Fewer than 1% of wineries in the U.S. are Black-owned, according to the Association of African American Vintners (AAAV). In response, Dwyane Wade founded Wade Cellars in 2014 to help open doors for Black professionals in the wine industry. Building on that mission, he launched When We Gather—a series of food and wine events that spotlight the talent of BIPOC chefs and vintners. These gatherings foster connection through culture, conversation, and cuisine, offering guests thoughtfully paired dishes and Wade Cellars wines in an environment designed to celebrate and elevate diverse voices.
In 2024, Frito-Lay served as the premier sponsor of the When We Gather Food & Wine Festival in Miami, helping to lay the groundwork for the event’s culinary credibility. Through its FLVR® platform, Frito-Lay aimed to spark creativity and reimagine how its products can be used today. By partnering with Wade Cellars and challenging chefs to incorporate its snacks in innovative pairings, the brand created a bold, unexpected fusion of flavors—driving awareness, engagement, and new inspiration across the culinary community.
Fewer than 1% of wineries in the U.S. are Black-owned, according to the Association of African American Vintners (AAAV). In response, Dwyane Wade founded Wade Cellars in 2014 to help open doors for Black professionals in the wine industry. Building on that mission, he launched When We Gather—a series of food and wine events that spotlight the talent of BIPOC chefs and vintners. These gatherings foster connection through culture, conversation, and cuisine, offering guests thoughtfully paired dishes and Wade Cellars wines in an environment designed to celebrate and elevate diverse voices.
In 2024, Frito-Lay served as the premier sponsor of the When We Gather Food & Wine Festival in Miami, helping to lay the groundwork for the event’s culinary credibility. Through its FLVR® platform, Frito-Lay aimed to spark creativity and reimagine how its products can be used today. By partnering with Wade Cellars and challenging chefs to incorporate its snacks in innovative pairings, the brand created a bold, unexpected fusion of flavors—driving awareness, engagement, and new inspiration across the culinary community.
For the festival, FLVR® partnered with 22 chefs to develop unique recipes featuring Frito-Lay brands. Guests were encouraged to try these elevated dishes featuring Frito-Lay products with a sip of Wade Cellars wine recommended by their in-house sommelier. These immersive food and wine pairings celebrated diverse flavors and culinary creativity. While it was challenging to develop recipes that fit both the chefs’ and brands’ personalities, the key to success was constant collaboration between Frito-Lay’s in-house chefs and the featured festival chefs. This not only ensured an equitable representation of the chefs and brands, but also that the food tasted amazing.
The festival offered a full afternoon of entertainment with ongoing DJ sets, a live podcast taping, and cooking demonstrations showcasing Frito-Lay products. A series of collab posts between FLVR® and Wade announced the event, encouraged ticket sales, and shared recipes and content live from the festival. Miami-based influencers were also invited to attend and promote the gathering, enhancing its reach and cultural relevance.
The primary goal of the partnership was to inspire new uses of Frito-Lay products and celebrate BIPOC culinary talent.
This was successfully accomplished with the creation of 22 new recipes for FLVR® to share on its channel that capture the unique expressions of our chef partners. Frito-Lay also wanted to drive awareness and engagement for FLVR: creating 30 posts and IG stories, many of which were posted on Dwyane Wade’s social accounts as well. The posts gained FLVR 1.6K new followers and nearly 1 million impressions. The content also received high engagement, 1.8 points greater than FLVR’s average on TikTok and 2.6 points greater on Instagram. The ROI was much greater than predicted because of Wade and the chefs’ enthusiastic participation. In fact, they were so inspired by the recipes that they posted additional content on TikTok and Instagram, allowing us to far exceed our initial goals.
