#hannahhuke

Hannah Huke is the marketing guru behind The Briar Group, a Boston company consisting of 11 local restaurants and the events they hold (Boston Event Solutions). As Marketing Director, Hannah has plenty on her plate with each restaurant and their individual marketing needs. Scoopr Media was fortunate enough to hear more about her day to day, the content she creates and the success she has found in digital marketing.

  Briefly tell me about yourself.

I manage the marketing for the Brair Group, which includes 11 restaurants throughout Boston. We also have an event planning company called Boston Event Solutions. I have an MBA in Marketing from Northeastern University. While at was at Northeastern I did my co-op with Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women in Boston, which is an upscale chain of women’s only fitness centers. I was the marketing Director with them from 2008 til 2010. I was a bartender for about seven years and a server before that. I have a very extensive history with the restaurant industry.

    What does your role as marketing director consist of? I imagine it’s different with each restaurant of the Briar Group.

Yes, it definitely is. We, like other marketers today, are really into creating a lot of content. Depending on the restaurant, we do a lot with social media and email marketing and video. We just opened our newest restaurants, Gather and Brew, so marketing is very involved in the development of those, such as design, logo, branding, etc. We do very little traditional advertising; we instead do a lot online. We’re also responsible for the graphic design. We do all the point of sale pieces in the restaurant as well as the menu design. Pretty much anything you can think of that’s marketing related, we do in-house.

  In your time with Brair Group, what are you most proud of?

Gather – it was the first restaurant in which I had a direct role in opening. The opening involved establishing the concept, choosing design elements with Hacin + Associates (the architects), assisting with the menu design and logo creation, as well as creating the social media voice. It’s been open for five months, and has been well received in the market.

    What are some challenges you come across in your position?

Marketing is changing so quickly so we’re just trying to keep up with everything. If a company comes out with something, we need to stay up to date on that. We always need to know, “What’s the next thing going to be?”

Also, we rely on the managers a lot and they’re of course busy in the restaurants so it’s tough to catch them as they’re putting out their own fires. That’s a big challenge, as well.

    It looks like the Brair Group did a lot for the community after the Boston Bombings almost a year ago. What was it like to be able to help the community after and during such a terrible time?

As tragic as the events were, it was nice to see how it brought people together. We had a lot of staff step up and come forward right afterwards. They all wanted to help. We were able to do what we’re best at and help people at the same time. Putting on events and helping people was a natural fit for us. It was great to give the staff the opportunity to do that as well.

  The biggest event we did was Salute for our Heroes at M.J. O’Conners. It was a fundraiser that we held following the tragic events to benefit those in law enforcement. We had Gaelic Pipe and Drums perform, tons of silent auction items and were joined by Carlos Arredondo, all to raise money for the 100 Club of Massachusetts, which serves those that serve us in law enforcement. It was really a great event.

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