How Restaurants Earn From Sponsored Dispensers

What 'earn' means in a sponsored dispenser program

Owners hear 'free dispensers' and wonder what the catch is, or whether there's a check coming. Usually the honest answer is no check. The benefit shows up as money you don't spend.

Every restaurant already buys napkins, and most buy dispensers or holders at some point, then replace them when they crack, fade or go missing. A sponsor covers the equipment and keeps it looking good because their advertisers' cards depend on it.

If a program promises you a share of ad revenue, get it in writing, including how it's calculated and when it's paid.

The costs a sponsor takes off your books

Add these up for your own restaurant to see what the program is worth to you. Use your own supplier invoices, since prices vary by distributor and volume.

• Buying a dispenser for every table, plus spares for breakage.
• Replacing dispensers that get cracked, stained or walk off.
• The starter supply of napkins that comes with the program.
• Printing your own table signage, since the window is already filled and maintained.
• Staff time spent hunting for a matching dispenser model when one breaks.

How one-at-a-time dispensing affects your napkin bill

Sponsored dispensers are usually the interfold, one-at-a-time style. Each pull gives one napkin, so a guest who wants five has to pull five times. Compared with open stacks or packed chrome holders, that design is meant to slow down handful-grabbing.

We don't promise a specific drop. Your usage depends on your menu, your crowd and your staff habits. Count the cases you open per week before the dispensers arrive and for a few months after, and you'll have your own number.

What the restaurant gives in return

The trade is space in the dispenser window. A printed card for a local business faces your guests on every table. At Next Bite Media that card is 6.5 × 4.25 in, landscape, full color on heavy card stock.

Your staff refill the dispensers with standard interfold napkins after the starter supply runs out, the same way they'd refill any dispenser. The sponsor handles everything else: designing and printing the cards, installing them, and checking them on regular route visits.

Control over which ads appear on your tables

The biggest worry for owners is losing control of what guests see. A program worth joining puts you in charge.

• You approve every advertiser before their card goes on your tables.
• You can ask for any ad to be removed.
• No ads for other restaurants, food businesses, delivery apps or beverage brands, so you never promote a competitor.
• No political, adult, alcohol, tobacco or cannabis ads.
• One advertiser per category, so your tables don't turn into a wall of competing dentists.

Working out the savings for your own restaurant

You don't need a spreadsheet to see whether a sponsored program is worth it. Pull last year's invoices from your restaurant supply distributor and answer four questions with your own numbers.

If the answers are small, the program is still a convenience: matching dispensers on every table, someone else handling breakage, and no contract to get out of if you change your mind. If the answers are large, it's real money staying in the business.

• How many tables, counter spots and patio seats need a dispenser?
• What did you spend on dispensers and replacements in the past year or two?
• How many cases of napkins do you open in a normal week?
• How much do you spend printing your own table signage?

Questions to ask before you sign up

Whether you work with us or someone else, get clear answers to these before dispensers go on your tables.

• Is there a contract, a minimum term or a removal fee?
• Who owns the dispensers, and what happens to them if I leave?
• Which napkins fit, and where can I buy refills?
• How often does someone visit, and do I need to be there?
• How do I approve or reject an advertiser, and how fast is an ad removed?
• Which ad categories are never allowed?