This last weekend I got the chance to go to Las Vegas. A couple of days away with Julia was just what the doctor ordered. I had never been to Vegas before and had no idea what to expect.
I’ve seen it depicted in movies. I’ve heard stories from friends. I’ve seen it pop up on my FYP on TikTok half a dozen times. My expectations were all over the place.
One of the things we knew we were looking forward to was the food. This being our first time in Vegas, we wanted to hit all of the tourist spots. That meant a trip to the strip.
I’ve been a fan of Gordon Ramsay for years! As a former restaurant owner, I’ve enjoyed watching him fix failing restaurants, judge people on Masterchef, and call people idiot sandwiches on Hell’s Kitchen.
When Julia and I found out that his restaurant group had a Hell’s Kitchen experience on the Strip, we knew we had to try it.
The ambiance of the place was inviting.
The service was impeccable.
But the food…
The food was out of this world good. We ordered everything we could and it was all amazing. The star of the meal was Ramsay’s famous Beef Wellington. The server told us that they sold 700 of them a day! That’s over $50,000 in revenue a day from that one item alone.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The Wellington was great but it is kind of a weird item. A filet wrapped in prosciutto, mushroom duxelles, and a puff pastry.
As a former restaurant owner myself, I can tell you that people love to order familiar items. Remember that scene in Jon Favreu’s movie “Chef” where Chef Casper and the restaurant owner are arguing about what items to put on the menu before a big critic comes to visit. Chef wants to serve art and the owner wants to serve what will sell. People buy what they know and they don't love to try new things no matter what they may say to your face.
What is driving people to order 700 of these weird little wrapped beef balls a day?
Content Marketing.
Gordon Ramsay has been talking about this Beef Wellington on television for 20 years. That is old-school content marketing.
In fact, Las Vegas is full of examples of the power of content marketing. Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, and even Lisa Vanderpump have places in Vegas.
The world is full of amazing products and services now. Large supply chains and the internet have made that table stakes for being in business today.
If you want to stand out, you have to give people a story that doesn’t just involve the product you sell. You need a story. That is what great content marketing is all about. A story.
A story where your product is a character going on an adventure with other characters in your business.
How do you film it? Something as simple as an iPhone and iMovie.
How do you distribute it? YouTube has created a world where we can all have our own TV shows, no matter the industry we are in.
I can hear you saying it now. "Fine Chandler. We could make a show about our business but our business is boring. No one will want to see what we have going on."
Pawn Stars is just people selling their old junk.
Counts Customs is just people fixing old cars.
Fixer Upper is just people fixing old house.
The Profit is just one guy fixing old businesses.
Gold Rush is just a bunch of guys digging up old dirt.
*This is a small fraction of what is out there. This doesn't even include popular YouTube and social media accounts that already exist! I have a reality TV problem and I could go on but I won’t.
The point is, that if you are creative enough, patient enough, and persistent enough you can create a marketing engine that is more powerful than anything else in the world. Don't believe me? Schedule a call with me and I'll help you get an idea to get started.
My business partner, Ben Tonak, already showed us the power of content marketing a few weeks back and here we are with another example.
I believe in the power of content marketing so much that I gave an hour-long keynote talking about how we can use it to grow our businesses.
If you need help creating content in your business, schedule a discovery call with me. I’d love to hear what business you are in and discover what stories we could tell about your business.