Hughes Public Relations, Adelaide

Aussie BBQ Legends Hughes PR digital case study

Saucy Barbecue Site Celebrates Great Aussie Traditions

The situation. Beerenberg Farm is an Australian owned, premium food producer based in the Adelaide Hills, perhaps best known for its jams and condiments. It sought to raise awareness of its barbecue sauces. Hughes PR partnered with digital agency Enpresiv to deliver an exciting campaign called ‘Aussie BBQ Legends’.

Objectives. Beerenberg’s objectives for the Aussie BBQ Legends campaign were to raise awareness of Beerenberg’s barbecue sauces, to reach target markets on Australia’s eastern seaboard, and test the potential of the digital environment for Beerenberg, including social media.

Elements. The Aussie BBQ Legends campaign centred around a competition to become the ‘Ultimate Aussie BBQ Legend’. The competition was housed within an engaging microsite, Aussie BBQ Legends, which gathered contributions from barbequers. The campaign included a Facebook page, Twitter account, Google Adwords campaign and subscriber emails.

Outcome. The Aussie BBQ Legends campaign established new online communities for Beerenberg to use into the future, attracting website visitors and ‘fans’ beyond expectation.

The competition website attracted outstanding visitation, with most users being residents of Melbourne and Sydney. The competition itself received hundreds of entries, those entries received thousands of weekly votes, and hundreds of comments were logged on the competition site.

The campaign Facebook page gained more than 6,000 fans and provided outstanding consumer insights and word-of-mouth endorsement. On Twitter, the campaign acquired more than 400 followers and was an active driver of traffic to the competition site.

Beerenberg will continue to use social media platforms within future communications and marketing programs, and is looking at a program of ongoing interaction with its new Facebook fans.

Hughes PR won a Public Relation Institute of Australia 'Highly Commended' award in October 2010 for this campaign.