Good, Clean and Fair Food for All
This year has certainly been a challenge for many sectors, not least for the charity and not-for-profit sector. When Slow Food Birmingham, a not-for-profit organisation that is part of the world’s largest food movement championing sustainable and local food produce, approached us to run their social media channels pro bono, we jumped at the chance to help in any way we could.
Slow Food Birmingham is working to reconnect people to where their food comes from and inspire an active interest in local food production by building a city-wide network and running events and workshops. They see everyone as a co-producer and the positive choices that consumers make will help change our food system, the environment and local economy for the better. Now more than ever before, we need to protect sustainable, local food production, as we face a time that will see inevitable changes in our world.
As well as educating the local community on the benefits of local and sustainable food production, Slow Food Birmingham volunteers bring farm to fork with a shop every Wednesday at 1000 Trades, allowing consumers to shop from the best local, seasonal produce. From the beginning of lockdown in March to the beginning of June, orders at the Hub, where they sell an array of grass-fed meats, veg boxes, desserts and more, increased by an impressive 300%.
Changing the World One Social Media Post at a Time
Here’s where Big Cat Agency comes in. Chair of Slow Food Birmingham, Kate Smith, had recently partnered with Sam Narr (Founder and CEO of Kibbo Kift Agency and Head of Communications at ECODISCO) to help with a brand overhaul, which entailed a new website, content and PR. With their intention to build on the increase in Hub orders over lockdown and to raise the brand profile on social media, Slow Food Birmingham turned to Big Cat Agency to help with their marketing content and social media strategy.
We implemented a content plan for marketing activity to promote both Slow Food’s mission and the Birmingham Hub. This includes two Hub shopping reminders a week (one that highlights our top produce picks and one that highlights a specific product), as well as information about a wider Slow Food UK initiative and a spotlight of a particular Hub producer.
The weekly spotlight is made up of a carousel of high-quality and immersive images that demonstrate the local and sustainable nature of the producers and their produce, often featuring images of the farmers themselves for consumers to feel a personal connection with them. We introduced an Instagram story highlight for easy access to images and information about these sustainable producers.
Our social media content and messaging is based around inviting people to play a direct and active role in the Slow Food movement; changing how people access food, supporting small producers, celebrating food culture and lobbying to see changes locally, nationally and globally.
Impacts from Instinct in Action
So what’s been the result? After taking over Slow Food Birmingham’s social media accounts (Instagram and Facebook) at the end of July, engagement in August increased by 487% on Facebook and by 458% on Instagram compared to the previous month.
By implementing our instinct in action marketing philosophy, Big Cat has provided Slow Food Birmingham with a marketing plan that the team can continue to accelerate and improve upon to ensure continued social engagement whilst equally supporting their current and future business goals.
We are proud to have raised the social media profiles of Slow Food Birmingham and to have helped improve awareness of this important grassroots movement in the local community.
Interested in reading more about social media and marketing campaigns we have delivered? Visit our case studies page here.