Learning from the FOOD NETWORK South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Last weekend, what I think is one of the most brilliant ideas in the ways of creating a sponsorship platform, broke another record. Of course I am speaking about the eighth annual Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival organized and founded by Lee Brian Schrager. This year they had over 53,000 participants, $4 Million in Ticket sales and raised over $2 Million for the Florida International University School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.


So I would argue food lovers in the US is one of the last group of masses, the only other that would come close would be sports. Now of course there are different types of food lovers and different types of sports lovers, but that is why the Wine and Food Festival is brilliant. It brings in more mainstream chefs like Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart and Guy Fieri and mixes them with some of the most world renowned chefs at 5-star restaurants like Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert and Daniel, Café Boulud and Bar Boulud’s Daniel Boulud.


It is a platform where sponsors ranging from Amstel Light to Veuve Clicquot to Delta Air Lines to Barilla Pasta to the luxurious Fountainbleau Hotel can relish in their sponsorship and feel there is a true fit. So why is this a perfect platform and how can we learn from it:

• ENGAGED TARGET: The target market is plentiful and one that has proven to support the subject through shows like Top Chef, Ace of Cakes, Everyday with Rachael Ray, etc.
  
• ACCESS: With the engaged target market, people want to meet the chefs that are on their favorite shows--fans are invested in these celebrities and they want to see their "friends" in real life
  
• BRAGGING RIGHTS: Like any event there is a sense of bragging rights that is appealing to customers—guests want to be able to tell their friends that they went and saw the chefs that they watch everyday. Plus by going to this type of event you can be seen as more of an expert in the field.
  
• VARIETY: While sometimes less is more, in this case the variety allows for events that are appealing to everyone. You can attend a Burger Bash or a high end Grand tasting-this allows for choice for customers and choice for sponsors
• ENTERTAINING EDUCATION: I would argue entertaining continuous education is the most important aspect of the festival. People are actually learning more about wine and food through these festivals. This gives the festival its mission and its purpose and it ensures that people will come again because they will learn something new and see something different each year.

Now of course the food industry feeds this event. If there wasn’t an engaged target already the scale of the festival would be much smaller, however, the festival didn’t start out with 53,000 attendees 8 years ago, it was a slow build. In other industries, like film and fashion they have their own festivals and many are a huge success like Sundance, Fashion Week, etc.; however the one thing that the Wine and Food Festival does that the others do not is that the Wine and Food Festival EDUCATES and MOVES THE INDUSTRY FORWARD to the general public, whereas the film and fashion festivals only educate those in the industry. If these other festivals would incorporate and reach out to those beyond their “network” they may see the same kind of return and support.