Street Interviews

Street interviews are all over social media, and people stop for them because they don’t look like ads. I wanted to borrow that format for Restoke, which was really fun but also hard to get right. Our actors played restaurant owners being asked about their jobs, and each interview eventually landed on a real challenge, like food costing or getting time back, and how Restoke made a difference. The scripts were the tricky part since an interview that sounds too salesy kills the whole illusion. But we’re also putting ad dollars behind it, so Restoke does need to come up at some point. I ran the shoot solo, handling the camera while interviewing and directing the actors. Once the first round was live, the early data made it clear our openings were too slow. I cut the small talk like “Hey, do you run that restaurant over there?” and opened with questions like “Where does your restaurant lose money?” or “Have you ever wanted to walk away from your restaurant?” That second round has become one of our strongest paid campaigns.