SYNTHEX × DOUGLAS CONCEPTS  ·  MARKETING PROPOSAL

Three restaurants.
One growth engine.

A social-first marketing plan for Puckers Sports Grill, Loco Burro Gatlinburg, and Loco Burro Knoxville. Built on assigned budgets, campaign-grade creative, and reporting you can hold us to.

Puckers Sports Grill
Loco Burro · Gatlinburg
Loco Burro · Knoxville
Prepared for Brian Watts · July 2026wearesynthex.com
01 · The market

Gatlinburg has 3,300 visitors
for every resident.

12.2M+
Great Smoky Mountains visitors in 2024. It's the most visited national park in America, year after year.
$2B+
spent by park visitors in gateway towns like Gatlinburg in a single year.
$10.5M/day
in tourist spend across Sevier County. The demand is already here. It just needs direction.
Almost every guest on the Parkway is a first-timer deciding on their phone. In a town of 3,600 residents, there are no regulars to coast on, so your digital presence is the storefront.
Knoxville works the other way around: a 957K metro of repeat locals, plus 101,915 Neyland Stadium seats that empty into the city on 7 to 8 fall Saturdays, each worth about $42M per game weekend.
Sources: NPS visitation and economic reports, 2024 and 2025 · U.S. Census · Visit Knoxville / WATE. Full source list available on request.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts02 / 16
02 · The behavior

Diners check the feed
before they check the menu.

90%
of diners check a restaurant's social media before deciding to eat there. (Toast, 2024)
45%
have tried a restaurant for the first time because of its own social post. (MGH)
67%
of Gen Z (and 57% of Millennials) rely on social platforms to pick where to eat. (TouchBistro / Harris Poll, 2025)
30%
of millennials actively avoid restaurants with a weak Instagram presence. (Zizzi)
Since 2025, Instagram posts show up in Google results too. A reel captioned "best rooftop margarita in Gatlinburg" is now a search result. Every post works twice.
Toast diner survey 2024 (n=850) · MGH national surveys · TouchBistro American Diner Trends 2025 (Harris Poll, n=1,500) · PYMNTS 2023.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts03 / 16
03 · What we found

Your guests already love you.
Your feeds don't show it.

Puckers · Gatlinburg
4,746
Google reviews at 4.6★
~1,840
Instagram followers after 599 posts
Loco Burro · Gatlinburg
4,500+
reviews across TripAdvisor & Yelp
~3,015
followers, and the town's only rooftop is barely used
Loco Burro · Knoxville
4,900+
Google reviews at 4.6★
~3,694
followers for a 13,000 sq ft flagship
Feeds lean on flyer-style graphics while creators post viral content about you that never gets captured or converted.
No TikTok of your own. Your websites link out to a corporate group account instead.
The ceiling is low: the best independent accounts in the Smokies sit at 3,000 to 5,000 followers. First place is within reach, fast.
IG figures: public data, July 2026 · Reviews: Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp04 / 16
PUCKERS SPORTS GRILL · GATLINBURG

Gatlinburg's
Game-Day HQ.

A 26-year institution, rebuilt from the ground up in 2024 with the biggest screen in town. The story, the food, and the energy are already elite. We just make the feed match.

P·01

The Monster Screen

A 22.5-ft video wall and 19 HDTVs. We film and promote every kickoff, PPV fight, and Vols Saturday like an event, with countdowns, score-prediction giveaways, and live crowd reels.

P·02

Chef-Driven Food

Juicy Lucy, Puckin Pizza Burger, wings, potato skins, all shot at editorial quality instead of on a phone in bad light. Food photos are the number-one draw for tourists.

P·03

Late-Night Energy

DJ karaoke Thursday through Saturday, pool and darts tournaments, kitchen open till 1 AM. It's the only late-night spot on the strip, and we build it into a weekly content series.

P·04

The Comeback Story

The family's first restaurant, lost to the 2022 fire and reborn in 2024. That's a "back from the ashes" anniversary campaign every November.

Synthex × Douglas Concepts05 / 16
puckersgatlinburg
Sports Bar & Grill · Gatlinburg, TN
Follow
599
posts
▲▲▲
growing
4.6★
4.7K reviews
04 · Puckers · the feed, managed

From sporadic posts
to a game-day machine.

Campaign creative, weekly

Hero pieces like Wing Wednesday and Game Day (shown here, produced by Synthex for this pitch) anchor the week. No template flyers.

Reels built on real energy

Crowd reactions on the big plays, karaoke nights, and sauce pours, cut to 7 to 15 seconds and posted while the moment is still hot.

Game-day rituals

Kickoff countdowns, "guess the score, win your tab" comment games, and jersey rewards. These are formats the best sports bars in the country already run.

Feed mockup: sample direction using public venue photos and Synthex-produced creative. Layout is illustrative.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts06 / 16
LOCO BURRO · GATLINBURG

The only rooftop
in Gatlinburg.

