how food & drink firms use social media & digital engagement

Nom nom nomHow the food and drink trade use digital engagement

©WEBER SHANDWICK 2013 All rights reserved @wsscotland / @craigmcgill #beyondsocial2013

• #brumdished• UGC flagging up the best

Birmingham had to offer• More than 10,000 submissions• Councils, tourists boards,

individuals all getting in touch raising awareness

• Hashtag reached millions of people

• More people cooked and ate out, raising awareness

• Birmingham also had the Dine Birmingham event #futurefoodies

Birmingham’s the right place for nom, nom, nom


• @tesco• Lack of press due to other

events• Online to the rescue• SEO benefits• Longer engagement• Increase in sales

Tesco Enjoy the Taste of Scotland (and Belfast and elsewhere)


• Scotsmen who couldn’t give away their beer

• Took to the world • Had a story and a product• Engaged, engaged, engaged• Bypassed all the traditional

models• No Portman Group• No advertising

BrewDog

• Results:• On sale in more than 70

countries• Turnover of £10.7m in

2012 - £3.4m in 2010• @brewdog / brewdog.com


• Many saw it as an average whisky despite award wins

• Hugely engaging Master Blender @the_nose

• Took to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts with a passion & regular updates

• Put a fan on the side of F1 car• Team monitored for

opportunities, built an audience• Results:

• Invited to Twitter HQ• World’s first brand Google+

event• Sales up, brand awareness

up in new sector

Whyte & Mackay


• Started as a blog post talking about whisky at South Pole

• Online showed demand• CNN used basic YouTube

video, National Geographic made a one-hour TV show

• More than £5million of whisky sold

• A success through seeding and engagement

• Not a crowdsourced whisky – Glenmorangie Caskmasters did that – but the interest was crowdsourced

Shackleton whisky


• Scotland’s other national drink• Cheeky advertising and online

presence lead to real world results

• Scotland’s main examples of online engagement: this and Hurricane BawBag

• Bottles spotted on eBay for £50

• @newfromIRNBRU

Irn Bru: taking on Coke in a funny way


• Artisan restaurant in Aberdeen - @musaaberdeen

• Little budget for advertising but @musajohn a strong, engaging person

• Looked at @illegaljacks @redonionglasgow @BurgerMeatsBun went engaging online

• Used data • Talks about others, not itself• Results:

• Most special events booked after reading about online

• People ask chefs for advice online• Engaged audience rallies round

restaurant and staff• Higher profile than many restaurants

with large ad budgets

Musa


• Be on the main channels and always look for the new channels

• Don’t have a strategy for Facebook or Twitter – have a strategy for engagement

• Mobiles are the new PCs• Use your data – what do your

analytics tell you?• You are only good media if

you are regular media• Think like a punter not like

your boss – online is not about you

• Aligning to business goals still an underappreciated skill

Pointers and tips: what’s the win?


• Any questions? Ask away! Or grab me on

• @craigmcgill• [email protected]• LinkedIn.com/in/craigmcgill• @wsscotland• webershandwick.com

Thank you

mailto:[email protected]

how food & drink firms use social media & digital engagement

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