• It aims to help food and beverage outlets, affected by the latest disruptions to the hospitality industry, to drive more customers through the door

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – ItsRaw.ai, a new restaurant public relations platform, is promising to help restaurant founders share their news and offers for ‘the price of a brunch’. With AI assistance, the platform guides restaurant marketing teams and even ‘untrained’ operators, to create newsworthy content in minutes. It is initially targeting the UAE restaurant industry, which spends an estimated $1 billion (over AED 3.7 billion) per year on marketing and PR services.

Priced from AED 367 ($100) per month, the platform provides either ‘self-write’ or ‘AI assisted’ content. This copy can be used across the restaurant’s own website or shared with an extensive list of key media, bloggers, influencers and food critics.

The platform was developed by the founders of marketing and PR agency duke+mir (Jonathan Ivan-Duke and Mir Murtaza Khurshid), along with an expert development team across the UAE and UK. 

From restaurant managers looking for a fast way to share information about their latest deals, to established hospitality teams, ItsRaw.ai is designed to streamline the process and help restaurants be more discoverable through media, on Google and popular AI platforms like ChatGPT. 

The process for restaurants

The platform is powered by proprietary technology, allowing users to create and distribute content in three easy steps:

  1. The restaurant fills out a profile with key information, so it ‘learns’ about the location, cuisine, menu items and unique selling points
  2. To create a press release, the user adds information about their latest news or offers, through guided options
  3. Once the content is created, users can send to media across the UAE

ItsRaw.ai co-founder, Jonathan Ivan-Duke said, “We help restaurants of all sizes share their stories to help drive more customers through the door. There are more than 28,000 F&B outlets across the UAE and we need to support them, now more than ever. We enable any restaurateur, regardless of their marketing experience or budgets, to tell a great story about their venue.”

Mir Murtaza Khurshid, ItsRaw.ai co-founder added, “In the time it takes to boil an egg, you can set up a restaurant profile, tell the platform about your latest offers and send to a refined media database. We believe it is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to share restaurant stories with the most influential audiences.”

The platform also aims to solve a key pain point for media editors. It structures content to ensure information such as restaurant name, location, timings, price and booking details are all included, making it easier to write about or visit for a review.

The founding team has a rich background in public relations, successfully running marketing and PR agency duke+mir for over five years. Ivan-Duke is a former Sky broadcast journalist and previously led in-house public relations for a FTSE 100 company, before moving to the Middle East to launch major brands such as Airbnb and Savills to the region. Born and raised in Abu Dhabi, Khurshid has more than 15 years of experience leading integrated marketing campaigns covering renowned brands such as Five Guys, Tashas Group and Taj Hotels, supporting acclaimed chefs including Joël Robuchon and Pierre Gagnaire, and UAE showstoppers like Il Borro, Hutong and 99 Sushi. 

The platform name is inspired by bringing raw ingredients together with the right technique to create something special. ItsRaw.ai aims to provide restaurants with limited budgets, with a more cost-effective way of reaching different audiences.

Khurshid added, “Restaurants often struggle to create visibility. ItsRaw provides these businesses with an alternative way to share content, to complement social media spend and aggregator activity.”

To find out more, visit ItsRaw.ai or contact the team at info@itsraw.ai. 

About ItsRaw.ai

Founded by seasoned marketing, PR and technology specialists, ItsRaw.ai provides a fast and effective way for restaurants to create more visibility on trusted media channels. The web-based platform helps individuals to create newsworthy content through a series of guided questions. 

For media, bloggers and influencers, it ensures that crucial information such as price, timings, location and booking information are always included – a key pain point identified by many editors.

To find out more, visit itsraw.ai

Media contact: info@itsraw.ai