It's their own claim, and it checks out: the only rooftop bar and patio in town, looking straight at the Smokies. That line should be the first thing every tourist sees. Right now it's buried.

L·01

Golden Hour, Every Hour

Sunset over the Smokies from the fire-pit rooftop is a free, one-of-a-kind backdrop every single day. We run sunset reels and search-friendly captions like "only rooftop in Gatlinburg" all season.

L·02

The Margarita Program

Fire & Ice, pitchers, hand-blown confetti glassware. Pour demos, slow-motion salted rims, and a margarita of the month: cantina content that books the table before the flight home.

L·03

Live Five Nights

Live bands on the roof Wednesday through Sunday, plus Tuesday International Dance Night. It's an events calendar most venues would envy, and right now it's invisible.

L·04

Built-in Viral Moments

The mechanical donkey and the 5-lb burrito challenge already get talked about. We build a steady stream of content around the moments only Loco Burro has.

Synthex × Douglas Concepts07 / 16
locoburrogatlinburg
Fresh-Mex 🌮 Margs 🍹 Rooftop views ☀️
Follow
953
posts
▲▲▲
growing
#1
rooftop in town
05 · Loco Burro Gatlinburg · the feed, managed

Make the rooftop
impossible to miss.

The rooftop leads

Golden-hour reels, fire-pit nights, and live-band clips, all captioned to land in Google searches like "rooftop bar Gatlinburg" and "margaritas with a view."

Margarita franchise content

Rita Hour and Taco Tuesday campaign pieces (produced by Synthex, shown here) run every week, right alongside real pour and kitchen reels. Hand-made tortillas included.

Reputation care

Every review answered within 24 hours. We quiet the "tourist trap" complaints and amplify the 4.6 food score that keeps guests coming back.

Feed mockup: sample direction using official venue photos and Synthex-produced creative. Layout is illustrative.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts08 / 16
LOCO BURRO · WEST TOWN MALL, KNOXVILLE

Knoxville's largest rooftop,
in Vols country.

13,000 sq ft, a 5,000 sq ft rooftop, and 4.6★ on Google, fifteen minutes from a 101,915-seat stadium. This location doesn't need tourists. It needs a local calendar.

K·01

The Vols Calendar

7 to 8 home Saturdays flood the city with fans and about $42M each weekend. Watch-party countdowns, away-game promos, halftime specials: orange everything.

K·02

Bottomless Sundays

Brunch buffet, bottomless mimosas, and an omelette station: the only event of its kind in the mall. We run it as a weekly campaign, not a menu footnote.

K·03

Locals, Not Tourists

West Town Mall foot traffic plus real reasons to come back: chef specials that rotate every two months, and limited-time offers (81% of Gen Z act on them).

K·04

The Most Filmable Room in a Mall

Curtis Glover's mural, the donkey-parody art, the mechanical burro: interior content no chain competitor can copy.

Synthex × Douglas Concepts09 / 16
locoburroknoxville
Killer Margs · Knoxville's largest rooftop
Follow
1,079
posts
▲▲▲
growing
4.6★
4.9K reviews
06 · Loco Burro Knoxville · the feed, managed

A local calendar
with orange Saturdays.

Game day as a franchise

The Game Day and Bottomless Brunch pieces here were produced by Synthex for this pitch. That's the weekly standard, synced to the Vols schedule.

Photo-first, flyer-last

The current feed leans on text-heavy promo graphics. We flip the ratio to real food, real rooftop, and real people, with graphics only when they earn a spot.

Local growth loops

Brunch reels, mural moments, donkey-ride clips, and athlete and celebrity visits, all amplified the same day. Followers who can actually come back every week.

Feed mockup: sample direction using official venue photos and Synthex-produced creative. Layout is illustrative.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts10 / 16
07 · The creative standard

This is what your brands get.
Not template flyers.

Puckers · Wing Wednesday
Puckers · Game Day
Loco Gatlinburg · Rita Hour
Loco Gatlinburg · Taco Tuesday
Loco Knoxville · Game Day
Loco Knoxville · Brunch

Six campaign pieces, designed and finished in-house by Synthex for this meeting. Every one is built from your venues' real food and real spaces. Now imagine a full launch month.

All sample creative © Synthex 202611 / 16
08 · The engine

What a month looks like,
per restaurant.

