Based in Houston, Texas, Pinot's Palette combines the centuries-old appreciation of wine and art to create fun experiences for friends, families, and coworkers. The company, which opened in 2009, now has studios throughout the United States and hosts thousands of painters each week. With more than 190 locations nationwide, Pinot's Palette is the fastest-growing paint and sip franchise in the country.

"The traditional description of Pinot's Palette is that we are a 'paint and sip,' meaning that we paint, drink, and have fun!" explains Terri McCulloch, SVP of Marketing. "I would say that we offer an exceptional entertainment experience. It's about bringing creativity to the table through painting, but it's also social. It's singing, and dancing, and just having a good time — whether it's a date night with your partner, or your girls' night out. And it makes for excellent private parties. We offer an alternative opportunity to going to a nightclub or a bar, plus the opportunity to release some stress through creativity."

The Challenge

For McCulloch, maintaining accurate brand information is a top priority. "Digital to me is extremely important," she says. "We use reporting data to look at the demographics around each of our studio locations. Once a franchisee's lease is signed, we create a strategic marketing plan around them. What we see, over and over, is how digitally dependent our prospective customers are when it comes to researching and then finding our studios. So we know that we have to be front and center online."

McCulloch knew she would need a single, centralized platform to control all of this important information.

The Solution

Pinot's Palette uses Yext to manage the public facts about its brand. Yext enables brands like Pinot's Palette to update and maintain important brand information across their websites, mobile apps, internal systems, and the entire Knowledge Network — more than 150 maps, apps, search engines, GPS systems, and social networks including Google, Apple, Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo.

"We do something really cool to help new franchisees learn how to use Yext effectively," explains McCulloch. "We do a Facebook Live video in a private group every Monday called 'Marketing Monday.' And we do a 'Yext Tip of the Week' during that event. It may be hyper-focused on an initiative that we have going on, or we might give them a more general tip or a reminder. For example, we have some studios that are BYOB, and then we have other studios that actually have bars. Well, we encourage the studios that have bars to go in and create menus and integrate them into their dashboard, so that will push out for listings that allow for it. And in a recent 'Yext Tip of the Week,' we encouraged them to enter a message about our Valentine's Day promos into a Featured Message — and to include the URL to their specific Valentine's Day landing page. So we just remind franchisees to do things like this, and they're very engaged with the dashboard."

The Results

Since launch, Pinot's Palette has driven over 2.8 million clicks to its listings while experiencing a YoY growth rate of 30%. This includes 35% year-over-year growth in direction clicks, 32% year-over-year growth in website clicks, and 25% year-over-year growth in phone call clicks.

The Difference

Looking ahead, McCulloch plans to continue to strengthen the foundation her team has established with Yext. "We have been working with our franchise owners on selecting images that reflect the experiences customers have in the studio," she says. "Just showing a picture of a painting that you can do isn't going to emotionally engage with the person viewing your profile. But being able to see what they'll actually experience with us — that's what's going to give them that gut check, and make them say, 'Geez I really want to come in and try that!' So we're focusing on helping our franchise owners capture the fun, entertainment, and experience of being in the studios."