You may have every little detail and ingredient established for your challenge, all the way down to which yellow mustard brand you are using, but when you announce the challenge to the world I can guarantee you that more than one person will be asking if they can take one of the toppings off or substitute a different topping in place of something else. You will have somebody asking for a gluten-free bun, and you will have another person asking if you can just add more french fries and take away all of the pickles and onions. You should prepare for this beforehand and decide what substitutions you will accept, or whether you will accept any substitutions at all. Here is a list of my thoughts regarding substitutions to help you decide your plan so there are no surprises:

Denying substitutions will get you less attempts – If you deny all substitutions, some of your customers that want to take your challenge will not be able to attempt it. If your challenge has bacon, that eliminates all religious groups that abstain from pork. Denying substitutions also eliminates all people that are allergic to any of the ingredients used in your challenge, such as peanut butter and onions. If the goal of your challenge is to have as many people take the challenge as possible, then you definitely need to allow some substitutions.

There is a difference between “I can’t eat” and “I don’t want to eat” – If you don’t want to allow all substitutions but you still want most people to be able to take the challenge, then just allow substitutions for people with food allergies. It is one thing to not like pickles, but it is another thing to be allergic to pickles. If somebody can prove that they are allergic to a certain topping, especially if the substitution that person is wanting is very minor, you may want to just go ahead and allow it. Taking off the pickles and adding extra tomatoes isn’t really going to affect the challenge experience or difficulty. The same goes for bacon and pork items regarding members of religious groups abstaining from pork. It is pretty silly to deny a person from taking your challenge because they can’t eat the 4 slices of bacon. Add extra cheese or french fries and let them take your challenge. If a person is lactose-intolerant and can’t eat the 3 slices of cheese, substitute something else. This is the best way to avoid any comments regarding the restriction of certain religious groups, which is never a good idea.

The weight and difficulty matter most – Many restaurants are pretty relaxed regarding substitutions, and if you don’t like something they will just add something else. The main thing is that the weight and difficulty needs to remain the same. If a person doesn’t like bacon, add the same weight in ham or pulled pork. If the person doesn’t like vegetables, it is okay to add the weight in fries because fries are tougher to eat than the veggies. Be careful of eaters trying to make substitutions just to make the challenge easier though. Make sure the difficulty level of the food substitution remains the same or turns out better in your favor so past challengers don’t complain.

Don’t allow too many substitutions – Allowing more tomatoes and getting rid of the onions is one thing, but if the new challenge after all substitutions looks way different than the regular challenge that everyone else gets, that is a problem. Make sure to keep all challenges as close to being the exact same as possible. This will keep the losers from complaining that their challenge was tougher than every other challenge that they have seen.

“Shut up and eat” – I have seen this posted on multiple challenge rules which is a pretty bold public statement, basically denying all substitutions. It means quit complaining and if you can’t eat it then don’t try the challenge. If this fits your restaurant theme and attitude, then it might work for you and your challenge. Just make sure to remain firm. Definitely avoid allowing substitutions for some people and not others. That will cause problems!!

Substitutions should not be high maintenance – If a customer is wanting to substitute something on the food challenge for something you don’t have or stock at your restaurant, it is okay to apologize and say you can’t. The biggest example I can think of is gluten free buns. Most people that try to follow a gluten free diet don’t even have gluten allergies. There are some eaters that do have gluten allergies though, and they have one hell of a time trying to find food challenges that they can do. If your baker can make a gluten free bun for you, that is one thing, but it is up to you weather or not you want to go way out of your way to find somebody that can make a gluten free bun so that one or two people can now attempt your challenge. It just depends on your situation.

For most restaurants, minor substitutions are not a big deal. When planning and preparing to announce your challenge, you should decide whether or not you will be allowing substitutions. Then you can also figure out where you will give in and where you will say no, if you decide to allow them. It’s not fair to pick and choose who you allow substitutions for, but that of course does happen. If you are going to deny all substitutions with no exceptions, it would be beneficial to add that to your challenge rules so that everyone knows. People will still ask, but then you can just direct them to the challenge rules. At the end of the day, the challenge is about having fun, and allowing simple and minor substitutions allows more people to have more fun which translates into an overall better experience for all of the customers at your restaurant. Hopefully the above pros and cons have helped you decide how you will treat ingredient substitutions with the new challenge at your restaurant.

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They are not nearly as popular as quantity, speed, and spicy challenges, but quantity and speed record challenges are becoming more and more common and can be a lot of fun. They can spark a very competitive atmosphere at your restaurant and people always get excited about records. In today’s world, everybody is always trying to set records. There are world records, national records, and now people can go for a record at your restaurant. The key word though is “record” which by definition means “the best or most outstanding amount, rate, height, etc, ever attained, as in some field of sport.” When dealing with records you have to remember that some people are better than others, and this definitely applies to competitive eating too.

The title of this post begins with “Things To Consider” but really there is just one thing. If you have a record challenge, you need to be aware that at any point somebody might come in and completely demolish your record challenge whether it be speed or quantity. I personally try to just barely beat records so that the challenge can continue on, but not all eaters feel the same way. If you have a taco record challenge, and the record is 25 which has stood for 4 months, a professional eater may come in and eat 45 tacos which almost doubles the previous record amount. If you have a speed record challenge where the current record is 8 minutes (which you thought was fast) to finish your 4lb (1.82lbs) deli sandwich, a professional eater might come in and do it in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. If this happens, your challenge basically becomes dead because none of your normal customers even have a chance at winning and will therefore stop trying. I have seen this situation happen many times.

