The National Restaurant Association Teamed Up with Dante32 to Test Out a Podcast for its Members.
About
What is the National Restaurant Association?
The National Restaurant Association is the largest foodservice trade association in the world. The group represents and advocates for more than 500,000 restaurant businesses. Their members are busy professionals, some even manage multiple restaurants.
The Challenge
How do you reach people without overwhelming them with information?
Advocating for such a large number of businesses has several unique challenges. The National Restaurant Association has a very small group called the Fast Casual Industry Council. With only 15 members, the association was feeling like they needed to get more members on board to diversify and better advocate for the businesses that rely on the National Restaurant Association. Second, the association wanted to hear more from members to find out what issues are impacting the businesses they represent.
To combat these challenges, the National Restaurant Association toyed with a few ideas. First, they thought about starting another email newsletter. But the association already sends out multiple newsletters, would another one really help them reach their goal?
Next, the association considered ramping up social media posts. The worry, in this case, was that by adding more posts, they would clog up their feeds and thus make it hard for followers to find the content that really mattered to them.
By scratching these ideas, the central problem was finally clear: how can the National Restaurant Association engage people without being overwhelming?
“From the very beginning, Dante32 took a thoughtful and creative approach to our podcast. This resulted in the highest quality outcome. They’re enthusiastic, responsive and true partners to us at the National Restaurant Association. You can quote me.”
The Solution
The experts at Dante32 helped the National Restaurant Association create a podcast to offer members stress-free content.
Content should be fun and engaging, not a burden or a chore. The National Restaurant Association decided that audio would be a great medium because members could consume programming while they were doing other things (driving to work, cleaning up at closing time). But even with audio decided upon as the chosen medium, the association still wasn’t sure how to achieve their primary goals of adding members and getting more feedback.
Dante32 was brought on to help develop, launch, and produce a podcast. To give the podcast gravitas, they decided to use a hosted format and brought in Jerry White from Plate Magazine. The Dante32 team helped the National Restaurant Association team decide upon a format (bringing real members in to share their experiences with Jerry), helped with their audio setup, and then produced and wrote show notes for each episode.
Development and Launch
Once the National Restaurant Association decided that they wanted to do a podcast, we helped them define and plan a structure for their show. This included name development, show format, overall tone, and episode frequency. Our team then came up with an overall launch strategy to ensure the new show would make a splash.
Collaboration
After Fast Casual Insider officially launched, we maintained an ongoing partnership with the association and consulted on adding a variety of interview formats and styles. We took a creative, experimental approach so that the association could try out different styles and decide what worked best for them.
Podcast Marketing Plan
A branded podcast has the added value of an endless supply of content assets. Dante32 came up with an overall marketing plan for Fast Casual Insider and delivered high-quality content for social media channels, the company blog, and email newsletters. This made for an easy and seamless experience for the National Restaurant Association as they only had to focus their energy on podcast content.
Results
After the first season concluded, the National Restaurant Association gained a slew of new members.
The National Restaurant Association team went into this project as a test. They weren’t sure how members might react to a podcast, but they quickly saw a few positive signs:
They started receiving more feedback because people listening could relate to the stories being told on the show.
Members were excited to share their experience and expertise.
The project became the “cool project” to work on at the National Restaurant Association headquarters.
Most importantly, after the 11-episode series concluded, the association added a brand new group of members to its council. One of their partner businesses also came on board as a sponsor of the show. The association was so pleased with the results they have decided to expand the role podcasts play in their marketing plans, including adding another show that they hope will appeal to the general membership.