‘Keep Calm and Nom Nom’: Local Campaign Encourages Buying Gift Cards to Help Restaurants

By Jonathan Spiers

With public health concerns surrounding the coronavirus hitting the food and beverage industry particularly hard, a campaign from a Richmond ad agency is looking to help area restaurants and breweries stay afloat by bringing them revenue from a distance.

Scott’s Addition-based Familiar Creatures launched a website this week encouraging patrons to purchase gift cards for establishments amid the COVID-19 outbreak, which has prompted restrictions on public gathering spaces such as restaurants and bars.

“Buy a gift card today, and enjoy your meal later,” the site states.

Called “Keep Calm and Nom Nom,” the site groups restaurants and breweries by neighborhood with links to their respective gift card webpages. By Tuesday morning, the site (keepcalmandnomnom.com) had linked logos for more than 150 businesses in Scott’s Addition, Carytown, the Fan, downtown, Church Hill, the West End, Northside and the Southside.

Justin Bajan, who started Familiar Creatures two years ago with business partner Dustin Artz, said the campaign was thought up late Friday afternoon initially as a way to support their Scott’s Addition neighbors.

“We started thinking, these guys are probably going to take a hit over the next couple months, and we’d love to look out for them; what’s a tangible way?”, Bajan said. “We started trying different names and tried to figure out the approach. We started out with Scott’s Addition, and then we just built it out for the rest of Richmond.”

Read the full article on Richmond BizSense.