We’re not suggesting that a clever promotion or a new event is going to solve any trading challenges facing the industry. But over winter we’re sharing a series of ideas, observations and examples that hospitality businesses may – or may not – have tried to attract customers and create reasons for them to come back. Some will be practical, some a little unconventional, and some may simply spark something with you.

In this article, we’re looking at the weather to drive your winter marketing promos…

We’re well into the guts of winter now, and the weather’s doing a lot of the talking for you already — some days a bit gray / grim, some days a surprise burst of sun, most days just… winter. Rather than letting the forecast dictate a quiet day, what if it dictated your best day?

The idea’s simple: build a small bank of offers that switch on based on what’s happening outside, rather than running to a fixed schedule. And it’s not just about miserable weather — a sunny lunch special deserves as much fun as a foggy morning one. What it’s really about is giving your team and customers something fun to look forward to, and content that writes itself because it’s happening in real time.

Here’s a starter for ten – a name bank to play with

Giving each offer a proper name is what makes this fun rather than just functional — customers start looking out for “their” day, and staff get behind it too. What you create to associate with each offer is totally up to you.

• Brolly Wednesday — rain-triggered, a small addition to a coffee or breakfast perhaps?
• Frosty Friday — a hot drink special tied to the morning’s actual temperature
• Fog Cutter — for the grey, can’t-see-past-the-letterbox mornings we’ve had plenty of lately
• Grey Day Grub — the catch-all for a flat, nothing-happening sky
• Solar Special — reward for the bright winter days, aimed at people wanting an excuse to get outside
• Sun’s Out, Buns Out — a bit cheeky, very shareable on socials, food-agnostic enough but could lend itself to a burger special, or cabinet / roll / sandwich
• Windy Wildcard — a themed drink, use a cheeky “hold onto your hat” post
• Mystery Mercury — pricing tied to the day’s actual temperature, e.g. the number on the thermometer comes off the price

Swap in local flavour where it fits — a “Fog Cutter” in one region could easily become something with more local character elsewhere.

Executing the campaign with a buzz

An idea like this is relatively easy to implement, but here are a few suggestions to help make it stick:

• Run it as a defined campaign, not an open-ended commitment. A four-week winter push gives it a clear start and end, so it doesn’t quietly become an expectation forever (unless you want it to).
• Pick a frequency you can actually hold to. One triggered offer a week is plenty to start — add more if you wanted once the team’s comfortable with how it works. Reliably doing one beats promising five and delivering two.
• Brief the whole team up front. Part of the value here is that it is a bit of a morale boost in the flat winter stretch — if the front-of-house team helped pick the names, or the team get to “trigger” the offer, they’ll enjoy it and sell it naturally.
• Keep a simple shared list of which offer fires on which weather, so nobody’s reinventing it from scratch each shift.

This is an idea that you could pull together with minimal additional effort and gives your socials something genuinely different to post — and a reason for people to check in. In the middle of winter, a bit of daftness that has your team looking forward to a Foggy Friday is worth something in itself.

Check out our other Out of the Box articles:

• Out of the Box: What if your business felt more like a club?
• Out of the Box: What if the calendar became your creative partner?