The UK’s takeaway marketplace hungryhouse.co.uk first appeared on Dragons' Den, the hit BBC TV show, in November 2007.

Launched in 2006, hungryhouse.co.uk was projected into the limelight after a successful appearance on the fifth series of the business investment programme.

Business tycoons James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne shook hands on a £100,000 deal with hungryhouse.co.uk, having been impressed with the pitch which demonstrated the benefits of ordering home delivered takeaway food via the internet.

Investment was offered and accepted from another investor after the show initially aired.

Graeme Horne, Marketing Manager of the takeaway website believes that other entrepreneurs and businesses considering applying to be part of the show would appreciate a breakdown of the benefits the appearance had for the site.

Graeme had the following to say,

"We’ve had a number of companies interested in applying for the show ask us just how useful the appearance was in the weeks following the airing of both episodes, and I thought other marketing professionals and business owners would appreciate finding out."

Following the 2 dates the episode went to air, November 19th and 20th 2007, the site saw massive changes in the following metrics:

2007 statistics:

Site traffic – 48,000 visits in 3 days (+2,400% on expected)

Conversion – much lower than normal, falling from 20% to just 1% on the days immediately following the show, indicating many visitors were "window shoppers", not looking to make an immediate purchase.

Increase in orders – 30% increase in sales week-on-week

2010 statistics, following the Dragons’ Den: What Happened Next with Duncan Bannatyne show, aired on just the one occasion – September 24th:

Site traffic – 37,050 extra visits in 5 days

Conversion – fell from our average of 20% down to 8%, representing our customer base being diluted to a lesser extent on this occasion.

Increase in orders – there was a surge in new customers using the website following the show airing on Friday 24th. On Saturday 25th, sales were 20 – 25% higher than on any previous Saturday this September – up over 85% Y.O.Y.

Graeme had the following to say with regards to the surge in traffic,

"The first time hungryhouse.co.uk was on Dragons’ Den in November 2007, the site saw a spike in traffic on the 2 days that the show aired, and then a big water-cooler effect giving us more traffic the day after. Following that, website traffic quickly fell back to a permanently increased base level.

"In contrast, following the 2010 show, we saw a strong tail of thousands of additional visitors in the week after the initial airing. This really demonstrates how time-shifted formats such as BBC iPlayer and Sky+ have affected TV consumption in the last couple of years. Many more people are watching the show when it’s convenient for them, rather than when broadcast."

He continued,

"In the 20 minutes during and just after the hungryhouse.co.uk feature was aired, we received just fewer than 11,000 visits. Normally at that time on a Friday night we would expect around 1,500.

"Coping with 7 times your normal peak traffic is always going to be difficult – we knew this from the first time we were on Dragons’ Den! Our IT team spent a couple of months preparing this time round – installing new servers and optimising our databases. In terms of the quality of traffic, visitors from Dragons’ Den exposure tended to bounce less, view more pages, and spend longer on site than new visitors from search or affiliate marketing. This source of traffic sets an all time record for the highest quality; most engaged new visitors that we have ever attracted."

Since appearing on the show, hungryhouse.co.uk has grown to offer more than 2,500 restaurants to the hungry British public. The site facilitates more than £200,000 worth of takeaway orders every week, and allows users to utilise more than 130,000 customer ratings to choose the perfect takeaway restaurant delivering in their area.

Shane Lake, co-founder of hungryhouse.co.uk had the following to say,

"Our appearance on Dragons’ Den was fantastic for the brand, and although we didn’t go ahead with investment from the Dragons after the show, when the show aired it was undoubtedly fantastic for our profile.

"We thought other businesses considering applying for the show would benefit from seeing just how the appearance helped our business – as it’s not something we’d ever seen spoken about before."