Company: Consorta Hospital Network
Timeframe: 2007
When sampling fine cuisine, one of the worst comments you can make is that it tastes like hospital food. Recently, that gastronomic stereotype was debunked by a national
"Battle of the Hospital Chefs" competition that was held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Sept. 27, 2007. With three top hospital chefs culled from the Consorta Hospital
Network to go spatula to spatula against one another, the event generated considerable attention from media outlets while proving to be enormously successful for Consorta.
First Things First
The delectable competition was the brainchild of Consorta, a healthcare purchasing and resource management organization, which holds an annual conference to give members an
opportunity to exchange information on various topics, such as supply chain operations and healthcare issues. The conference also features an exhibit hall that on the average
boasts 350 exhibitors.
But there was a dichotomy that baffled the Consorta team: Over the last few years, the number of exhibitors specializing in food and nutrition has dramatically lagged, while
the number of registrants specializing in this area had increased markedly. Wanting to attract this segment of exhibitors, Consorta launched an aggressive campaign. Four months
before last September's conference, there was still a lack of food and nutrition exhibitors.
Consorta investigated the possible reasons for the apathy by speaking to potential exhibitors, who complained that the exhibition hall didn't seem to have a strong focus on
food and nutrition.
Wanting to find a special hook that would draw more food and nutrition exhibitors and engage them in demonstration cooking sessions in the Food & Nutrition Pavilion, Debra
Lynn Ross, Consorta's director of corporate communications, got cooking with a welcome ingredient: inspiration.
A Dash Of Creativity
A fan of the reality TV show Top Chef, as well as a Food Network devotee, Ross thought of a similar idea along the lines of a "Battle of the Hospital Chefs"
competition.
To flesh out the details, Ross and her staff needed to figure out who the target audience would be for such an event. Using research that shows how hospitals are incorporating
gourmet cuisine and patient "room service" into meal preparations, the team identified three prime audiences for the "Battle of the Hospital Chefs" contest:
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Mid- to senior-level healthcare food and nutrition professionals;
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Food and nutrition suppliers; and,
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Conference attendees.
Leveraging additional research that showed how food service represents 6% of a hospital's budget, while 50 to 70% of food purchased by hospitals is served to staff and
volunteers in cafeterias, the Consorta team included three secondary audience targets:
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Consorta members not attending the conference;
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Consumers; and,
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Media.
To reach these targets, Consorta knew it had to hit multiple touch points to engage them.
Working Out The Kinks
Ross and company hoped that the event would not only engender excitement among food and nutrition companies, thus creating greater exhibitor revenue, but also be used by
Consorta to showcase members' new approaches to food service; to capitalize on the exposure to position itself as a source of information on hospital food and nutrition trends
among its target audiences; to beef up its brand recognition; and to distinguish itself from others in the healthcare group purchasing marketplace.
But to successfully stage "The Battle of the Hospital Chefs," the Consorta team had to grapple with three critical challenges. First off, there was no budget allocated for this
type of event. However, because there was some money left over from earlier events, the team persuaded Consorta's president John W. Strong to use it to fund the event, which was
expected to generate additional income for the Food & Nutrition Pavilion portion of the conference. The approved budget was $45,000.
Secondly, there was limited time to stage the event. With so much of the team's energy and focus concentrated on the logistics of the conference, Consorta needed to figure out
how it could successfully manage the available time. The team resolved this the old-fashioned way by working around the clock to get it off the ground.
"We didn't sleep much," admits Ross. "We would have loved a year to have planned it."
Ross got help from Consorta's other departments, such as financing and contracting, which normally had no interactions with PR. To Ross' delight, they were thrilled to be
asked.
But not everything was handled by permanent in-house staff. Ross used a portion of the budget to hire two freelancers; one was responsible for developing the contents of the
media kit, assembling the media list and pitching the media, and the other handled all logistics and worked to secure the celebrity judges for "The Battle of the Hospital
Chefs."