Always-on output

  • 12 to 16 feed posts: campaign creative and editorial photo
  • 6 to 8 reels: 7 to 15 seconds, built on real moments
  • Daily stories: polls, Q&A, tonight's game or band
  • Weekly Story Highlights kept current: menu, events, specials
  • Review responses within 24 hours, on every platform

Tentpoles on the calendar

  • Sports NFL & SEC season, PPV fight nights, March Madness
  • Weekly Wing Wed · Taco Tue · Rita Hour · Bottomless Sundays
  • Seasonal Cinco de Mayo, Día de los Muertos, rooftop opener
  • Signature Puckers rebuild anniversary each November
  • Rotating chef specials every two months (6 launches a year)

Production, done properly

  • Monthly on-site shoot day per city: food, people, space
  • Shared Gatlinburg shoot days across Puckers and Loco, so you get more output per dollar
  • 48-hour turnaround on event coverage (game days, dance nights)
  • In-house campaign design, like the six pieces you just saw
Synthex × Douglas Concepts12 / 16
09 · How we work

You set the budget.
We turn it into receipts.

01

You assign the budget

Per restaurant, monthly or quarterly. You set the number, we never spend past it, and you can change it at any planning cycle.

02

We map every dollar

Before the month starts, you see the plan: content calendar, campaigns, and ad allocation. Nothing posts without your approval.

03

We execute and optimize

Content, paid, community, and reputation, with weekly check-ins and mid-month shifts whenever something runs hot or cold.

04

You get the scorecard

A monthly report on what ran, what it cost, and what it did. Spend against plan, line by line, plus quarterly strategy reviews.

Where an assigned budget goes: sample split

40%
30%
15%
15%
Content production & creative
Paid amplification (Meta/Google)
Community & reputation
Strategy, analytics & reporting
  • Ad spend passes through at cost, with zero markup.
  • You own every account, every photo, and every video. Always.
  • No long lock-ins: a 90-day initial term, then month to month.
  • Quarterly plans add a bonus strategy session and priority production.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts13 / 16
10 · Suggested investment · per restaurant, per month

Three ways to start.
You pick the number.

Foundation
$1,500
per restaurant / month · plus a suggested $500 ad budget
  • 12 posts + 4 reels per month
  • Stories 5×/week + community management
  • Review responses across platforms
  • Monthly report + calendar approval
Best for: steady, professional presence
Recommended
Growth
$2,500
per restaurant / month · plus a suggested $750 to $1,000 ad budget
  • 16 posts + 8 reels per month
  • Monthly on-site shoot day (food, space, people)
  • Campaign creative, the standard shown in this deck
  • Paid campaigns managed (Meta + Google)
  • Google Business Profile + local SEO tuning
  • Monthly scorecard call with you
Best for: taking the #1 spot in each market
Flagship
$4,000
per restaurant / month · plus a suggested $1,500 ad budget
  • Everything in Growth, plus:
  • 2 shoot days + live event coverage (game days, dance nights)
  • TikTok launch & management (owned, not corporate)
  • Email/SMS + limited-time-offer campaigns
  • Quarterly campaign-grade creative refresh
Best for: flagship venues in season

All three venues together: shared Gatlinburg production days and cross-promotion stretch the same budget about 15% further. For context, the industry norm for restaurant marketing is 3 to 6% of revenue (the SBA suggests 7 to 8% for growth mode), so these tiers sit at the conservative end of that range. Budgets can be assigned monthly or quarterly, and rebalanced between venues as the seasons shift.

Figures are proposed starting points. Final scope is set together after an access audit.14 / 16
11 · Accountability

You'll always know what
you're paying for.

  • Content calendar approved by you before anything posts.
  • A live shared dashboard for reach, follows, saves, clicks, and spend. No year-end surprises.
  • Monthly scorecard reviewed together, line by line, against the assigned budget.
  • Real metrics only: saves, shares, direction requests, and review pace, the numbers that predict covers instead of vanity likes.
  • Quarterly business review: what worked, what didn't, and where the next dollar goes.
If a post goes up, you'll know why it went up, and what it did.
MONTHLY SCORECARD · SAMPLEPuckers · Month 3
Accounts reached128,400 ▲ 46%
New followers+1,270
Saves + shares3,940 ▲ 61%
Profile → directions / calls2,210
Reels published9 · 21K avg views
Review response rate100% < 24h
Ad results$0.42 per landing view
Spend vs assigned budget$2,500 / $2,500 · 0 over
Sample format with illustrative numbers. This is the report you'd receive every month.
Synthex × Douglas Concepts15 / 16
12 · Next steps

Live in 14 days.
Leading in 90.

Days 1 to 14 · Foundations

Own the stack

Access and accounts audit · handles and TikToks owned per venue (not corporate) · brand kits and content pillars locked · first shoot day scheduled · budgets assigned per restaurant.

Days 15 to 45 · Ignition

The new standard, live

New content system running on all three feeds · game-day, rooftop, and brunch tentpoles launched · paid campaigns live · first month of reels shipped.

Days 46 to 90 · Momentum

Optimize and compound

Double down on what the data says · first quarterly review with scorecards on the table, and next quarter's budget planned together.

Pick the budget. We'll bring the engine.
Synthex · wearesynthex.com · Proposal for Douglas Concepts, July 202616 / 16
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