 and welcome to Restaurants Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii. I am your host, Cheryl Matsuoka, the Executive Director of Hawaii Restaurant Association. And twice a month, we discuss important and timely topics centered around the Hawaii food service industry. So today I'd like to give my guests an opportunity to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about them. So first, hey Ed, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about the company you're with. So Ed Chung, I'm General Manager of Hager-on Media Group. In short, we are a food service digital marketing agency that helps businesses grow their sales by leveraging technology, creative design, and sensible marketing strategies that work with most budgets. Hager-on Media Group is part of the Hager-on Corporation, which is a billion dollar company that operates a fully diversified portfolio of businesses ranging from media companies to hotels and even casinos and golf courses. We are part of the, as part of the media group, we focus on digital marketing and operate in four states, Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Hawaii. We have a centralized production center in Idaho with a team of SEO experts, programmers, content writers, and graphic design departments. Here in Hawaii, Robin Kennedy, these are digital marketing efforts and has done a tremendous job by helping our clients increase their sales. It's also noteworthy to know that the Hawaii division also publishes this week magazine, which is picked up millions of visitors each year. Our work and experience in the visitor market has great synergy with our digital marketing services because we know how to reach a transient market that is only physically present in Hawaii for an average of seven to 10 days. And that's what we do. Thank you, Ed. And now, Robin, could you please introduce yourself? Here, hi, you guys. Thanks so much for having me. My name is Robin Kennedy. I'm the vice president of Haggadon Media Group. My sole purpose originally, when I was hired by Clint Schroeder, which many of your listeners or followers, I'm sure we'll know. He hired me almost seven years ago to come in and really kick in a digital marketing division. We knew based on my years and years of experience, I've been in Hawaii 22 years, so the majority of my time has been in media. So TV, radio, print, you know, 12 years at Paycom, servicing any customers looking to work for the military. It was there that we got excited about digital. We saw technology that the military was using to specifically target individuals at the street level. So we put our names in the hat and told the community we were looking to do some different digital than some of the other strategists were doing and Haggadon picked us up and we've been happily here ever since. So seven years, we are basically a full service agency, but we focus mostly on digital strategies for our clients. Yes, and Robin has a wealth of knowledge in this area. Robin and I have known each other for how many years, Robin? 22. At least, girl. Back on TV and radio. Yeah, yeah. We're happy to have you on the show. Thank you so much. Yes, and Mike Palmer. Hey, Mike. Why don't you introduce yourself? Yes, I'm Mike Palmer, owner and managing partner of Ho'okipa Partners, a hospitality management consulting firm, and we are currently operating the Kuhio Avenue Food Hall in the heart of Waikiki International Marketplace. I, too, have been in Hawaii for 22 years, originally from California. And so we have a lot in common right there. Right, awesome. Thank you so much. Today, we're talking about digital marketing for restaurants and businesses. So the name of the show is Digital Marketing 101 for restaurants and businesses. And as everyone knows, right, the power of digital marketing. Today, we're going to talk about how you can target your customers with the power of geofencing and geotargeting technology. And Ed and Robin are going to demystify that whole digital marketing industry and how you can use it for your advantage. Geofencing can work as a multi-channel marketing strategy and can even help you with your social media presence. More specifically, geotargeting allows you to set targeting criteria while inside a defined location radius. So today, we're going to be discussing it in detail. So this is a really great opportunity for businesses who understand that to drive your brand awareness and to drive traffic, you need to have this tool of digital marketing in your marketing toolbox. So let's start talking about it. So I'm going to first start off with Robin. So how do you help businesses increase sales and awareness in general? Well, basically, we've created here a very conversion-oriented business strategy. So we start with all of our customers, regardless of the restaurants or doctors, lawyers, whatever kind of business with a discovery call. We truly try to pinpoint exactly what it is that the advertiser is trying to accomplish. So not a big fan of branding. I mean, it's always great. Let's say it's a new restaurant and nobody has any idea that they're there. We'll spend a little bit of the budget branding just large amounts of people getting everybody aware. But at the end of the day, especially with COVID and all the things that have gone on in our market and worldwide, frankly, there's not everybody has these billion-dollar ad budgets anymore. So again, we specifically have separated ourselves from the pack and that we're really about targeted conversion traffic. So finding out who that specific customer is, geo-fencing that you shared, there's a lot of