Brussels FlavourDay
Success achieved
Create an engaging event and build the #FlavourDay brand, with inter-related events all over Europe.
- Website
- https://www.effa.eu/flavourdays/flavourday
- Project dates
- June 2017
Project team
- Jimena Gomez de la Flor, Communications Director
- Niamh Whiteley, Secretariat
- Alexander Mohr, PhD, Executive Director
Tools & Systems
We used an internal e-platform to discuss with our members the details of the event content, in order facilitate working together, sharing inputs and feedback.
Introduction
The main goal of our association’s communication strategy and of this event as its lighthouse project for 2017, is twofold:
- To demystify flavourings, and
- To position EFFA a reliable partner and the voice of flavourings in Europe.
The flavour industry is a key element of the food and drink culture, yet still a specialised industry and not widely known. Our main goal with this event was to increase the visibility of the industry in general and the association in particular .
Our objective was to attract the EU policy makers, stakeholders, Brussels-based food and drink associations and members to our event and to explain them what flavourings are. More in particular we wanted to show how they can contribute to their own objectives, and to do this in a positive and playful way that would show the passion and pleasure behind our industry.
Discovery
In the designing of the event, and the selection of the key topics developed, we looked for our target audience priorities, so the event was not about flavours themselves, but how they meet our stakeholder’s needs.
We therefore looked at food trends in general (Consultancy Mintel, Foodpairing, Edelkoort Studio) and policy objectives related to them from our main stakeholders: European Institutions and the World Health Organisation.
Out of this research we selected the key three topics of our event:
- Conscious diet
- Sustainability
- Creativity
These topics where highlighted on key note speech, discussed during the interactive panel and further developed in practical workshops, each of them with an explanatory roll-up on the topic.
Objectives
- Celebrate the flavour industry
- Position the European Flavour Association and also its national (AROMA) and global (IOFI) partners.
- Reach out to our main stakeholders: EU policy makers and Brussels based food and drink associations explaining them the added value of flavourings in the food chain and its role on the future food trends.
- Develop the brand 'FlavourDay' that could then be used by other national flavour associations to reproduce the event in other cities in order to reach the same communication objectives with their own national targets to ensure a coherent and stronger dissemination of our message.
- Internal Communication
Activities
This event was a team work coordinated by the EFFA Communications Director.
The secretariat of the Belgian National Association (AROMA) and the International Organization of the Flavor Industry (IOFI) provided practical support, and the EFFA Communications Working Group worked on the content development.
We started by finding an element that all the flavour industry had in common, something they are proud of and want to communicate globally. For a B2B industry not used to communicating, it was challenging. The key element was the passion for flavours, both behind the creation of the flavour, and the passion that is put in the food thanks to flavourings.
With this in mind, we designed a 360° event centered around this idea, from the branding to the tasting session, the selection of the speakers and the decoration. We also carefully planned the communication around it, with press releases and an interviews with the EFFA President.
FlavourDay events
We set up a Social Media calendar to start building on a hashtag #Brussels_FlavourDay than then developed into #Paris_FlavourDay, #London_FlavourDay, etc.
We had three key topics and the keynote speech, the panel and the practical workshops were centered on it. Two people animater each workshop, one was a flavor professional with experience on the actual application and one was from the EFFA Communications Working Group to answer the specific questions on the role of flavourings on that specific topic. We also had roll-ups explaining the key topics and the success stories on them.
We also developed some branded material. Pictures of roll-ups, folders, note pads the we developed with our branding, showcasing all the different logos and cities but with a common identity are attached.
Innovation
Central to our event was the idea of not only explaining flavourings, but also enjoying them.
We opened the FlavourDay with a tasting game, so attendees could immediately ‘get in the mood’ and understand the flavour experience first hand. Then, after the speech, voting sessions and interactive panel, we gave attendees the opportunity to be creators and embrace the flavour experience with dedicated workshops on the three key topics of the event:
- Sustainability corner: Participants were invited to taste a soup made with a seafood co-product flavouring that won a sustainability award in 2015. Attendees could also examine best practices and examples of sustainability from the flavour industry in the roll-ups available, which included examples of long term partnerships with local farmers in Madagascar, and a bee preservation programme from an SME in Germany. One of the most interesting projects in that roll-up which triggered the attention of the public was WaterReuse. WaterReuse is a project funded by the LIFE + Programme of the European Union (EU). It tries to provide a definitive solution to unsolved problems of application for recommended Best Available Techniques (BAT) on water waste.
- Conscious diet corner: Tasters could choose between two types of barbecue flavoured savoury snacks, one of them with 55% reduced salt. Noted EFFA Communications Director, Jimena Gómez de la Flor “When we asked which one was the reduced salt one, our visitors had difficulties to answer, and a few even got it wrong since they were both very tasty”. This supported the idea that flavourings can help consumers to have a conscious diet without compromising on taste. They could also try a soya drink with and without a vanilla flavouring.
