The Triangle Business Journal captured this shot at the behind-the-scenes media breakfast and featured it as the Photo of the Week.

At a time when people have become more interested in knowing where their food comes from, community supported agriculture (CSA) delivery services have become increasingly popular. Papa Spud’s is a farm to fork delivery service based in Cary, N.C. that has been serving Triangle families since 2008. Each week, the team works with more than 50 local farmers and artisans to fill the CSA boxes.

While interest in this type of service did seem to be on the rise in 2014, the vast majority of Triangle residents had never heard of Papa Spud’s, and were not aware of the service it provided. To combat this issue, Papa Spud’s engaged Clairemont Communications to help raise awareness of the service and ultimately increase signups.

Strategy

We determined that the best approach to differentiate Papa Spud’s from its competitors was to highlight the fact that the service was completely customizable and offered a much broader offering than other CSAs in the area. Additionally, we wanted to feature the local farmers and food artisans to share an inside look at how the food makes it from the farm to customers’ front doors.

Execution

Clairemont Communications crafted and implemented a comprehensive strategy to increase brand awareness for Papa Spud’s.

• We planned and executed an event targeting local mommy and food bloggers that allowed them to see a typical weekly box and gave them ideas on how to use it. Guests also had the chance to meet the Papa Spud’s team and hear from the company’s founder, Rob Meyer, who shared why he started the business and how it works.
• A select group of media were invited to a breakfast and behind-the-scenes tour to see firsthand how the boxes are pulled together before delivery.
• We formed grassroots partnerships with restaurants, gyms, schools and organizations –  including the Junior League of Raleigh that led to an ongoing sponsorship where Papa Spud’s supplied fruit for the Backpack Buddies program.
• Creative and individualized pitches were used to maximize engagement from reporters and bloggers. We also invited mom bloggers to try the service for a month and blog about their experiences.

Results

Clairemont exceeded expectations and met all established objectives, along with increasing general awareness and customer registrations. As a result of our efforts, we secured the following:

• 10 community partnerships
• Four traditional media placements
• Three blogger trials
• More than 30 social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
• 10 blog posts that featured in-depth information about Papa Spud’s

The work Clairemont Communications conducted in partnership with Papa Spud’s earned an Honorable Mention Award in the Total Campaign category from the Raleigh Public Relations Society and an Honorable Mention Award from the North Carolina Public Relations Society of America. We are proud that this campaign represents two of the 137 awards we’ve received since starting Clairemont in 2010. To read more about the work we do with clients, please visit the case study section of our blog.