The Campaign

Food videos and images can tease our senses with the sights and sounds of Visa Wellington On a Plate, but they can’t give us a real taste of what’s on offer. So Visa found a way to add the dimension of taste – Welly Beans. We took two festival-inspired dishes, and with help from a professional Jellyologist, dissected and distilled their unique flavours into jelly bean form. A gourmet burger was turned into three distinct Welly Bean flavours (chipotle-infused-wagyu-beef, parmesan and micro-beetroot) to be finished off with a Gorsetini-cocktail Welly Bean. We then enlisted an award-winning taste master to host a multi-sensory Welly Beans taste-along video. Foodies and influencers were sent a tasting flight of Welly Beans – along with a link to the tasting video. As out-of-towners, it was the best way we could give them a taste of the festival – the best way, of course, was actuallybeingthere

Creative Execution

To get the Welly Beans into the hands of influencers, we delivered the Welly Beans to them in a premium tasting box, with a link to the online taste-along video.   Inside the Welly Beans box, they would find the four Welly Bean flavours laid out in a tasting flight: Parmesan, Chipotle-infused Wagyu Beef, Micro-beetroot, and Gorsetini. An insert card detailed the flavours, highlighting the locally-sourced produce and ingredients.  More details about the food festival were woven into the taste-along video.   Hundreds of Welly Beans packs were distributed ahead of the Visa Pre-sale, where foodies could buy festival tickets to exclusive events via Visa Checkout.

Results

“There were two crucial metrics for Welly Beans. To reach key foodie audiences around New Zealand and get them interested in the Wellington-based food festival. And to encourage ticket sales, especially during the Visa exclusive pre-sale. While hundreds were able to experience the Welly Beans via direct mail and pop-up tastings, video coverage of their experience reached more than 20,000 New Zealand foodies via Facebook. Key influencers who shared their experience on Instagram added a reach of another 130,000 viewers. National television coverage of Welly Beans took the experience out to the nation. Within minutes of the Visa Pre-sale going live, tickets to over a dozen festival events were sold out. Over half of all tickets sold out within 48 hours. At the date of writing, the 2017 Visa Wellington On a Plate food festival is in full swing, and is proving to be the most successful festival to date.”

Food videos and images saturate our TV screens and social feeds – but the problem is, you can’t taste them. So, to get the attention of New Zealand foodies, and get them truly salivating about the food festival Visa Wellington on a Plate, we used direct to add the extra dimension of taste. By putting a tasting flight of Welly Beans into the hands of food influencers, and directing them to an online taste-along video, we were able to give them a unique multi-sensory taste of the food festival – and an experience they would share with New Zealand foodies.

Food videos and images saturate our TV screens and social feeds. So to get the attention of foodies living outside of Wellington, we needed to stand out. Targeting broadcast media, food bloggers and social media influencers who would then reach our millennial foodie audience around New Zealand, we sent them the Welly Beans tasting pack, inviting them to experience a taste of Visa Wellington on a Plate through the unique interactive video. By sharing their experience on TV and social media, we would then reach their thousands and thousands of foodie followers. The message was that while they got to experience a unique taste of the festival – the best way, of course, was to actually be there.