Leisure Property Strategy: The TikTok Effect
The TikTok Effect - and no we’re not talking about how long it takes to get some property lease deals to complete…
As Property Detectives and Leisure Property Acquisition Specialists, we are out and about networking with dozens of brands with a large social following every week.
By talking to the brands directly we are able to understand their target locations,help them to formulate a strategic plan of approach. and execute the plan by finding sites to propel their growth. The knowledge we have puts us in a unique place to know what the trends are and also what operators are looking for.
Of course, this will be dictated by their concept and style of service – a Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) with a relatively lower price-point relies on volume, and the best way to consistently achieve a high volume of customers is visibility, playing the numbers game to convert passers-by into sales. On the other hand, a Michelin-starred chef will likely be fully booked long in advance, and is therefore less reliant on walk-in trade.
The middle ground has always been operators trying to reconcile more affordable rents with the risk of lower footfall and weaker trade.
However things have changed. No longer is the hidden side street, at a fraction of the high-street rent, considered to be a ‘non-starter’. Social media’s viral potential, combined with the ubiquity of smartphones, means that investing in digital marketing can be the ‘secret sauce’ to making a destination site profitable.
All it takes is one video of an irresistible-looking cruffin (croissant x muffin – duh!) or the ASMR-inducing crunch of a piece of fried chicken, and you’ll be selling out of your day’s stock quicker than you can say ‘Binley Mega Chippy’(if you don’t know about what we’re talking about, erm Google it)
And if you make it into a superstar chef’s Hall of Fame on food Instagram and YouTube sensation TopJaw then, well, all bets are off.
What we are seeing increasingly is confidence from smaller brands to look at more secondary locations, taking advantage of lower rents, in the knowledge that by building a following online, they can attract customers to their sites. Most of us have got our heads down in Google Maps when we go anywhere, and the practical impact is that even restaurants or leisure brands that aren’t immediately visible to passing footfall can draw people around the corner to attract trade on the strength of their online presence.
Whichever route you take, if you're looking for a site, a well-connected property agent is essential. If you want to talk to one, click here.