The brief
Samurai is a new Chinese restaurant in Islamabad. A new restaurant has one job on social media before anything else: make enough people in the city know it exists, then give them a reason to come in. The proposal I wrote for them covered paid social across Facebook and Instagram, with content updates and account reviews twice a week.
What I did
Led with creators, not the brand account. The biggest campaign ran influencer content as ads, because a local food creator eating at a new place is more convincing than a restaurant talking about itself. It was judged on completed views rather than reach, so the budget followed the videos people actually watched.
Built the Instagram following alongside. A traffic campaign sent people to the Instagram profile, so the people who discovered Samurai through the ads could keep seeing the menu and offers without paying for each impression again.
Offers on a calendar. A 20% off campaign, a bowl deal and two general awareness pushes were spaced through the summer and autumn so there was always a reason to visit, and each was kept tight to Islamabad.
Results
The influencer campaign delivered 242,601 ThruPlays at Rs0.79 and reached 799,086 people. The Instagram campaign produced 36,031 profile visits at Rs3.09. The offer and awareness campaigns reached between 303,314 and 487,121 people each, at Rs84.57 to Rs113.61 per thousand.
In short
Creator content for attention, Instagram for the following, and a steady run of offers to turn both into visits, all in the restaurant's first months.