- Creativity corner: The most popular workshop, where attendees had the opportunity to see the process of creation of a flavouring and how it progresses to a final food or drink application.
Two professional flavourists gave attendees the opportunity to choose among different tonalities of vanilla and citrus flavourings, explaining the wide range of possibilities, and how they are connected to cultural preferences, memories and emotions. We then created personalized macarons for each attendee participating in the workshop. In addition, there were flavoured food and drinks offered.
The chosen venue was the first floor of ‘The Hotel’, with a big room that allowed us to combine the workshops with the interactive panel and key note speech and a nice garden view that would underline the concepts of transparency and sustainability that we wanted to highlight.
Marketing
We had different marketing platforms and initiatives:
- We developed the save the date button in an intriguing format to highlight the uniqueness of the event in the highly charged calendar of Brussel’s based events. We had an overwhelming number of participants even before the registrations were officially open.
- We orchestrated the communication with all our national and global associations, sending coordinated press releases globally to ensure a coherent and stronger messaging.
- We had banners on key pan-European media on the days in which we sent out the invitations and interviews, to ensure an increased visibility.
- We developed a social media calendar and gave guidelines on the use of the hashtags #Brussels_FlavourDay; #FlavourDays.
Challenges
The main challenge was to build a feeling of community and belonging at different levels and also by different companies. They all had to come together under one common logo. We managed to make them feel part of something bigger, to own it and be proud of it.
Achievements
- Celebrate the flavour industry
We focused on the passion for flavours and their crucial role in the food chain. We had many practical workshops where participants could really experience flavourings, and they referred to them as: ‘a burst of flavours’, ‘surprising’, ‘very interesting to experience’.
- Position the European Flavour Association and the Belgian flavour association (AROMA) and the global association (IOFI).
Brussels is a competitive environment for organising an event, but the participation was even better than expected. We had to close the registration before the expected date because of the number of early registrations and we had almost zero no-shows.
- Reach out to our main stakeholders: EU policy makers and Brussels based food and drink associations explaining them the added value of flavourings in the food chain and its role on the future food trends.
We received very good feedback on how we unveiled some of the future trends, specially due to our keynote speaker, a worldwide recognized trend watcher, Ms Lidewij Edelkoort.
- Develop the brand 'FlavourDay', which could then be used by other national flavour associations to reproduce the event in other cities in order to reach the same communication objectives with their own national targets to ensure a coherent and stronger dissemination of our message.
This is what we are most proud of, the FlavourDay brand is a success. We celebrated also #LondonFlavourDay, #ParisFlavourDay, #CopenhagenFlavourDay and #IstanbulFlavourDay. Three more to come in 2018 and we are in discussion for 2019.
We were also selected for doing a workshop on engaging events for the European Associations Summit and we were shortlisted for an award due to the development of this unique event brand.
Targets & Statistics
We received over 100 registrations just with the first save the date. The participation was better than expected so we had to close the registration in advance and establish a waiting list.
We had very few no shows even though it was a free event and the final number of participants was close to 120.
We also reached peaks of new visitors to our website and social media after the marketing campaign and during the event.
What would we do differently?
We would start sooner with the preparation and would increase the time allocated to practical tasks.
Feedback & Testimonials
“We will be very pleased to feature the Brussels - ’Capital of Flavour’ and the subsequent “FlavourDays” around Europe as an initiative presented at the European Association Summit. We reached out to EFFA to present this initiative because we highly value the fact of joining in an event the National, European and Global associations together, and having Brussels as the place to launch the ‘FlavourDays’ also for the other cities”.
Jan Lichota, Manager Association Bureau
“A true team work, inspiring, interactive, with great participants and exciting workshops. The Flavor Industry at its best!”
Jean Robello, EFFA President
“It was very interesting, in the interactive planning we clicked very well and I am looking forward to any other events like that”
Regina Manseviute, Mintel
“A great event that will be the model for other events moving forward”
Howard Smith, IOFI President
Wider impact
The Flavour Day was a success! We achieved the objective of creating a brand out of it and encourage our members to reproduce it all over Europe.
We created a whole concept of #FlavourDays so the event in Brussels was indeed the kick-off of a series on pan-European events #London_FlavourDay, #Copenhagen_FlavourDay, #Paris_FlavourDay and more to come in 2018 and 2019.
We developed event materials that can be used in all #FlavourDays, we developed brand guidelines that can be adapted to the specific cities while having the same look and feel and we cross-linked all the communication, creating a dedicated page on our website.
The event was also picked up by the press and we have been contacted by the European Associations Summit to give a presentation about best practice and membership engagement.
We implemented all these by making sure the members were involved in the designing of the event, finding the key elements that the whole industry have in common and at the same time leaving flexibility to adapt the event to their own targets while respecting the overall objectives in order to create a community feeling.
In this way, our messages to our main targets keep being echoed all over Europe and overtime, which is allowing us to keep alive our communication and marketing campaigns on the FlavourDay and the topics discussed.
