If you’re in the food business, food festival marketing campaigns can make a real difference when it comes to being known for what you do – especially with regards to what your products look and taste like.
Over here at Eat Marketing, we’ve had the pleasure of being involved in some great food festivals, and we know what works and why. A creative campaign can go a long way… helping boost audience numbers and interest.
With that in mind, we’ve picked a few personal favourites in our six top food festival marketing campaigns.
The Wimbledon Park Food Festival is a fun day out for all the family, with lots of activities for children too. The festival boasts a wonderful range of stalls (fifty in total) presenting a delicious array of food and drink such as artisan breads, smoked BBQ pulled pork, cheeses and charcuterie to sweet offerings such as crêpes, fudge and pastries. The later festival end time of 7pm on Sunday also allows adults to enjoy beers, ales, cider, gin and chocolate wine.
Why it works: Operating under the umbrella of the Fantastic British Food Festivals brand ensures the Wimbledon Park Food Festival has a strong brand identity that is easily translatable over all parts of the country depending on the festival in question. This works by the creation of variations on the logo for each regional festival, all of which are highlighted by their own assigned colour.
Foodies Festival was created by Sue Hitchen who wanted to offer a family friendly day out with a focus on fun whilst celebrating local food and drink produce. A food festival that is proud to be loved by all ages, Foodies Festival has a varied selection of activities such as live music, top chefs, kid’s cookery school and vintage tea tents.
Why it works: These festivals are in all different cities around the country but work under the same branding for instant recognition. With party evoking bunting strewn across promotional material and baby blue kitsch colours – whichever festival you choose to visit, you can be assured of the same quality in activities and fun.
A family friendly event celebrating African cuisine, music and art in the city of Berlin, visitors can enjoy food rich stalls, live acts, art, workshops and talks as well as plenty to do for children.
Why it works: This campaign really stands out against other marketing assets associated with food festivals due to the vividly intense colours used. The logo itself incorporates the shape of Africa in the letter ‘I’ and the brand is very considered, from the colours to the font, to the playful and full of life layouts.
Richly portraying the nature of African culture through the colours and patterns in their clothing and their flavoursome food via upbeat photography and design, this in itself evokes a vibrant festival, which instantly draws visitors in.
The impressive variety of global cuisine right at the core of Carnaby’s dining scene, as well as the emphasis on highlighting its new ocean-friendly initiative, the Blue Turtle campaign ensured that Carnaby Street Eats was the place to be during the month of September.
The Blue Turtle campaign is a brilliant collaboration with ocean conservation organisation Project 0, this initiative aims to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic products whilst encouraging businesses to adopt more sustainable practises.
Why it works: This food festival marketing campaign offers the perfect balance of using nostalgia and history to draw people in as well as appealing to those who place importance on environmental initiatives.
Their fun and playful selection of brand identities takes visitors on a journey through the years and it’s so interesting how each identity shows Camden in different ways – from illustration to more of a typographic expression to a more design-led art direction.
Bringing together the biggest names in food as well as top chefs from around the world, the Sydney International Food Festival is a great place to explore different flavours.
There’s also a deeper emphasis at play; looking into where food comes from, as well as talks on sustainability and food security.
Why it works: To celebrate their World Chef Showcase Weekend, the Sydney International Food Festival developed a brilliant ad campaign to promote international cuisine.
The result? These fantastic images, created using nothing but traditional foods from each country, which were positioned to create the image of their flag:
Seventeen flags were put together in total, and here are just a few stunning examples, including the Australian flag that was created with meat pie and sauce, along with star shaped holes for the flag’s more detailed sections. Italy used basil, pasta and tomatoes for theirs, which is very apt seeing as these are the most common ingredients used in Italian cuisine. We really like South Korea’s flag too, which beautifully uses local delicacy Kimbap and dipping sauces for the black, red and white colours.