At this point you have 3 options. You can continue the challenge and hope somebody can one day beat the record, you can end the challenge, or you can simply restart the challenge over. It may be neat to boast that your record is really high and it gives you a great story to tell your customers, but that is not bringing new people into your restaurant and making you money is it? The best thing to do, especially if it happens near the end of the year, is to start the challenge over after a short period of time. Just tell your customers that the record has reached its peak and will therefore be starting over from scratch. I have seen this done multiple times. Your customers will love to hear this and will want to compete which will give a fresh start to your challenge and restaurant. Record challenges are always the most popular at the beginning when the record is easier to beat. You can even leave the previous record holder on the Wall Of Fame, and just consider that the top record. The main thing is that you want to keep your challenge fun & exciting, and keep people attempting it.

Thanks for reading things to consider when creating record challenges and using FoodChallenges.com!!

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If you have created your food challenge from scratch using your own ideas and there are no similar existing challenges around that you based your challenge design off, how do you know your challenge will work? You may have even followed all of the rules, ideas, and guidelines on this website, but the only true way to know that you put together a good challenge is to test the challenge before officially starting it. It’s much easier to make changes before you actually set the challenge, create all of the advertisements and challenge rule images, and officially announce all the details. You don’t want to get 7 challenges in and realize that its way too easy, way too hard, or just not a good challenge in general. Therefore, you should find people to test your challenge beforehand so that you can then be sure and confident that all of the important details work well together.

Especially if your restaurant has been open for a while, I’m sure you have had a few local people inside your restaurant that you know can eat a lot. They may be local high school or college football players or other athletes in training (yes the stereotype does apply here), or just people in general that like to eat. If you are starting a spicy challenge, I’m sure you know of a few people that love spicy food too. A few of these people may even come in for some food 2 or 3 times per month. Contact these people and see if they are interested in attempting your new challenge idea. They are providing you with a service, so hopefully you weren’t really considering charging them for the meal. How many people are really going to turn down a tasty free meal?

There are multiple reasons to test your challenge. One big reason is to give your kitchen staff an opportunity to prepare the meal so that they can time everything out correctly. Then they can practice putting the challenge together to make it ready to be served to customers. If the entire meal takes 45 minutes to prepare, the chefs cannot just cook everything at the same time. People don’t want a scalding hot burger served with cold fries or chips. If the challenge has many layers, this test will allow the staff to figure out how to add all of the toppings and make your dish look presentable. If you have a tall burger that just keeps falling over, the test will help you realize that you might need to purchase skewers to hold everything together. One thing about big challenges is that sometimes they don’t get served very often, especially if you don’t let groups order the challenge meal to split. If the cooks have not had much experience preparing everything, there is a good chance that something will go wrong, causing the meal to not taste very good. The hardest thing for a cook to perfect is large pieces of meat, whether it be a large steak or burger patty. It can be very tough to cook a 2kg patty of beef so that it is cooked all the way through but still juicy and edible. This test will help the kitchen staff know whether anything needs to be fixed in regards to preparing the challenge meal. You need to make sure your chefs can prepare it!!

Hopefully you found 3 or more people (or teams) to test your challenge, especially if it is not massive and expensive to prepare. You will want 3 or more so that you can critique the challenge afterwards more easily. If you are wanting to have a special presentation ceremony while bringing out the challenge, you can practice this too. Many restaurants play a particular song when a challenge is being served, just to add some additional fun and excitement. This is also a perfect opportunity for you to take pictures of the challenge for all of the new advertisements you are about to prepare (please see the Marketing A Challenge section). You can also now produce a video of the test challenge so that your customers online can experience it and learn the challenge details. Let your “testers” take the challenge just like regular customers will be when its available to the public. Watch the entire challenge and study their faces and body language so that you can critique the challenge experience too. The test event should be fun, but remember it should definitely be a learning experience too.

After they are finished, it’s time to weigh the results and decide whether you need to make any changes. How far did the challengers get? Did 1 person win and 2 people lose? If that is the case, you may be great, especially if you know that winner was a very strong eater. If none of the challengers even got close, you have a problem. Figure out whether the time limit needs to be increased or the challenge needs to be reduced. Sometimes a restaurant may actually believe that the time limit is okay, but then after testing they learn that it really isn’t. If nobody won but the 1st place person got within less than 1 pound, you should definitely be fine as long as that person was not a professional eater. If you have a true professional eater test your challenge and he doesn’t come close, don’t plan on having anybody take your challenge after the first month unless you have a $500 or more prize. You need people believing they can win, but not people actually winning, so please reduce it.

Ask the contestants what they actually thought of the food. Was something too salty? If something was too salty, you should fix that because salty foods are very hard to eat a lot of. Were there too many onion rings or too many french fries? Did the chili make the bun too soggy? Find out if there are any ways to make the food challenge taste better. People will attempt your challenge if everyone is bragging about how delicious it is. People won’t attempt your challenge if everybody is saying it tastes disgusting. Are the onions in the fresh-cut onion rings too thick? Find out these answers before the challenge starts. That is why you have 3 or more “testers” too. If there are only 2, then your answers may become 50/50, and that won’t necessarily help you. If all 3 or more contestants complain about the same thing, you know you definitely have something to fix.

