Pineapple Tweed (PT) was first engaged to provide public relations and marketing services for the Waikiki SPAM JAM® (WSJ) in 2019 and has continued working with the organizing committee to promote the event.
Revitalizing a Beloved Festival
Because of the COVID pandemic, the Waikiki SPAM JAM® street festival was halted from 2020 to 2023. In 2022, it was revised as a week-long dine-in event with special SPAM® dishes offered to the public at participating restaurants. PT was tasked with getting coverage for this reformatted SPAM JAM®, which didn’t provide a clear opportunity to engage the news media, but we wanted to get beyond the reporters covering food.
Reaching Beyond Food Coverage
Through targeted media relations and creative story pitches, PT was able to garner the following media coverage:
107 news and feature stories in local media
Total audience reached 1,169,460
Advertising value: $102,047
Publicity value: $306,151
Reintroducing SPAM JAM® Post-Pandemic
In April 2023, the street festival was set to go once again. The challenge was how to reintroduce this once popular street celebration of SPAM® to local audiences, who might still be reluctant to attend a crowded public event. Because this would be the first major street festival since the pandemic, there was no way to know if people would come, or if the media would be interested in covering it.
Overcoming Negative Publicity
There also was backlash in the news about the consequences of eating SPAM® leading up to the event by an activist group against animal cruelty.
Highlighting Community Impact and Education
WSJ gives back to Hawaii’s hungry and needy, and we knew this had to be stressed in all communications to make it more than a foodie street festival and to overcome negative publicity. The beneficiaries of this event are the Hawaii Foodbank, Waikiki Community Center and Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii (VASH). Additionally, the WSJ committee arranged for three of the participating restaurants to work with public high school students interested in culinary arts to teach them how to make their WSJ dish. The students worked alongside the chefs in the restaurant kitchens to prepare the food, as well as help serve it at WSJ. This activity offered opportunities for photos/mentions to be placed with media covering education, in addition to arts/culture/food reporters. We had to get beyond event listings.
Strategic Media Relations and Story Pitching
In every communication, we stressed the community service the festival proceeds provided, as well as educational aspects. Because of PT’s personal contact with news reporters, none of the negative publicity about SPAM® was directly connected to WSJ; instead, reporters concentrated on the SPAM® dishes being specially prepared by the participating restaurants and how the festival contributes to our community when talking about WSJ in news stories and broadcasts.
Securing Key Media Placements
In the weeks leading up to the event, PT secured a Midweek cover photo and feature story, which normally is paid-for advertising, and was able to get the festival in the “Top 10 Festivals in the U.S.” list in USA Today.
Maximizing Broadcast Coverage
We contacted participating WSJ restaurants and asked them to prepare food we could take to the morning news shows, which also usually charge a fee for covering a feature story. We received coverage on Hawaii News Now Sunrise both during the week and on the weekend, and two features on the KHON2 morning news program—with one being live segments all morning from three of the WSJ restaurants the day before the festival.
2023 Festival Results and Impact
These were just the highlights of the coverage PT garnered.
TOTAL NON-PAID MEDIA COVERAGE FOR 2023 FESTIVAL
Midweek cover and feature story
Listed as a top 10 street festival in USA Today
Listing in Women’s Day magazine
99 news and feature stories appeared in local media
Broadcast audience reached in Hawaii: 865,699
Local radio audience reached: 6,200
Advertising value: $78,684
Publicity value: $236,045
An estimated 25,000 people attended the 2023 WSJ, with a mix of 66.5% Hawaii residents, 28.8% non-Hawaii U.S. residents and 4.7% international. These figures were tallied by the entry forms for a giveaway at the event. More than $25,000 was raised for the beneficiaries.
