PRontheGO: PR experts in food and beverage talk about their PR success stories
Tags: Public Relations, Publicity, Food And Beverage, Marketing, Marketing Tips

PRontheGO: PR experts in food and beverage talk about their PR success stories PRontheGO Feb 7, 2019·5 min read

We asked PR experts in the food and beverage industry about their latest success stories, how they create a buzz for new food /beverage businesses, and how small business owners can do something similar. Here’s their PR insights for food & beverage startups:

Jenna Oltersdorf started the PR agency Snackbox 12 years ago with a focus on food and beverage public relations work. They’ve served as an agency of record for a wide range of consumer packaged goods and quick serve restaurants throughout the U.S. Here are a few things that Jenna recommends to food & beverage startups:

Grand opening events are great for industry and local coverage

• Set up an area with key VIPs complete with a large red ribbon and giant scissors • Invite local dignitaries like mayor and city council for a photo opp • Submit calendar entries to local press to capitalize on the event • Offer something for free (think: first 100 people in line get a year’s worth of free bagels)

Local television is phenomenal for on-air cooking demonstrations

• Prepare a unique recipe that is timely (think: chocolate for Valentine’s Day, eggs for spring, etc.) • Offer to make the recipe on air for local and national TV • We’ve had tremendous success here for clients like Smoothie King, Einstein Bros. Bagels, The Biem Butter Sprayer and more

Unique, creative uses

• Build an attention-grabbing PR campaign focused on the sheer uniqueness of a story • Track your coverage to determine the friendliest reporters • Build relationships with your friendlies for repeat coverage

Find some more insights on the topic with Snackbox’s case studies:

The Biem: How do you launch a kitchen gadget that no one knows they need?

Smoothie King: How do you educate consumers about a purpose-driven brand?

David Rudolph is a managing partner at D. Ericson & Associates Public Relations in Detroit. One of his specialties is food and beverage communication. He works with a number of chef owners and restaurateurs who are always looking to set themselves apart.

One of my clients is celebrity Chef Maxcel Hardy, owner of River Bistro and Coop Caribbean Fusion in Detroit. Chef Max was born in Detroit, but raised in south Florida and came into his own while working in NYC. Two years ago he decided to come to Detroit to be a part of growing food culture here. His journey to becoming Detroit’s hottest chef is partly my story for helping him communicate his ideas.

Get to know your community

When Chef Max got to Detroit we began introducing him to the community through a series of events that allowed him to just cook and let Detroiters taste the success.

Begin to tell your story

Everyone has a story and great PR is built around finding the stories best to share. Detroit loves its own and been inviting ex-pats to come back and help in the resurgence. Knowing this, a simple PR initiative was designed to just let “chef be chef” when ever asked about his culinary pedigree, celebrity clients or travels around the world, we helped Chef Max just be authentic and allow people to through him and his vision for wanting to improve the culinary life in Detroit.

Have a vision and want to make a culinary experience

Successful restaurants and chefs should have a vision as to what and where they want to take diners — it’s about the culinary experience that happens on the plate and in the mouth. Like a Zen master I try to draw that out and include that experience in writing press releases, killer food photography and candid video showing the work in back-of-the-house.

Make a difference

I expect my clients to be great in the kitchen. I also ask my clients to extend themselves into to the community. Call it community relations, but every food and beverage business has an opportunity to make a difference by helping the homeless, volunteering or donating food to organizations or passing it forward by encouraging the next generation to be benevolent. Chef Max understands the power of making a difference. He is an advocate for ending hunger in urban areas, he discounts dishes to help raise money for charities he cares about in Detroit. When furloughed Federal workers started missing paychecks, I helped Chef Max offer free meals to those government employees. It was the right thing to do, it made a difference, and it was good for business because the PR that followed only connected him and his restaurant more as a caring corporate citizen.

Christine Deussen of Deussen Global Communications, Inc., has been in the wine & spirits industry since 1993 and founded her agency in 2002.

The tool we use is simple, direct, measurable, fast, and achievable: we generate third-party endorsement from expert sources. Any business can do this: simply consider who needs to be informed, in what way, and which third-party sources are most credible to that target. Maybe it is a B2B e-newsletter that industry execs read every day; maybe a major daily newspaper or glossy magazine; maybe something hyper-local. The benefit of working with a PR company is the established knowledge base of outlets and journalists; the skills to most effectively communicate with the same; and existing relationships which ease and speed the process. In 2016, the founder of Beso Del Sol Sangria, Bradd Levitan, approached us. He had used a PR agency that was too small as well as too trade focused, and then one that was too big and too consumer focused. He was seeking one that was just right. For Beso Del Sol, important stories were in B2B newsletters such as Shanken News Daily and Wine & Spirits Daily; major daily newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and glossy magazines such as Parade; and local buzz on network TV stations nationwide. Beso Del Sol was successfully sold in July, 2018 . . . and now we are working with Bradd on his next great projects.

Thank you!

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