Cutting Through in a Crowded Casual Dining Market

Launching a new concept in London is competitive at the best of times. Attention spans are short, customer loyalty is harder to earn, and relying on organic footfall alone is rarely enough to sustain momentum after opening.

Donny’s needed a joined-up launch strategy that would build awareness quickly while also putting the right systems in place behind the scenes. The goal wasn’t simply to create hype around opening week, but to build a brand capable of retaining customers and growing long after launch.

Alongside social content and paid campaigns, the business also required operational infrastructure including a CMS setup and loyalty programme integration that would allow the team to communicate with customers, capture first-party data and build repeat business from the outset.

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We supported the launch of Donny’s from both a brand and performance perspective.

On the front end, we developed and managed the social media rollout, establishing the tone, creative direction and launch content strategy across channels. The focus was on building early awareness, creating consistency around the brand and generating momentum ahead of opening.

Alongside organic activity, we launched and managed paid social campaigns designed to drive local reach, awareness and customer acquisition during the critical launch period. Creative testing, audience targeting and campaign optimisation were handled end to end to ensure spend translated into measurable footfall and engagement.

Behind the scenes, we implemented the digital infrastructure needed to support longer-term growth. This included setting up the backend CMS environment and building out a loyalty programme designed to encourage repeat visits, customer retention and ongoing audience ownership.

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