After reading through the conversation, there are a few points that could be considered.
For example, this restaurant is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. How can the content creator guarantee that PA residents are going to be the ones seeing the content? He can’t.
Is that better advertising than just putting up billboards or handing out flyers with coupons on them locally? Probably not.
People may see the content, but if people aren’t coming in to buy meals (and maybe post about it themselves!) then it’s probably not worth it for these restaurant owners.
Also, paying someone to chow down at your place of business is the exact opposite of what an eatery even does. These places run on slim margins, they really don’t have the kind of money to just waste on an influencer’s video.
If an eatery wants to go viral in the first place, they need to have a really photogenic or trendy food item. They won’t have to seek out any hype. It’ll find them.
The influencer here was also a mukbang content creator. People are split on this type of content. Some really enjoy watching people gorge themselves on massive amounts of food, often making a mess as they go. Others, myself included, find it hard to stomach. So just by the type of content the food influencer creates, he’s going to be bringing in this hyper-specific audience. It’s perhaps not the most mainstream appeal.
It turns out that this guy has messaged other restaurant owners, and the story gets even juicier.


