In Wisconsin, we believe in the power of cheese to make the world a better place. Great cheese can elevate any mood, any meal or any social occasion. However, through brand research we found 69% of foodies prefer imports to domestic cheeses, with the perception that Wisconsin is ordinary. In reality, Wisconsin makes over 50% of all specialty cheese in the U.S. and wins more awards than any European competitor, but how do you change the perception of the entire foodie world?
What better way to elevate Wisconsin Cheese in people’s perception than tie it to something deemed the ultimate luxury experience, often viewed as a treat: a spa. With this in mind, The Wedgewater Spa was born. Right here in The State of Cheese would be the first and only cheese spa in the entire world ... At least, that’s what we planned to share with people in an April Fool’s prank.
This confident and humorous approach was designed to intrigue the most elite foodies, Food Fanatics, who believe food is core to their identity. They represent only 3% of the population.
The strategy of the prank would be to drive awareness of Wisconsin Cheese with a shareable video about the cheese spa. We would then propel that buzz and engagement to announce the inaugural Art of Cheese Festival. A real, epic artisan cheese festival to be held in September 2023. This April Fools stunt would ultimately result in social reach and awareness for the event.
The social strategy and execution for our Wedgewater Spa stunt was based on three factors: 1.) Visibility 2.) Brand Adoration and Engagement 3.) Launch the Inaugural Art of Cheese Festival.
While we knew our primary consumer-to-brand connector would be social media, step one was a customized landing page for the imaginary spa. We knew we wanted a link to reference in promotional copy, and so we created a page where people could read all about the different treatment options, including Salt Brine Bliss Colonics, Gouda Waxes and Fondue Facials. On the landing page, visitors were encouraged to “Schedule Their Retreat” as our strategy to collect contact information, and also identify those truly obsessed with cheese to later inform those registrants of the Art of Cheese Festival. Simultaneously, we created a landing page for the Art of Cheese Festival to be made live on April Fool’s Day proper.
The first post would be the official Wedgewater Spa video on March 30 in-feed on @WisconsinCheese on Facebook and Instagram. We boosted the post to reach our target audience. A challenge with boosting a post is dealing with potential community violators, so we planned our response strategy should any spam comments come our way.
We would then use the following days to post the custom menu on Instagram and Facebook Stories. This would keep up the interest and engagement, and allow the humor to really set in.
On April 1st, we posted in-feed confirming the April Fools prank, but for those who wished the spa to be reality, we officially announced The Art of Cheese Festival, promising to fulfill the need for a cheese experience. This post was again boosted to reach our Food Fanatic audience.
Throughout the entire lift, we would actively engage with all comments rolling in. We had to deftly respond to the prank comments in a cheeky, playful tone that kept the ruse alive, while also responding to the announcement posts genuinely and enthusiastically. In real time we saw a gigantic spike in engagements in comparison to a typical week, and the social team had to quickly adapt to the influx.
Simultaneously, we released a press release and sent key media a customized PR box. It included very “Instagrammable” items like an embroidered Wedgewater Spa robe, the Wedgewater menu, and of course, cheeses mentioned in the services menu. This would help increase visibility by tapping into the influencers’ audience.
The final phase was the artisan cheese festival, a three-day Wisconsin Cheese extravaganza with 25 events at 13 locations. The Art of Cheese Festival would draw Food Fanatics to the state with an iconic, life-changing weekend where they could see, taste, and experience the REAL story of Wisconsin Cheese. To make a bigger social splash for the festival, we created separate handles, (@artofcheese on Instagram and @artofcheesefestival on Facebook) and planned a strategy for promoting the festival, which started with the Wedgewater Spa, on all our handles, directing people to the new Art of Cheese Festival landing page.
In just 48 hours, 97 people signed up on the Wedgewater Spa landing page, with over 1200 link clicks driven from social media.
In a fully earned segment, we “fooled” 1.389 million viewers on the Today Show with Hoda & Jenna. The press release on Cision PR Newswire reached over 250 million people. The media mailers on Instagram had an estimated reach of over 400,000.
Through our organic and paid efforts, the Wedgewater Spa campaign reached over 2.3 million people, with over 640,000 engagements.
We duped our new and existing audience, as evidenced by comments: “The way I thought this was real,” and “I admit that I momentarily fell for this.” In reply to our story: “Is this real???” and “Lol is it a real spa though?! This has got to be a parody 🤣” They also showed admiration by joining in with more humor: “It’s the human-sized cheese boards for me,” and “Everyone needs a little un-rinding.”
In our awareness for the festival play, people were exuberant for it: “Can’t wait for the Art of Cheese Festival!!!!!” and “…the Art of Cheese Festival sounds like a Gouda time! I can’t wait to Brie there and enjoy all the cheesy goodness!” Over 344 people clicked the link on social media to get more festival information.
In the six-month promotion that started with the Wedgewater Spa, Wisconsin Cheese accounts garnered over 6 million impressions on content related to the Art of Cheese Festival, reaching over 5.4 million people.