Many restaurant challenges have issues that should be fixed, and most of those problems could have been solved if the restaurant had tested the challenge beforehand. Testing a challenge is like trying on clothes at the store. A large shirt is a large, but the fitting is different based on the manufacturer and country of origin. You may require a large in one brand and an extra large in another. Try the shirt on beforehand so that you know it fits. 15 minutes is not a lot of time, but it can also be the difference maker for allowing your challenge the opportunity to be successful for your restaurant. Some challenges are smaller and/or more simple than others and they don’t really require testing beforehand. If you have questions though, make sure to test your challenge beforehand, and get customers excited by posting the “test event” pictures online for all to see and share.

Thanks for reading why you should should test the food challenge and using FoodChallenges.com!!

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Food challenges and eating contests in a way are just like cruise ships and airplanes. There are thousands of cruises every year around the world, and their are millions of flights, but when 1 cruise goes bad or when 1 plane crashes, the whole world finds about it and people talk about how dangerous they are. This also applies to food challenges and eating contests too. There is only 1 or 2 deaths per year at most resulting from eating contests, but when they happen every news outlet around the world covers it. The funny thing is that all of the incidents are completely stupid too!! You may have heard about the contestant in Florida that died from choking in a cricket contest (yes they were eating live insects). You may have also heard of the lady that drowned herself by drinking too much water in a contest to see who could drink the most water without peeing (just to win a Wii gaming system). To this day, I have never heard of an incident resulting from a food eating challenge. The only story that has come close is the story about a large man having an actual heart attack while eating at Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada, and that was not even a food challenge. Even though the chances are extremely rare, there still are chances, so you should make sure that you and your business is protected legally in case anything does happen. Here are tips you should definitely consider so you don’t learn the hard way:

Don’t have any dangerous rules – This is the most simple thing to do, which is to not set any dangerous rules. As we discussed in Silly Challenge “House Rules” To Avoid, do not restrict eaters from being able to drink liquids during quantity based food challenges. Doing that will significantly increase the chances of somebody choking. Please use “common sense” and think about all of the extra rules that you are applying to your challenge. If it sounds dangerous, it probably is something that you should avoid enforcing, or bringing up in the first place.

Make sure challengers are 18 years old or with their parent or guardian – Children are not even typically allowed in public swimming pools without their parents, and you should not allow them to participate in your food challenge if they are not with them either. Make sure all contestants are adults in your country or that they are with a legal parent or guardian. This significantly takes any legalities away since laws are much more strict when situations involve children. Especially if you make the contestants sign a waiver beforehand, make sure the signature even means something, since a child’s signature without the parent’s signature below is basically worthless. It would be smart to include your age restrictions with the challenge rules. This should be obvious, but if you have alcoholic beverages involved, you definitely need proper age restrictions so you avoid trouble.

Have challengers sign a waiver beforehand – Many restaurants make challengers sign a waiver before they are allowed to take the challenge, basically excluding the restaurant from any liability from situations that may occur while the person is taking the challenge inside the restaurant. As an eater, I always laugh when signing these because I think they are silly, but it is smart when taking a business’ perspective of the situation. Many restaurants make the waiver funny by adding lines like “I hereby certify that I am an idiot for taking the food challenge and that I exclude (the restaurant’s name) from all liability from any situation that may stem from me taking this challenge.” Feel free to get creative, and the form can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. 95% of challenge waivers also include the challenge “house rules” so that the eating challenger is legally acknowledging that he or she has read and understands the rules before beginning too. Feel free to check out the waivers that other restaurants created and use around you to help you get ideas for making up your own.

The purpose of a food challenge is for everyone to have fun, and the last thing you want is somebody getting injured, hurt, or even killed. Make sure to keep watch over food challengers too to make sure everyone is safe and happy. Chances of choking increase when a person is trying to speed eat food, but even then they are extremely low. If a situation does occur, take care of it right away and make sure everyone is okay. Avoiding a situation and automatically denying responsibility might really anger the family of a person that gets hurt, making them more likely to file a lawsuit. Rather than spending a fortune on lawyers and dealing will a ton of awful PR, you could have avoided all of that by simply going out of your way to make sure the person was okay. That isn’t that difficult right? Make sure to practice “common sense” when hosting food challenges, and everything will go smooth 99.99% of the time. It is smart to make sure your t’s are crossed and your i’s are dotted though, and hopefully this article has helped you make sure you correctly protect yourself legally.

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One of the big misconceptions that ignorant people have about food challenges is that they are very wasteful since so much more food is involved. In reality though, food challenges are not any more wasteful than regular restaurant menu items, and most likely even less wasteful. If you haven’t already, feel free to read Are Food Challenges Wasteful? to find out more information regarding how not wasteful food challenges really are.

