15 Mar Hugman’s Oasis One Year Case Study
About Hugman’s Oasis
Bar at Hugman’s Oasis in San Antonio, Texas
Hugman’s Oasis, located on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio is an authentic tiki bar featuring a rum-based cocktail menu & island inspired bites. The establishment has a unique flair that is rare to find in Texas; its entrance alone transports you to the South Pacific immersing you into a vibrant world of tropical drinks & l’aus. The tiki bar itself was designed by world renowned tiki bar designer, Bamboo Ben, who is responsible for transforming dozens of bars to tropical paradises. For more information about Hugman’s, please view their website and social media links provided below.
Hugman’s Oasis
135 E Commerce Street
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 441-7225
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok
Project
At the start of 2022, Hugman’s Oasis engaged Embark Marketing to help in increasing overall brand awareness and sales volume through social media. Being that the establishment is located in a high-volume tourist area in downtown San Antonio, the majority of their guests were passing travelers. While these guests did provide some sustenance for the business, the owner wanted to also appeal to those who lived within the city as well.
In an effort to achieve success, Embark Marketing sought to develop a social media strategy that included unique content creation that leveraged both photography & videography, social media management of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok, as well as social media ad management on Facebook & Instagram. Since reputation management is also a large factor for both SEO & customer acquisition, we also managed their reviews on Google and Yelp.
Finally, while not part of our original retainer, there were some elements of public relations we felt were necessary for the client to leverage, therefore we provided some press release services as part of their social media contract.
Social Media Management
Strategy
In order to revamp the brand’s social media, Embark Marketing focused on two social platforms: Facebook & Instagram. These platforms are beneficial to develop in the restaurant industry to reach the desired audience. With setting our goal to establish new engaging content with professional photography & videography that resonates with our target audience. Additionally, we established a digital ad strategy on all social media platforms to bring The Esquire Tavern back on the map.
Content Creation
When it came to Hugman’s Oasis social media, we felt it was important to match the brand’s look, voice, tone & feel inside the tiki bar with the digital presence so we put a heavy emphasis on developing new, engaging content through professional photography & videography that was consistent with the brand’s unique identity.
With a budget of $300 per month for content creation, we provided the following deliverables: 30 professional photos & ten :30 seconds (or less) vertical reels with music to be used across all platforms each month. When shooting, we utilized a content mix of food, drinks & atmosphere to develop a dynamic look for the social media platforms that represented the overall essence of the brand. For video audio, we utilized the bar’s tiki spotify playlist to inspire and mimic their sound in-house. The goal was to create a cohesive feeling between what the guest experienced online, and what they felt when they actually visited the bar.
Our posting schedule to Instagram focused on quality over quantity, posting only 3-4 times per week at optimal days & times, which were determined using our Sprout Social analytics tools. Every post was planned intentionally to focus on unique selling points, or USPs, of the brand such as its authentic tiki design, unique tropical cocktails, island bites, and special events. We have included in our supplemental documentations, three examples of viral video campaigns that were run on Instagram. Each of these videos were supported by an ad budget ranging from $120-$150 in ad dollars with the ad goals being for an increase in Instagram profile views, and video views.
Tiki Drinks at Hugman’s Oasis in San Antonio, Texas
Social Media
Our posting schedule to Facebook, Instagram & Twitter focused on quality over quantity, posting only 3-4 times per week at optimal days & times, which were determined using our Sprout Social analytics tools. Every post was planned intentionally to focus on unique selling points, or USPs, of the brand such as its authentic tiki design, unique tropical cocktails, island bites, and special events. For Facebook & Instagram, we posted to the stories daily, as we found many users were looking there for quick information for daily and weekly happenings. Finally, we incorporated the use of TikTok as the visual platform rose in popularity, posting to the medium 1-2 times per week when video content was published.
Over the past year, Instagram followers increased by 4,789 users which is an increase of 1,121% from the previous year. In addition, its Instagram engagements increased by 30,684 from the year prior by 164.7%.
What does this mean? Increasing followers & engagements helps with overall marketing by being able to expose your content to a targeted audience. It validates that the posts are being seen, it shows loyalty to the business, and it can show the improvement of the business.
Charts: Below is a graph that helps to visualize the growth of the Instagram account.
Over the past year, Hugman’s Facebook pages grew by 962 likes.
What does this mean? Increasing followers & engagements helps with overall marketing by being able to expose your content to a targeted audience. It validates that the posts are being seen, it shows loyalty to the business, and it can show the improvement of the business
.
Charts: Below is a graph that helps to visualize the growth of the Instagram account.
Over the past year, Twitter’s engagements increased by 458 and impressions by 8,840.
TIKTOK
After the rise of TikTok & frequent posting, Hugman’s Oasis increased in followers by 153 users with 453 likes. On average each video received over 300-400 views.
Below you can see which posts performed the best.
Reputation Management
In the food & beverage industry it is important to maintain a brand’s reputation online through review platforms such as Yelp, Google for Business & Facebook, as 94% of diners research a restaurant’s reviews online before going. Additionally, this is an important factor in a brand’s SEO score.
Hugman’s Oasis, being a high-volume restaurant for tourists & locals alike, receives reviews on their platforms nearly daily. Embark Marketing actively responds to both the positive and negative reviews in a timely manner in an effort to maintain a positive customer sentiment online. In 2022, the establishment ended the year with 4.2 stars on Facebook, 4 stars on Yelp, and a 4.3 rating on Google.
Public Relations
While public relations services were not included in Hugmans Oasis’s retainer contract, there were instances where we felt that a public relations effort was necessary & we provided this service as a way to increase brand awareness, and generate more backlinks for increased SEO.
Throughout 2022, we campaigned through social media for several local publication awards in which Hugman’s Oasis won third place in the San Antonio Current’s Best of the City Awards for Best Bar.
In an effort to help amplify Hugman’s Oasis brand awareness, when there was an introduction of a newsworthy menu item, Embark Marketing issued a press release. Examples of these campaigns include the introduction of to-go cocktails, and new food menu options. This outreach resulted in numerous press articles, opportunities for television segments, and visitation from many local San Antonio social media influencers.
In total, Hugman’s Oasis achieved 8 press articles across 6 media outlets in 2022.
Sales Analysis
In regards to revenue, in 2021 Hugman’s Oasis did $473,824 in gross sales, of which the majority of was alcohol sales. Towards the end of 2021, Hugman’s introduced a food program which featured a tropical-inspired bites menu. We believe the addition of a food menu helped to keep guests in-house longer, and add a small percentage to total sales (approx 3.5%).
In 2022, Hugman’s Oasis did $827,015 in gross sales, which was a 74.5% increase in total gross sales from the previous year. The trend continued with the majority of sales coming from alcohol, but food sales also saw a small spike contributing 6.5% of sales. While we acknowledge that this drastic increase in sales could have been caused by economic factors such as the rise in tourism to downtown San Antonio, post-pandemic – we feel that our approach on social media did help to increase brand awareness both among tourist looking for enticing places to go along the Riverwalk, as well as increase brand awareness within the San Antonio community, contributing to an overall increase in gross sales.
Want to see what we can do for your restaurant or bar? Get in contact with us today!