Downtown Dining Association of South Bend Has Generated Almost Half a Million Dollars in Revenue for Local Restaurants – Here’s How

Background

Downtown Dining Association of South Bend is a partner of Downtown South Bend, Inc. Jessica Bamber, the Director of Events and Strategic Partnerships for Downtown South Bend, Inc. shared, “We're part of their advisory council, and we're their financial arm, so we do all of their bookkeeping for them.” 

The Downtown Dining Association is set up as their own nonprofit organization, though, and is focused specifically on helping local restaurants. A big part of that initiative involves a series of events, including restaurant weeks, wine walks throughout the summer, and two newer signature events: Tacos and Tequila in April and Mactoberfest in October. Each of the wine walks and signature events include food and beverage pairings at a variety of restaurants in South Bend’s vibrant and charming downtown area.

Lisa Farrell, the owner of Think Marketing, was a part of the original team that developed those initiatives. She has helped execute successful restaurant weeks and wine walks for years. As a savvy marketer, though, she saw a need to not only add more events, but also make them more user-friendly for participating businesses and attendees. 

She explained, “We were looking for a service that would allow us to sell a pass or a ticket and basically take that experience digital for all of our trail goers or wine walkers. On top of that, we need a way to allow some flexibility to customize for different types of events and different types of passes that we wanted to use, and have something that had good back-end tracking.”

After doing some research, she came across a case study somebody had published on Bandwango helping out another city with a taco event. It was completely different from their current taco event, but she felt it would be a good fit. In 2023, Downtown Dining Association of South Bend joined forces with Bandwango and started using the company’s event ticketing platform for their wine walks.

It’s been a wonderful partnership, and Farrell said,

“I cannot say enough good things about the team at Bandwango. They're very responsive and they've been wonderful.”

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The Importance of Data and Tracking for Events 

“I think anytime you can add a technology element to an event, especially for tracking purposes, it is so helpful,” said Bamber. “It’s important that nothing falls through the cracks on the data, numbers, or the people that have come through the event.”  Moving to Bandwango has been a game-changer and has allowed them access to a plethora of reporting data. “We have a good tracking system now, which I like.” 

Prior to their partnership with Bandwango, the organization split the profits between each of the participating restaurants evenly. Each restaurant made the same amount of money, regardless of how many people visited the establishment during the event. With better tracking came another perk, too. Farrell explained, “The back-end tracking ability for our events is just a wonderful asset with Bandwango, because it allows us to track individual redemptions at each location, and we can then pay our restaurants out appropriately and accurately.” Since some restaurants are more visited than others, and are distributing more food and wine, the organization wanted to be fair about how much each business was reimbursed. 

She said, “We wanted to better our system of payment to accurately pay out how much food and drink was being served at each location.” With Bandwango’s ability to track actual redemptions at each location, it allowed them to easily see the user’s individual tasting journey, and view how many visits each restaurant had. While that was great, there was another benefit that came from that as well. “It's also wonderful that now we have this reporting structure we can refer to. Restaurants now know how much food and drink to prepare for, so we have much less waste in the restaurants as well,” said Farrell. “It's a win-win for everybody and it’s been a success all around.”

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The Leaderboard: Utilizing New Technology to Reach Their Goals

Downtown Dining Association of South Bend is also excited that the platform has allowed them to be nimble and incorporate Bandwango’s new features into their experience. One in particular has been especially beneficial for them: in-pass voting. 

“Bandwango's been really great about making changes to provide us with solutions for what we're looking for, and it's really just been a great addition,” Farrell said.  

The organization has incorporated voting into the Tacos and Tequila and Mactoberfest events. Event attendees vote within their pass to choose their favorite spots. For example, during the Taco and Tequila event, they have the ability to choose their favorite tequila cocktail, favorite taco, and favorite pairing. The winning restaurants receive plaques to display in their restaurants, and the organization promotes their win through social media. 

Farrell said the competition helps take the events to another level. “The restaurants get very competitive and get excited,” she said. “It makes it fun.” 

