Looking for a way to get attention for your corporate anniversary? Trade in your balloons, gold plaques and service pins for 4,000 pounds of lettuce.
Hidden Valley Ranch celebrated its 25th anniversary with 15,000 New Yorkers when it staged the world's longest salad bar in Central Park last May. "The challenge was that there really was nothing new about the product," says Randy Hurlow, group management director at Publicis Dialog in Seattle, the agency that orchestrated the feast. "After all, it is known as 'original ranch.'" The question was how to portray the timeworn brand in a new light.
Transporting the salad dressing maker from its sparsely populated Santa Barbara ranch to the bustling streets of New York was the first critical move. Publicis secured space in Central Park on the Thursday prior to Memorial Day weekend, pitching the event as a kick-off to the summer picnic season. This proved a smooth move on the news front, according to Steve Bryant, chief creative officer at Publicis. Holiday weekends tend to be slow news periods, and the Hidden Valley Ranch story was somewhat evergreen. "The story had a longer shelf life than a normal one-day event," he says.
The next step was handpicking the best partners. Classic Fare Catering - the group that cooks for the New York marathon - handled the actual food, creating special "commemorative salads" (a recipe brochure was later made available to the public via a toll-free number). Meanwhile Cambro, Inc., a leading manufacturer of food service products, provided state-of-the-art refrigeration units, containers and serving stations. "From a food safety perspective, we wanted to make sure everything was as hygienic and clean as possible," says Hurlow. Spoiled ranch dressing would have spelled disaster.
The 17,000 pounds of produce needed to carry off the event were donated by Produce for Better Health Foundation - a coalition of food product companies perhaps best known as the champions of the "Five a Day" program. Of course, to top everything off, Hidden Valley Ranch provided 200 gallons of its eponymous dressing.
Last, but not least on the partner roster was City Harvest, New York's oldest and largest food rescue organization. Roughly 8,000 pounds of surplus produce were donated to the charity at the end of the event.
"We wanted to give back to the community and ensure we were making a sizable donation, so we planned extra quantities for this purpose," says Hurlow.
Luring passers-by wasn't hard, considering there was free food involved. But to be safe, event organizers staged the 173-yard salad bar (roughly 1 1/2 football fields in length) along "Literary Walk" - close enough to the park's periphery to generate foot traffic, but far enough from the border to maintain a woodsy park setting. Music entertained visitors from the start of the salad bar to the finish - at one end, a bluegrass group known as Home Cookin,' and at the other end, a local oldies radio station (WJUX Jukebox radio 103.1 FM) conducting live remotes from the scene. As an extra plug, the station played music from 1974 (the year Hidden Valley Ranch was founded) for the duration of the event.
Media pitching for the event started early. Editors of community calendars were notified months in advance. Teasers touting the event were mailed to food trade publications, talk shows and a host of other outlets six weeks out, followed by a complete press kit two weeks before the holiday weekend. On event day, Publicis planners cut out of the park early and rushed to a nearby studio to cut b-roll and a VNR for a satellite feed. "It was important to make news on the East Coast, which meant getting it out by 3 p.m.," Hurlow says.
All said, attendance and media coverage were bountiful. In the end, the event drew 15,000 people and fed about 8,000 on site. Event organizers easily beat their goal of 50 million media impressions - the current total is 98 million, with some stories still trickling in. Coverage hit on ABC, Fox, CNN, CNBC, and scores of print publications. Meanwhile, Hidden Valley Ranch has submitted a proposal to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Despite all the careful planning, there was an element of faith involved. Organizers consulted almanacs a year out with hopes of forecasting a "good weather day" but had no alternative plan in case of rain. In the end, the day was a glorious 70 degrees and sunny. It's good to have Mother Nature on your side if you're trying to draw a crowd. (Hurlow at Publicis, 206/270-4642)
Among the Offerings
1000 lbs. iceberg lettuce
1900 lbs. potatoes
1435 lbs. carrots
1500 lbs. zucchini
1000 lbs apples
935 lbs. broccoli
750 lbs. red peppers
450 lbs. cherry tomatoes
300 lbs. pea pods
200 lbs. mushrooms
200 lbs. yellow onions
150 qts. fresh herbs
50 lbs. nuts