ChefsGiving
Challenge
In October 2017, wildfires devastated parts of Northern California, soon becoming some of the most damaging and costly wildfires in California’s history. Tens of thousands of people just north of San Francisco, in the heart of the Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino wine countries, were displaced, lost their homes, and/or lost their place of employment. The fires hit home for the restaurant industry, both in California and across the nation. Founded on October 10, two days after the fires started, ChefsGiving was born of a group of Bay Area chefs, restaurateurs, wine professionals, industry leaders and journalists searching for meaningful and long-lasting ways to contribute to the recovery effort, and ways to mobilize to help raise much-needed funds to help the community rebuild. The founder and executive producer of ChefsGiving, Liam Mayclem, a Bay Area broadcast journalist known as the “Foodie Chap” on KCBS Radio, reached into his network to help make ChefsGiving happen. The all-volunteer ChefsGiving Committee was spearheaded by Liam Mayclem, Gwyneth Borden of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, Debbie Zachareas, owner of the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, and Diana Haven, the president and CEO of Ellipses Public Relations, with incredible support from a who’s-who of chefs, vintners, restaurateurs, PR professionals and journalists. Through the committee’s efforts, restaurants, vintners and brands in the Bay Area united for ChefsGiving Week (November 13-19). The Week featured various fundraising events and special menus at more than 100 restaurants and culminated in a Gala at San Francisco’s renowned Ferry Building on November 19 with truly renowned chefs, mixologists, cheesemakers and winemakers coming together for a grand tasting, and live and silent auction. Combined, the tremendous goal of the Week was to raise as much money as possible for those in need of temporary and long-term housing throughout affected areas. As an Oakland-based integrated communications agency that specializes in food, beverage and hospitality, Ellipses volunteered to join the planning committee. In addition to helping produce ChefsGiving, we launched and managed a comprehensive social media campaign with the following goals: • Create a compelling social media brand for ChefsGiving • Establish and encourage the use of the #ChefsGiving hashtag • Ensure word about ChefsGiving reached influencers, people employed in or interested in the restaurant and wine industries, potential sponsors, and the media through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter • Garner excitement about the weeklong event • Encourage restaurant participation in ChefsGiving Week and the Gala, with the goal of at least 100 participants • Drive business to restaurants participating in ChefsGiving • Acknowledge the restaurants and chefs participating in ChefsGiving • Attract and thank the sponsors of ChefsGiving Week • Drive ticket sales to and help sell out the ChefsGiving Gala • Raise as much money as possible, with the ultimate reach goal of $1 million And, we had just over a month to make it all happen.
Solution
Immediately after the kick-off call on October 10, we reached out to one of our agency partners, Chen Design Associates, to see if they would be willing to create a brand pro-bono for ChefsGiving as soon as possible. We then implemented their fantastic logo and digital assets across all three social channels we activated for ChefsGiving on October 26: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. (Due to their excellent targeting abilities, audience numbers and focus on visuals, we placed most of our focus on Instagram and Facebook.) In order to help entice restaurants to participate in ChefsGiving Week, we knew we needed to get creative when it came to our social media strategy. We turned the ChefsGiving social media channels into a showcase of all the restaurants participating – highlighting the restaurant, chef, and dish or menu they were serving to benefit ChefsGiving. By doing so, we gave the restaurants free publicity as well as branded social media images they could use on their own social media channels. Ellipses coordinated with every single participating restaurant – in the end equaling more than 100 – to gather photography for social media use. We posted several times a day to ensure every participant was recognized. To sell Gala tickets, we created a Facebook event and promoted ChefsGiving via hyper-local and interest-based targeting. (The total ChefsGiving social media advertising spend was $680, and it was spent entirely on promoting the Gala.) We encouraged all ChefsGiving committee members and volunteers to share the Facebook event on their own personal pages. We strategically engaged with key players in the industry on social media to get their attention and grow our own engagement and following by having them post about a specific participating ChefsGiving restaurant or the Gala itself. Through Instagram locations, we were able to locate and reach out to people who were affected by, or knew someone affected by, the wildfires, in an effort to get them to spread the news about the ChefsGiving fundraising events.
Results
From the official launch of the ChefsGiving social media campaign on October 26 to its conclusion after the Gala on November 19, Ellipses accomplished all of the social media goals and helped ChefsGiving reach overall goals: • Launched ChefsGiving on social media just two weeks after it was originally created with a compelling logo and digital assets by Chen Design Associates • Increased the follower count on Instagram from zero to 1,148 • 137 Instagram posts received 7,412 engagements, with an average of 1.8% engagement rate per post and 28,291 impressions • The #ChefsGiving hashtag was used 699 times on Instagram • Garnered 406 fans on Facebook • Reached 78,618 people on Facebook • Promoted ChefsGiving to 77 Twitter followers • Received 36,771 impressions on Twitter over a 51 day period • A total of 121 restaurants participated during ChefsGiving week, far exceeding the goal of 100 • Participating restaurants shared the ChefsGiving social media posts to their own pages, continuing to spread the word organically • The ChefsGiving Gala sold out with 250 VIP and 750 general admission tickets, raising more than $260,000 at the event through ticket sales, live and silent auction • Got the attention of other brands who ultimately became ChefsGiving sponsors, including Uber Eats, OpenTable, Williams-Sonoma, Sun Basket and Fund Cru • ChefsGiving eventually raised $750,000 in pledged donations, sponsorships and ticket sales for our nonprofit community partners, Restaurants Care and the Tipping Point Emergency Relief Fund • And, it all happened in 41 days.
Ellipses Public Relations
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