Playing the fame game

Forget drab marketing campaigns, Millions of Milkshakes’ founder Sheeraz Hasan reveals how celebrity connections can make your F&B brand A-list overnight

Soon, thirsty consumers will be able to visit Dubai Mall for a milkshake and bring home a skinny Kardashian or a medium Miley, among a whole lot of celebrity treats.

Millions of Milkshakes, the American build-your-own-shake brand, was officially opened by guest celebrity Kim Kardashian in Dubai Mall on October 14, and the café’s customers can now create their own shake by blending their choice of ice cream or yogurt with more than 50 toppings, giving millions of milkshake combinations.

But what makes the outlet unique is founder Sheeraz Hasan’s special relationship with the biggest names in Hollywood.

The American dream
In 1991 aged 16, Hasan took over his family’s struggling London restaurant business. Renaming it Tinseltown Café, he turned it into a 24-hour, Hollywood-themed eatery and before long it was a thriving success. In 2002, with no experience, skills, or contacts in the entertainment business he moved to Hollywood with the vision of opening a milkshake bar like the one he had pioneered at the London restaurant.

However, it was a chance encounter with Rowland Perkins, founder of Creative Artists Agency – the biggest talent agency in the world – that catapulted Hasan into the Hollywood movie scene. In 2005, Hasan launched Hollywood.TV, which within a year became the top-rated celebrity media company in the world. Today it is viewed in 270 countries by over two billion viewers.

It’s who you know
Hasan’s heart had always been in F&B, and so in October 2008 – six years after arriving in Los Angeles – he opened Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood.

Putting his red-carpet contacts to good use, Hasan invited some of the world’s biggest stars to the new café. Soon the mass media were there too, reporting on celebrity visits and even creating their own milkshakes for posterity, which led to the introduction of the celebrity signature menu.

In its first 12 months of opening, Millions of Milkshakes became the fastest-growing restaurant brand in America.

Bringing the buzz to Dubai
The Dubai branch is the brand’s third outlet and the first franchise outside of the US, and Hasan expects it to be every bit as successful. He hopes recruiting Kim Kardashian for the launch will kick off the Hollywood buzz.

“Kim has a huge following in the Middle East. She has a huge social-network following of almost 10 million people on Twitter and seven million on Facebook – she’s media gold,” he says. “I wanted to go after a celebrity who can drive media. You can either take 10 years to let people know about your brand, or you can spend money and do it overnight.

“Get the right celebrity, the right public-relations strategy and everyone will know about you. Then if the product and service are good, you’re off to a great start.”

Stars and sustainability
Hasan says too many F&B brands go wrong, spending millions of dollars on the fit-out, but sparing little or no money for the marketing budget.

“Nice décor might be news but it is not worldwide news. You need to stand out from the crowd,” he enthuses. “When you’re launching a brand, the best way to get maximum leverage from the media is to tie it in with a star and customise the content to the region.”

Localisaton of the Dubai branch will come later, says Hasan. “Our formula is unique because we want to connect fans with stars. Stars meet and greet the fans; the customers can take photos and get autographs and choose the milkshake flavour the star made.”

On a roll
While in Hollywood 70% of the brand’s customer base is teenage girls, the Dubai branch expects more families.

“We’re targeting expatriates and locals, but the brand is universal,” explains Hasan. “We want to strategically open in the right locations and then roll it out, starting with Dubai, then Abu Dhabi, before moving over to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.”

Hasan expects to see lots of outlets jumping on the celebrity-association bandwagon, but doesn’t take any as competition: “I run one of the biggest content providers for celebrity news in America which is why I deal with stars on a one-on-one basis, and we have a strong PR backbone.

“It can be done, but they’ll have to have some serious money,” he concludes.