Gastronomy campaigns as marketing tools: “Rheinhessen genießen” 

Wie man regionale Gastronomie, Winzer und Produzenten mit einem kreativen Marketingkonzept vernetzt, zeigen wir mit einem Beispiel.

We show how to bring together regional gastronomy, winemakers and producers based on a creative food & beverage marketing concept

As a gastronomy, wine and food PR agency, we always tailor our communication strategies to our clients’ needs: classic PR, influencer relations, media planning or events? That depends entirely on the client, the brand and the product. The bottom line is: its important for us to offer customized F&B, lifestyle and travel storytelling that stays in the minds of the target group for a long time. In doing so, our clients benefit from our many years of industry experience and contact to key opinion leaders and multipliers.  

Rheinhessen genießen“: Concept development for gastronomy, winemakers and producers  

A great example of a successful gastronomy campaign is “Rheinhessen genießen (translates to: Enjoy Rhine-Hesse). In 2016, Rheinhessenwein e.V. approached us as they needed marketing for the region’s 200th anniversary. How do we at Gourmet Connection approach strategic consulting and the planning of communication measures for F&B PR, wine PR and travel PR? 

The first todo was to develop a creative concept. Our experienced team got to work and designed a tailor-made PR strategy for the client’s food & beverage communication, uniting winemakers, the gastronomy and regional producers. 

Powerful marketing concept

Thanks to our expertise in restaurant PR, tourism PR and product PR, we are just the right partner. The campaign setup is simple and effective at the same time: during a six-week campaign period (mid-September to early November), participating restaurants present their favorite products from Rheinhessen. With it they create a specially developed dish or menu and serve a matching wine from a regional winemaker. 

The client is delighted to strengthen Germany’s largest wine-growing region in this way within the framework of wine PR and food PR and to bring together producers, restaurants and winegrowers. Accordingly, we have now implemented the campaign for the fifth year in a row! The campaign has been equally popular with participants from country guesthouses to Michelin-starred restaurants for years and draws guests to the region. 

New campaign ideas every year  

You’ve got the basic idea and now simply repeat it every year? We don’t stand for that! We constantly develop new ideas on how to further evolve Rheinhessen genießen and how to shed new light on the key message. For example, we came up with influencer recipe competitions. Furthermore, we implemented individual blogger partnerships with participating businesses in the area of influencer relations.  

For example, in the “WTF is Spundekäs competition, we provided twelve bloggers from all over Germany with an extensive Rheinhessen product package and gave them the challenge of reinterpreting classics Rheinhessen cuisine reloaded, so to speak. The main prize was a year’s supply of Rheinhessen wines.  

Supporting PR, content development and influencer relations

The success of “Rheinhessen genießen” is of course also due to our F&B PR agency’s supporting press work and proactive placement in online and print media, content development and frequent press trips we organized.   

Definition of communication goals: well begun is half done 

Our well-coordinated and industry-experienced team knows how to approach a campaign. Whether in this context or for other clients from the F&B industry, lifestyle sector or tourism industry: the first step is to define the services and objectives. The following questions, among others, play a role here:  

  • What do we want to achieve in the long term?
  • Which concrete campaign and communication goals need to be defined?
  • Are there specific key performance indicators (KPIs)?
  • What kind of PR support do we need?
  • Are there any particular challenges? If so, how can we deal with them as a food and wine PR agency? 

In order to do this, we also take a close look at the target groups, because activities that don’t go into the right direction are pointless. WithRheinhessen genießen“, these are (broken down considerably) consumers from Germany who appreciate good food, regional products and high-quality wine.

Next up is planning the individual steps so that we achieve the best possible placement for our client  

Professional and creative PR activities

Once the acquisition of the participating chefs and restaurants has been successfully mastered, it’s time for classic public relations, the heart of our work.   

In this case we mainly focus on daily news, travel and food editors. We…  

  • develop story angles and topics for press releases
  • define important target media
  • create a suitable media distribution list
  • prepare the essential facts about the campaign in a compact form for journalists and editors from print and online media
  • proactively place the topic with the media
  • take on text development for newspaper supplements and flyers
  • plan a press trip before the campaign starts that shows select press representatives what the client, in this case the region of Rheinhessen, has to offer
  • support with media planning, text development and target group specific advertisement and advertorial placement
  • summarize the outcome in a visually appealing report
  • and support the client in all further requests  

Are you interested in our F&B PR agency’s knowledge about press trips? Check our blog post on that topic. 

Conclusion  

A gastronomy campaign like this combines the best aspects of our PR work: good food, excellent wine and great restaurants. Were proud that the client was so enthusiastic about our “Rheinhessen genießen” concept that we got to do it for many more years. And we still manage to come up with new ideas. But: a campaign, a brand or a product can be great, it only becomes success with a customized concept, professional texts and integration into print and online media relevant to the target groups! 

Would you like to learn more about our F&B PR agency’s references in food, wine and tourism communication? Or are you interested in working with us in food & beverage communication, lifestyle PR or wine PR? Then click here or contact us.

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