Wellington Avocado Toast Awards
Smashing Success: How The Avocado Toast Awards Took Off
It’s in our kaupapa to share our knowledge and collaborate on projects that go beyond the bottom line. Our latest and quirkiest one yet are the Wellington Avocado Toast Awards (WATAs).
The premise of WATAs was to give the Wellington hospo sector a boost, especially after a fall back from COVID-imposed lockdowns.
Launching in 2021, during a turbulent time not only for the hospitality industry, but also for the economy in general, it was important to remind people of the simple joys in life.
And what better way to do it other than through a beloved avo toast?
The seasonality and the rise of cost of living have made the humble avocado go from a simple brunch snack to an occasional privilege
On the back of satirical commentary on millennials being unable to afford their rent because they spend all their money on avocado toast, the WATAs were born. It is a chance for cafes, bars, restaurants and other eateries to have their own spin on this millennial staple. Once registered, the public and the WATAs judging panel get to sit down and rate the toast.
By creating a fun, quirky competition of this nature, we’re encouraging Wellingtonians to embrace their local eateries’ culinary inventions, thus driving foot traffic to these businesses.
Partnering with Xequals, where the idea originated from, our role was to give a face to the concept, and legs for the campaign to take off. This meant all branding-related work (i.e. visual identity and logo development) and marketing promotions came under our wing. This is in our wheelhouse and we were stoked when Alex approached us with the idea.
Branding
WATA’s visual identity needed to be simple and direct, with a touch of quirkiness in respect to its origin story. It also needed to be flexible to be applied to different channels and assets since our marketing approach was wide-reaching.
The identity was designed with celebration in mind and of course, all-things-avocado. The brand typography reflects the tactile nature of an avocado: curvy, squishy and delicious looking! An array of avocado greens establish the brand colour palette with supporting gold accents.
Marketing & Campaign Management
For an initiative of this nature, it’s important to activate the right people who see eye-to-eye on the impact we are making, and the message we are trying to communicate.
Which is why we focussed our efforts on empowering the right people with a suite of resources, so that they could participate and get the word out.
Our Participant Kit comprised of social media assets, quick links to resources and instructions on how to participate and how each participant can promote their avo toast creation to get more public votes.
Our Media Kit comprised of a press release, newsletter copy, social media assets and copy and photos, which acted as a one-hub resource for all our promoters.
Our own WATA social media calendar paid homage to each of the participant’s dishes, to give them more visibility, and it also shared updates on judging and other relevant information.
With these assets in hand, we engaged in a calculated approach to reach the right people. The first component of our outreach was to reach the many eateries, cafes, bars and restaurants in Wellington with the Participant Kit with the objective of getting registrations for the competition.
Then, with the Media Kit, we reached out to potential promoters, such as local councils, media agencies and relevant organisations in the hospitality sector, with the objective of encouraging them to promote the challenge to the public.
Holy Guacamole!
And the result? WATAs being featured in The Spinoff (who also became our Media partner), and with WellingtonNZ and Hutt City Council sharing the campaign among their networks, we were truly able to take WATAs to the streets.
With nine awards being recognised through public voting and through judges’ voting, WATA 2022 lived to its potential. Check out these amazing creations from some of 2022 winners.
What started as a booster for the hospo sector in 2021, WATAs is still going strong in its third year running in 2023.
Collaborating on purpose-led initiatives like this is a real treat for us, and we are stoked to be continuing to partner with this cause. If you like to register for the WATAs or nominate someone or support this campaign, give us a shout.
This is a non-profit initiative brought to you by resident avocado fans at Xequals, Obvious Brand Partners and The Spinoff.
