The challenge 

For 25 years, The Real Greek has been serving up authentic Greek cuisine in the UK. Yet, while Greek food and culture have evolved, many people's perceptions remain stuck in the past – focused on ancient myths, plate smashing, and Zorba dances.

Our challenge was to break these outdated stereotypes and show the world that modern Greece is vibrant, exciting, and full of surprises, just like The Real Greek, alongside that we need to hero the new Christmas menu and drive footfall to the restaurants.

The solution 

Our solution to the challenge was to create an integrated campaign that questioned what it meant to really be Greek today, this would allow us to show that The Real Greek represented modern Greek culture, and have some fun around the misconceptions the British public had.

We kicked off the campaign with a tongue in cheek OOH campaign, placed in key locations around London close to The Real Greek restaurants. The posters used witty, pun-filled headlines like “Sue Vlaki or souvlaki?” and “Peter Bread or pita bread?”, and featured a QR code that offered participants a free souvlaki at their closest The Real Greek restaurant. Londoners went mental for it, and we gave away 10,000 souvlakis in one week.

We then used our OOH assets to launch a news story that looked at “What does it mean to be Greek today?” with research that revealed some funny gaps in Brits’ Greek knowledge. As part of the news story we created a digital quiz designed to test just how little people knew about contemporary Greek culture. Participants were rewarded with a free souvlaki — even those who didn’t score well — highlighting how much they needed to brush up on their knowledge of modern Greece.

To showcase the Christmas menu, we held an influencer and media launch in a central London The Real Greek restaurant. It gave them a chance to test out the new menu before anyone else and showed them that The Real Greek was not a restaurant stuck in the past, but one that embodied modern Greece. Influencers captured content that amplified the campaign across social platforms, while representatives from Mail Online, Metro, The Independent, Good Housekeeping, and What’s On in London helped the launch gain a reach of over 397,000.

To close out the campaign, we worked with influencers like Dine with Fari and Boop Foodie to share their reviews of the festive souvlaki, extending the reach and reinforcing The Real Greek’s mission to redefine modern Greek culture for Brits.

‍Results 

• 81 pieces of coverage across national news (online and print), regional press, marketing trades, money-saving platforms, and influential social media channels. 
• Estimated 134 million unique visitors, supported by a print circulation of 951,000 and total estimated coverage views of 745,000
• 102 attendees to the event including representatives from Mail Online, Metro, The Independent, Good Housekeeping, and What’s On in London
• Post-event, we had 63 pieces of social coverage from foodie bloggers, London influencers, and media outlets, with a combined following of 397,221