Pay with followers? You can eating Sushi in Milan.

You can now pay for your dinner with followers. This is the idea of a Sushi chain in Milan, This Is Not A Sushi Bar, a concept that is now becoming famous around the world.

You can now pay for your dinner with followers. Do you have more than a thousand followers? Good, then dinner is free. The idea came to mind of those geniuses of This Is Not A Sushi Bar, a dynamic chain of Milanese sushi delivery restaurants that, to help launch the sixth store near Porta Romana, in via Lazzaro Papi, chose to focus on influencers - to the extent of offering them a free dish in exchange for a post on Instagram, or even an entire free dinner, according to the number of their followers. Something of the kind has been done in London, where in exchange for a post raising awareness of the restaurant, Instagrammers were granted succulent discounts. But no one had tried to show that followers could be equivalent to real money.

Credits @thisisnotsushibar

They did it, and are first in the world. So much so that after the launch of the initiative in early October, the news from Milan has travelled the world to over 70 countries, attracting the attention of the great international press. Even The New York Times, as well as El Pais and The Telegraph, have talked about them. Then the news arrived in China, Russia and Argentina.

Not bad, considering that they simply sell a plate of sushi for a few euros. In short, paying with followers is pure avant-garde. " Seeing as we see the possibility of becoming an entirely cashless chain in our future, that is, all forms of digital payment will be accepted - Tommaso Pittarello, marketing manager of the Milanese chain, tells us at HostelsClub - ''we decided to go all in in terms of payment. And from here came the idea of using Instagram, a choice that was made based on our regular data analysis where we realized an important fact that was new for us: a large slice of the most enthusiastic customers of This Is Not A Sushi Bar were women under 25 and their preferred communication channel was IG".

Credits @thisisnotsushibar

A success that was not entirely predicted, adds Tommaso: "We expected it to go viral perhaps in Italy and in other European countries, since we were the first to permanently use a social media post as "money", but we didn't believe that the news would literally travel around the world, a tour that has not yet finished, as we continue to receive requests for interviews and insights from every corner of the planet". On the other hand, what is money if not a shared value? Just think of bitcoins or other digital coins and you can begin to understand. And yet, many have turned their noses up at us. Some observers have talked about apocalyptic scenarios. Others saw us as an anticipation of the disturbing future shown in the Black Mirror TV series released by Netflix. This critiques coming almost exclusively from the Italian press.

Credits @alexmiglioreal

"We go forward thanks to the criticisms, which had been abundantly taken into account. So far they have been few and very constructive, to the extent that they have sparked an interesting debate that urges us to continue and tell people about what is happening", replies Tommaso. "They accused us of killing social side and conviviality of the meal, but the truth is that the customer response has surprised us too. The dozens of micro-influencers who came to see us interacted with each other, in the flesh, making friends and having fun. Even in the company of friends who are totally anti-social. This is something that generally does not happen at the tables of a restaurant. We invite all the detractors who have criticized us without having personally been here to come and visit us. We can all eat a sushi together".

Credits @barbaracammarea

And it seems to have worked. In less than a month the Instagram profile of the chain has grown more than double. "Mass Influencer participation: very good, 90% of our business is delivery and the place is small, so the food cost of the dishes we offer for free, even if they were dozens a day, is justified as an advertising investment. In other words, we organized the operation so that it was a leap in the dark with a soft landing ... In any case, what we have created, with all due respect to those who want to outline dystopian scenarios from the end of the world, is a game for our old customers or new, and for us".

Credits @nicolo_federico_ferrari

For those who are passing through Milan in one of our hostels, a really recommend a stop at This Is Not A Sushi Bar, where you are sure to have fun and save some cash. And for those who fear the arrival of a dystopian future, dominated by a "dystopia in soy sauce", all that remains is to hope for the opposite, regardless of what you see on TV or read somewhere. Imagination is more powerful than bad luck.