There is one particular aspect of the voting platform that she really loves, explaining, “People can go in and change their votes as they go on the walk, so that's been really great. If they go to one place and they're like, ‘This is it’, and then three steps down the road, they're like, ‘No, this is it,’ they can go in and change their vote – and people do.”

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Defining Success

“Success for me is a well-organized, sold-out event where people are enjoying themselves in a great environment, and having a great experience that reflects best on all of our restaurants and our downtown area,” shared Farrell. “We also want to give people an incentive and a reason to come back and visit our restaurants in our downtown area.”

So has it been a success? “Absolutely,” she said. “And I definitely will say Bandwango has been a part of that success. Just from helping us maintain those sales, giving people an organized way to check in. It just brings everything full circle to make it seem like a cohesive, enjoyable, organized, next-level event.”

Bamber added another measurement of success from her point-of-view, saying, “On the bookkeeping side, the fact that the reporting dashboard pulls in so much, and that we're able to reimburse the restaurants for their efforts is a win-win for them.”

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Results

Downtown Dining Association of South Bend has seen success based on their measurements. Local restaurants have embraced the events as a valuable new revenue stream. Since Bandwango has started working with the organization, they’ve made almost half a million dollars. 

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By the numbers: 

• $440,778.70 in revenue 

• 8,092 tickets sold 

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Another Added Bonus: An Increase in Membership

In order to participate in the events, restaurants have to be a member of the Downtown Dining Association of South Bend. The organization has seen an increase in membership, and attributes that to the successful events. “Working as a team, Bandwango included since they’re a big part of our operations, the events have been successful – and restaurants want to be involved,” said Farrell. “There’s a desire for new restaurants wanting to become a part of our association.” 

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Downtown Dining Association of South Bend’s Five Tips for Success 

Downtown Dining Association of South Bend has unlocked the key to engaging food pairing events that show an impact for their community. They’ve found a way to financially help their locally-owned restaurants, and they’ve shared a few of their tips for success. 

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Communicate With Your Restaurants 

“Everybody’s busy, and when you have a variety of locally owned restaurants, people are wearing so many different hats. Just try to assist them and make the process easier for them,“ explained Farrell. “I try to visit all of the restaurants and the owners as often as possible. On top of that, I'm texting and communicating with restaurants on a daily basis.”

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Keep Trying and Adjust As Needed 

"We started out with the Wine Walks and Restaurant Weeks, and since then we just keep perfecting it every year, making little changes and little tweaks,” Farrell said. “We have taken things slowly and added on only what we think the restaurants can handle in a good way, and it's worked out really well.”

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Create a Committee

Bamber and Farrell said that teamwork is an important part of their success. “We are so lucky and are surrounded by some very special restaurant owners, and operations gurus, as well as a really special executive committee, and all of the people who are on our executive committee are just great individuals who care about the community,” Farrell said. “We have bi-monthly meetings for all of our members. Our executive committee meets once every two to three weeks.”

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Challenge Your Restaurants and Promote Voting 

They are happy with the success of the competitions they’ve created, and the in-pass voting has been a fun addition. They’ve also strategically taken it a step further to make sure attendees are aware of the voting platform. Farrell said, “We put out yard signs in front of all of our restaurants that encourage people to vote. We also communicate with the restaurants, and remind them to tell everyone to vote.” 

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Find Other Compelling Ways to Use Your Bandwango Partnership 

Downtown Dining Association of South Bend has not only created more events, but they’ve also worked with the University of Notre Dame to create a Downtown South Bend Student Dining Pass. “It grew very quickly, and now it's offered to all of our colleges in our area,” said Farrell. To date, over 5,000 students have signed up for the pass that offers them discounts at local restaurants. The pass also offers students the opportunity to win prizes on a quarterly basis. “That’s been a great addition too," said Farrell. 

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Conclusion

“I truly think Bandwango is one of a kind, and just a perfect fit for us,” shared Farrell. “If there's somebody else out there looking for something like this, I would 100% encourage a conversation. I'm a big advocate of Bandwango, and I'm very appreciative of the service that they've offered us.” 

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If you’re looking for ways to help local businesses in your area, we encourage you to book a demo with our team to learn more.  

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