Reducing the waste of challenge food is a team effort between the restaurants and challenge participants. Obviously, it is the job of the eater to finish all the food that your restaurant places in front of him or her, but if every person won your challenge then it would not really be considered a food challenge. Here are some things that restaurants can do to help reduce the amount of food wasted during and after each of the challenges:

Let people take the leftovers home – Almost all restaurants do this already, but make sure you ask the losing challengers if they would like their leftovers packaged up to take home and eat later. This works just like it does for any other ordinary restaurant customer. Since he or she is paying full price for the meal, that person is more likely to bring the remains home, especially if there is a portion left untouched. If they won’t eat it, their roommate, child, significant other, friend, or dog most likely will. Some people take challenges already knowing they will have leftovers to bring home. This is the most practical and most accepted way to avoid wasting food.

Turn the leftovers into a meal – I have only seen this once, and I completely loved the idea. A Mexican restaurant advertised that if you fail their burrito challenge, they would take off the existing tortilla and make you a new smaller burrito with the remains. This takes food that most people would not want to eat later, and turns it into an actual appetizing meal that he or she will want to eat. The restaurant saved the challenge food all for the price of a tortilla which cost next to nothing. Can you do something like this with your food challenge?

For quantity record challenges, only bring out portions at a time – If you have a taco record challenge and the record to beat is 35, do not bring out all 36 tacos at one time for a person trying to beat the record. Let the person start with 12 or 20 tacos and then bring out more as he or she continues eating. This is a great way to prevent waste, and it also saves the person from paying for food that he or she wasn’t ever able to consume.

Make your challenge delicious – This is my last and most obvious suggestion, but the best solution for making sure food does not get wasted is to make it so tasty that people actually want to eat it later. If a 72oz steak is cooked perfectly and tastes delicious the whole way through, a person is going to want to take the leftovers home. If the steak is overcooked and tough to eat which requires a full bottle of sauce to taste good, then he or she will most likely not want to take the food home. There are some challenges I’ve beaten that I wanted to order again just so that I could have one later, and then there are some I’ve beaten that I don’t want to eat again. Make your challenge delicious and people will want to make sure nothing gets wasted. It’s a win for everyone!!

Thanks for reading about how to reduce food challenge waste and using FoodChallenges.com!!

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Food challenges can be a lot of fun for customers to take, and also for the people that come along to watch. They can even provide great free entertainment for all of the other customers in the restaurant too. In some situations though, a “bad food challenger” can create a poor customer experience for normal diners. There are things that you can do as a restaurant owner to guarantee that customers have a pleasurable experience while dining in your restaurant and that their meal is not spoiled by somebody attempting your food challenge.

Have a special table designated for challenges – Some restaurants have 1 specific table reserved for food challenge attempts only, and some restaurants even have an area designated for challenges. The table or area may be on a raised stage or it may just be a random table that is the easiest for most tables to see. If your challenge is 2 stars or larger and it gets attempted a lot, you may want to try this idea. These tables are typically marked so that normal customers are able to know what the table is reserved for. Some people just disagree with food challenges and don’t want to watch them, or they just want to have a peaceful meal by themselves with no distractions. These people, because you have a designated table, know to avoid that area and they therefore get a seat in a different part of the restaurant. On the other hand, if people want to watch a food challenge going on, they now know that they should get a table near the designated challenge table.

Announce that a food challenge is happening – Many people that walk in your restaurant are not aware that you have a food challenge, especially if you don’t have it on the menu or on advertisements in the store. When a challenge is being served, let the customers dining in your restaurant know what is going on. Let them know they are welcome to take a picture if they want, and then they can share the photo via social media too!! This lets all of your customers know what is going on so they are not just staring and wondering, and this also allows them to move or finish up their meal if they don’t want to watch or be part of the atmosphere. When I do food challenges, it’s always funny to see people staring while I am setting up my camcorders and equipment. Once I go over and introduce myself and let them know what is going on, most people get excited to watch. Keeping people informed helps to keep a better and more fun restaurant atmosphere. Also, if people know what is going on they are more likely to get involved and cheer which makes a better overall experience for everyone.

Don’t allow challengers to dunk – As mentioned in The Effects Of Letting Eaters Dunk The Challenge Food, dunking food into water and other liquids while speed eating make a mess and can be very gross for customers to watch. Make sure that customers don’t get grossed out by not allowing challengers to dunk their food.

If a challenger is being disrespectful, let the person know – Sometimes an eater may do something considered gross or disrespectful to others during a particular challenge, such as belching up the air produced by speed eating. Sometimes an eater may just be “in the zone” and not thinking about anything other than finishing the entire meal sitting in front of him or her. If a challenger is doing something excessive that you don’t appreciate, let the person know. If a guy is not aware that he is doing something wrong, he isn’t going to just magically fix it. Feel free to casually let the eater know what it is you don’t appreciate, and 99% of the time it will get fixed immediately. Don’t just sit back and let the situation get worse for all your customers who are forced to watch.

Place a trash can near the challenger(s) – This was also mentioned in Things To Consider Before Starting A Food Challenge, but place a trash can or bucket near the table where the challenger is eating. If a situation comes up where the eater “gets sick” towards the end of the challenge, you definitely want a bucket or trash can readily available for that person. It is very rare that a person is able to actually “make it to the bathroom” in time. You really don’t want people going outside, and you certainly don’t want your regular customers to have to see it or stare at it, so solve all possible issues by taking the extra 5 seconds to place a receptacle near the challenger’s area. If a situation occurs, customers will be very happy you were prepared, and it won’t become negative.

