Leicester Restaurant Week

Background

Arch Creative partner with Cool As Leicester and FU Media to deliver the highly-successful joined-up campaign for Leicester Restaurant Week, funded by BID Leicester. Leicester Restaurant Week brings together the best restaurants in Leicester for a week’s celebration of all the amazing cuisines, dishes and dining experiences the city has to offer.

The Brief

The Leicester Restaurant Week campaign demonstrates the ability of our three businesses to work together seamlessly on projects that require extensive business liaison and content creation alongside a consumer facing brand, PR and advertising campaign. We were able to allocate work to the strengths of the project team whilst keeping a central point of contact for the client, moving from kick-off meeting to full event delivery in just 10 weeks.

From branding, through to launch PR, social media engagement, influencer marketing and advertising, we have proven results to deliver an annual campaign of the highest standard.

Design mock up showing front and back of the promotional flyer for 2024

Creative Concept

Creating instant event recognition

For the inaugural Restaurant Week in 2021, we needed to get as many customers excited and encouraged to come and try what Leicester has to offer. We created a strong brand for this event to set it up for many years of success.

We kept it simple, with the main headline as: Leicester Restaurant Week. Not only was this a proven method based on our research with similar events in other cities, it also made the new event quick and easy to understand for our target audiences. Graphic imagery of cutlery alongside quirky straplines and copy complemented with a bold colour palette brought life and personality to this campaign. Overall, the branding strategy helped to:

Maximise the impact of this first-time event
Engage the audiences quickly
Engage restaurants and encourage them to take part
Emphasise the breadth and depth of the restaurant offer in Leicester

Family walking past a digital ad screen showing a Leicester Restaurant Week ad, with the tagline 'Get ready to dig in'.

Our strategy

Growing a flagship city food event

Now in its sixth year, Leicester Restaurant Week has evolved into a long-running citywide campaign that continues to grow in ambition, reach and relevance. While the core structure remains the same – engaging businesses first, followed by a consumer-facing push to drive awareness and participation – the strategy has developed each year to reflect changing audience behaviours and emerging channels.

The Leicester Restaurant Week brand and website continue to act as the central hub for the campaign, hosting offers and enabling consumers to easily access and redeem vouchers. Alongside this, we manage the social channels and mailing list, producing consistent, engaging content that builds anticipation and sustains momentum throughout the campaign period.

Video content remains a key part of the storytelling approach, showcasing the diversity of participating venues and using high-quality food and hospitality imagery to build appetite and excitement. This is now further strengthened through influencer collaborations, with carefully selected creators acting as ambassadors for the campaign and helping to embed Leicester Restaurant Week within the wider food and drink community.

Paid social continues to play a structured role across three phases in building awareness, driving traffic to explore offers, and encouraging participation once live, and is supported by bespoke creative at each stage. This is complemented by a broader citywide rollout of physical marketing, including posters, window vinyls, A6 cards and strut cards distributed across venues and key locations.

Out of Home activity has also been a consistent part of the mix, with BT InLink placements and Toblerone displays in the city centre ensuring strong visibility during peak campaign timeframes.

3D Visuals of front and back tent card designs

Results

A recipe for success

Leicester Restaurant Week has gone from a brand-new city initiative to a well-established annual event that continues to grow year on year. Since launch, the campaign has consistently expanded in scale and impact, with increasing numbers of participating venues, a broader range of offers, and growing public engagement across the city.

Paid social has played a central role in driving awareness and participation by helping the campaign reach highly targeted audiences while building a loyal and engaged following across social and digital channels. Combined with PR activity and influencer collaborations, the campaign has generated significant regional and national visibility, positioning Leicester Restaurant Week as a major moment in the city’s cultural and hospitality calendar.

Audience and business feedback has remained overwhelmingly positive, with strong levels of satisfaction and repeat interest helping to sustain momentum each year. The campaign has also created a valuable platform for local restaurants and hospitality businesses, increasing footfall and strengthening Leicester’s reputation as a diverse food destination.

Related projects