The task
jellybean was tasked by client Mizkan Euro with creating a campaign to inspire and educate chefs and mixologists on the versatility of Honteri – a sweet, mirin-style condiment traditionally used in Japanese cooking, but with multiple as-yet untapped applications for food and drink. Most importantly, we had to get the product into professionals’ hands so they could sample ‘The Chefs’ Secret Weapon’. The quality of Mizkan’s Japanese products was already well known outside of the UK, but with very little brand awareness in UK foodservice, the company was looking to raise the profile of Honteri – not only with traditional pan-Asian style chefs working in the UK, but with fusion chefs and those working outside of Asian cooking, even extending to bar tenders and mixologists. We needed an engaging campaign to educate these groups on the product’s versatility, demonstrate its USP’s versus classic mirin (cheaper, requiring less time and labour and with almost zero alcohol comparatively – meaning no need to cook it off) and in turn exponentially grow its UK professional foodservice customer base.
The solution
With the above challenges in mind, a second UK lockdown looming large and Christmas on the way, we created ‘Chefs in Conversation’ – a multimedia, chef-to-chef series with an engaging and innovatively staged piece of video content at its heart.
We challenged our two protagonists, Mizkan development chef Ron Laity and award-winning mixologist Rich Woods alias ‘The Cocktail Guy’ to take part in a game of recipe one-upmanship; Ron using Honteri to create festive canapés and Rich using it to make pairing drinks perfect for party season. The end goal was to inspire our audience to use Honteri in new and interesting ways and of course request a free sample to try it for themselves. Covid restrictions meant we couldn’t film the pair in the same location, so instead we used a live video link, seamlessly bringing the two together for a filmed session that retained its authenticity and pace, despite the distance.
Once the video content was in the bag, we set about placing targeted paid media to promote and boost the content, leading users back to a bespoke landing page on Mizkan’s beautiful new website, housing the video, recipes, and sample request form.
Instagram was also a key platform to raise awareness of the campaign, house teaser content and drive traffic back to the website. We employed a strategy of organic and paid posts, with Rich Woods using his influence to post about the activity and signpost users to the right content.
The results
- Product sample requests 216% of KPI
- Instagram follower growth of 300%
- Social engagements 219% of KPI
- Social organic impressions +3,283% of KPI
- Over 400,000 total impressions across trade media, Instagram and YouTube
- Introduced product to a previously untapped market of mixologists and bartenders