Negative food challenge experiences for customers are very rare, but they do happen, and almost all of the situations could have been prevented if the restaurant had put more thought into how they host their challenge. Like we mentioned in Man v Food’s Effect On The Restaurant World, most of these issues occurred simply because some restaurants with food challenges started a food challenge without having any idea how to start or host one, and therefore they weren’t prepared for certain situations such as a person getting sick. Then they took the easy way out and blamed it on the food challenge itself. Now that you have read this article along with other FoodChallenges.com articles, you can be better prepared to guarantee that your customers have a very pleasurable dining experience at your restaurant whether there is an eating challenge going on or not.

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Since the purpose of a food challenge is to help promote your restaurant and get new customers in the door to try out your restaurant, you should always be thinking about marketing whenever you are making decisions regarding your challenge. Hopefully you have read Marketing: The Purpose Of A Food Challenge which explains all of the qualities that food challenges can have which will help your restaurant’s marketing campaign throughout your community of potential customers. Since marketing is the main purpose of having the food challenge, you need to be thinking of marketing from the very beginning during the entire design process. Marketing does not start when you announce the challenge to the public. Remember the famous quote “Begin with the end in mind.” Thinking about how you will be promoting the challenge when deciding on each of the 8 steps to creating a food challenge will make life so much easier for you after the design process is finished.

There are many combinations of ways to put together a food challenge so that it is “eye-catching” and easy to remember. If something is crisp and easy to understand, it is much more attractive to people when they see or hear about it because it shows that you put a lot of thought into everything so that they don’t have to. Having a particular theme that unites all of your challenge details can also lead to a pretty awesome advertisement image after all of the details are established and you are ready to announce everything to the public. The better the advertisement image, the more likely your social media followers will be to get excited about it and also share it with their friends and family. Here are a few great themes to consider using during the design phase that will make your marketing easier and much more attractive later on after all of the details are finalized:

Keep all of the details uniform – Some restaurants try to keep all of the major details very similar so that the challenge is easier to remember. For example, I once took on a burger challenge at a restaurant which was named “The 32 Challenge.” Challengers had 32 minutes to finish 32oz beef, 32oz fries, and a 32oz drink. Because everything was the same, they definitely did not have many people asking how long they had or how big the challenge was. Can you guess how much the burger cost if people failed? $32!! I also saw a spicy wing challenge where customers had 6 minutes to finish 6 ghost pepper wings and also had to endure a 6 minute “afterburn” period. If the challenger failed, he or she had to pay only $6. This situation definitely does not work in all situations, but if it can work for your challenge that will definitely make your marketing easier later on.

Can you base your details off your location? – Some restaurants such as truck stops are located right off of very significant well known highways, and then other restaurants are located near other types of well known landmarks that pertain to their particular communities. For example, I once did a biscuits and gravy challenge at a restaurant that was located off of Interstate 70 in Missouri which is the most known highway in the state. They named their challenge “The Big 70 Challenge” which included 7 biscuits, 1lb hash browns, bacon, and it was all covered by 70 ounces of sausage gravy. The challenge had a 1 hour time limit rather than 70 minutes, and the challenge was not $70 for failing (thank goodness), but having 70 in the name and amount of gravy really helped their marketing campaign. Another challenge I did was at a restaurant located right off Route 66 which is a famous interstate in the USA. The restaurant had a “Route 66 King Of The Road Burger” which had a 66oz burger patty and allowed 66 minutes to finish the challenge. Their marketing was very successful and much easier too!!

Can you tie your challenge to a significant event? – This was also mentioned in Step 8: Pick A Name For The Challenge, but can you tie your challenge to a significant event that people relate to? For example, a restaurant in England around the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London decided to start a large Olympic Burger Challenge. People couldn’t just participate in the real Olympic games, but they could feel like they were in an Olympic event while they were attempting the challenge which also made the advertising that much easier.

Is there a “tagline” that fits your restaurant? – The most common example of this is restaurants using the tagline “Can you sink it?” along with their food challenge which is named after a famous ship name. Do you have a particular tagline that you plan on using in your marketing materials? Hopefully it’s a little more creative than “Can you beat the (challenge name)?” Another popular one is the tagline “Can you beat the meat?” or “Can you beat our meat?” and restaurants center all the details off using this tagline. This may or may not work for you.

Can you relate the details to the name of your restaurant? – Many restaurants do this because it really makes promoting both the challenge and restaurant together at the same time much easier. Figure out a way to relate your challenge name and possible a few of the details to your restaurant name. For example, The Thirsty Bear in London, England started a burger challenge called “The Grizzly Bear Burger Challenge” which obviously fits well. Another favorite of mine is that a small burger restaurant named Stella’s in Omaha, Nebraska started a Stellanator Burger Challenge. Marketing their towering challenge is easy because the name is so unique.

