Getting game out there
Annette Woolcock
Expos and shows offer the chance for brands to get their products out to a big audience all in one place. Annette Woolcock discusses why this type of event presents a valuable opportunity for game meat.
The last weekend in November saw BASC’s Eat Game team heading to the NEC Birmingham for the BBC Good Food Show Winter.
Events like this are an ideal opportunity for the brand to interact with the public. The show is one of the biggest UK food events and is packed with trade, celebrity chefs and enthusiastic home cooks.
The four-day foodie showcase was sold out most days. As an outreach opportunity to expose game meat to the non-shooting but food-interested public, the event could not be better placed.
The reason BASC invests in events like the BBC Good Food Show is to reach audiences who care about what they eat, but may not have necessarily tasted different types of game before.
It’s a chance for us to interact with a mainstream audience, talk about the provenance and health benefits of game meat, and most importantly show that game is something they really want to be cooking in their own homes.
Post-show research last year showed the majority of people who watched Eat Game cookery demonstrations, or had a taster, would try game again. At the end of the day, providing the public with a greater appreciation of game meat puts the shooting sector in a stronger position. This matters not only in terms of influencing public opinion, but also by creating a route to market for game meat producers.
Spreading the message
Eat Game sponsored the Festive Kitchen, which hosted cooking demos across the four days and where, for the whole event, the chefs only cooked game meat.
The great and the good of the cheffing world are out in force at this type of event. To name a few, the Eat Game Festive Kitchen hosted celebrity and television chefs Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala; Philli Armitage-Mattin from MasterChef the Professionals; author Alex Holywood and Tik Tok star Poppy O’Toole, who has a following of 2.7 million people. Not a bad haul of cookery talent on show.
Getting people to try game is a significant part of attending food shows and our fantastic team distributed around 12,000 game tasters throughout the event.
We’re always keen to engage and hear reactions from consumers, and this year was a standout success. Such was the popularity of our game tasters that there were points throughout the weekend where we had people clambering over each other to try our grouse and pigeon tasters!
Do things that make a difference
We were joined on our stand by Wild and Game, who sell their outstanding products on site so visitors can immediately buy and take home what they’ve tasted.
In terms of pushing forward, the introduction of the fantastic Poppy O’Toole proved extremely worthwhile for drawing in the crowds. She continuously packed the Festive Kitchen with younger audiences, all of which helps Eat Game to reach out to the next generation of home chefs and game cooks. We are hoping to work more with her in the future.
Taking headline sponsorship of a stage at this sort of event also affords us column inches. At the BBC Good Food Show, this translates as game meat featuring in the BBC Good Food Magazine and on their social media, reaching hundreds of thousands of new and interested consumers.
The BBC Good Food audience is ideal for us and one of many highlights of the Eat Game calendar. Here’s to the next one!
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