PALETTE 22 DC: INFLUENCER MARKETING

CASE STUDY | SOCIAL MEDIA

Expanding Brunch Visibility Through Influencer Marketing

CLIENT

Palette 22, DC

INITIATIVE

Expanding Brunch Visibility Through Influencer Marketing

INDUSTRY

Restaurant

date

Q3 2024

OBJECTIVE

Palette 22 DC, a newly opened restaurant, aimed to build brand awareness, drive reservations for its brunch service, and leverage influencer content to enhance social proof and engagement on Instagram. With the restaurant being new to the local dining scene, establishing visibility and credibility among potential guests was a top priority. By partnering with local food and lifestyle influencers, the campaign focused on reaching key target audiences, showcasing the brunch experience, and encouraging authentic content sharing to increase both online engagement and in-restaurant visits.

Person in floral corset and jeans sitting on red couch with colorful artwork and pillows.
A group of women sitting around a dining table indoors, holding colorful drinks, smiling, and posing for the camera. The table is set with food and drinks, and there is art on the walls in the background.
Assorted plated dishes on a table including pancakes with berries and cream, fried potatoes, salsa, and salads, with textured purple glasses and hashtag stickers referring to Palette 22 DC.
Person in a colorful dress posing in front of three vibrant, abstract paintings of gorillas in a modern restaurant setting.

APPROACH

  • Influencer Selection + Partnerships:

    Partnered with 10+ DC-based influencers known for high engagement and strong credibility within the food and lifestyle community to ensure content resonated with the target audience.

  • Exclusive Brunch Experience:

    Hosted a curated influencer brunch, allowing creators to experience the menu firsthand in a visually appealing setting designed to encourage organic content creation and sharing.

  • Content Creation + User-Generated Content (UGC):

    Created highly shareable moments throughout the dining experience to maximize usergenerated content, including Instagram stories, posts, and reels that highlighted both the menu and ambiance.

  • Content Amplification + Engagement:

    Engaged with influencer posts by resharing content on Palette 22’s Instagram account, responding to audience interactions, and fostering ongoing conversations to extend the campaign’s reach beyond the event.

Modern restaurant interior with open kitchen, bar seating, and colorful artwork on the walls.

RESULTS

The influencer brunch campaign delivered strong results, exceeding industry benchmarks and achieving the primary objectives of increasing brand awareness, driving brunch reservations, and enhancing social proof on Instagram:

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

14% FOLLOWER increase

Instagram Following Growth: Increased followers by more than 14% during the campaign period, surpassing the DC restaurant market average growth rate of 3-5%.

Key Demographics

Understanding Our Audience: Successfully reached a predominantly female audience (nearly 70%), with key age groups including 25-34 (33%) and 18-24 (20%), aligning with the restaurant’s target millennial and Gen Z market.

Social media performance dashboard showing metrics like total audience, authentic audience percentage, total views, engagements, likes, comments, interactions, and estimated reach. Includes a graph depicting engagements growth over time.

MEDIA METRICS

1.7K total engagements

Engagement + Interactions: Secured over 1,700 total engagements, resulting in an engagement rate of approximately 5.6% - nearly double the typical benchmark for restaurant influencer collaborations (2-3%).

140K REACHED

Audience Reach + Views: Reached an audience of approximately 140K, with influencer-generated content earning more than 30,000 views across posts and stories.

key takeaways

  • Influencer Marketing Effectively Drives Brand Awareness + Engagement:

    Partnering with local, well-aligned food and lifestyle influencers significantly increased brand visibility, resulting in notable Instagram follower growth and reach that surpassed regional benchmarks.

  • Visual + Experiential Elements Enhance Content Shareability:

    Providing an aesthetically pleasing and immersive dining experience encouraged the creation of high-quality user-generated content (UGC), which can be repurposed for future marketing efforts and extended the campaign’s reach beyond the event.

  • Targeted Approach Reached The Right Demographic:

    The campaign successfully engaged younger, experience-driven diners, aligning with the target millennial and Gen Z audience and helped to establish a strong local presence in a competitive market.

Conclusion

The influencer brunch campaign for Palette 22 DC successfully achieved its objectives of increasing brand awareness, driving engagement, and reaching the target millennial and Gen Z audience. By creating an immersive, shareable dining experience and partnering with local influencers, the campaign outperformed industry benchmarks for follower growth and engagement.

This strategic approach provides a replicable model for future restaurant openings seeking to build local visibility through content-driven influencer partnerships.

Pancakes topped with berry compote, blueberries, raspberries, and whipped cream on a decorative plate.