Can you involve a famous or significant person tied to your restaurant? – Some restaurants decide to tie their challenge to a famous person that is significant to their particular community that customers can relate to. This is an example of “testimonial advertising” where companies use famous people to sell their products. An example of this is a restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa named Jethro’s BBQ using a local college basketball player that was popular in the community. They had him list all of his favorite foods that he had ever ordered from the restaurant and they turned the list into a sandwich challenge. They even got on Man v Food: Des Moines!! Since the entire community knew the man the sandwich was named after, the restaurant was able to market and promote the challenge a lot easier which led to many more attempts, and still gets attempted years later.

Having a marketable and symbolic name is the most important detail, but all other details that you can tie together create a very significant bonus when it comes to marketing your challenge. Hopefully these ideas helped spark some thoughts that will lead you to a very marketable challenge idea. If you think of marketing during the entire design phase, you will have a much higher chance of hosting a successful challenge that will put your restaurant on the map and get even more customers inside your doors to try out your tasty menu.

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The single largest mistake a restaurant can make is to NOT create a thorough food challenge advertisement. Over 1/2 of restaurants never even think to do this before announcing their challenge, and therefore they get 100 different questions that would have been answered if they had just spent a little extra effort designing an advertisement. Most restaurants get so excited to announce their challenge that they just post a simple photo of the challenge along with a few minor details in the description. In today’s world of technology, people are extremely lazy, and I mean really lazy when it comes to reading and looking up details. Most people look at the picture and don’t even consider looking at the description or rest of the post. If you just post a picture and put the description in the caption, you will get questions. You may have the time limit in the description, but I guarantee that some lazy person will still ask what the time limit is because he or she only looked at the photo and not the caption. This theory also applies to the name of your own restaurant so be sure to include it too.

When a restaurant posts a photo announcing a new challenge, depending on how many people are following them, there will be many people that either share the post or simply tag friends in the comments to let them know about it. A large majority of the people that are tagged or see the shared photo will not look at your description either. They will just see the photo, and because you did not spend a few hours creating a real advertisement, all of those people that you want to know about the challenge will not even know where to go to find the challenge. They won’t know any details at all. From a marketing perspective, your post basically accomplished the same goal that you would have if you just posted a funny photo of a cat that got shared a lot. If you doubt this theory, then test it next time you see a shared food challenge post or get tagged in a challenge photo. I get tagged every week by people and 90% of the time I have to spend 5 extra minutes figuring out where the challenge is actually located and what the details are if I didn’t already know about it beforehand.

If you want to have a successful marketing campaign and a well-known symbolic challenge that lasts, you need to create a detailed challenge advertisement. This same image file can then be used all over your social media, website, and printed advertisements. Here are the challenge details that you need to definitely include on it:

High-definition photo of the challenge – The challenge photo is going to attract all of the attention, and you want your challenge to look delicious, so include a high-definition photo of the entire challenge.

Restaurant Name – People need to know that your restaurant is the only one hosting the challenge.

Restaurant Location – People that have not heard of your restaurant need to know what city you are located in. The city and state/province/country usually is placed right below the restaurant name. If they know the city you are in, they may just remember that the next time they are in your area. If they need a place to eat, you will be on the top of their list because they don’t know of anything else!! I’m sure restaurants that were featured on Man v Food would agree since they are still feeling the effects today even years after their appearance.

Challenge Name – People have to call it something, so make sure they know the name to remember.

Very Brief Description – Describe the main challenge components in one brief sentence or less.

Time Limit – People will want to know how much time they have, even if there is no real limit.

Prizes – To sell the challenge to people, you need to let them know what they can win!!

Price – People will want to know how much they have to pay if they lose, or simply how much it is to order. Remember that not everybody will just want to take your challenge. They may have a family or love leftovers.

Availability – If your challenge is only 1 night a week or at very specific times, let people know when they are able to take the challenge. There is nothing more disappointing for an eater than getting all the way to the restaurant just to find out that the challenge isn’t available to take. Then their preparations and fasting was for nothing, and they won’t want any of your regular food either because they are hungry and very frustrated.

As with all marketing materials, keep the image simple and crisp. That may sound like a lot of information to include on the image, but it really is not when you start putting everything together. If you need to, hire a graphic designer to develop your advertisement. The benefits you will receive by having it will definitely be worth the small up-front cost to get it produced. You may decide to not include a few of the details, but just know you will be getting questions once you post the image. First impressions are huge in today’s world, and eaters definitely make an initial opinion about you when they see your food challenge advertisement. If the restaurant leaves off the price, it is usually because it is too high and they don’t want everyone to see it. If the restaurant leaves off the prize, then the prize is probably too small for them to be proud enough to display it. We know that a restaurant does not just “forget” to add a very important detail, so don’t think we are that stupid.

Your food challenge advertisement is going to be the “lead blocker” for your marketing campaign so do not take the design and image lightly, unless you don’t like money. The more effort you put into it in the beginning, the more you will get out of it later. After the image is complete and you’re ready to announce the challenge to the world, using that image, you need to start posting the advertisement every place you can so that everybody can see it (along with your restaurant name!!). To find out tips for advertising your challenge inside your restaurant, click here. To find out tips for advertising it using free internet sites and social media platforms, click here.

To go back and view other Marketing A Challenge articles, click here.

