Going out to eat is an extremely common past-​time in our culture, especially dining at fast-​casual restaurants. In his article, “Why TV should be part of your digital marketing strategy,” Kevin O’Reilly reveals the demographics of consumers who visited specific restaurant types over a three-​month period:

·         Fast-​Casual Restaurants: 56% of consumers (69% of millennials)
·         Casual-​Dining Restaurants: 71% of consumers (80% of millennials)
·         QSRs: 93% of consumers (96% of millennials)

Millennials continue to enjoy dining out, spending 44% of their food-​designated budget on this activity. So, what’s the best way for fast-​casual restaurants to reach these consumers in the digital age? The answer is TV.

“But isn’t TV a dying medium?” you ask. It may come as a surprise, but Americans still watch over four hours of TV daily. This even includes millennials, who consistently watch over 15 hours of TV a week, and that number only increases as they start families of their own.

Here’s why TV is the best fast casual dining medium: it not only drives traditional traffic, but digital as well. How does it accomplish this? 87% of TV viewers also have a second-​screen device within reaching distance while watching their favorite channels. So, viewers see a commercial for a restaurant they’re interested in, they grab their phone or laptop or tablet and they search. TV has driven increases in branded searches by up to 80%. The medium also results in app-​install uplifts of 56–74%.

If the viewer is searching for the restaurant using Siri or other AI-​intelligent tools, he’ll often add, “near me,” at the end of his inquiry. This type of engagement drives local foot traffic. Google findings report that 76% of local searches result in the searcher visiting one of their local locations within 24 hours of the search. When restaurant clients don’t feel like walking to the establishment, their search may prompt them to simply order online. Online ordering has skyrocketed, growing 300% quicker than dine-​in traffic since 2014, and is expected to become a $38 billion industry by 2020.

So, there you have it. When your clients advertise their fast-​casual dining establishment using TV ads, they get the best of so many worlds, including search and mobile. While fast-​casual dining may have been the primary example in this survey, this advertising strategy will deliver similar results for any type of business. Encourage your media clients to research the proper times to advertise different kinds of products and see how TV advertising can positively impact their foot traffic as well as their online presence.