The Backsberg Food and Wine Challenge

Backsberg Estate Cellars appointed Liquid Pulse to communicate their newly released Pinotage Rosé to key wine, food and lifestyle social media influencers. The brief was to

• Communicate the availability of the maiden vintage Pinotage Rosé, now vinified in a dry style;
• Create awareness of the product amongst Gauteng media and public;
• Create interesting online conversations of the product on social media and other digital platforms;
• Generate interesting recipes through influencers for the “Backsberg Food and Wine Challenge”.

Liquid Pulse took care of distributing parcels to 20 social media influencers with a combined audience of more than 85 000 followers on Twitter alone. The parcels included 2 bottles of Pinotage Rosé, as well as gifts and a ‘secret ingredient’. The media used this secret ingredient to create their own, unique recipes to pair with the Backsberg Pinotage Rosé. Furthermore, Liquid Pulse organised and hosted a one-hour lively virtual tasting on Twitter with the media and generated 3,5 million impressions whilst trending in second place on Twitter South Africa.

The winner of the Backsberg Food and Wine Challenge was rewarded with 12 bottles of Backsberg Premium and Black Label wines, and the winning recipe featured in Backsberg’s December newsletter, on the Backsberg blog as well as on all Backsberg social media platforms, with credit to the author and recipe developer.

Beautiful visuals, interesting online conversation, awareness of the product and creating excitement around the food and wine pairing were the results of this highly successful project.

“It was an absolute pleasure working with Zelda. The project really did fulfil its primary objective and generated the brand awareness we were seeking.  We really felt that she listened and was able to adapt according to our needs. She is well-organised, detail-orientated and reliable which are noteworthy characteristics. Her knowledge of Twitter engagement, in particular, is an enviable skill.” – Bianca Lenhart, Marketing Assistant, Backsberg Estate Cellars.

Official Press Release: #MyBacksbergRecipe Goes Viral

The maiden vintage Backsberg Pinotage Rosé, recently earning a Double Gold medal at the 2017 Rosé Rocks Competition, is the ideal wine to enjoy with summer fare. To add even more excitement to the introduction of this wine to Backsberg’s portfolio, several esteemed food and wine bloggers accepted the #MyBacksbergRecipe food and wine challenge, creating the ultimate recipe to pair with the Pinotage Rosé.

Goody boxes were delivered to twenty contestants, including the Rosé and a “secret ingredient”, dried cranberries, which had to be used in their recipes. No other rules restricted the contestants, allowing them to create any dish to pair with the wine.

“We were overwhelmed by the contestants’ responses in terms of their enthusiasm and passion for food and wine pairings”, says Bianca Lenhardt, Backsberg’s Marketing Assistant. “Some entries we’ve received included breakfast waffles, cranberry popsicles, cranberry quinoa pilaf, cranberry and rosé ice cream, and even cranberry muffins!”

During a live tweet-up, the #MyBacksbergRecipe campaign gained more than 2.5 million impressions and trended in second place on Twitter South Africa. Simon Back, CEO at Bacskberg, was stunned by the talented competitors’ creativity.

Anel Grobler from Spit or Swallow was crowned the champion for her decadent cranberry and camembert jaffle recipe, accompanied by cranberry and pistachio nougat for dessert. “Both recipes used only 4 ingredients, were innovative and easy to create, and looked striking upon presentation,” says Bianca. “Anel’s recipes ticked all the boxes and her jaffle recipe is in line with our green philosophy, making use of alternative cooking methods.”

The first runner up was Leanne Beattie, followed by Jeff Siepman in second place.

Be sure to follow Backsberg on their social media channels for similar events in 2018. The Pinotage Rosé is available at their tasting room or online via their website at R55 a bottle.

For more information, contact Backsberg at info@backsberg.co.za or visit www.backsberg.co.za.