You may actually post your challenge advertisement online before you actually print any copies of it, but the people following you via social media are NOT your number 1 priority since some of the people following you don’t even live near your restaurant. They may even be thousands of miles away. The people most likely to want to take your specific challenge is the people that are already visiting your restaurant. If people don’t know about the challenge, they obviously aren’t going to be attempting it. Therefore, you need to make sure that everybody that passes by your restaurant or walks in the door knows that you have a food challenge. You do this by advertising the challenge all over your restaurant and exterior. Here is a variety of ways to make this happen:

On your restaurant front window – Since you are just beginning the challenge, you obviously won’t be making a big sign proclaiming that you are the “Home Of The (challenge name)” to hang outside any time soon. You can however put an advertisement on exterior windows though so that cars driving by can see you have a challenge. Also, people will see the advertisement and know that you have a challenge even before walking inside. Writing in big letters “Come try our (challenge name)” is simple and all you really need. Don’t make it look too busy.

Advertise in the restaurant lobby and entryway – Post your challenge advertisement in the front lobby and entryway of your restaurant so that diners can see your challenge as soon as they walk in. You can post the designed advertisement on the door or on the wall so that people can read the details, especially if your restaurant sometimes is crowded enough that people have to wait to sit down. While waiting, your potential challengers can find out more information about your challenge by looking at the advertisement. Another idea is to post a simple “Ask your server about our (challenge name)” on the board that you post your specials on. This can be beneficial too, especially if your challenge is smaller and doesn’t require people to train extra hard.

In the restroom area – The restroom area receives the highest amount of traffic in your restaurant, so you should advertise your challenge for all of these customers to see either on the way to the bathroom or in the bathroom. It is becoming popular these days for companies to post advertisements at standing eye level for guys while they are in the bathroom, and I’m sure there are a few advertisements in the women’s restrooms too. Post your attractive challenge advertisement for these people to see, especially the guys who are much more likely to take the challenge. Even if the customer is already eating when he or she gets to the restroom, it might get him or her thinking about coming back for the challenge later, and maybe even with friends for extra support.

Post A Wall Of Fame – There is a countless amount of reasons why you should have a Wall of Fame hanging in your restaurant so that customers can see you have a challenge along with all the people that have taken your challenge. It is a fact that people will be more eager to attempt your challenge if there are a ton of people on your Wall of Fame/Shame poster, even if most of those people have lost. People want to be part of all the excitement so that they can experience the fun and see themselves up on the board too. Post your Wall Of Fame where people can check it out without bothering other customers. Along with the photos and names of the people that have attempted, post your challenge advertisement and feel free to post your “house rules” too. Having a Wall Of Fame shows that you as a restaurant are excited about your challenge and that it is a big deal. People won’t care about your challenge if you don’t care either, so make sure people know it does matter.

Advertise on the menus or tables – This is the most important place to advertise your challenge because your menu is where people look to find out what they want to order. You may not want to completely redo your menus just to add your challenge, but at least make sure you have a big advertisement somewhere else on the table so that people know about it when ordering. Then you can add the challenge the next time you print new menus. A person may know for 2 days what he or she is going to order as soon as he or she gets there, but then they might see a completely delicious looking picture of your challenge item and think “I could do that.” This can’t happen if the advertisement isn’t available. Even if nobody at the table wants to order it, it still may give the table something to talk about and maybe even share via social media while waiting for their food they ordered.

The more your challenge is advertised, the more people will see it and think about it. Focus on making the challenge a big deal in your own restaurant before making it a big deal anywhere else. Your marketing power and efforts will be much stronger and you will reach more people with a higher success rate. That excitement will spread out and the number of challenge attempts will continue to grow. You will definitely need to promote the challenge to other people than just the customers already coming to your restaurant though, and the internet is a great place to start. For tips on how to promote your challenge using the internet and social media, click here. Use these ideas to create a more fun and appealing looking atmosphere in and around your place!!

Thanks for reading why you should advertise throughout your restaurant and using FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Marketing A Challenge articles, click here.

Many professional athletic teams have one or two stand-out players that get more recognition than all of the other players on the team. For example, most professional and college basketball teams typically have one player that is the “go-to guy” who is always getting interviewed and talked about by fans and news media outlets because he is the best player on the team. A player may be the best athlete in the world, but without his or her team members, that person is nothing. 1 excellent athlete cannot overpower 5 great athletes working as a team. This also applies to food challenges. A restaurant hosting a food challenge is a team effort, and it takes everyone on your restaurant staff doing their part and working as a team to make your challenge successful. Some jobs are more important than others, but it takes your entire team being on the same page to really get people excited about it so that new and existing customers keep trying and sharing it so that it never gets old.

As the restaurant owner, you are the coach of your team and it is your job to keep your team members all on the same page working together to keep selling your challenge and getting customers to come in and order it. Here is a breakdown of how your entire team works together to make your food challenge a very successful one:

Hosts & Hostesses – The hosts and hostesses are in charge of greeting and seating the customers, so if you have a special area in your restaurant that you want challenges to take place, they need to direct challengers to the proper area. This typically doesn’t happen with 1 star and smaller 2 star challenges, but most people specifically coming in to attempt larger challenges are so excited that they mention that they are there for the challenge when they first check-in with the host or hostess. The host(ess) needs to make sure that person gets seated in a good spot, and he or she may want to let a manager know so that the manager can warn the chefs and waiter or waitress that will be serving that customer. The host(ess) typically has a much more important job though, which is answering the phones. If your restaurant hosts a challenge, especially one that requires people to call ahead in advance, people will be calling to make reservations and also to ask questions about it. Whether in person or on the phone, your host(ess) is the first contact that your customers are greeted by. This person needs to know all the major details of your challenge, and some minor ones too. There are no exceptions to this rule!!

