Steak 48

by

Steak 48

public relations

Market: Hospitality

We were tasked by our client Steak 48, owned by Prime Steak Concepts, to do community and public relations to integrate themselves into the Charlotte community and to endear them to nonprofits (and their high-net-worth donors) when they opened their doors in December 2020. Since 2021 was a difficult year to plan large events, we targeted an early spring 2022 event for a splashy buyout event targeting a nonprofit that would get people’s attention. We offered it to Greg Olsen, the Fox Sports NFL analyst for his foundation, The HEARTest Yard, which raises funds for at-home nursing care for children with congenital heart defects and surgeries. Olsen took us up on the generous offer and we were off to the races.

The HEARTest Yard Ungala 2022 was Steak 48 Charlotte’s first-ever buyout event. The event was completely underwritten by Steak 48, providing the entire restaurant, staff, food and drinks, therefore 100% of sponsorships, ticket sales and donations from the event went to the charity. Our goal was to build as much buzz as possible for the event while also focusing on the philanthropic efforts of Steak 48.

TARGET AUDIENCE

We focused our PR efforts on the Charlotte metro area, but also with a push for both regional and national audiences targeting high-level, affluent spenders. Our goals for the Ungala were to gain expansive media exposure across local, regional and national outlets, and strengthen brand awareness for Steak 48 in the Charlotte market.

CHALLENGE & APPROACH

A big challenge we faced was securing coverage that featured the restaurant itself and highlighted Steak 48, not just about Greg Olsen and commentary about the Panthers (his former NFL team). For our PR strategy, we took a three-prong pitching approach for this event: a media day featuring sit down interviews Greg and Kara Olsen as well as Steak 48 Chief Brand Officer Oliver Badgio, specific pitching for the red carpet and celebrity interviews at the event and post-event pitching the professional photos as well as the results of the event.

We were able to execute a successful media day, landing 10 different media outlets to attend, including a national outlet. At the event, we invited TV crews to come back to capture the red carpet arrivals. Our red carpet and post-event strategy included pitching to 25 media outlets.

over a 2-month period

 

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pieces of coverage

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total audience

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total views

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media outlets at media day

RESULTS

Along with selling out the event, we ended up with a lengthy waitlist which helped build more buzz for the 2023 event and enabled us to raise both ticket and sponsorship prices to raise more money for the HEARTest Yard Foundation which ended up helping fund in-home nursing care for 60 heart families.

Along with our targeted outlets, the event coverage went viral resulting in more coverage than just the media that we targeted for an incredible conversion rate. Over the two-month period, we secured 43 pieces of coverage on the local, regional and national level with a total audience of 957 million and 1.37 million views.

On the client side, they saw an immediate uptick in reservations and a 2- to 3-month wait for reservations became regular. They finished their year over double digits % above their revenue goal, has become the top grossing restaurant in Charlotte and earned a spot on Open Table Top 100 Restaurants in the country. It has become the top place to spot NFL and NASCAR drivers dining out in the city.