Donnafugata spices it up for Italian restaurant chain

Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa has delivered a recipe for success after its summer promotion with Strada Restaurants helped result in some of the highest interest ever in a competition featured by the popular Italian restaurant group.

The deluxe Sicilian resort’s foresight to partner with Strada and offer its customers the chance to win an exclusive week’s holiday for two worth £5,000 proved an unprecedented success, with the competition playing a major part in producing record-breaking numbers when it was launched by the Italian chain online.

As well as being one of the key summer campaign features resulting in the highest Strada website traffic in years, the competition – which ran for two months from the start of July and attracted thousands of entries – also contributed to the restaurant group doubling the average e-shot click-through rate against the previous three years.

As part of the competition agreement, the Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa brand was showcased across all of Strada’s extensive digital and social channels and was backed up by strong point-of-sale branding at each table in its 69 outlets across the UK.

This included the printing of more than 800,000 table placemats, regular e-shots to Strada’s extensive online database, promotion through PR channels, plus daily social media promotion through the summer-long campaign of the competition (and engagement with the thousands of online contestants who ‘shared’ their entry on Twitter).

Pablo Rey Rodriguez, general manager at Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa, said: “We were delighted to be given the opportunity via Azalea, our UK PR agency, to team up with such a strong brand as Strada on such an attractive promotion.

“The competition really caught the imagination of people and further demonstrates what Donnafugata has to offer to the UK market.”

The competition was held to coincide with the launch of Strada’s new summer menu and featured an exclusive five-star, all-inclusive trip for two people to Donnafugata including return flights, seven nights’ accommodation, all meals and drinks, plus a local winery tour, golf lessons, spa treatments and more.

Diners were invited to theme their entry about anything that fitted the #STRADASUMMER theme – from their favorite dish off the restaurant’s new summer menu, to a photo of a group of friends on a Strada patio, or even a humorous Strada-themed poem!

Stephanie Morfopoulos, brand manager at Strada, said: “This was a very successful campaign and the response we received from our customers was phenomenal.

“It exceeded all expectations and we’re looking forward to working again with Donnafugata in the near future on promotions.”

Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa boasts two 18-hole championship golf courses and extensive practice facilities including a 70-bay driving range. One of the two courses is a Gary Player signature layout and the second 18 holes – The Links – was designed by Franco Piras.

Located just 20 minutes away from the newly-opened Comiso airport and in the beautiful area of Donnafugata, a natural reserve and famous tourist destination known for the imposing castle which bears the same name, the resort also boasts a number of fantastic historical cities. These include Val di Noto, the heart of Sicilian baroque: Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Noto and Scicli. All of them are deemed fitting of UNESCO World Heritage status.

Donnafugata has 202 rooms, an award-winning spa and health club, swimming pools and three restaurants offering a broad selection of gastronomic delights, well accompanied by perfect Sicilian wines to enhance flavour.

For more information about Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa or to book a stay, please call 0039 0932 914 200, or go to www.donnafugatagolfresort.com .