List Of Ingredients
The details for "The Battle of the Hospital Chefs" were as follows: Three chefs from Consorta member hospitals were pitted against one another to see who could create tastier
gourmet meals. A chief criterion for the food was that it had to be currently served on menus at Consorta member hospitals, and be served to patients, staff and volunteers.
Building The Buzz
Promotion was key. On July 11, 2007, an e-mail announcement, including a link to an entry form, was sent to all Consorta members. Consorta's Food & Nutrition Committee
relied heavily on word-of-mouth to publicize the event. Entrants had to meet an Aug. 6 deadline to submit a menu and recipes that consisted of a protein, starch, vegetable and
beverage, all with a total cost of less than $4.95 a plate.
Under the leadership of Chris Mantel, Consorta's senior director of food and nutrition contracting, nearly 200 submissions were reviewed and three finalists selected. Each
finalist, along with their sous chefs, was given an all-expense paid trip to Chicago to compete in the "Battle of the Hospital Chefs" event.
Prior to their arrival at the conference, Consorta staffers worked with the finalists and their PR departments to create a promotional video highlighting their facility. The
videos were shown the day of the competition.
Also, three well-known Chicago chefs--Ina Pinkney of Ina's, Jimmy Bannos of Heaven on Seven and Jesse Cobb, president of the American Culinary Federation
Chicago Chefs of Cuisine--agreed to act as judges for the event. As part of their involvement, each chef put together a sound bite on healthy eating tips. Consorta's president
Strong and COO Darrel Weatherford rounded out the panel, with each offering up sound bites on Consorta members' food service trends.
Local and national media outlets were pitched about the event's key messages. Consorta staff negotiated reduced pricing of food items with local food suppliers in exchange for
their product being distributed to food editors. Contents of the comprehensive media kit included general dietary information and a four-page brochure featuring the finalists'
recipes.
A Web site (http://www.hospitalchefs.com),
created by Consorta's Web communications manager, Kevin Conway, was used to
promote the event to members, consumers and the media. The site contained information
on the finalists, their recipes and the judges, as well as a media link with
downloadable documents and photos.
Let The Cook-Off Begin
At the Sept. 25, 2007, event, local radio host John Williams offered play-by-play commentary on the proceedings for the audience, while the chefs prepared their courses. The
winner turned out to be William Reed, executive chef of Saint Mary's Healthcare.
The event goals that were set by the Consorta team were met with room to spare:
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Consorta signed up 18 food and nutrition suppliers for the Food & Nutrition Pavilion, surpassing the original goal by 80%;
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Consorta increased attendance by 38% at the Food & Nutrition Pavilion for the cooking demonstrations, exceeding the target goal of 20%;
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More than 10 million media impressions were secured;
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Though the budget for the event was $45,000, the team kept costs to just $38,000; and,
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The event raised awareness of heart healthy food, as evidenced by the nearly
7,000 page views of http://www.hospitalchefs.com.
Food For Thought
For Ross, the biggest lessons she learned from the event was that "you don't need a lot of time and money to pull off a successful event. Sometimes you have to seize the
opportunity. Sometimes you have to push the boundaries." PRN
CONTACT:
Debra Lynn Ross, [email protected]
The Power Of The Idea
As Debra Lynn Ross, Consorta's communications director, learned when conceiving and launching the award-winning "Battle of the Hospital Chefs" event, sometimes you don't
need a lot of money or even agency assistant to stage a great campaign. Sometimes all you need is just a great idea. Here are her best practices for developing similar campaigns
when money and manpower are in short supply:
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"Sell it to your CEOs. Use your enthusiasm to sell it and talk about your ROI. Our ROI wasn't all about financial. It was about image and getting the word out. The
story had legs. It was generated at the local and regional level."
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"If you're looking at ways to fund things, be creative. We were making deals with the food manufacturers, telling them we'd get their product out [if they lower the
pricing]."
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"Identify who your potential partners are and who their marketing and media relations people are. [If they believe in the idea], they'll help push that message forward as
well."