What if every dollar you spent on restaurant growth came with proof it worked? That’s the guarantee you get with Upside.

A pay-for-performance model built for margin discipline

Rather than paying for impressions, clicks, or broad promotions, Upside restaurant partners pay only for verified, profitable incremental transactions. 

This aligns business investments directly with business outcomes, and gives finance, marketing, and operations teams a shared, measurable growth lever. For a brand built on everyday value and disciplined economics, Upside removes guesswork, limits waste, and ensures performance is proven — not assumed.

Finance-grade measurement of true incrementality

Upside uses a test-vs-control methodology to determine which guest visits were truly incremental and which would have occurred anyway. Performance is quantified across metrics that matter to brands and portfolio companies, including:

• Incremental guest visits
• Visit frequency and repeat behavior
• Spend per visit
• ROI by customer segment and location

How it works in practice

Upside helps restaurants drive incremental traffic without broad discounting by targeting new and frequent diners and adjusting offers as behavior changes. 

In one example, a large Applebee’s franchisee partnered with Upside across its footprint and achieved:

• 127% increase in average monthly transaction count
• 5% increase in average transaction size

Those results were independently validated through a MarketDial analysis, reinforcing credibility for organizations seeking statistically sound proof of impact. 

What this means for Olive Garden

Olive Garden’s growth strategy depends on driving incremental traffic while preserving everyday value and industry-leading margins. As the brand expands into new markets and fills white space within existing markets, success requires attracting new and infrequent guests while remaining profitable — which means without broad discounting.

Upside supports this by directing measurable, incremental visits to the locations and dayparts that matter most, from new-unit openings to dine-in and off-peak periods. With a performance-based model and finance-grade measurement, Upside delivers growth that’s provable, scalable, and aligned with Olive Garden’s disciplined approach to expansion.

The payoff: Growth you can see and prove

For restaurant brands focused on sustainable, profitable growth, Upside delivers measurable progress where it counts most. For Olive Garden, Upside could drive:

• Incremental traffic
• Higher visit frequency 
• Higher intent to return
• Transparent, finance-grade ROI validation

It’s growth that’s accountable, repeatable, and built to scale. Reach out to learn how Upside can support Olive Garden’s goals for disciplined, profitable expansion.