Snellville Restaurant Holds 'Shark Tank' Competition for Middle Schoolers

Pizzeria Venti at the Shoppes at Webb Gin hosted a fun "Shark Tank" competition for students this week.

Twelve eighth graders from Crews Middle School's business classes were picked to present their marketing strategies for the Snellville-area restaurant in front of "judges," similar to the television show. The students were invited to sell their ideas at Pizzeria Venti over some scrumptious food, and their families were invited, too.

The idea started when Terry Moon, the owner of the Pizzeria Venti location in Webb Gin, reached out to Crews to see if there was some way his restaurant could help the school and students. Roderick Hames, who's head of the business and finance curriculum at Crews, was more than happy to work with Moon.

The pizza owner came to the school, brought food for Hames' two eighth grade classes, and asked how the students would help grow his business that had been open only since March. Moon and Ames then explained what they had to do for their "Shark Tank" competition.

"It gives the kids the opportunity to have a live audience, for a real-live activity that they can do," said Hames. 

Each student in Hames' class first wrote an essay and made a presentation in order to convince him and the class that his or her idea was the best. The top 12 students then were picked to make their final presentations in front of Moon, Hames and other "judges" at the restaurant.

Among the marketing strategies were creating a YouTube video, hosting a trivia night, giving out samples at football games, and setting up a karaoke machine and making people sing for slices of pizza. The winners were based not only on idea, but on how well it was presented, and the top three students were awarded with giftcards to Pizzeria Venti. 

First place went to a boy who presented a grassroots initiative promoting postcards and a loyalty program. The postcard would have the restaurant's Facebook page listed, along with a coupon for a free slice of pizza and instructions on how to enter a contest for free pizza for a year. The loyalty program would consist of a simple punch card that would be stamped or "punched" every time someone dined at the restaurant so that he or should could get a free meal after a certain amount of visits.

Now that the competition is over, Moon is using the ideas that were given to him to consider how he can implement them into growing his customer base.