Bar and restaurant owners are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Paris Olympic Games, which begin this Friday (26). The event is an opportunity for food-away-from-home businesses to adopt strategies to attract more customers to watch the events.
Watching sports broadcasts in bars and restaurants has a positive impact on many venues. One example is a survey conducted by Abrasel in 2022 on the sector's revenue expectations for the Qatar World Cup.
At the time, compared with a normal week, revenue grew 30% on days when Brazil played. With Paris — the city hosting the Olympics — 5 hours ahead of Brasília time, the events will take place between 3 a.m. and 6 p.m.
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The Olympics can attract more customers to bars and restaurants
In the delicate scenario the sector finds itself in — an Abrasel survey showed that almost two thirds of businesses (64%) made no profit in May — the Olympics can be used as a strategy to draw the public in to follow the games at bars and restaurants.
“The Olympics usually bring more traffic to bars, especially those that already broadcast other sporting events,” says Jorge Mendes, owner of Bar DuWiFi in Natal/RN. “Broadcasting the Olympic events increases traffic at the venue, and this year I believe it could be around 10% higher than on a regular day,” he adds.
For André Carvalho, of the bar O Concorrente in Brasília, the expectation is mainly around team sports. According to him, sports like volleyball have greater appeal for bringing more customers into the venue than individual events.
“An ordinary Tuesday with an important volleyball match, for example, becomes a different kind of day. You can even double your revenue for these big events. With individual sports, the competitions are very quick, so they don't draw many people,” he says.
In a reality where many business owners are operating at a loss, events like the Olympics can bring plenty of customers to bars and restaurants, including on weekdays. One important strategy owners can adopt is to use the best promotion tools to bring consumers into venues on game days. However, there are other actions worth considering:
“The Olympic Games offer an excellent opportunity for bars and restaurants to attract more customers and increase their revenue. To do that, it's essential to adopt effective engagement strategies. But you have to be careful not to use official symbols without authorization, just as with the World Cup, because that can bring headaches,” explains José Eduardo Camargo, Content lead at Abrasel.
“Promotion on social media is also crucial: announcing game times, special deals and themed events can attract a bigger crowd. Another idea is to offer special menus or promotions during the competitions, encouraging customers to stay on site,” Camargo concludes.
