The Ingomar Club’s General Manager, Tim Walker, CCM, shares how the club is continuing to connect with members through a new YouTube cooking series.
It was a Tuesday when we announced that we’d be closing The Ingomar Club (Eureka, Calif.) as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
At 3:30 the next morning, I had an idea. Since the closure forced us to cancel a cooking class that had been scheduled for that evening, we decided to film the recipe I was going to share during the class and email the video and recipe to the membership. By 5 PM that same evening, members were watching me from the safety of their homes as I prepared my famous Sambuca Prawns, a dish to be presented in the coming weeks on our new dinner menu.
What was originally intended as a one-off how-to video, has since evolved into a highly-anticipated series with new videos released to the membership every 2 to 3 days. The member response has been overwhelming, with almost 70% click rate and over a 50% open rate.
The club is fortunate to have Raymond DeSoto, a tech savvy bartender, who has experience editing videos. We shot the first couple videos on his iPhone, but have since stepped up to using a lavalier mic and a Panasonic GH4 camera that we set up on a tripod to keep it steady. It takes anywhere between two and three hours to shoot each video with several takes and camera angles, and then a couple hours for Raymond to edit it using Adobe Premier CC software.
We are also fortunate to have a beautiful banquet room, dining room, bar, and an entire mansion to stage our videos, which helps to keep them fun and entertaining for members until we are able to welcome them back to their club.
The video topics range from cooking programs to club history and beyond.
Check them The Ingomar Club’s video communications below:
