There’s no better time to celebrate Mexican culture and its incredible cuisine than Cinco de Mayo. May the 5th is an annual food, decorations, and festivity celebration. Event marketing is one of the best ideas for restaurants, too. So, coming up with some Cinco de Mayo ideas for restaurants is an amazing plan to promote business growth.
We’ll get stuck into an explanation of the roots of Cinco de Mayo in just a second. However, you must know that its celebrations stretch all over the USA, not just Mexico. In this guide, we’ll share how to have a fantastic time celebrating Cinco de Mayo and market your business simultaneously.
If you aren’t familiar with it, skip to the first section, and we’ll get you up to speed. For those familiar with Cinco de Mayo, jump straight into our “ideas” section. Cinco de Mayo, here we come.
What Is Cinco de Mayo?
Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration of Mexican history, marking victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla. The holiday occurs every year on May the 5th. On May 5th, 1862, Mexican forces won the Battle of Puebla, and it continues to symbolize the preservation of Mexican culture. People celebrate in their millions.
Typical festivities include colorful decorations and plenty of Mexican food, including hot sauces and traditional dishes. Interestingly, Cinco de Mayo is more of a big deal in America than in Mexico itself.
Mexico prioritizes Independence Day every September 16th, while America flaunts Cinco de Mayo as a bigger spectacle. You’ll find parades and nods to Mexican culture all over the USA on May 5th each year.
If you have a restaurant in the USA, chances are you’d benefit from a few Cinco de Mayo restaurant ideas. It’s a brilliant way to celebrate amongst American-Mexican communities and to connect better with your local customer demographic.
Bars, restaurants, and small businesses alike flock together to celebrate. Why shouldn’t you be one of them?
Marketing Benefits of Cinco de Mayo Events
Before we discuss ideas for celebrating Cinco de Mayo at your restaurant, let’s consider the benefits. Cinco de Mayo events aren’t just good fun and dramatically benefit your business. Perhaps you are already familiar with the benefits of event marketing, but if not, these top benefits should be enlightening.
1. Live Events Paint Your Brand As Fun
Restaurants are all about fun and indulgence. Running live events emphasizes your brand’s fun image. You’re encouraging people to let their hair down and get dopamine hits from laughing and enjoying themselves at your restaurant. If you’ve not looked into the psychology of positive associations before, now is your time to do so.
2. Events Get People Over the Threshold
The hardest part of marketing your business is getting people over the threshold. Running a Cinco de Mayo event gets people to visit who may not have otherwise. It gives people a reason to connect and take that jump.
3. Events Give You a Chance To Pounce
This might sound intense, but events allow you to be opportunistic in retention. You can use a captive portal system to collect attendees’ email addresses while offering free WiFi. You can also just get talking and build rapport, increasing brand awareness and familiarity.
Top 5 Cinco de Mayo Ideas for Restaurants
As you know, using a Cinco de Mayo promotion is a fantastic idea for your restaurant. In this section, we’ll introduce you to the leading ideas for Cinco de Mayo events.
Your restaurant can host all of these exciting festivities; better yet, you can take advantage of them. Pinch any of these ideas; the choice is yours when it comes to celebrating May 5th.
1. Cocktail Making
One way to celebrate is through a cocktail-making masterclass. Who doesn’t love cocktails? You can also offer mocktail alternatives for non-drinkers.
Mexican beer might be much-loved, but Mexican cocktails are iconic. Help attendees master the margarita, horchata, and Mexican martini. Blast some Mexican music in the background, and voila, you have a wonderful event idea.
You can hire a Mexican cocktail expert to run the experience, selling tickets beforehand for attendees. Alternatively, you may have a resident bartender who knows the ropes, making it a cheaper event to run.
2. Hold a Party
One of the best party ideas has a clue in the name. Why not hold a themed party? You can play games like trivia questions, have extravagant decorations, and blast Mexican songs. Cinco de Mayo is all about parties, so why not hold your own?
You could run a children’s or adult’s party or both. You could have a kids’ party during the day and transition to an adults’ party at night.
3. Hold Craft Sessions
Craft sessions are a wholesome way to celebrate Mexican culture in Cinco de Mayo. You could make sombreros and pinatas or decorate plain clothes in traditional colors. This is an excellent choice if you want to embrace a more creative event. Again, this can work for adults or kids; you just have to adjust the intensity of the crafts.
Of course, throughout the craft session, you’ll have free-flowing drinks and food from your restaurant. You could either include food and drink in the ticket price or make them available for additional purchase.
4. Host a Mariachi Band
Mariachi bands are one of the most traditional forms of Mexican music. They play a mixture of stringed instruments and trumpets and wear traditional attire. This music dates back to the 18th century, and you’ll find a mariachi band at most national holiday events.
You could hire a band to perform during lunch or evening service. Guests can listen to celebratory Mexican music while they dine, bringing a unique element to your dining experience. This is an excellent idea for anyone wanting to go down the ‘live entertainment’ route rather than running separate events.
Lastly, you could run a special menu. You could serve Mexican cuisine like tacos, chicken tamales, and mole poblano. There’s no better time to serve all the delicious, nostalgic classics to celebrate Mexico and its culture.
You can announce the special menu a month or so before to boost bookings. You could also run the special menu over a few days or a week. This way, customers can squeeze in celebratory bookings even if they already have Cinco de Mayo plans.
Beambox: How To Utilize WiFi for Cinco de Mayo Events
Remember how we talked about pouncing on attendees earlier? Utilizing WiFi for Cinco de Mayo events is a great way to convert attendees into loyal customers. You can offer guest WiFi with in-built captive portal software.
When customers go to join your WiFi, this system blocks immediate access. Instead, the system redirects customers to a different page, requiring them to complete a form to proceed.
You can ask customers for anything tactical on this page, like email addresses or Instagram engagement. It is a great way to keep the door open once it’s ajar from their attendance.
At Beambox, this strategy is our bread and butter. We know the importance of having conversion strategies you can rely on during fleeting events. You need to utilize those precious little moments; our all-in-one WiFi software does that for you.
Set up your portal with us and just focus on enjoying your event. We’ll be busy funneling all those valuable details into a handy database.
Start your Beambox free trial today and get set up in preparation for your Cinco de Mayo event. You’ll need a great conversion strategy with all your amazing Cinco de Mayo restaurant ideas.
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