Sign Up for Summer 2024 Howard County Restaurant Weeks
August 12 - August 25, 2024
How Restaurant Weeks Works:
Howard County Restaurant Weeks is an exciting culinary event that allows local restaurants to showcase their best dishes through a specially curated 3-course menu or combination of dishes. The menu should include an appetizer, entree, and dessert, all designed to highlight the unique flavors and offerings of your establishment. Some restaurants join to highlight their regular menu and get a sense of what brings new visitors in to enjoy their restaurants. These Restaurant Weeks menus can be enjoyed individually or shared with friends, co-workers, or family.
Creating Your Restaurant Weeks Menu:
- Structure: Craft a 3-course menu following the format of an appetizer, entree, dessert and possible craft beverages, or decide on a special combination of dishes that uniquely represent your offerings that you will present on a special, limited-time, two week menu to be shared exclusively for the duration of this campaign. Participating with a special menu helps build excitement for this campaign. This special menu is what customers will be looking for when they visit during Restaurant Weeks, but you are welcome to sign up without a special menu and get a sense what items your customers are interested in ordering.
- Printable Material: Design your menu using the provided Howard County Restaurant Weeks logo, ensuring it's suitable for printing on paper. You can also post your limited-time menu to your website and social media, making sure to tag our accounts.
- Dining Deals: We encourage offering special dining deals to attract more patrons. Restaurant Weeks started as a time when customers could experience a more expensive restaurant than they could usually visit, at a lower cost. Since they may still be looking for a special deal, if you can offer one, it builds excitement for this campaign.
- Family-Friendly Options: Keep your menu family-friendly, allowing families to split two or three menus to sample your best summer dishes.
Additional Opportunities
For those interested in having our team take photos or inviting influencers to sample your Restaurant Weeks menu ahead of time, or donating gift cards for our advertisements, please check out Marketing Opportunities. We provide fantastic opportunities to generate buzz and attract more diners to your establishment during the event.
If you are an influencer or journalist interested in visiting during Howard County Restaurant Weeks & Craft Beverages, please fill out this form.
Timeline after Signing Up:
- Marketing Team: Get your restaurant's marketing team on board.
- Menu Discussion: Discuss the Restaurant Weeks & Craft Beverages menu with your chef.
- Finalizing Menu: Finalize your menu 1-2 weeks prior to Restaurant Weeks.
- CRM Upload: Upload the menu on the CRM system 1-2 weeks prior to Restaurant Weeks.
- Printing Menus: Print menus to have at your restaurant.
- Promotion: Set out Restaurant Weeks postcards/flyers in your restaurant 1 week before the event.
- Staff Briefing: Inform your staff of how Restaurant Weeks works when it begins.
- Social Media Strategy: Determine your social media strategy, post on Instagram stories, Facebook, and Instagram feed. Tag our account and collaborate for a shared reel.
- Feedback: Provide feedback to Visit Howard County after the event.
Howard County Restaurant Weeks is about bringing the community together and enhancing your restaurant's visibility through our advertising and public relations efforts. Thank you for being a part of this exciting event, and we look forward to showcasing the best of Howard County's culinary scene together!
Fee
Participation in Howard County Restaurant Weeks & Craft Beverages involves being a Visit Howard County Member ($50 annually) and a nominal participation fee (more information to come).
Contact: Denisa@howardcountytourism.com with any questions or assistance.
Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you!
After submitting this form you will be directed to the payment page. Your registration is not complete until payment has been received.
(Please contact Denisa@howardcountytourism.com if paying by check.)
Who is participating? Click Here to see!
New Tiered Participation Fee for 2024
- Tier 1 - $2.5 mil or more annual revenue: $200
- Tier 2 - $2.5 mil to $1 mil annual revenue: $150
- Tier 3 - $1 mil or lower annual revenue: $100
Why Charge a Fee?
- Offset $50,000 annual advertising investment
- Offset cost of thousands of hours of staff time
- Ensure restaurants are committed
What do Restaurants Receive?
- Dedicated listing on RW homepage - restaurants typically receive 1000-5000 visits to their RW listing
- Social media shoutout
- Press opportunities
- Wrap-up report
- Opportunity to provide feedback
- Point of purchase kit including: outdoor banner, window poster, postcards to distribute with orders pre-event, digital creative assets
