We Learned the Hard Way: The Mistake That Changed Our Approach

Early in my journey working with pubs and clubs, I made a mistake that I see agencies make all the time.  At the time, it felt like the right thing to do.

I took what I’d learned from larger hospitality clients and applied it to a local venue. Professional photography. Polished visuals. A clean content calendar that looked great in a presentation. On paper, it was solid. In reality, it failed.

When “Good Marketing” Didn’t Work

The venue did everything asked of them.

• The photos looked sharp.
• The posts were well written.
• The schedule was consistent.

But the community didn’t engage. Likes were low. Comments were rare. Events didn’t fill. Behind the scenes, something else was happening.

The staff were struggling to keep up with the system we’d put in place. The content required planning, approvals, and ongoing effort that didn’t match how the venue actually operated day to day.

It wasn’t a lack of care. It wasn’t a lack of effort. It was a mismatch.

The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong

As the weeks went on, the pressure started to build.

• Staff felt overwhelmed.
• Committees questioned the value.
• Confidence in the marketing began to slip.

I found myself asking a hard question.

Why does this look right, but feel so wrong?

That’s when it became clear. I wasn’t helping the venue show who they were. I was trying to make them look like something else.

More polished. More corporate. More like a big hospitality brand.

The Lesson That Changed Everything

Local venues don’t need to look impressive. They need to look familiar.

They need marketing that reflects the reality of the venue, fits around how staff actually work, feels natural to maintain, and resonates with the community they already serve.

The failure wasn’t the venue’s fault. It was mine for assuming that what works at scale also works locally.

That moment forced me to stop chasing what looked good and start paying attention to what actually connected.

Why This Failure Mattered

That experience changed the way I approached venue marketing entirely.

I stopped thinking in terms of campaigns and content calendars. I started thinking in terms of systems and sustainability.

What could staff realistically do? What would still work when things got busy? What would still feel authentic six months down the track?

Those questions became the foundation for everything that followed.

How This Shaped Our Approach Today

The frameworks and tools we use now exist because of that early failure.

They are designed to reduce pressure on staff, remove unnecessary complexity, prioritise authenticity over polish, and fit the real conditions venues operate under.

It wasn’t a comfortable lesson to learn. It was a necessary one.

Without that mistake, we would still be building marketing that looks good instead of marketing that actually works.

That early failure still shapes how we work with venues today. It informs the systems we build, the expectations we set, and the way we measure success.

It was the point where we stopped trying to be a traditional agency and started building something specifically for local venues. Marketing that prioritises authenticity over polish, and systems that staff can actually use.

That failure led directly to what we now call the WARM Method.