How Goiko Grill Used Influencers to Attract Customers to its Restaurant
In Spain, if you hear teques, Frozen Goiko or Kevin Bacon, surely only one thing comes to mind: Goiko Grill. This restaurant chain has an unusual origin story. It was founded by Andoni Goicoechea, a young doctor from Venezuela who was living in Madrid and saw the opportunity to open a burger restaurant.
As Goicoechea didn’t have many contacts in Madrid, he turned to social media, and influencers, to help him spread the word of his new business venture.
Origins of Goiko’s marketing
Goicoechea’s sister Daniela, who had some previous experience in marketing, took on the challenge of setting up a “word of mouth 2.0” strategy for her brother’s new restaurant. The marketing department involved 6 people with a bare budget who were counting on, above all, creating attractive and innovative content.
The team curated each of its social networks with carefully constructed language, using a friendly and casual tone, and making sure to include two-way communication in its online strategy. They also recruited foodie influencers to be spokespeople of sorts for the new business.
Goiko’s influencer strategy
Goiko approached influencer marketing in a direct and personalized way: Know who is who, what they eat, where they eat, and what they like. At first, the company relied on foodie influencers, inviting them to live the Goiko experience.
These influencers later organically reviewed the brand and its food on their social media profiles. As word got out, influencers from other categories like beauty, lifestyle, and fitness started to show interest. After all, who doesn’t love a good burger?
Since the beginning, Goiko has relied on organic influencer marketing, meaning that none of the influencers get paid to visit or publish content about the restaurant. This means that influencers could feel free to be entirely truthful in their posts.
And this strategy worked. Goiko attracted customers and retained them. In 2018, the brand made it into the top 10 retail brands in Spain. Their Instagram profile has also been steadily gaining followers since 2017.
In June 2017, they had just 50K followers, and two years later, they managed to reach 400K. Additionally, we can tell this is organic follower growth, as we don’t see any drastic spikes or dips. This means people are genuinely interested in Goiko and its content.
In-house social media content
In addition to working with influencers, the brand is very active maintaining its own social media profiles. On Instagram, for example, about 90% of Goiko’s posts are photos of their products, with some other content ideas mixed in.
They do giveaways, invitations to openings, and even the Goiko Games, a two-day event in which all the brand’s employees come together for some fun team-building. During these two days, the brand broadcasts everything on Instagram so their followers can also feel included in what’s going on.
This last idea is particularly important for instilling a good impression of the brand in its followers. In addition to seeing picture-perfect hamburgers on the brand’s social feed, followers see that the brand cares about its employees, from executives to waiters to cooks.
Update: Where are they now?
Goiko has continued to grow since we originally wrote this case study. The brand now has locations in over 30 Spanish cities. And their Instagram has attracted another 100K followers since the end of 2019. We can see they enjoyed a noticeable bump in followers in early March 2020.
By comparison, larger e-commerces like Amazon and AliExpress post 1.7 and 10 times per week, respectively. So clearly, ASOS is digging into its Instagram strategy more than some other famous e-commerce platforms.
How do you maintain that fast-paced posting rhythm, especially during a pandemic, when you may not have the same creative resources you’re used to? In ASOS’ case, by relying on content created by fans, followers and influencers.
This is most likely due to a March 6th giveaway the brand hosted in partnership with StubHub España for a voucher to buy concert or festival tickets of the winner's choosing. Despite being unfortunately timed with respect to the Covid-19 lockdown, the post gained new followers for Goiko. It also shows that despite the brand's growth, they are still committed to the same tactics they used to first propel their social media strategy.
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