“Only On Venga Priceless Prizes” promotion launched

Social media-savvy young people packed Cities restaurant Wednesday night for the launch of Winston Bao Lord’s newest promotion for Venga, a free mobile app and source for what’s happening at DC restaurants and bars.

The promotion “rewards Venga users with social experiences that money can’t buy,” said Lord, president of Venga, at the event which drew 200-plus people.

“We have 30,000 eyeballs for Venga,” Lord told the Dish when asked how Venga is doing overall.

What’s more, he said, over 100 restaurants are using the service, including all of the Clyde’s restaurants, 1789 Restaurant, the Palm, Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, Buddha Bar, Ceiba, and Chief Geoff’s.

“We have turned the corner” he said of the relatively new service.

“This promotion is a way for us to focus on our loyal users, thanking them with unique rewards that you simply cannot put a price tag on,” said Venga Chairman and co-founder Reg Stettinius. “We have designed the prices so they can be shared by winners and their friends. In fact, the more a user tells friends about the promotion, the better their chances are to win.”

A new prize will be rolled out every two weeks, and Venga users will be eligible to win these awards, such as free dinners and brunches, cocktail-making classes, and wine tastings.

Venga alerts users on a real-time basis to specials, products and events.  Someone looking for a spur-of-the-moment activity, for example, could learn from Venga that a restaurant only a few blocks away is having a wine-tasting, or a happy hour, or a live jazz brunch.   

Venga –which translates in Italian and Spanish to “C’mon, let’s go” -- is a free app available on the IPhone and Android. The mobile site for Blackberry and other smartphone users will be released soon.  Venga, based in DC, plans to expand to other cities later this year.