Situation
The James Beard Awards are one of the nation’s most prestigious culinary honors. Each year the industry gathers in Chicago for three award ceremonies that recognize exemplary food-related journalism, digital media and books; emerging and established leadership in food advocacy; and excellence in the culinary arts as exhibited by chefs, restaurateurs and beverage professionals.
As the PR agency for the James Beard Foundation (JBF), Wagstaff collaborated with the JBF marketing and communications team to create an integrated strategic plan for all three 2024 James Beard Award ceremonies across JBF-owned channels and earned media. As this was our third year of managing communications for these awards, we not only had the goal of increasing overall brand awareness and positive media exposure for the awards and the Foundation, but we also wanted to generate more national exposure, nurture existing relationships, increase our social media impact and continue to build on our media impressions year over year.
Results
We generated considerable media attention for the James Beard Awards, with extensive coverage spearheaded by a mix of local, regional and national news sources as well as trade and top-tier outlets – all vastly surpassing last year’s reach. Coverage secured for the awards weekend garnered over 29.4 billion media impressions from over 2,083 placements, marking a 305% increase in placements and a 228% increase in impressions year over year. Our coverage for the full awards cycle also experienced impressive growth, with 3,809 placements and 57.8 billion impressions – 59% and 163% respective increases in placements and impressions over the previous year.
Social media engagement for the awards exceeded the client’s standard engagement. When comparing data sets from our awards campaign that was live June 1–19 against the full month of May, JBF’s Instagram account (the primary owned campaign platform) saw a 516% increase in profile visits, a 233% increase in impressions and 168% increase in followers – all obtained organically.
And in a first-ever red carpet influencer collaboration, we partnered with influencer Will Coleman (@chefwillcoleman) to host the red carpet and attend the ceremonies on behalf of the Foundation. Will’s total engagement spanned several posts strategically posted over several weeks that garnered over 91,000 impressions, 87,000 in audience reach and maintained a strong 4.71% engagement rate.
Through strategic PR approaches, we were able to generate the buzz and attention these distinguished awards and their notable recipients deserved.
