“Yonder’s been very effective at introducing new guests to our restaurant, especially from further afield. Knowing they earn rewards makes guests feel comfortable pushing the boat out.”

Caravel in North London is run by brothers Fin and Lorcan Spiteri, who have worked at some of London’s best restaurants. Its distinctive feature? The restaurant is on a barge. They featured on Yonder in July 2023 and are coming back for more in July 2024.

"When can we come back on?"

Caravel was an interesting case for us. It’s a small 10 table restaurant; full most nights, and the average spend is decent. But, it’s tucked away on the canal in Angel, and its fans are all local to the area. Traditional restaurant marketing relies on PR, which is expensive and doesn’t guarantee bookings, or social media, which is time consuming and also doesn’t necessarily translate into bookings. So, Fin took an open-minded approach when Yonder came knocking. Read on to find out the surprising results.

The Numbers

Let's dig into it:

A new and effortless advertising platform

Running two restaurants and a bar doesn’t leave much time for Fin to invest in marketing and PR. And with Yonder, he doesn't have to.

“Unlike traditional marketing channels, Yonder isn’t using a spray and pray approach. They handpick 12 restaurants every month, and that’s all the members see. The restaurants are spread across the city, so they’re high quality, but they’re not in direct competition with Caravel. I don’t have to worry about pitching an angle for a story, or coming up with a new dish to fit into the narrative of the social content. But because it’s only 12 restaurants, members either want to come, or they don’t!”

For the campaign, Caravel was featured in-app, as well as in our monthly Experiences announcement email. This generated thousands of impressions during July 2023, but it doesn’t end there.

“40% of the spend came after the campaign ended. We didn’t pay commission on those so that was free marketing. That means the benefit outweighed the cost for sure.”

It’s not just about footfall, it’s about high-value customers

Getting customers through the door is important but so is the quality of the spend. Since Caravel wasn’t struggling with footfall, spend quality is what piqued Fin’s interest.

“Yonder’s members are like me - they like going out and doing stuff, and they’re happy to spend money on the things they enjoy. Eating out, is one of those things. And because they can use points, they’re more relaxed about getting that second bottle of wine, or having a dessert and a drink after dinner. It’s the little touches that make the guest experience better, but that also help the bottom line.”

All the way from SW6?!

We pride ourselves on our curation, and go out of our way to find neighbourhood gems that have stayed secret for too long. This means, our members are excited to tell their friends, because they got the inside track to a hot tip.

“We knew a lot of our customers, because they live down the road or around the corner. But we saw lots of new faces during the campaign, and I’d have a chat with a few of them, ask them how they heard about us, and they’d say it was through a friend who found us through Yonder. That’s a double whammy of free marketing. Until that person then got themselves a Yonder obviously!”

Not only were people telling their friends, but Caravel was getting visitors from further afield. Members were travelling from Fulham and Peckham, increasing the geographic reach of Caravel by 5km.

Looking forward to a Yonder-ful future

When catching up with Fin, he was delighted with the results and excited for the next campaign. He shared that he would “absolutely” recommend Yonder to friends in the industry after the value he saw from only one month on the platform.

“I get approached by 5-10 companies every day. Everyone’s trying to solve a problem for me that I didn’t know I had. But most of them are just in it for themselves. Yonder’s different. They’ve got a team that’s worked in restaurants before, who understand what’s hard about this industry. They don’t make my life harder, before making it easier; it’s just easy from the get-go, they drive real results, and they care about hospitality.”

Here’s what our members had to say:

“I discovered Caravel on Yonder, took my mum there and it was excellent! The atmosphere on the boat is lovely and intimate, and the service was great. The food was really good, especially the potato rosti and caviar, and they have some tasty natural wines (even mum enjoyed them!)” Hamish - Yonder Member

Still not sure? Give us a shout to chat more about how Yonder can help your business.

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