33% more booth traffic. 19% increase in brand engagement.
(And other delicious breakthroughs.)
MGP offers a variety of specialty wheat protein, starch and fiber ingredients that enhance the nutritional profile of food. But the food ingredients space can be cluttered – with everyone’s marketing looking the same. (You know…with the laughing yogurt lady featured prominently.)
THE MGP Ingredients GROWTH SNAPSHOT
YEAR ONE
Creation of the “Food Talk” campaign
Booth visits
increased by 10%
over prior year
YEAR TWO
The creation of “The Masterpiece” campaign
Brand engagement
increased by 19% pre-show
Booth visits
increased by 23%
over prior year
STRATEGY
So how to create a brand you can’t ignore?
Start with a deep dive into the rational and emotional drivers of their primary target audiences to land on two key insights:
- Food Scientists take deep pride in formulating better-for-you products.
- Food Scientists view their life’s work as art – not just science.
From there, plan two extremely diverse campaigns and pace them out to be launched over two years at their biggest trade show – IFT.
CREATIVE: Year One
The “Food Talk” campaign brought the emotional and rational reasons for choosing MGP to the forefront – playing into the target’s desire to formulate products with the health benefits consumers crave. This was supported with a creative execution that was totally fresh to the food industry.
PAID & EARNED MEDIA
MGP also sponsored the IFT fun run which was happening the first morning of the show (perfect timing) and provided their team with campaign t-shirts to wear – which got them 5 earned media placements – including a featured story on the front-page of the IFT show guide.
TRADE SHOW BOOTH DESIGN AND SWAG
The trade show booth stood out in a sea of expected food photography – and drove a 10% increase in booth traffic compared to the previous year.
As a memorable booth traffic-driver, we created campaign swag so people could walk around the trade show floor with an MGP-branded button that said “I’m one smart cookie.” (And they did. Free brand awareness – woohoo!)
But that was only year one!
CREATIVE:
YEAR TWO
To powerfully showcase MGP’s mastery, 2.718 leveraged that additional insight – that food science is also an art – by emulating the styles of world-renowned artists in our “Masterpiece” campaign.
PAID MEDIA
Once again, the campaign broke through the typical food visuals and created affinity for MGP – reinforcing their name in the minds of food scientists to the tune of a 19% increase in brand awareness – measured by paid media metrics and requests for samples.
TRADE SHOW BOOTH DESIGN
This campaign was strategically put in market 1 month prior to IFT to draw brand awareness and incent booth traffic. The best news? Our client saw a 23% increase in booth visits!
THE END RESULT
We delivered two award-winning, memorable campaigns and trade show experiences that positioned MGP Ingredients as the “expect the unexpected” brand while delivering an appetite for MORE from their key target audiences.