Rock & Brews - A Lesson in Creative Thinking

When I was growing up, I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but there was a moment I realized the power of marketing and public relations—how creative ideas can convince people to spend their hard-earned dollars on a product or experience. I’ve always tried to find unique concepts that capture attention in a noisy and competitive field. This, in the case of this story, leads us back to Rock & Brews Restaurants…

It was toward the end of 2021, and we brainstormed ideas for promotions while developing our roadmap and calendar for 2022. Could we do more concerts in the restaurants? What about celeb collabs? All good starts, but they felt a little worn out. When I start working on developing ideas for PR stunts, campaigns, or even social copy, I look for easy idea starters. National days that align with the brand are usually an excellent baseline to spark my creativity by simply matching “A” to “B.”

National Margarita Day?
Can’t—Jimmy Buffett owns restaurants and resorts and basically owns anything margarita-related.

National Rock & Roll Day?
Yeah, we could, but because it’s so generic, it didn’t feel like it would really make an impact.

But… wait a sec...

National Tattoo Day. July 17.

What’s more rock 'n roll than tattoos—the true art of rebelling against society? That is rock n’ roll! So, before my next meeting with my boss and CEO, I hatched a plan I honestly didn’t expect to get approved. However, I believed in it, and I had to prove how we could incorporate tattoos into a restaurant.

With some quick digging into health codes and swiftly building a proposal, I came up with the idea to collaborate with tattoo shops that had, as of this writing, a mobile tattoo truck.
We would set them up in the parking lot of our most-visited restaurants on National Tattoo Day, offering a special deal: enjoy a beer for a penny if you got inked from the pre-approved flash tattoo list. When I said “tattoos in the parking lot,” there was a sharp: “Nope! No way. There’s no way we can do it.”

This could have either fallen dead in the water right then and there, or I could have stood up, professionally stated my case, and shown my work. (Remember when your teachers made you show your work on math problems? I think this is why they taught that…)

I asked to continue, saying I had it figured out. He obliged, and I laid it out:

• Avoid cross-contamination through the proper distancing of trucks from dining tables.

• No one can drink before their tattoo (ink first, beer second).

• Employees could not get inked while serving but were welcome to do so after their shift.

• Ensure we could source the right amount of power to run the trucks.

• Ensure adequate parking was zoned for guests.

• Tattoos were first-come, first serve. If a line incurred, each bus would use text updates to move the line along efficiently.

The rest would be on our bar staff to serve up cold pints of penny beers.

WE didn’t leave the lil’ rockers out! We had temporary tattoos so the kids could rock out too!

After detailing everything and demonstrating that it was entirely feasible logistically, it came down to cost—and that’s when I caught the CEO off guard.

He expected we’d have to pay minimums to the trucks. However, in conversations, I successfully negotiated a trade proposition: Since this was a first-year concept for all of us, why not simplify it? Tattoo trucks keep the profit from the ink, we take the profit from food and drink sales, and everyone wins through cross-promotion across collective social media channels and email threads.

He signed off with: "This is your project. It lives or dies with you. Let’s see it live." And live it did.

This experience taught me a few valuable lessons:

1) Stand up for what you believe in—but come prepared.
Get in the leadership mindset and consider every angle from which they might say “no.” Find ways to counter it so your work is watertight. This will help bolster your case and demonstrate your ability to think creatively and logistically, ultimately making their job a bit easier.

2) Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
It’s so easy to pitch something safe that you know will get approved. Be bold. What other restaurant would have done this? Few, if any. Shaking up the brand and finding ways to freshen up the year’s work breeds excitement. It also creates a great talking point when “How did you get that tattoo?” is often asked. Now every time one of those flash tattoos is talked about, the answer is: "I got it at Rock & Brews on National Tattoo Day.” Because of that, it continues to generate word-of-mouth exposure well after the event concluded.

At the end of the day, the stunt was a success. Many guests throughout the day received fresh ink and a refreshing beer, and a boss who made my day with: "Congrats, you kept it alive, and it lived. Now plan for next year.”