different strategies within that geo-fenced strategy, but you can typically geo-fenced. Our tech has the ability to come within 18 inches of a building. So you can geo-fenced specific buildings, not waste impressions on people that are not your customer or we can also curate lists or let's say a restaurant has a rewards program, they have a CRM full of their customers. We can take that file, upload it into our technology and we can serve specific ads to those people at the household level. They can cross the way, smash. So there's all kinds of amazing opportunity but what we typically do first and foremost is find out what the client's conversion strategy is, what are they trying to accomplish? And then we build all of our campaigns and what technology we're gonna use digitally based on their goals. Cool, oh my goodness Robin, that sounds like a lot. So that's great. Mike, so what's your experience with today's digital marketing capabilities and how's it helped your restaurant? Well, actually, if it wasn't for geo-tracking and geo-fencing, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today. I've got a pretty interesting story about it. So back when I first joined, actually it used to be called the street food hall by Michael Mina. My first day on the job I was told that it was very large possibility it was gonna be shut down in about three months unless we could figure out how to turn the place around. So I did whatever I could to increase sales and cut costs and things and try to make it a viable business. What happened in about, I'd say a six month period it's got a happy ending to the story. So the mall actually did a geo-tracking survey of where the customers were going when they entered the mall either CaliCala or Cahuillo Avenue. What that survey showed them was that we were the most highly trafficked spot in their entire mall. So now it really swung the pendulum from, oh, we gotta shut this place down and lease it out to someone else to, oh my gosh, we can't do without this place. This is what's bringing people to our mall. So they realized we're more of an anchor than say Saks Fifth Avenue, bless their soul. Yeah, with five whole people in there. Yeah, yeah. But they realized that people were coming to see us and then dispersed throughout the mall after visiting us or before visiting us. So their attitude about the food hall changed significantly after that. And so I'm a huge fan of what those capabilities do. Geofencing is definitely cutting the edge. Every year I think more and more people are getting on board with geofencing and how they can capture customers, whether it's within 500 feet of their space, a few blocks, a couple miles. The technology is really cutting edge. And I think a lot of restaurant owners don't know about the possibilities with geo-tracking and how you can increase your business and drive people into your restaurant by utilizing it. But I'm a big fan. Nice, thank you, Mike. Thank you so much. So we, our restaurant industry is not only restaurants. Sorry, our food service industry is not only restaurants. We have bakeries, coffee shops, farmers, distributors, produce suppliers. So what's really important is the talk about social media, social media, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. So what's the difference between social media marketing and social media posting and boosting, Robin? There's a difference, right? There is a difference. Thank you so much for asking that question because I feel like it gets missed. I'm not sure I might give you experience that, but the posting and boosting, and I truly appreciate people that pay us to do that for them. I haven't ever been a huge fan as a marketer. I'm not that big excited about people paying me to post because my personal opinion is that nobody's gonna find your Facebook page. I mean, when I'm trying to figure out a restaurant, I'm not going to Facebook to search, restaurants near me, right? So posting and boosting is great when you are doing your lifestyle, you're communicating things that are going on, maybe daily specials, et cetera. But at the end of the day, you're talking to your friends, your friends' friends, very specific relationship with the people that like or follow your pages. The Facebook marketing gives us the ability to get out of that seven degrees of Kevin Bacon thing where it's all people you know. And you move on to marketing into people's new speeds that are your potential customers. So let's say you're a fine dining restaurant, you're not gonna wanna be reaching an 18-year-old or even a 25-year-old that's talking about whatever happened at Waimea Bay this weekend. You want to be able to target people that are your customer that have, basically it's targeted like potential customers versus friends and family. I guess that's the best way to do it. We have the ability to target potential customers. Your own Facebook feed, boosting and posting is very limited. So the marketing has a way better ability to target more people. That totally makes sense, totally. So Mike, moving forward, how will digital marketing capabilities change your overall marketing strategy over at Cahill Avenue Food Hall? Well, I think digital marketing is really where it's at nowadays. Print is obviously, I think all the media companies that had print like Haggadon are moving more to digital. Although this week is a great publication that's probably one of the most recognized ones with tourists and Waikiki. But most print media now they have an online element with their website or their Instagram or whatever. I personally haven't utilized Facebook yet. It's