Sampling a Sunshine Coast delicacy

Noosa Eat And Drink Festival

Hospitality

Major Events

Tourism

Cooking up a triumphant return for Noosa Eat & Drink Festival

Noosa Eat & Drink Festival returned to the popular coastal destination following a four-year hiatus, bringing a refreshed program of irresistible offerings for food and drink fanatics.  

Over a three-month campaign, Aruga cooked up a storm across paid social advertising, media relations, on-ground media management, copywriting and talent liaison.  

Aruga positioned the Festival back in the spotlight as a must-do experience for travellers and fine-diners alike with 700K impressions from paid social activity and media coverage highlights including 7News, 9Honey, Good Food, RACQ Road Ahead, Gourmet Traveller and The Courier-Mail QWeekend 

Also tasked with working up appetites across the ditch, Aruga secured coverage in Kia Ora Magazine and managed a media visit from The New Zealand Herald.  

With a jam-packed lineup of exciting demonstrations and masterclasses from celebrity chefs Gary Mehigan, Michael Klim, Warren Mendes, Sergio Perera and Anna Polyviou, Aruga successfully pitched on-ground media calls, recipe features and in-depth interviews to profile these culinary stars. 

Results

290

media clips

9.1M

potential audience reach

$713.9K

advertising value equivalent

$700K

paid social impressions

122K

paid social engagements

9.6K+

event attendees

Deliverables

Media Relations

Sustaining strategic media coverage throughout the three-month campaign, from profiling celebrity chefs to managing a media call on Noosa’s main beach.

Media Famil

Pitching, securing and managing a media famil with The New Zealand Herald, ensuring they experienced the best of the Festival and the region to promote the event to NZ audiences.

Paid Social Advertising

Developing and implementing a paid social strategy across two campaign phases to spread awareness beyond owned channel marketing, promote festival offerings and drive website traffic to encourage ticket sales.

Copywriting

Delivering a compelling media release for the program launch to announce the triumphant return of Noosa Eat & Drink Festival.

Winning tactics

Thumbs Up

With a spritz in hand, Aruga hosted key journalists at a VIP preview event to create long-lead media opportunities and strengthen the Festival’s media relationships.

Peace Sign

Aruga leveraged the culinary talent of celebrity chefs to profile the likes of Gary Mehigan, Michael Klim and Sergio Perera for captivating media moments across Australia and New Zealand.

Ok

Leveraging sparkly assets from Noosa Eat & Drink Festival, plus refreshed audience builds across two campaigns, Aruga’s paid social strategy drove expansive reach beyond the Festival’s existing audiences. Aruga saw a significant spike in impressions from non-followers, encouraging broader awareness and website traffic.

Campaign highlights

The Festival was included in TimeOut’s ’20 best food and drink festivals in Australia’ feature.
9Honey – Kitchen featured a recipe from celebrity chef Luca Ciano for his famous spaghetti with marinated swordfish and Sicilian citrus dressing and discussed his appearance at the Festival.
Good Food interviewed Chris Hemsworth’s private chef, Sergio Perera, detailing his culinary career, favourite Australian dining spots, and upcoming Noosa Eat & Drink Festival appearance.
Interview with renowned pastry chef Adriano Zumbo discussing the 2024 Festival program complemented by a Festival ticket giveaway.