Chester Food & Drink Festival
Marketing PRojects ran public relations, sponsorship and marketing for 8 years for the Chester Food & Drink Festival. It informed and educated visitors not only about the region’s culinary delights, but also provided the opportunity to experience fantastic tastes and learn about the whole process of ‘field to table’, ‘sea to plate’, ’grain and grape to glass’. Chester’s Food & Drink Festival has become one of the biggest in the UK.
In terms of exposure, information about the Festival reached an estimated 2.5 million viewers, more than 575,000 readers in the North West, four million readers in the rest of the UK and more than 12 million listeners across the UK. Plans and reports were needed for NWDA and other funding involvement from Marketing PRojects which included visitor surveys using the Knowat online system (sample data below).
The 2009 Festival held more than 80 exhibitors, 8 main sponsors, involved more than 30 restaurants, gave 16 awards away and gained more than £448,500 of coverage, with an editorial impact of £1,345,500 for Chester and Cheshire, a 270% increase on coverage from the previous year. This involved Marketing PRojects being in touch with 182 local journalists, 123 non-local journalists and circulate releases to 1136 food and drink media contacts and 514 travel writers. We let 142 individuals know of our Festival press activities as members of ‘the Festival Team’.
Knowat sample data:
16,000 people visited the Taste Marquee and £90,000 was spent there over the three days.
– 51 per cent of visitors came from a distance of more than 25 miles, making a total of 8,000 people brought into the City.
– 78 per cent of people surveyed said the event was good or excellent.
– 87 per cent of people surveyed said they were likely to return.
– Nearly 100 producers and exhibitors were on show in the Taste Marquee, bringing their own skills and produce from Cheshire and around the world to be part of the Festival.
– There were seminars and competitions in micro brewing, wines, sausages and cheeses and the opportunity to taste local paté, black pudding, bread, cereals, oils, pies, meat, fish, cheeses, chocolates, liqueurs and even a juice bar.
TESTIMONIAL
“Attendance figures at the three day event held at Easter increased massively this year and that is in no small part down to hard work. Jane is an experienced negotiator, who has helped achieve cross party support from among others the Councils, as well as many other agencies to make the Food & Drink Festival the great event it has become.”
“Thanks for all your efforts – they are greatly appreciated. I know you and your team will have worked very hard to get everyone there and communicated with. I know it does seem a thankless task at times but that was a class act yesterday. Well done to everyone. We had a terrific day yesterday with our exposure on television, radio and in the printed media.”
Stephen Wundke, Chester Food & Drink Festival
“Jane does a great job and we could not do it without her. Attendance figures at the three day event at Easter increased massively to more than 16,000 this year and that is in no small part down to Jane’s hard work. Jane is an experienced negotiator, who has helped achieve cross party support from among others the Council, as well as many other agencies to make the Food & Drink Festival the great event it has become.”
“Well done yesterday – that was a real high for the festival. I know you and your team will have worked very hard to get everyone there and communicated with. I know it does seem a thankless task at times but that was a class act yesterday. Well done to everyone.”
Chairman, Chester Food & Drink Festival
“Congratulations are in order for all those who had a hand in organising the Food & Drink Festival. This event is going from strength to strength each year.”