definitely in my plan to start driving business into our restaurant. Instagram I have utilized, but like Robin said, you're only as strong as how many followers you have. So if you're posting stuff on Instagram, you're not reaching a huge audience unless you have a huge following and then they're sharing it and things like that. What we have done is teamed up with them all and we have social media influencer events. So what's great is when you bring the influencers into your restaurant, they then advertise for you and they've got eight, nine, 15,000 followers, whatever it may be. And that has been really helpful. I mean, I can give you instances where we had an event and it's not my Instagram page that's blown up, it's theirs that features us kind of thing. And then they tag or collaborate with us. So I think there's a lot of benefit to that. But again, to Robin's point, it's about your followers. And if you don't have enough followers, your impact of putting a blast out there is only reaching a limited audience. So I'm interested to learn more about the Facebook thing. Website, I think it's absolutely critical that you have a great website because I can use Google Analytics or whatever and see how many people visit the website. And what was fascinating to me is once we got our website up and running to see what percentage of those viewers are looking at it from their phone versus a computer and the numbers are mind-boggling. It's like over 80%, sometimes 90% are browsing on their phone, not from a computer. So that gives me another idea of your audience and what they're doing, they're mobile, they're moving around, they're walking around, which again, ties into the geo-tracking, right? Very interesting. So Robin, what's the difference between programmatic, display strategy and other display strategies? Well, I was gonna turn this over to Ed, but because we're- Okay, go for it. It's okay, I mean, bottom line is this, since the day I started doing digital, I was like, why do we have to name everything? But programmatic, it's like acronyms with the military, right? Programmatic is that is, sorry, Ed, he's, I'm looking at, go ahead, Ed, you go for it, have it, Ed. Well, I mean, to just keep it simple, it basically just focuses your display dollars and makes it most efficient delivery to your targeted audience. It's not like you're trying to shoot a shotgun out there and then blast anything that you hope you hit something. Programmatic focuses on behavior and tendencies of the user on the internet. And we're targeting those people that specifically align with your goals and your strategies. And so, we're making the best use of your advertising dollars in that regard. We're not wasting any impression. And that's as simple as I can put it, right? Right, and basically the programmatic are the platforms that we're using to optimize and target more focused. Display strategy is the type of ad, right? So the display are the picture ads that follow you around. So programmatic is the entirety of whatever strategies we're using and platforms within the tech and the display is the type of ad you're serving. So, yay. Good job. Thank you for explaining that. That's something I can probably go back and listen to again. So as you know, the Hawaii Restaurant Association, we have restaurants that are fast food, quick service restaurants, family dining, fine dining, the large chain restaurants. We also have, of course, the bakeries and the coffee shops, all the other types of organizations. We even have hotels that have restaurants. So is there a difference in strategies for restaurants that compete in all the different categories? Is that for me? That's for Robin or Ed. Okay. Ed had his chance, I'm just kidding. No, Ed's really with the CFO. So he's done an amazing job catching up. Trust me, he's great. Yeah. Wait, tell me again the... Oh, if we're talking because we could do many... Oh, different types of... Right. Right, fast food. Yeah, so all strategies starts with the clients strategy. I mean, honestly, every campaign is based on what the client is hoping to achieve, what kind of budget they have. So I am a big fan of not going in with asking for huge budgets initially because there's a lot of data and a lot of opportunity in those first few weeks to really garner some really great information about how the campaign can be optimized and move forward. So basically we start with getting a good understanding of what they're trying to accomplish. And then we talk about budget. And I'm like, look, you guys need to sit down, really focus and decide how much you can afford to spend initially until we have the opportunity to prove ourselves. So we go in with a minimum spend. We talk about what they're trying to accomplish. Is it butts and seats? Is it order online? Is it join our rewards program? So whatever your type of restaurant is trying to accomplish, we base the strategy on that opportunity as well as a budget. So if they have a smaller budget, you'd probably get one platform as the budget increases we made add additional because there can be pay-per-click as well as display. The display strategy alone has four or five tactics, right? Geofencing, conversion zones, contextual keyword search. So there's a lot that goes into each different type of campaign. So depending on the budget is how we will decide how many platforms and how to move forward. So there's room for every budget, but I can tell you the more you spend, the faster it comes. I'm not sure if Mike can attest to that, but definitively the more opportunity. And then Mike, I'm not sure if you use conversion zone