Bon Appetit Ottawa: Taking a Bite Out of the Blogosphere

As a proud sponsor of Bon Appetit Ottawa since 2006, Banfield-Seguin provides services and resources to promote the event, with proceeds going to over 20 local causes. To keep it fresh and interesting for our creative team—and for the event’s benefit—each year, we brainstorm to come up with different and fun ways to reach Ottawa professionals and cocktail party aficionados.

Fortunately for us, one of the fastest growing trends in social media right now is “foodies” flocking to social media to discuss (and drool) over delectable dishes. It turns out people do care what you eat for breakfast, and lunch and dinner for that matter, as a simple scan of Instagram or Twitter could tell you.

So how could we harness the power of this trend to help enhance the show for participants and attendees? By partnering with food bloggers of course!

We started with research to identify credible, trusted food bloggers in our city who might be influential among the target audiences. We also wanted to demonstrate value for the food and beverage partners —who donate their food and time to be part of this incredible event. To that end, we proposed matching the selected bloggers with show vendors to give them some extra exposure leading up to the event and to get readers’ craving show selections in advance.

The results? We selected three local blogs who were available and interested in participating and named them the official Bon Appetit Ottawa bloggers. Working closely with the bloggers, we paired each one up with Food and Beverage partners they were interested in working with to help the show come alive before May 7.

The first week after officially launching the blogger program generated over 100 tweets and since then, the momentum has continued with an outpouring of support from the bloggers and their respective communities, as well as @BonAppOtt and some of our food and beverage participants.

The bloggers have also been posting up a storm, here's a summary of their coverage:

Jodi Samis of Simply Fresh Ottawa hosted a ticket giveaway last week and this week covers one of the  food and beverage partners, the Unrefined Olive.

Katy Watts, who blogs at Sheltered Girl Meets World is our Bon Appetit beer blogger. She's done two posts, covering the best of the local brews as well as the best of the visiting brews at Bon Appetit.

Don & Jenn Chow of Foodieprints will have you craving LUNCH with their in-depth review of the downtown favourite lunch spot, coming soon as one of Ottawa's newest food trucks.

Oh, Don and Jenn are also giving away two passes to the event that you can win! Enter before May 6.

Don’t want to try your luck? This event always sells out, so buy your tickets now. For $85 you get all you can eat and drink all night plus a $50 tax receipt--it's a great deal.

We’ll see you on May 7!

Bon Appetit 2012 - Photos by Earl Conway, Beginnings