Last updated on June 22nd, 2015 at 12:35 pm
The Specialty Food Association is launching its first-ever ad campaign and retail test designed to build consumer awareness and engagement with specialty food. The theme is “Celebrate Specialty Food. Craft. Care. Joy.” The campaign is built around the upcoming 2015 Summer Fancy Food Show, June 28-30 at the Javits Center in New York City.
The consumer effort has two key elements: a retail and online test in New York and New Jersey, and a multi-faceted ad campaign in New York featuring four specialty food makers who share the stories behind their products.
The retail test is with three retailers whose business is built on specialty foods: Kings Food Markets, Morton Williams and the online fresh food grocer FreshDirect. Each test is unique to the retailer, and each features different foods and beverages from members of the Specialty Food Association.
The stores will have focused displays of specialty foods, extensive signage, in-store sampling, promotional discounts and inclusion in weekly circulars and online messaging. Each test will run for several weeks. Based on sales results and shopper interviews, the Specialty Food Association hopes to expand the test to different U.S. markets in 2016.
The campaign will be hard to miss in New York. The food makers will be featured on billboards going up June 22 in Times Square, near Javits Center, home to the Summer Fancy Food Show, and near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey. The ads will be in 260 subway stations in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. The campaign also will be featured on the food sites Grub Street, Eater and Bon Appetit.
