A well-loved North London restaurant. Nearly 25 years in the same spot. Loyal regulars, strong reputation, beautiful food. But somewhere along the way, they’d stopped reaching out.

They had a database of thousands but were barely emailing it. Maybe once every other month, and when they did, it wasn’t designed well and didn’t drive action. No consistent social presence. No strategy for bringing in new guests or re-engaging the ones who’d drifted. They weren’t in trouble, but they’d got comfortable. And in hospitality, comfortable is where you start losing ground.

To make things harder, major roadworks had diverted a key bus route away from their door for 12 months. Footfall was down across the area. Just holding steady would have been a result.

The owner’s main concern was staying relevant. Not a rebrand, not a reinvention. Just a smarter way to remind people why this place is worth coming back to, and to get in front of the people who hadn’t found it yet.

We sat down, agreed on a realistic target of 15% more covers, and got to work.

Three months later, they were up 126%. In a market where the North London average was down 30%. The trial has now been converted to an ongoing retainer.