Case study: Relevance International and The World’s 50 Best Restaurants

Relevance International is celebrating the recent success of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants after increasing its media coverage, social engagement and global footprint.  

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the worldwide ranking scheme for high-quality dining, wanted to expand the amount of positive coverage – and the spread of coverage across the world – for its 16th annual awards ceremony, held in Bilbao, Spain in June 2018.

Relevance International was instructed to handle PR for the 2018 awards, and the agency created media interest in the lead up to the big event through a number of strategic initiatives.

Building excitement
Every fortnight from April onwards, individual winners of special awards were announced, which created a pipeline of content in the lead up to the awards ceremony. Categories included BBVA Scholarship, Diners Club Lifetime Achievement Award, Miele One to Watch, and elit Vodka Best Female Chef.

The Best Female Chef was launched with a targeted international media lunch held at winner Clare Smyth’s Core restaurant in central London. This location was kept secret to build anticipation and journalists from key markets, both relevant to Clare’s background as well as from target countries, were invited.

The campaign achieved 1,972 pieces of coverage, predominately within two weeks, fuelled by a debate over the merits of such an award.

Further interest in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants was generated one week before the main event with the announcement of the 51-100 list, leading to speculation – in traditional media and on social platforms – about who would make the top 50.

Other activities organised around the awards included #50BestTalks, featuring top chefs discussing industry issues and trends; a ‘meet the chefs’ speed dating-style media event; an official press conference; a food-meets-art event; and several press moments with previously announced individual chef winners for one-to-one meetings.

On recommendation of the agency, the launch of a Female Advisory Board saw seven of the world’s best female chefs come together for an open discussion around industry issues and brand initiatives.

Global coverage
New for 2018 were the 21 broadcast stations – international, national and local – secured to attend and cover the main event. Mirroring the approach of The Oscars, and to open the event up to general consumers, people were able to follow the main ceremony on TV and via a Reuters live stream. Other stations that covered the event included RAI 1, France 2, BBC World and Channel 5 Asia.

Relevance International planned the media management of the 2018 event programme, overseeing more than 300 media attendees during the awards week, with 59,601 pieces of coverage over five months – a 24% increase on 2017 (47,879). Coverage was in 51 languages, a 6.25% on 2017, and 127 countries, a 9.5% increase on 2017.

In four key markets alone, there were 125 pieces of broadcast coverage over one week (radio: 84, TV: 41). The number of social media posts featuring The World’s 50 Best grew from 33,797 in the five months in 2017 to 53,717 across the same period in 2018. It was aided by a surge in social media activity during the live stream, as well as the attendance of influencer-ambassadors at the ceremony.

Overall, 99% of coverage was positive, despite the controversy over the Best Female Chef category.

Retained global agency
Following the campaign, Relevance International became the brand’s first retained global agency of record.

Hélène Pietrini, director of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, said, ‘During Relevance’s time working with us in our initial engagement, the firm achieved greater media exposure than ever received in the brand’s 16-year history.’

Suzanne Rosnowski, CEO and founder of Relevance International, said: ‘Our work with The World’s 50 Best Restaurants showcases our strength as an agency with a boutique offering and global sensibilities.