Back to the Restaurant, TheFork’s biggest international campaign

A portentous international campaign to invite guests to dine out once again. TheFork, the online booking leading platform is behind Back to the Restaurant, the biggest communication campaign created in collaboration with important players in the restaurant industry, including Identità Golose.

Basically, from the 17th of September to the 17th of November, all of the establishments that are partners of TheFork, in Italy and abroad – over 10K in 22 countries – will offer discounts up to 50%. In our country, 3K restaurants have already joined the project. The discounts will only be valid on reservations made through the app and from the TheFork website until the available discounted places are sold out.

On top of the important discount and the communication campaign on the media, they are also defining some further offers which will be gradually communicated to the users of the app, so as to invite them to dine out once again. The goal: support clients and patrons of the entire industry, which was hit hard and is still far from the pre-covid 19 numbers.

S.Pellegrino and Guida Michelin are also partners of TheFork’s huge campaign 

A new, significant project which comes after some other praiseworthy activities launched during the pandemic, all to support delivery and Save Our Restaurants, the campaign to sell dining bonds, which generated some 1.5 million euros in 11 countries. A commitment similar to that of partner S. Pellegrino, the promoter of the #SupportRestaurants movement, which has already made over 1 million euros available to Italian restaurants as free products.

The Michelin Guideis another famous partner of this Back to the Restaurant project: in the same period, the Red Guide will offer "Michelin Specials", exclusive menus that can be reserved through the websites and apps of TheFork and the Michelin Guide including meetings, guided tours of wineries, tastings and much more.

To better understand the campaign, we had a chat with Almir Ambeskovic, European manager and board member of TheFork, who gave us a preview:

How was Back to the Restaurant born?
At first, we were devastated by the emergency. As soon as we recovered, we realised how dramatic the moment was: TheFork could not exist without restaurants. So we immediately organised some brain storming sessions, even with our partners. The goal was to try to give life to projects that would be truly useful not just for the single restaurant, but also for the entire restaurant industry. And which could make an impact.

Almir Ambeskovic, European manager and board member of TheFork

What did you think?
We tried to answer a question: how will restaurants open again after the summer? It was clear the most evident issue would be a reduced number of clients. So we decided to dedicate 10 million euros and to promote discounts in restaurants, a collective operation that will have people dine out once again. The format has already been tested: in other periods, discounts gave positive results.

Such as?
In our cautious estimates, the campaign could increase reservations up to four times during the project, and by 50% in the following months, compared to restaurants that are not participating. But I believe the numbers will be even larger. We are happy to be able to move 6 million clients and 10K restaurants around the world [The Fork is available in 22 countries] 

Your partners include S.Pellegrino and Michelin.
We’re perfectly aligned because in the end we have the same final goal: save the restaurant industry, a huge heritage for our country, and for other countries too.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso