Tammy Walker Pulse Communications

Transcription

1 2011 Golden Target Awards & State Awards for Excellence Launching Malaysia Kitchen Australia Tammy Walker Pulse Communications Category Special Event / Observance

2 1. Executive Summary The Malaysian Trade Commission (MATRADE) engaged Pulse to launch Malaysia Kitchen; its global campaign to promote Malaysian cuisine and restaurants in Australia, previously launched in the US and UK. The primary goal was to increase footfall to Malaysian restaurants by launching a unique Malaysian event and increasing awareness of Malaysian cuisine through traditional and social media. The campaign saw restaurants experience an increase in sales of approximately 30 per cent. Over 1,300 Australians visited the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market and KPIs were exceeded by 150 per cent. Over 12,500 visits were made to the Malaysia Kitchen Facebook page during the event and over 700,000 people observed a total of 632 Tweets. Following the event, Malaysian cuisine s share of voice leapt from 2.1 per cent to 15.2 per cent. 2. Situation Analysis MATRADE believed that Australia had a number of high quality Malaysian restaurants. Whilst these restaurants were frequented by regular patrons who enjoyed Malaysian cuisine, MATRADE felt more people could be exposed to and encouraged to visit Malaysian restaurants. Driving more foot traffic to Malaysian restaurants in Australia would lead to increased revenue for Malaysian restaurant businesses and hopefully, encourage the opening of new Malaysian restaurants. Public Relations was needed to help bring Malaysian cuisine to life and encourage Australians to start seeking out Malaysian food and restaurants in their local area. Business objectives 1. Increase footfall to Malaysian restaurants throughout Australia by 10% by raising the profile of Malaysian cuisine. Communication objectives: 2. Secure 30 key consumer lifestyle and Social Media Influencers to attend the VIP launch night and 1,000 consumers to attend the event 3. Increase share of voice for people talking about Malaysian cuisine through social media channels from 2.1% to 6%. 4. Increase awareness of the Malaysia Kitchen program and Malaysian cuisine amongst Australian consumers through traditional and social media channels by delivering 30 editorial clips reaching over 2 million Australians. 3. Research Pulse undertook desktop research that identified Malaysian food is not top-of-mind for Australians nor is it clearly defined in their minds. When Australians look to eat Asian food, they turn to Thai, Chinese, Japanese or Indian foods which have more clearly established themselves in the minds of Australians and their restaurants have saturated the market. Therefore, Pulse needed to educate Australians on what constitutes Malaysian cuisine and create a desire to seek out and patronise Malaysian restaurants. 4. Target Publics The target audience was typical foodies ; Australian men and women aged 18-55yo who seek out new dining experiences, are highly influenced by peer reviews, celebrity chefs and are the go-to influencers in their circle of friends or family for restaurant recommendations. They also cook regularly at home and enjoy trying out new recipes and cuisines. The Malaysia Kitchen Australia program is also targeting Malaysian restaurants, encouraging them to participate in events, media relation and advertorial campaigns and social media programs in order to drive awareness of their wide footprint across Australia and encourage consumers to visit their restaurants. 5. Communication Strategy

3 Pulse needed to make Malaysian cuisine fashionable and sought after by Australians by educating them on what constitutes Malaysian cuisine and where they can find a local restaurant. Plus, inspire Australians to try Malaysian cuisine by showing its unique and exciting qualities. We achieved this via: - Creating Sydney s hottest culinary destination the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market a modern take on the Malaysian Hawker-style market in Sydney s State Theatre Laneway, open for 4 days only. - Aligning the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market with Australia s leading celebrity chefs and Sydney s leading Malaysian restaurants, to deliver a taste of Malaysian cuisine to Sydney-siders, excite Social Media Influencers (SMI) to increase talk about Malaysian cuisine and drive footfall into local restaurants. - Drive consumer interest and attendance at the event via an extensive media relations campaign, securing media partnerships and creating competitions with key promotional partners. 6. Implementation The Malaysia Kitchen Food Market was created to showcase Malaysian cuisine to Sydney s media and SMI s at an exclusive opening night party, followed by 3 days of operation open to consumers: - A traditional media relations program was executed encompassing print, broadcast and online media to build awareness of the event and the Malaysia Kitchen Australia program. - A social media campaign was implemented to drive attendance at the event and local restaurants including tailored blogger outreach, the creation of the Malaysia Kitchen Facebook page and a unique hash-tag for Twitter. - Media partnerships were secured in two key Sydney-based publications including mx Sydney and Timeout Sydney. - Competitions to win holidays to Malaysia and experience authentic Malaysian cuisine were organised by partnering with Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines. The competitions were promoted via media relations and social media and consumers could enter at the event which ultimately helped to grow the Malaysia Kitchen consumer database. Pre-event (January 12-February 14) i. Event management To bring the authentic Malaysian hawker market experience to life, Pulse created a unique dining destination and visual masterpiece; a private laneway dressed with a canopy of coloured lanterns, wall collages and light installations of Malaysian imagery. Working with suppliers, Pulse managed all the logistical planning and coordination of the event including AV, lighting, venue hire, health and safety requirements, sourcing external suppliers and staff. ii. Trade engagement Key to the success of the launch event was our ability to engage with trade (Malaysian restaurants) to encourage participation in the event. Pulse targeted key Malaysian restaurants with tailored letters of engagement outlining the opportunity. Via face-to-face meetings eight Malaysian restaurants were confirmed to showcase their wares at the event. Pulse engaged an offsite caterer to coordinate restaurant menus, equipment needed and special requests. (Participating Malaysian restaurant, Mamak, Sydney) iii. Ambassador strategy (Mamak Roti bread masters at work at the event)

4 Pulse developed a strategic partnership with a number of prominent Malaysian-born or influenced chefs to promote the credibility of the Malaysia Kitchen program. Local ambassadors include Adam Liaw and Alvin Quoh and international ambassadors Rick Stein, Chef Wan and Chong Liaw were engaged to promote the program and event. Both Chef Wan and Chong Liaw attended the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market launch event. (Malaysia Kitchen ambassador and Masterchef winner, Adam Liaw) iv. Media relations To generate pre-event media coverage of the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market, Pulse developed a media release for events and what s on listings encouraging Sydney-siders to attend the event. The Malaysia Kitchen ambassadors were engaged to participate in media interviews and cooking demonstrations with metro print and national TV lifestyle programs. v. Social media Pulse launched the Malaysia Kitchen Australia Facebook fan page and created an event page where fans could RSVP. To maximise discussion on Facebook, Pulse created the Ultimate Malaysia Kitchen Adventure photo contest and Facebook ads targeting people in Sydney who like Malaysian food, dining out and related topics. Pulse launched a Twitter account to follow people in Australia who have talked about Malaysian cuisine previously, a Flickr account to share restaurant and cuisine photos and YouTube channel. A bespoke conversation calendar containing pre-planned discussion posts for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube were posted during the lead up to the Food Market. Launch event (February 15)

5 Pulse held a media and VIP launch event on the first evening of the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market which was attended by 46 consumer media attendees and four top food bloggers in Sydney. The event was hosted by renowned Malaysian chef, Chef Wan and featured presentations from the Malaysia high Commissioner and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE, plus entertainment from a Malaysian DJ and dance group. Public event (February 16, 17, 18) Public dining events were held for three days featuring service from three-four Malaysian restaurants. Sydney-siders could purchase tickets at the event door for a Malaysian meal costing $10 (cash only) for either a lunch or dinner sitting. Due to the widespread media and social media coverage of the event, capacity was reached within minutes of the doors opening, with over 1,300 guests attending and many more queuing. Pulse used Facebook and Twitter to inform people of waiting times and when the event had reached capacity. Pulse managed the long queues by directing consumers to local Malaysian restaurants (via a flyer). Pulse had a designated MK Reporter who captured content and vox pops of the event which was uploaded onto Facebook and YouTube. (Entrance to the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market) Post-event (February 19 onwards) Pulse outreached to key influential bloggers and media to inform them of the success of the Food Market and provide more information on the Malaysia Kitchen campaign. This included sharing additional Malaysian recipes, coordinating interviews with Malaysian Kitchen ambassadors and developing tailored feature angles to generate timely stories about Malaysian cuisine. 7. Results/evaluation In relation to the business objective: - All participating restaurants experienced an increase in sales of approximately 30 per cent. Jimmy s Recipe saw a 20 per cent increase in visitation to their restaurant for the duration of the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market. The restaurant is usually closed on a Friday evening, yet due to the increase in demand because of the market s overflow of customers, Jimmy s Recipe not only opened on Friday but was extremely busy Lee s Malaysian had initially declined participation in the food market but had such a large number of customers visit the restaurant and request they be involved, that they contacted Pulse and managed to participate in one of the sittings Kaki Lima said, We found the experience great! Malaysia Kitchen is a great bunch of people. We ve seen a significant increase, more than 30 per cent in sales since the food market, especially due to your piece in the SMH on laksa. We do very little advertising and promotions due to lack of experience and resources but now, so many people know about Kaki Lima In relation to the communication objectives:

6 - 46 lifestyle media and 4 social media influencers attended the VIP launch event on February 15 - The event reached capacity within minutes of the doors opening at all consumer sessions. In total over 1,300 consumers attended the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market with many more queuing to experience the event. Unfortunately due to limited capacity approximately 800 guests were turned away from each sitting, however, Pulse redirected them to near-by Malaysian restaurants One public attendee said, I haven t been to a Malaysian restaurant for years. The Malaysia Kitchen Food Market was so good - we're going to make sure we're going to Malaysian restaurants more often! - Media results exceeded KPIs by 150 per cent, with over 80 pieces of editorial coverage in print, broadcast and online media including The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald and MX Sydney; reaching over 16 million Australians TV coverage including a five-minute cooking segment on Channel 10 s The Circle and Channel 7 s The Morning Show. Both promoted the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market and Malaysia Kitchen program on the show, with additional website support - The Malaysia Kitchen Facebook page experienced 12,569 visits during the event, 737,872 people observed a total of 632 Tweets on the Malaysia Kitchen Food Market, with share of voice increasing from an average of 2.1% to 15.2% at the time of the event.