEzin0Fax

— M4Restaurants (@M4Restaurants) May 17, 2015

@MarthaZur: "Music is a way to communicate with Millennials" @Joshua_Swanson #NRAShow2015 pic.twitter.com/YhfMT81GCG

— Martha Zurita (@MarthaZur) May 16, 2015

@Joshua_Swanson después de una charla de como comunicarse en redes sociales, con fila de preguntas e interesados. pic.twitter.com/Yz4TPdUcau

— karlhempel (@karlhempel) May 16, 2015