Leapfrog Public Relations Agency

Barilla, the world’s leading pasta maker, is brand leader in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the USA.

Campaign Objectives:

• To support the sales strategy of placing 100 Barilla PastaBars by the end of 2008
• To generate sales leads for follow up by the UK sales consultancy, Sagegreen
• To establish Barilla as a credible editorial source for UK foodservice journalists

The Strategy:
Leapfrog recommended an integrated campaign using media relations, selective advertising, direct marketing and exhibitions.

Planning
Leapfrog researched and presented a detailed, integrated plan with costings and key performance indicators on a month by month basis.

Creative Input:
The ‘Passion for Pasta’ theme was replicated across advertising, direct mail, editorial and exhibition stands.

Advertising:
Leapfrog recommended page and half page formats in key titles, with limited exposure backed by editorial activity.

Leapfrog planned and bought the space and produced the creative work for the campaign.

Exhibitions:
Barilla attended the Food & Drink Expo in March 2008 at the NEC and the Café Culture Show in May at Olympia, London.

Leapfrog managed the exhibitions, briefed and managed all aspects of the stand and managed advertising and promotion around the events.

Direct Marketing:
In order to make the most of both Shows, Leapfrog recommended a direct mail piece to targeted local customers, sent prior to the Show with a free entry ticket to the exhibition.

Leapfrog produced the mail shot, had it printed, collated the mail shot and fulfilled it.

Media Relations:

News Releases
We issued three news releases in the early stages, knowing that we had to establish credibility with our target journalists.

One to One Briefings
We also targeted one to one briefings with key titles at the shows. We knew that once we had completed these we would have much stronger buy-in.

At both Shows, Leapfrog worked with the press office to provide samples and press packs and undertook briefings with key titles as follows:

Food & Drink Expo: Restaurant, Pizza & Pasta Magazine, Eat Out Magazine, Convenience Store, Forecourt trader
Cafe Culture: Cafe Culture Magazine, Cafe Business, Pub Chef,
British Baker, Auto Vending , Sandwich & Snack News

A key target journalist from Caterer & Hotelkeeper was also briefed at their offices

Case Studies
In order to help end users understand what the PastaBar is all about, it was vital to generate case studies. Two were identified in the first half, with the Barilla PastaBar at Imperial College, London case study completed.

Press Visits to Barilla in Parma – the World’s Largest Pasta Factory
Our goal for the first six months of the campaign was to secure visits by our key titles to the Barilla Factory in Parma, coupled with visits to producers in the Italian Food Valley. The visits were planned to associate the Barilla brand with excellence and were particularly arranged to make the most of the ‘Italy’ feature in Restaurant magazine in late July.

Following the one to one briefings we invited our six top titles for a visit to Parma; five out of the six accepted. By the end of the second half the following titles had visited Barilla in Italy:

Yes Chef! Restaurant
Pub Chef Eat Out/Stock Pot
Pizza & Pasta Magazine/Café Culture

Their comments include:

“Just wanted to say a big thanks to you, Graham and everyone at Barilla for such a fantastic few days in Italy. It was a really interesting and fun trip and it was great to see how Barilla products are made and the fantastic academia.

Please pass on my thanks to all involved.”

“Thank you for inviting me to visit the Barilla factory. It is very impressive, and will certainly provide interesting copy for the magazine”

Evaluation and Measurement:

• All editorial targets met in the first half
• Six pieces of PastaBar coverage targeted, eight achieved
• Two titles targeted for press visits – five achieved, more than 12 pages of coverage generated as a result
• Two case studies targeted and one completed