|
 THE CLIENT
EM>BAR>GO is a bustling euro-trendy cafe by day and an intimate, fine dining restaurant by night and is undoubtedly one of Hamilton's premier eating establishments. The name EM>BAR>GO is derived from the journalistic heritage of the building, the same structure that proudly housed The New Zealand Herald for 25 years. In journalistic speak, if a story is considered too controversial, unsubstantiated or insupportable, it is prohibitively stamped with the word "embargo" and will not go to print. This newspaper legacy is the inspiration behind the artistic use of newsprint throughout its interior design and website branding.
THE TASK
EM>BAR>GO commissioned Create Online to create a unique website to be used primarily as a marketing tool; to solicit opt-in newsletter subscribers to the email marketing database and provide potential and existing customers with up-to-date information on upcoming monthly events, news, menus, cellarmaster lists, and winemaker notes. Another major requirement was to enable visitors to place online reservations via the website and/or email campaigns. All responses for each email campaign had to be automatically calculated and displayed. The website had to be designed to be maintained in-house by restaurant staff on a regular basis so that new information could be added and event information modified on a 2-week basis to keep up-to-date.
An Email Marketing solution was also required to handle the automatic subscription and unsubscription of newsletter subscribers, management of multiple email marketing lists and the creation and deployment of HTML and plain text based email newsletters.
THE CHALLENGE
Hamilton has the second highest amount of restaurants per capita in New Zealand and competition is fierce; in fact we lost count of the amount of restaurants that started up and shut down in the short amount of time that we created the EM>BAR>GO website. With this in mind, the website needed to be dynamic and interesting to give EM>BAR>GO a competitive advantage. The stylish, artistic nature of the brand needed to be portrayed online to create a synergy with visitors. The website also needed to complement all other marketing and promotional material.
THE SOLUTION
The solution that was proposed and accepted was to integrate the new website into the Evolo Content Management System to enable the website to be updated and expanded and to incorporate a Newsletter Management System (plug-in module) to take care of email marketing campaigns. The result is a visually impressive, database-driven website that continues to get strong results and impressive email marketing response rates. | 
