Belgians are famous for their dining culture.

We are happy to live in a country where food is truly important.

To proof that no one will ever be able to change this, even when we are still living the strong post attack emotions, we called out to all Belgians to come and dine in one of Brussels’ 12.000 restaurants and share their support to the industry.

Fighting terror and economic downturn the Belgian way, became a fight without prayers or big words, but with knife and fork.

Sharing your support is very easy: after finishing your meal in a Brussels’ restaurant, make a peace-symbol on your plate with cutlery, tag the restaurant of your choice & and share the picture with hashtag #DiningForBrussels.

Belgian social feeds were not showing pretty food pictures as usual but a bold statement about the importance of continuing to go out and dine these days.

De Tijd and L’Echo are the key opinion leading newspapers in the Belgian economic world. The brand positioning ‘Always ahead’ demands an innovative but also very fast way of communicating. Within 24 hours after both news brands headlined the dramatic evolution of the Brussels restaurant industry, #DiningForBrussels was launched.

Tuesday 26th (1 month after the attacks) = editorial news about the fast declining Brussels’ hotel and restaurant industry.

Wednesday 27th

- Newspaper ad with call to action to participate in #DiningForBrussels

- Kick off campaign in social media by the editors in chief & journalists

- PR push of all communication in 1-on-1 pitching to key journalists of competitive media

Wednesday 27th until now

#DiningForBrussels is trending on all social media.

Support comes from different angles: competitive news brands, politicians, famous restaurant owners, national and international brands as Eurostar & Uber, Brussels lovers and foodies from all over the country.

Our campaign became nr 1 trending topic within the hour after the launch. On day one, we reached 1 out of 3 Belgians via social media and over 500 influencers changed their behaviour and shared their pictures.

The media value of our PR impact was 734.865 euros & bigger than the annual media budget of both news brands. Famous Belgians and restaurant ambassadors were invited to talk in other media.

Famous people and restaurant ambassadors talked about the problem in other media.

#DiningForBrussels was used as an example to launch other initiatives to boost the economy.

It was the starter of many discussions and opinion programs on radio and television.

Also politicians showed their support. The government increased the financial support for the suffering restaurant industry with 60 million euros. We can only hope that our action just before this decision helped to give a final push.

#DiningForBrussels created a positive movement to fight together for the Brussels’ restaurant business one month after the terrorist attacks of March 22nd. The movement was initiated by newspapers De Tijd & L’Echo and got picked up by the entire country within hours.

The campaign directly encouraged a massive number of Belgians to go dining in Brussels. By using our hashtag, they created awareness for the suffering restaurant industry. Thanks to the impactful campaign we managed to create real behavioral change, inspiring others to follow.

And by doing so, together, we are rebuilding Brussels’ image nationally and abroad.

De Tijd & L’Echo readers’ communities were our primary target. But as we wanted our campaign to spread as wide as possible and touch potential restaurant visitors in our country & abroad, we also contacted bloggers and Belgian influencers.

To kick off we focused our PR efforts on national press media. Which resulted in support for our campaign by other media. Also competing newspapers, who are normally not so eager to support us, talked about the action.

De Tijd and L’Echo started with a dedicated editorial and an advert in their newspapers and websites and their own journalists launched the campaign through their own social media. An email has been sent to politicians & captains of industry. Simultaneously, all Belgian media received a press release and we pitched the story more personally with some key journalists.

SITUATION:

Brussels is still recovering from the terrorist attacks of March 22nd. Terror threat level went up; the moral went down. The international press called Belgium a ‘failed state’. Tourists stayed away, and Belgians chose to avoid their infamous capital. One month later, the impact on Brussels’ economy was enormous and especially the restaurant industry was heavily impacted.

In April 2016 the number of bankruptcies increased from 40 (April 2015) to 600 (April 2016) and 50% of the Brussels’ restaurants are facing serious financial problems.

BRIEF:

Deliver proof of the engagement of Brussels based business newspapers De Tijd/L’Echo with the Belgian economy and Brussels’ based entrepreneurs. Not just by reporting the (sad) news, but by offering solutions to support the restaurant’s industry.

OBJECTIVES:

Create awareness for the suffering restaurant industry.

Engage people to support the Brussels economy.

Position De Tijd/L’Echo as an active partner of entrepreneurs & the Belgian economy.