Deliveroo’s free food festival – with restaurants from all around the world under one roof - was a huge success when it was launched in May 2019 with pop ups in London, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool.
Why it works: Using pop up sites across the UK and inviting visitors in for free created a real buzz and media interest – featuring in newspapers and magazines – as well as social media posts, established the right vibe. Getting the information out there was crucial and this led to a positive snowball effect with more people seeing the information in the mainstream media as well as social media.
Their distinct branding and the popularity of Deliveroo itself also ensured the festival success.
Our pick of food festivals all have one thing in common: great branding and well thought out campaign creation. Getting your branding right and using colours, images and messages that really epitomise who you are and what you want your audience to know is so important, as well as insightful planning with a campaign.
Here at Eat, we love to talk about branding and how to successfully create a campaign that brings results and expands your reach. Whether it’s for a food festival, product launch or any other campaign, we can help.
On the 18th April we’ll be heading over to Birmingham’s NEC for the 3-day long 2016 Food & Drink Expo (FDE). FDE is a place where food producers, buyers and marketers can come together to celebrate all things culinary. We first fell for FDE in 2014 as visitors to the show, and now can’t wait to exhibit for our first time ever. To help fill you in on what will be happening during FDE 2016, we’ve put together a list of what we’re most excited about.
Fantastic fellow exhibitors
One of the main reasons we chose to exhibit at FDE is because of the other, amazing past exhibitors we’d met. From top food producers, such as Itsu Grocery, to foodie specialists like Caribbean Food Delights, there’s going to be a variety of fantastic exhibitors at this year’s event. Plus, it’ll give us a chance to keep up-to-date with latest food trends and insights, ensuring we keep our fingers on the culinary pulse.
Inspiring speakers
On top of the great exhibitions, there will also be a variety of inspiring speakers from across the industry, including some household names. Kicking off the event is Nadiya Hussain (the winner of 2015’s Great British Bake Off) with tips on baking, followed by the likes of BBC presenter Steph McGovern and Phil Vickery who will be discussing the topical subjects of obesity and sugar, and how we can continue to sell food in an era of healthy eating. Plus, Sunday Brunch’s chef, Simon Rimmer will be making an appearance, giving out top recipes that aim to reduce food waste.
We just can’t wait!
As you can see, we’ve got plenty to be excited about, and we just can’t wait to set up shop at the FDE event. From sampling some of the best food the UK has to offer, to meeting the most inspiring minds in the food industry, it’s going to be an amazing few days.
Want to keep up-to-date with us during our time at the food & drink expo? Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for all of the latest Eat Marketing photos and comments
We had a fantastic time at the NRB Show, Manchester - thank you for stopping by to see us. Maria, Thomas and the Eat Marketing team really enjoyed talking about food marketing with you all and we're pleased to say the orange, apple and wasabi cocktails served by Master Mixologist Thomas Columbo went down a storm...and so did our Eat Marketing services.
On the subject of cocktails, we would also like to say a big thank you to Thomas and Mambo Mobile Bars for entertaining the crowds at the NRB Show, Manchester and shaking up those great refreshments! We're planning even more exciting events in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled for updates.
For all those we met at the NRB Show, Manchester, we will be in touch very soon so we can chat a little more about your food marketing needs; we hope talking to us has inspired you in your food marketing plans! We're so excited about working with you all and we can't wait to show you what we can do.
If we met you at the NRB Show, Manchester, you will also have one of our food tins; this contained our brochure, which tells you all about Eat Marketing and what we do. Make sure you keep it safe and if you have any marketing needs in the future, you'll know who to call... (It's a very handy pen pot too).
Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to see us, but don't worry if you couldn’t make it to the show - our food marketing services are available to everyone in the food business, so if you need some help, guidance or inspiration, contact us today to arrange your no obligation meeting. In the meantime, take a look at some of the photos we took at the NRB Show, Manchester... We look great, don't we? Talk to us today and we'll help you look great too!