strategies with your tech, but our technology has the capability to serve ads to people in specific locations, but then also track them offline back to Mike's area, back to his, I still call it, sorry, eat the street. I was there for the opening. I went to so many parties, but that whole venue is amazing. So we can track how many people we've served ads to outside and then track them back offline into the business with a conversion zone. So that same type of geofence is drawn around the business that we can tell them, hey, we served an ad to your competitor over at home on a center food court, and they came three days later over to your venue. So we track who we serve ads to coming to the venue offline after. So that's really cool. Some people think it's creepy, but I totally dig it because we can prove what we're doing work. So I love that. So yeah, if there's an opportunity there with your tech to do the conversion zone, I would encourage everyone to use it. That's awesome Robin. And today's discussion is all about smarter marketing, utilizing digital marketing. So before we, we've only got another five minutes. So before we close the show, Ed, do you have anything else that you wanna say before we close the show about digital marketing? No, it just works. And from what I've seen and our clients, they typically start with a smaller budget, but once we start proving ourselves and they can see the results and we can show to them, typically we see our clients wanting to increase their budgets and it just happens over and over again. And Robin's done a great tremendous job in guiding the clients along and helping them achieve their goals. This is the basic of that. No, you're right. Robin is awesome. We've known each other like 22 years and he knows her stuff. So Robin, as we talk, close the show about digital marketing, is there anything else you wanna say as we close the show? No, I just would encourage people to like anything shop around, talk to everyone. I mean, there's a lot of agencies and businesses dabbling in digital, but you gotta find the people that actually focus full time so that they have a good understanding of exactly what your needs are and what platforms to use to get the results that you guys are hoping for. So yeah, we're here for all of you. I'm grateful to all of you guys for having us and we're here to answer any questions, free consultations always. Happy to look at people's current strategies. We're one big family. I mean, HRA's family, HLTA, all of these organizations come together to support businesses and we're here from Hagenon to help you guys in any way we can. Very nice. And Mike, you have the experience and have seen the success come from digital marketing. Is there anything you would like to say before we close the show? Yeah, I would just encourage any entrepreneurs or restaurant owners out there that are considering because it is hard to choose where you're gonna spend your marketing budget. And I would say you wanna spend probably the majority of it in digital marketing would be my personal recommendation. Every location's different, but I think the best advantage at digital marketing is you can actually track the results. With a lot of other media out there, it's really hard other than maybe coupons that are physical and come in and you tear off and they're a pain to deal with and monitor digital marketing, you can see how many people visit the platform you're using. You can, if you take it to the next level like Robin and Ed spoke to, you can track them coming into your place of business and knowing if they came from the food court at Alamwana to international marketplace. If you take it to that extent, as creepy as that may be. As a business owner, it's amazing to be able to get those kind of statistics and see that money I spent worked and it paid off. So I think that is probably the greatest thing about digital marketing is it can be measured and you can see if it works, if it doesn't, you can change your strategy to something else, but it is the way of the future and I think anybody that isn't using it needs to seriously consider partnering with Haggadon or like, I love it, shop around, look at restaurants out there that you admire that you like, look at what they're using and what companies they may partner with because there's a lot of restaurants that do a really good job at it and then there's a lot that don't use it at all and there's a lot in between. So I think definitely do your homework. The HRA is a great way to network and talk to other business owners about what they do. So that's what I'd recommend, shop around but definitely get on board with it. Thank you, Mike. So Ed, if a business wants to get started, what is the best way to get started? I think we've scheduled a meeting, do a discovery call with Robin and I think we just call from there because everyone's situation is just a little bit different and their goals may be different. And we asked a lot of questions. We really try to understand the business before we even come up with a solution. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. So viewers, members, if you're interested in learning more, your next step is to contact Haggadon Media Group. Their information is on the Hawaii Restaurant Association website or you can contact me. Again, my name is Cheryl Matsuoka, the executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. I'd like to thank all of my guests today. And again, the Hawaii Restaurant Association is the voice of Hawaii's restaurant and food service industry. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.