Hospitality • North London • 3-month engagement
Supercharging a longstanding independent.
Bistro Aix has been a North London favourite for nearly 25 years. Briefed to deliver 15% more covers. Delivered 126%.
The story
Comfortable is where you start losing ground.
Bistro Aix is 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.
Flip it
Comfortable. Then working.
The email list Before
3,700+ contacts, emailed maybe once every other month, with nothing driving action.
A calendar of campaigns tied to seasons, menus and local events, plus automated welcome and win-back flows.
Social Before
No consistent presence. Channels gone quiet.
Channels reactivated and active in local community groups, back in the conversation.
New guests Before
No strategy for bringing in new guests or re-engaging the ones who’d drifted.
Community-first local marketing, plus PR with food writers, local press and dining influencers.
Reviews Before
A TripAdvisor presence that wasn’t doing them any favours.
An overhauled profile and a system that encourages reviews from happy guests.
Against the tide
The area went down. Bistro Aix went up.
February to April 2026, compared with the same months the year before. The brief was 15%. The North London average was down 30%.
What we delivered
Five jobs. One busier dining room.
Email Marketing
The restaurant had a database of 3,700+ but it was barely being used. We turned that into a proper engine: a calendar of campaigns tied to seasonal moments, menu launches, and local events, all designed to drive bookings. We also built automated flows from scratch for welcoming new guests and re-engaging lapsed ones.
Local Marketing
A targeted local strategy to put the restaurant back on people’s radars in the neighbourhood. Community-first, not corporate. The kind of grassroots activity that gets people through the door because it feels genuine, not because they’ve been retargeted.
PR & Influencer
A programme to build visibility with food writers, local press, and dining influencers. We also submitted the restaurant for industry recognition, including the Good Food Guide.
Social & Community
Supporting social media activity and reactivating dormant channels. We got the restaurant active in local community groups, driving genuine engagement and putting them back in the conversation with people who live five minutes away but hadn’t thought about them in years.
Review Management
Overhauled their TripAdvisor presence and put a system in place to encourage more positive reviews from happy guests. Small change, big impact on how new customers perceive them before they’ve even walked through the door.
The results
Up 126% while the area fell 30%.
Briefed to deliver 15% more covers. Delivered 126%.