Topgolf Fresh Food, Fun, and esports a Recipe for Success

Interactive participatory fresh food experiences filled with hand held food for immediate consumption continue to garner favor with consumers of all ages particularly Millennials in search of discovery according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®

When Topgolf announced a new partnership with esports company Super League Gaming, making it the latest chain to latch onto the rapidly growing market for competitive video gaming edifying its leadership position with foodservice interactive participatory branded relevance, the team at Foodservice Solutions® knew that incremental success was close at hand.

Topgolf will kick off its Super League Gaming event series this month in Las Vegas with Super League Clash Nights, which is based on the popular mobile game "Clash Royale." The partnerships comes on the heels of a partnership between Topgolf and electronics company TCL to create TCL esports lounges in certain Topgolf venues. The lounges will feature real-time gameplay broadcasts on TCL televisions, including live streams and video content from Twitch, YouTube and other digital platforms.

Matt Edelman, chief commercial officer for Super League Gaming stated “Topgolf has established one of the most impressive experiential brands in the world and recognizes that esports can be a significant additional growth engine for their business,”

How have your edified your brand with relevance?  Did you know that the average number of concurrent viewers of the video game viewing platform Twitch has more than doubled to 1.3 million over the past two years? Leagues have emerged around popular video games such as "Overwatch," "Fortnite," and "League of Legends." Top players can earn millions of dollars, and even traditional sports leagues such as the NBA have created their own leagues.

While restaurant chains have slowly dipped their toes into these waters as they’ve sought new ways to lure customers who are less likely to dine out than ever. Buffalo Wild Wings, for instance, features video games heavily in its new store design.

Topgolf is the latest entertainment destination to feature esports. The 52-unit concept calls itself a “sports entertainment community” that boasts a “fan base” of 100 million.  Topgolf’s multilayer complexes feature high-tech golf balls, gaming, climate-controlled hitting bays, events, music and handcrafted cocktails, as well as a menu featuring appetizers, flatbreads, sandwiches, burgers and a kids menu.

Johnson can’t remind food retailers of the value of strategic partnerships often enough since they are a proven platform driving top line sales and bottom-line profits. This relationship is an outstanding example how a brand can drive incremental adoption putting new electricity in your brand relevance.

Food retailers today must understand that relevance drive trial and adoption this new partnership with T-Mobile does that well.   Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing and esports.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.