How one restaurant became a ten-site group
One restaurant, no website worth the name, and a queue that only formed if you already knew about it. A new identity, a site to put it on, and local search built around each address: traffic up 280%, bookings up 240%, and ten openings since.

Results in numbers
- 40k+Covers driven by digital
- 8k+Social followers
- 10Subsequent openings
- 39.88%Email club open rate
Challenge
Coal had been serving New Orleans smokehouse barbecue in Wimbledon for over ten years, and the food was never the problem. People who found it came back.
Finding it was the problem. John Gater, the founder, had one restaurant, no proper website, no brand to speak of and nothing that could be called a marketing strategy. A queue on a Friday is not a growth plan.

Insight
Neige Marketing worked closely with the founder of Coal to truly understand the goals and objectives for the future of Coal, bringing the true smokehouse credentials to the fore. Taking the time to do so was an important factor in the success and smoothness of the new branding and marketing strategy.

Solution
Showcasing Coal’s personality and energy was at the top of the agenda. We went about creating the branding, marketing strategy, uniforms and print design portraying Coal’s trendy, upbeat and soulful style, along with their impressive food credentials. The marketing strategy covered everything from social media and e-marketing to PPC and beyond.

Results
We started with one restaurant. Ten more and five years later we still run the marketing: email, social and paid search across the chain. Profits are up 20% year on year, nationwide. We also drove over 100k clicks to their website and have grown their website booking conversion rate by 240%.

Working with Neige is like having an awesome in-house marketing team at your fingertips. They’re an absolute pleasure to work with and were instrumental in the growth of my business! Can’t recommend them enough.
What this involved
- Getting cited by AI answers is the new page oneBuyers increasingly read an answer instead of a list of links. Here is what actually determines whether that answer mentions you.14 July 2026
- Technical SEO is a revenue problem, not an IT problemCrawlability and speed get filed under engineering and deprioritised forever. Here is how to make the cost visible.3 June 2026
- Creative is the targeting nowAudience targeting has largely been automated away. What still separates a campaign that pays back is the work the platform cannot do for you.28 April 2026
DidaktikMaking a technical product legible to the people who buy itFull ROIwithin months of launchView case study
Voyage TravelScaling acquisition without scaling wasted spend1800%return on marketing investmentView case study
Nelson Policies at Lloyd’sTurning organic search into a growth channel154%increase in enquiriesView case study
Want numbers like these?
Coal Grill + Bar started where you are: 30 minutes with the people who would run the work.
- Where the money is leaking out
- The first thing we would change
- A straight answer, including no

