The food PR market is a ferociously competitive one, and a difficult place to introduce any new product. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, when one of our beloved clients tasked us with doing just that, and turning a fresh idea into a household name, we relished the opportunity.
Here’s how we came up with the recipe for success.
 
Objective
Smoking Gun’s tastiest brand, Flava-it, tasked the team with launching three special edition ‘Meat Lust’ varieties of marinades. The desired outcome being their product in the hands of a new target consumer group- males aged 18-30- along with influential media outlets, supported by a social media campaign using innovative and original content.
 
Strategy & Plan
Your campaign is only as good as the place you choose to unveil it, and with that in mind we looked to one of London’s foodie hotspots, Old Spitalfields Market, for a pop-up event. Holding a full day of taste-testing, we supplemented the lure of the delicious product by offering people the chance to get involved with a selfie competition, giving us plenty of highly shareable online content, creating a digital buzz around the push.
In addition, we also invited major lifestyle and food bloggers to the event, and offered journalists couriered samples, delivered direct to their office, arriving warm and ready to be devoured, prioritising men’s titles based in the capital. Meanwhile, outside the UK’s biggest city, we sourced and shared foodie news throughout the campaign, devised and seeded a #MeatLust infographic, worked with The Flava People’s in-house chef on recipe tips for lifestyle media, and arranged local business profiling.
 
Measurement and evaluation 
As an agency that has won awards for the quality of, and innovative approach to, measurement and evaluation, our aim was to assess our performance as comprehensively as possible. So, we measured the results not only on the number of cuttings we received to pass on to the client, but also the penetration of the key product message in relevant media, and the ensuing social media buzz.
 
Results
25 pieces of coverage in men’s lifestyle, food, and other relevant blogs, affording no less than 7.5million opportunities to see the Flava-it brand; hits in Shortlist, Zoo, and Men’s Fitness increasing brand awareness within the target demographic; 155,000 social media impressions on the day of the tasting event; and a contract for Flava-it to cater Yelp London’s ‘Endless Summer Party’ all speak volumes about our achievements.