A fresh approach for new-look
Below Decks

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The Challenge

A well-established family owned restaurant located on Beacon Quay in Torquay, Devon, Below Decks was refurbished and expanded early in 2022. This mainstay of Torbay hospitality has the ambition to fulfill their committment to the local population, and create a community of devoted local customers. The new owner, Gregory Shadbolt, wanted to weave Below Decks into the day-to-day lives of local customers.

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The Approach

To achieve this ambition, Treat carried out depth interviews with key stakeholders, and developed customer personas to help inform style and design choices. The hashtage #LiveTheBDLife underpinned Below Decks as a lifestyle, with food and drink on offer morning, noon and night.

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Campaign components

Press Releases

Video marketing

Instagram reels

Photography

Stories campaign

Targeted Facebook ads

Facebook events

Influencer marketing

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Marketing tactics that perform

The marketing reach for the opening weekend exceeded a quarter-million people.

Press releases

Video marketing was featured in the press article, and is running on the big screens in the restaurant.

Instagram Reels

The most popular Facebook reel resulted in over 340K views.

Photography

Photography featured the "Faces of Below Decks" creating a warm, welcoming community feel and assurances that existing team members stayed on despite new ownership.

Stories

The Baywatch stories campaign provided a weather report, tide times and ferry information every morning, all summer long, and resulted in daily engagement from local customers.

Facebook Ads

Targeted Facebook ads featured live music, Sunday roasts and the new seasonal menus.

Facebook Events

Facebook events are run for every special menu item and every live music event.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing with local food and lifestyle bloggers extended the reach of content, and resulted in 75K views on Instagram.

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Set up for business success

Below Decks saw a major boost in visibility due to the successful implementation of their social media and PR campaign. Within weeks of launch, their followers had grown substantially on all platforms and plenty of positive press had been generated around the restaurant’s offerings. In less than 12 months, the social media reach doubled on their target channel (Facebook) with up to 71% engagement. As a result of this effective digital marketing strategy, Below Decks is now one of Torbay's most popular restaurants—proof that strategic marketing and promotion can truly make an impact.

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What our partners say:

Flow Motion Studios in Torquay provided video marketing support for this campaign. 

They said:

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"Video production is becoming one of the leading forms of content marketing in the new age of TikTok and Instagram reels. With this in mind, Lyn from Treat Marketing
( our favourite marketing agency! ) reached out and gave us the brief for the Below Decks launch party. With high profile guests and the public on site, we had one chance to capture everything exactly to the brief.

Capturing the vibe
Our team of two videographers and photographers helped to bring Treat & Below Decks vision to life. We focused on the feeling of being at Below Decks, showcasing the lifestyle and culture of this super busy restaurant bistro.

Same day rush
With special guest Kevin Foster MP cutting the ribbon for the opening of the restaurant, it was incredibly important that we captured this and was able to edit a video for the “Devon Live” online magazine to publish the same day  - a huge PR win.

Effortless repurposing
The photography of the event was used to make a billboard for Below Decks in Torquay where the images we captured communicate the atmosphere of the restaurant and sun terrace. Having used our super high resolution cameras, scaling these images up to billboard sizes was effortless. 

With the full marketing video following shortly afterwards, we were able to create visual content for the restaurant to use for the months ahead, on social media and on site on their large screens. 

Thank you Lyn from Treat Marketing and the Below Decks team for bringing us onboard for this project."

Hugh Murthwaite, Founder and Creative Director of Flow Motion Studios in Torquay.