Last updated May 27, 2020

We encourage owners and managers of local restaurants to join WAF. It is a great way to connect with the foodie community; many of your guests are WAF members, and the group consists of over 25,000 local foodies who love knowing about the best places to dine.

We created WAF to be a discussion forum.

Discussions

We encourage the industry professionals in WAF to engage in discussions. Dozens of new discussion threads start each day, often asking for recommendations or ideas.

We don’t have a problem with you recommending your establishment in response to a request. However, don’t interject recommendations for your business where they’re not asked for. And blatant self-promotion is frowned upon. Answer the question and give the information requested, but don’t turn your answer into an ad. That will most likely get deleted.

So what about advertising?

Advertising

Many food groups allow unlimited advertising by restaurants; the result is a group that’s full of ads, with very little discussion. From the beginning, we had a different vision for WAF.

To achieve that, we have a unique solution that meets the needs of restaurants and of WAF members. We offer both a sponsorship program, and a separate forum for free ads. Details are presented below.

Free Advertising

Times are tough. Restaurants are struggling to survive. To help them, we created another group that’s associated with WAF. It’s called Woodlands Area Restaurant Ads, and it’s a place for restaurants to advertise their specials to the WAF members who are interested in seeing lots of ads.

We feel that this is a great compromise between the desires of restaurants to advertise for free, and our desire for WAF to be about discussions.

Interested in sponsoring? Contact us.

Sponsorship

Unlike a lot of groups, WAF does have monthly expenses. To fund these activities, we created a sponsorship program for restaurants and other businesses that want to connect with the WAF audience.

First, where does the money go?

  • We operate two websites (this one and our TWTX.co dining guide).
  • TWTX.co has become the go-to guide for foodies in the Woodlands. We publish numerous articles, including restaurant first looks and in-depth reviews, cuisine guides, and more. The site has become incredibly popular, and often appears atop search listings. Recommendations and listings on the guide are not for sale; they are based on the experiences of our anonymous review panel during their unannounced, uncomped visits.
  • We created the first online guide that informed patrons about restaurants in the area offering curbside pickup, delivery, or dine-in options.
  • When restaurants shut down due to the pandemic, we created the WAF Helps program, providing grants to hospitality industry professionals who found themselves out of work. To date, WAF Helps has distributed over $3,000 to those in need. We were featured in Houstonia Magazine for these efforts.
  • We publish the COVID-19 Restaurant Response Report based on member observations of practices designed to make the environment safer during the pandemic.
  • We host happy hours, dinners, and brunches after researching restaurants and determining which ones have the food, services, and facilities that will make these events successful. (Suspended during the pandemic.)
  • We present the Woodlands Culinary Awards each year, recognizing those organizations and individuals who most impress WAF members.

To fund these activities, we created a sponsorship program that allows restaurants and other businesses who wish to support WAF to work as partners with us.

We limit the number of restaurants that can participate in the sponsorship program.

Interested in sponsoring? Contact us.

Sponsorship Program

Restaurants and businesses who become WAF sponsors are recognized on the home page of this Woodlands Area Foodies Website. You’re letting our 25,000+ members know that you support all of our efforts in the foodie community. It’s a great way to show that you’re engaged with your local community.

Restaurants and businesses who become WAF sponsors can also post up to one sponsored message each week. These messages can be weekly specials, events, staff introductions, or anything else they choose (within the limits of common sense, Facebook rules, and WAF guidelines). Sponsored posts can include images or video.

(If circumstances require you to post more than one message per week, we discuss creating a program that will accommodate your needs.)

Unlike other online ads, sponsored posts are visible to ALL of the 25,000+ WAF members. Sponsorship is a very cost effective way to get your message in front of a large audience of local foodies. Top local establishments like Fielding’s and Peli Peli are long-term WAF sponsors, and have had great success working with WAF to get their message out to hungry guests.

Sponsoring restaurants may also join WAF under their restaurant’s identity, as well as their staff’s personal accounts. (Non-sponsors may only join and interact under their personal accounts.)

Cost of sponsorship is $120 per month. That’s $30 per ad; currently a CPM of $1.30 (assuming 23K members); the lowest you’ll find in any targeted media.

Discounts are available if longer terms are prepaid; a three-month sponsorship costs $100 per month, and an annual sponsorship costs $75 per month.

Interested in sponsoring? Contact us.