I’ve called hundreds and hundreds of restaurants, and it is absolutely amazing how many people answering the phone don’t know anything about their own restaurant’s food challenge. Some don’t even know they have a challenge. Nothing says that your restaurant does not care about its challenge than a person on your staff not knowing that there even is one, or not even knowing what the challenge is. Either you or the manager needs to make sure that the people answering your phones know the main challenge details so they can can quickly and professionally answer customer questions. Being able to personally answer the questions sounds a lot better than having to read the details off the menu too. If you require challengers to give prior notice, make sure your host(ess) knows what details you are looking for. You would not buy a product from a salesman that had zero knowledge of the product he was selling, and people are not going to be storming in to buy your challenge if your “salesperson” answering the phones doesn’t know anything about your challenge. When I call up a place for details and the person gives me more details than I even want to know, it shows that I wasn’t the first person to ask about the challenge, and that many people have asked before me. That makes me definitely want to try the challenge!! So whether your host(ess) has been there 1 year or 1 day, make sure he or she knows the challenge details so that your restaurant can look a lot more professional when people ask questions about the details.

Waiters & Waitresses – Your hosts and hostesses get the most general questions about the challenge from customers, but your waiters and waitresses are your main salespeople that sell your menu and challenge to the customers that they are serving. Your servers should also know about the challenge so that they can answer questions and also make sure that the challenge is ordered correctly. Since the food costs are more expensive for challenges typically, you don’t want the challenge prepared wrong. A table may not want to try the challenge but they may be interested in it, so hopefully your server can tell them a story or two of past challengers. This might make them want to come back and watch a person try it or get them to tell a friend or family member that they think can beat the challenge. Also, the server is who takes care of the challenger and is also usually the timekeeper (some restaurants have the bartender keep time). An eater doesn’t want to be waiting on beverages or anything else if he or she is running out of time. Your servers need to know about the challenge, and care about it enough to want to keep checking on challengers while they are eating. They are the key to making sure your customers that take the challenge have a pleasurable experience, even if they don’t win. If your servers in general show excitement during the challenge, this will lead to a more exciting atmosphere for customers too. If a server acts rude and inconvenienced, people will not want to try it, so make sure this doesn’t ever happen.

Cooks & Chefs – Your chefs are not directly involved with selling the challenge, but they are definitely the key to getting people excited about ordering your challenge. If a challenge is delicious and looks just like it tastes, then more people are going to want to order and try it, and also more people will want to share it via social media. Nobody will want to try your challenge if the rumor is that the meat is dry and tastes terrible, so make sure your chefs are just as excited about it as everyone else when they prepare the challenge. They have to know how to time everything correctly and put all the parts together so that the meal comes out fresh and photo-worthy. Its also good to have the chef come out and check how the challenger is doing, just to show that he or she cares (if the chefs aren’t completely to excited to watch already). If the chef isn’t on board and excited to cook the challenge, it will more than likely not taste as good as it could have, and nobody wants to eat a lot of something they don’t like. As an eater, I enjoy taking photos with the cooks after winning, and thanking them.

Person(s) in charge of social media – If you are not the person controlling all of your restaurant’s social media yourself, then you need to make sure your people in charge are on board and actively promoting the challenge via social media, especially Facebook. When individuals or groups order the challenge, a picture should be taken and posted online (if everyone in the picture is okay with that). Give your fans updates during the challenge (before, halfway, and after). Showing excitement online will get more customers excited about trying your challenge. For tips on promoting your eating challenge via the internet and social media, click here.

Restaurant Managers – Your managers need to be overseeing the challenge and making sure everything runs smoothly. They also need to make sure that everyone else in the restaurant is happy too. If the manager is checking on the challengers, they will feel special which will make the experience even better. The manager also needs to make sure the rest of the staff knows about the challenge and all recent updates if there are any so that everyone is on the same page. Additionally, your managers need to make sure that the Wall Of Fame is kept up to date by whoever is in charge. If you and the managers are excited about the challenge and show that you care, the rest of the restaurant staff will get excited too because true excitement is very contagious.

None of the roles are difficult at all, but a food challenge will not be successful if everyone is not on board and excited about it. It is so easy to tell when a restaurant is excited about their challenge and when a restaurant just doesn’t care. The difference is night and day, and sometimes you can tell the difference in my videos too. If the restaurant doesn’t care, I definitely don’t get too excited during and after the challenge because there isn’t much reason to be since they aren’t. Challenges with hundreds of attempts have that many because the restaurant was proud of the challenge and therefore more people wanted to join in. As the owner, your first job is to create the challenge so that it has the opportunity to be successful. Once all that is done, you need to get your team on board and informed so that your restaurant can successfully market the new challenge to the people in your restaurant and individuals that call. Your team working together will achieve great results!!

Thanks for reading why successful food challenges are a team effort and for using FoodChallenges.com!!

To go back and view other Marketing A Challenge articles, click here.