Upstream Hospitality Group operates a growing portfolio of high-volume restaurants across the Northeast, including the popular Tap Room and Bango. Known for buzzy environments and broad menus that appeal to sports fans, brunch crowds, and late-night diners alike, Upstream combines hospitality-driven service with data-informed strategy.

When Phil Smith joined the team as the Director of Marketing, he was looking for a better way to evaluate and optimize the many offers the group runs across in-store, email, and third-party platforms. Third-party marketplaces were a particular area of focus – highly competitive, easy to overspend on, and hard to measure accurately.

In evaluating ways to improve third-party offer performance, he turned to Bikky to compare approaches and double down on what delivered impact.

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Like many restaurants, Upstream used third-party platform suggestions to shape their delivery strategy. That meant running popular, default offers like BOGOs of top-selling items to drive visibility and compete on value and sales. 

Although the offers generated sales, the items included were often operationally difficult for the team to execute and didn’t always make sense as BOGO options. Phil also couldn’t tell whether the promotions were creating loyal guests or just driving one-time orders. He wanted to ensure that if they were giving away a free item, they were maximizing the chances of bringing that guest back for a second visit.

“We were running BOGO sandwich offers because Uber recommended it, and these offers were doing fine, but we had no idea if those people were coming back again.” 

With Bikky, Phil was able to dig into guest behavior and identify which menu items were driving retention – not just sales. In the absence of guest-level data from UberEats orders, he realized that using Bikky’s menu retention insights to choose which items to run BOGOs on was far better than guessing.

He found that sliders and boneless wings were their highest retention menu items– far better than the sandwiches they had been running on BOGO. Just as importantly, they were easier for the kitchen to prep and more logical items to order in a BOGO. So he made the switch. Upstream replaced BOGO sandwich deals with new offers on sliders and boneless wings across third-party marketplaces. 

“While we don’t have third-party data, Bikky helps us figure out which items drive the most repeat visits, and make smarter decisions on what we promote.” — Phil Smith

Phil saw a measurable uptick in third-party sales. Just as important, the offers aligned with what guests actually wanted and what the kitchen could execute efficiently.

Using Bikky allowed Upstream to move from assumption to insight, improving retention and execution at the same time. And for Phil, the biggest win was having a clear, repeatable method for evaluating what works – and what doesn’t.

“I’ve used a lot of tools in my career, but Bikky’s the only one that helps connect the dots between what people order, what we promote, and what actually works. I think we’ve just scratched the surface with what Bikky can do.” 

Phil’s success with third-party offers is just the beginning. He’s now using Bikky to test and measure promotions across channels – from email and SMS to giveaways and holiday gift card campaigns. His team is tracking how gift cards are used, which informs how to improve their future incentives. 

As Phil continues to build smarter CRM segments and refine audience targeting, he is confident that Bikky will help Upstream stay ahead of the curve. With better data and clearer visibility, Upstream is turning third-party challenges into strategic wins – one smarter offer at a time.