Richard Reeves
In the Summer of 2020, when the first Covid-19 lockdown closed the country, the UK's small food and drink producers faced the challenge of a lifetime.
The normally busy Summer festivals and shows where they meet new customers and sell their products were cancelled. Many faced the question of how to keep their businesses afloat.
Within days of the lockdown announcement, in collaboration with The Food Hub (Bread & Jam community), I launched the Food & Drink Festival Online.
It was the first online festival in response to Covid-19, and was created to celebrate the UK's small food and drink producers, and support the vibrant grassroots community.
The Food & Drink Festival website (built on WordPress) presented the community of producers that joined the initiative, filterable by category, and with each producer having a page linked to their website. I was keen to push site visitors to producers websites for capture and purchase.
The response was fantastic. In the month after launch, the site received 3,128 users, 4,650 sessions, 3 pages per session, and 3 minutes average time on site.
I ran an awareness campaign that gained coverage in The Times, The Telegraph, Olive Magazine, London Unattached, Feast Magazine, Delicious Magazine, and on the blogs of many food and drink influencers.
The members of The Food Hub will love it. Thanks for making the Food & Drink Festival Online come alive so quickly.
